November 29th rehearsal for the 50th Jubilee celebration for April 29th 2011

Filipino cultural dance with the young men

Ballroom Dancers
Scarf Dance

Bamboo Dancers

Primary age childern doing a cultural dance.

Choir and dancers

Single Adult dancers

Even though it is five months before the Jubilee celebration the church here in the Philippines have been practicing for the big event. Today was a run through of the dances being practiced for some time and the choir rehearsal. It was held in the Ynara Sports Stadium but the big event will be held in the Araneta center which is quite large. The Ynara Sports Stadium has a capacity of 3 thousand people and there were 5 thousand that were there. It was a concern for the stadium officials. We had about five of our Security Staff there helping with the security and emergency medical there. We were told that there were 15 medical incidents by the time we got there at noon. Mostly incidents were dehydration and lack of air. It was crowded. When we got there we were offered water and food. We had ground floor seating so we could see the dances. The organization of the rehearsal was very good. Right on target. The dancers and choir performers came from about 17 stakes around Metro Manila. There were a great many busses that came with members arriving as early as 5 am this morning.

November 27th, Thanksgiving at the Mission Home and I put up the Christmas Tree in our apartment

Second table with missionaries, senior, younger and DelaMare kids

Our Mission President in his apron at his home for Thanksgiving
Elder Al getting his plate full

The Missionaries eating

Our little tree

Trimmed

Joseph, Mary and Jesus ornament

Loaf of Bread I made here last night.

Have to thank Geneva Stringham for sending me dough enhancer and wheat gluten that helps my home made bread so yummy.

November 24th, 2010 SUBWAY FOR LUNCH

Counter of Subway.

I told her to say "Welcome to Subway" She gladly did.

Traditional Cup for Subway

A favorite fast fresh food restaurant of ours is Subway in the states. We found one close to our Area Office. Just had to snap a few picutres of Subway in the Philippines.

Meet Alan Mercader of Mercalite.

This is Alan Mercader who is our vendor for the proximity cards and CCTV cameras. He has become a good friend to us.

New Missionaries for the Quezon City Mission

We have had several new senior missionaries arrive here to fill the places that other seniors left. Elder and Sister Bunnell left Friday and the Sorensens have arrived to take their place as the Area Presidency executive secretaries. Elder and Sister Goss arrived last week for the Public Affairs office. The Public Affairs previous Senior Missionary couple, The Durfey's left on the ninth of November. The Christensen's arrived a couple of weeks ago to take the place of Elder and Sister Sibley.

The Christensen's selected an apartment in Eastwood City and the Goss's selected an apartment in Pioneer.

The Sorensen's are at the Temple Missionary Apartments as they will need to be very close to the area office. TM apartments are across the street.

On Saturday we took many of them to show where to shop, S&R and Market Market. We all had lunch at Chow King. It was a nice day.

If I had not mention this we had our Monthly Senior Missionary Birthday Dinner at Duo's Steak house and had a wonderful dinner on November 18th. We have been assigned to plan the monthly Senior Missionary Birthday dinner and plan it at a nice restaurant. Actually one that we could all afford. We had a very nice time.

New Monitor

Last week before our trip to Urdaneta I received my new monitor so I can view the CCTV camera from outside my door. The previous model was from over 30 years ago when the monitors were green. I told the facilities management that the one I had was dying and it was starting to outdate the Liahona....you know....the device Lehi used getting across the Wilderness and would only work if they were righteous.....yes thats the one. So pictured here is my 22 inch Samsung color monitor. Ask and ye shall receive.

Sunday November 14th Morong Branch Services

We travel about an hour to our Branch assignment for our Sunday Services. It starts at 9 in the morning and we are always greeted with the warmest of feelings and handshakes. There are at least three people that can translate for us for our meetings. Two are the Sister Missionaries and one is a branch member sister that is a returned missionary. The Sister Missionaries speak English very well...gratefully as it makes communication so much more comfortable. I asked one of the Sister Missionaries where she learned English and spoke it so well. She told me that she went to school all her life in a Catholic school and English was always spoken. Her baptism came after she graduated from High School and is the only member in her family, however they would listen to the missionaries if there were any where they lived. She could translate very quickly all that was spoken. The theme of the Sacrament meeting talks were about "Letting your Light so Shine." The Sunday School lesson was about being "Shepherds of Israel" and the Relief Society/Priesthood Lesson was about "The Holy Ghost. It is interesting how all these topics come together. Letting your light shine means to live the teachings of the restored Gospel and to share it. One of the Sister Missionaries spoke about letting her light shine as she taught the Gospel. A young man waiting to receive his mission call very soon also taught about spreading the word of the restored Gospel. The Sunday School lesson regarding being a shepherd taught us about always being there for the lost sheep and that the Savior is the Good Shepherd and we in turn watch over others as best we can. "The Holy Ghost" in the Gospel Essentials manual taught about recognizing who the Holy Ghost is and recognizing the promptings given to us. Also knowing what is correct and what isn't it. I related a story about our son David as a scout in his youth. He had a key to the building that he was in trusted with and was playing with the other scouts in the parking lot after scout meeting. He had lost the key and was responsible for it. He came home feeling very bad and talking it over with me and how heavily it weighed upon him. I (his mom) advised him that he needed to pray about it and to tell Heavenly Father about his responsibility of the key. Not long after we had all gone to bed I heard footsteps down the hall and then down the stairs. The front door opened and closed and David had left the house. About an hour he returned and I met him at the stairs to ask about where he had been. He said he had a feeling to go back to the church (rode his bicycle) and to look in the parking lot. The lights were on in the parking lot so he could see. He may have brought a flashlight but I don't remember its been awhile. He found the key and returned home. David has had many instances where he was prompted by the Holy Ghost. I can't tell you how much it means to me to know that my children rely on this very special gift that was given to them when they were confirmed after baptism. Bless you David.

I am so impressed with the testimonies that these Filipino people have. Very sincere and strong. They are also very grateful for the blessings of the temple and excited to have another temple here in the Philippines.

11-11-2010 Inspecting Elder's Apartment in the Baguio Mission

Sugar cane being loaded on trucks

Dining Hall of the Lisland Resort all decorated for Christmas

Sugar Cane fields

Inside the Lobby of the Lisland Rain forest Resort

Children in the chapel we stopped at. They are always posing. We found out later that they were neighborhood children and not members. The building manager let them play inside while he and wife was there.

The Elders apartment that we inspected for safety

Elder B, Peter, Paul and the two Zone Leaders of the area eating lunch at Chow King

Inspecting the backyard of the Elders apartment
All of us with the Police Chief

This shows how the trash builds up in the backyards. These are soiled disposable diapers.

Christmas Ornamentation on the door

Backyard of another neighbor

Inspecting the windows of the Elders apartment

Kitchen of the apartment

Front patio of the apartment that is used for hanging out the laundry

Very unusual flowering plant with thorns.

Next door neighbor's back yard.

A couple of months ago President Jensen, Mission President of the Baguio Mission about 4 hours north of Manila had emailed us about an incident that made two of his Elders pretty nervous and rightfully so. Kitty corner to their apartment was the home of an elderly couple that had been murdered. The Elders said they heard the shots and knew of the incident. It was reported that the murderer had entered the home through the roof to rob the couple and then murder them. The Elders reported that the next night there was someone on their roof and went out to see who it was. This scared off the intruder and fled through the backyards of the Elders and neighbors. They felt that the area was unsafe to live and reported it to President Jensen. The Senior Missionary couple assigned to Baguio went to inspect the apartment and area and found that other than the incident it was a secured place. President Jensen gave a cell phone to the Elders for emergencies and then requested that we come to Baguio to inspect and survey the area and meet with the Mayor and the Chief of Police in the area. We took two of our officers with us. Paul Parricho has a degree in criminology and Peter Negrido is degreed also and has military background as well as the President of his Search and Rescue organization named LDS Seagull International. LDS Seagull International has a web sight if anyone would like to google it and find out about the organization. With these two men from our Security Staff they could help with the language and use their skills in the investigation. Also with our officers we picked up two other Elders who are zone leaders for the same area. Elder Burningham took pictures of the area and had a very good conversation with both the Mayor and Police Chief. Both the Police chief and Mayor knew about the incident and assured us that the police officers in the area would check the Elders apartment day and night and even pay them a visit to make sure they are secure and feel comfortable with their surroundings. The home of the murdered couple was torn down immediately for the neighborhood's sake.

Both the Mayor and the Police Chief said that the community had a very low crime rate and that the murder was very unusual. The suspect that has a warrant for arrest is an extended family member who was also the caretaker of the property. The suspect had borrowed money several times from the couple and had not paid it back. The husband of the couple was a retired military officer and also owned a rice field that had been harvested and sold, thus the motive was money. He took off and is still at large. This is a sad thing to happen and did cause a lot of alarm to the Elders living so close by. One of the Elders is from the US and the other a Filipino native.

After we inspected the property everyone was hungry so we all went to Chow King for lunch. This is a chain of fast food restaurants that we had not tried. We were told it wasn't all that good but Elder B and I though it was pretty good. They served the food on plates and not Styrofoam. And the utensils were stainless steel. The price very affordable for Filipino food.

In the evening we stayed at a resort called "Lisland Rainforest Resort" in Urdaneta. It was very nice. Several employees of the resort are members. One of the ladies spoke with us for awhile and told us the church wanted to buy the resort and tear it all down. We are guessing that this was a possible site for the Urdaneta Temple. There is a Stake Center next door to the resort so it made sense to want to put a temple close to it. The owner did not sell the property and the lady was glad because they all feared their jobs would go away. It really is very lush and green with a many trees around. If a temple really was considered for this spot they would really tear out a lot of trees and cottages for lodging as the one we stayed in. The Temple site has not yet been located yet, just announced.

11-13-10 returning from Urdaneta pictures of Rice Farming

Bags of Rice loaded and ready to transport
Bags of Rice loaded and on the way to market
Bags of rice ready to be spread to dry. The road is part of road renovation

Fields of Rice plants, Sierra Madre Mountains in the background

Peter on the left and Paul on the right with a Kuliglig
It transports rice and people or whatever.

Paul on the left and Peter on the Right on the Kuliglig

Kuliglig transporting Rice

Farmer spreading his rice to dry. It takes two to three days to dry. They spread it out in the day, watch to make sure it doesn't rain and then pack it back up in the bags for the next day.
This is what powers the Kuliglig. A water pump. The Kuliglig does not need to be registered or licensed so it is inexpensive transportation. Very slow and very heavy and difficult to steer.

A Kuliglig transporting bags of rice.

After inspecting the Elder's apartment we took some pictures of some sights on our way home. There were rice fields, bags of rice, rice in bags in trucks, man drying the rice and a vehicle called a kuliglig. That is a strange looking vehicle that is powered by a water pump. It transports people and rice and whatever else. The mountains in background are called the Sierra Madres Mountains. The first thing we both said was, it looks like Glendora. Quite similar. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Supervisor Jess Batoon and wife Maura

On Friday afternoon Jess's wife Maura came over to the MPAO to visit and then to do a session at the Temple. This is the first time we have met her. She is so lovely. Her picture shows them cozy together. Filipinos look so young. She is 50 years old and Jess is 53. Just had to have them pictured here in my blog.

November 7th, 2010 looking back on the week

This past week was mostly administrative. Working on the MTC expansion ideas for security specifications. Working on proximity cards. Seeing Senior Missionaries go home and seeing a new couple come in. Kent and Lorraine Christensen from Arizona. We showed them options on their housing accommodations. For about ten years the missionary couples have lived here in the Pioneer Towers. It has been good for many reasons one being that we are all together in the same location. The Pioneer towers are located in a rather congested area where safety has become a concern. Most of the apartments have been lived in for so many years that renovation is now a must. Our apartment had not been rented before. The owner had vacated the premises some time ago and decided to rent it out. She has been wonderful to us and we really appreciate all that she has done for us. The apartment is comfortable for us...we have no complaints about it. However, it seemed to us and the other senior missionaries that we should have had more say in where we would like to live. So the Christensen's have been in the Temple Patron Housing for a week.....and that facility needs renovation big time. They have chosen an apartment in an area called Eastwood which is more upscale and safer than Mandaluyong City for the same amount of money. Its a very nice place and close to the MPAO. Working out the contract has taken a few days but it will be worth it by the time they have settled in. Their job duties here have to do with securing apartments for young missionaries in the Quezon City mission and seeing to it that they have what they therein. Also safety issues etc. They will be so busy. Their predecessors will be on the plane going home tomorrow morning the 8th of November. So they have had a week to train the Christensens. Tomorrow the contract should be signed and they should be able to move their stuff in. They will have quite a day doing it.