February 26th Jubilee Rehearsal Day

Young men as part of the scarf dance

Scarf Dance

Beautiful Scarf Dancers

Pretty dancer with her hat
Bamboo Dance

Don't get your legs broken dance

The masquerade dance

Masquerade Dance

Loved this hat. The mask is on the back of the hat.

Loved the costumes for these dancers

Notice the sheer barong with black shirt underneath.

Primary singing "I am a Child of God"

Coconut Dance.

These dancers wear coconut shells and then hit them with another coconut to make a rhythm

Bamboo dance or, either step in the right place or you get your leg broken.

Colorful costumes

Primary children singing

Bench dance

Bowl dance

We attended the rehearsal today for the 25th Jubilee of the church official recognized church organization. It was a huge rehearsal with choir, primary and YSA and many dances. I have put many pictures here. The Jubilee should be wonderful. Date should be April 30th.

25th Anniversary of the People Power Movement in Manila

President Aquino took part in the reinactment

The mother country is free again.

February 25th 25th celebration of the People Power Movement

This Friday will be the commemoration of the overthrow of the Marcos regime. It is quite a story and I won't go into it here, but there will be quite a celebration and speeches etc. regarding this event in history. Notice on the statue that people were locking arms and not holding guns as they overtook the existing government of 1986.

The office will NOT be closed on Friday the 25th even though the traffic will be heavy. This statue is on the corner of White Plains and Edsa where the revolution took place. I downloaded these pictures from the Internet as it is difficult to get close to it with traffic and all for a picture. For more information please google the People Power Movement.

February 21st, 2011 School Concert with young Alen Mercader

Singers from the choir. All Seniors in this school.

Two brothers and their father singing. I would put a title to the song but it would not be recognized. They sang beautifully. The man on far right is the father. When they first came out and their names were announced I thought they were all brothers. I was amazed to find out that one is the father.

This is the opening song of the school's spring concert. Our friend young Alen Mercader is on the top row on right. The woman who is their instructor is really an amazing gifted musicain and she can really pound that electronic piano. She plays and then leads the choir as well. The acoustics in this auditorium is not very good so much of the singing was off key. We didn't even have to know the songs to hear that.

All girls choir with a young soloist by the piano.

Another young soloist. She did very well.

Duet singing "May I have this dance" from High School Musical. Nicely done.

Our vendor Alan Mercador has a lovely family from which his son by the same name only spelled differently (Alen) has developed his singing talent at his private school under the direction of an amazing musician herself. It was the teacher that recognized that Alen had a voice. He is now 16 and his voice has deepened but a few years ago he sang like that of a Vienna Choir boy. We have cd's of his music and he is wonderful. We attended the Christmas concert a couple of months ago with him as a soloist and his performance was stunning.

We went with the entire family to Don Herreco's restaurant and had a lovely visit and a wonderful meal. We so appreciate the Mercader family. We are friends and they enjoy the spirit of the church. They are not members yet but someday they might make that choice. For right now thewe enjoy each others company.

The school is located in Alabang, a community south of Manila. It is an upscale community with many many nice homes and organized streets and shopping areas. I really enjoy going there.

February 18, 2011

Busy day....meetings with ushers for the Jubilee April 29th. Outlining where they will be and where Security will be.

I have also been cleaning out old documents that are no longer needed. Shredded documents from 2008. Still have more to do.

Senior Missionary Birthday Dinner at the DeLaMare's mission home.

Sister Justiniano, Sister Goss, Sister Clark, Sister Anderson Brother Anderson
Buffet set up. Yum

Elder and Sister Sorensen and Sister McKnight

The set up begins.

Sister Robyn Anderson is the wife of the area finance controller

President DeLaMare, Sister DeLaMare and Sister Clark and Sister McKnight.

The new Medical Area doctor Elder and Sister Boehme

Elder Burningham, Elder Boehme and Sister Boehme

We had our monthly dinner at the DeLaMare's Mission home on Wednesday evening. I am in charge of the monthly dinner so we tried having it catered at the mission home. We ate chicken, rice, pasta, salad, brownies and mango custurd cake. We all had a great time. The food was late in coming but it came just the same. To my surprise it came by taxi...everything, dishes and all. We had chicken, pasta, rice, salad and dressings of various sorts.

February 12th, 2011

Hypermart clerks size 0-2

Hypermart clerk size 0 maybe a -0

We spent most of the day with Elder and Sister Bell showing them various places to shop. Took time out for lunch at our apartment and ate my homemade Tortilla soup. It was good and so was the cabbage slaw with mango in it. Love it.

One of our stops was to a grocery store called Hypermart and I am posting this picture of a grocery store clerk. These clerks look all the same size in the same size dress. I asked her if it was required to be the same size to work there. She said yes. If you are not a certain size you can't have the job.

Feb 10, 2011

Today was a busy Thursday but it ended up with us taking the Bell's to Shangrila mall and to the wet market. We made some purchases at a drug store and a health store. Found some good bread at a reasonable price and then it was to a Chinese Food restaurant across the street from the apartments. It was a good day.

We skyped with Baldur Schindler in Alaska. He said it was cold and the apartment they are in was quite dirty. They will need to clean it up. They are paying alot for an apartment that they have to clean up. They have all their computers and internet stuff all there so....they are alive and getting into the swing of things. We know the Schindlers from way back in Encinitas California. Nice to skype with them.

February 9, 2011 Moving forward

Today was long but interesting. We went to Makati and visited Nera an IT company and they gave us an overview of their company and what they can do for our needs in the MTC expansion. It was most interesting. Very Very nice building. Good office atmosphere and seemingly good products. We stayed about 45 minutes then went to a nearby wet market before heading back to the office.

At 1:30 pm. we had our staff meeting with most of our officers. It is impressive to see that these men have capabilities that are finally being utilized. All that they have been used is to be at their post. Peter talked about visiting Naga and doing a security investigation for break-ins and thieves. With his help and Jener it showed the mission president there that the Security Department is really worthwhile. He said that if he wants to get anything done he will call Elder Burningham and then it gets done. Other officers spoke about how the security at the temple and at the MPAO can be better implemented. They have good minds and capabilities and they are not just super market guards. I felt so glad to know them and to see that they are good at their jobs and good priesthood leaders. Our mission here is quite corporate in nature. The missionary part is just getting to know the men and help them go forward with their talents. That's really the mission we are apart of. I feel good when I think about it. I am also looking ahead when we leave that I am going to miss these men. I have grown quite fond of them all. It will be hard to leave them knowing I might never see them again.

Pictures taken at Market Market a week ago

Dancers and singers outdoors entertaining at the shopping complex Market Market
Flower market as part of the Wet Market at Market Market

Interesting things

Fender Bender not far from our office.

Yesterday I thought it was the worst day ever. Too many stresses and not getting things done the way I had thought.

The new couple, the Bell's opted to take the apartment that the Ayres had when they were here. It is a nice place so I think they will be comfortable. I found out this morning from Sister Wright who had recently left here a few months ago that her landlady in Eastwood told her that the brokers for apartments there were tacking another php5,000 pesos to the asking price for themselves. I shouldn't be surprised but still I am disappointed. Well, it is what it is. But hey....the Bell's are fine and enthusiastic to work. Glad of that.

In speaking with the Goss's from Public Affairs we learned that another couple, The Birds will be joining them here soon. So there will be two missionary couples in the same small office. Leni Pilobello is the church employee there and she has been sick with ovarian cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. She has lost quite a lot of weight now weighing under 100 lbs. Leni feels encouraged that the chemo is working and that she has good doctors. She is responding well and her spirits are up. In the Public Affairs office there is also a temporary employee to help Leni with the Jubilee Celebration coming up in April. PA office is loaded with work for the Jubilee.

We here in Security have the responsibility of overseeing the security for the Cultural celebration along with the rehearsal which is February 26th. We have our SO Peter Negrido from our staff on the committee.

Elder B is also very involved in the MTC security camera and proximity cards for the MTC expansion. So far it has not been easy, I am sorry to say. We can only hope that it gets better.

Our hearts are pretty heavy right now and we hope things get better. We did have reason to laugh a bit this morning. As you know the traffic here is absolutely nuts..... I was thinking about this yesterday as I took a walk to Rustans a small grocery store not far from here. All of a sudden I heard a crunch and looked to the street and saw a small collision. First time I had ever witnessed one. I gasped. The Filipino people never go too fast just don't use rules or make good judgements so you really have to be alert to make sure this doesn't happen to you. I took a picture of the fender bender. You will see that they have departed from their cars and they are all angry and within a few minutes they are yelling at each other. Most people do not carry insurance on their cars. If they did they would just exchange the insurance information and be off. Well it was quite a display of angry emotions and like all people everywhere...there is an audience. Even passerby's decided to stop, sit and watch. Funny today but not yesterday. I got away as fast as I could.

As I posted yesterday, our S.O. Ryan and his wife suffered a loss of a child. At five months gestation she lived only 3 hours. We felt so bad. On the other hand there was a healthy baby girl named Abish (Biblical name) born to another of our officer's wife on January 28th. I wrote to him by email and congratulated him on the birth of his daughter. He wrote back and said, "Thank you and thank you for all the opportunities that THOU has given us." I thought, oh he has mixed up his English a bit and I decided to ignore it. By this morning as I was thinking back on it somehow found it pretty funny and had to share it with Elder. We both chuckled. We mean no disrespect as we really love our staff members. We found humor today when we could not find it yesterday.

Also, the supervisor of our staff, Jess Batoon has been in court the last few days pressing charges on those teenagers that had accosted him back in November. Jess was pretty well beat up and traumatized on this act of violence that had no provocation at all. There were 8 young men all drunk that malled him and nearly broke his fingers, toes and did damage to his leg. There was a hearing some months back right after it happened and the main offender said that he would rather spend time in jail than pay the medical bills. We will see Jess tomorrow and see what the outcome of that is.

A couple of weeks ago we sent two of our staff to Naga to investigate some burglaries and a break-in into an Elder's apartment. The suspect was known and has been known for awhile. He is a member who knew where things were and how to get in. Our officers got a report and enough information for an arrest. We found out yesterday that the Church has found it necessary to prosecute as the suspect had multiple charges against him. Here in the Philippines too many of these cases just get dropped and not followed through. Well....remember its a third world country and there is corruption and retaliation and sometimes people are just too scared to do anything. In this case it is now a formal case and the guilty is going to be prosecuted. Often the church will let something go so that other members are safe. But in this case the perpetrator is continuing his crimes and it is felt that justice must be done.

We don't watch TV here. We could but we opted not to so the Superbowl was not in our faces. However we did see the commercials from the Superbowl on line and had to chuckle at a few of them. The funniest one I saw was the kid dressed up as Darth Vader. Classic. We laughed about that this morning as we got ready to go to work. Needed the laugh.

Stay tuned.

Well, I am back. I had two church Filipino employees here needing their proximity cards reactivated into the places they needed to go. We had audited the cards and if we found that the holders did not come into the office that much I deactivated the cards. So when these two came they found that their cards did not work. I reprogrammed the cards as the holders come in every three months for their business in Welfare. While we were talking they asked me..."If there are incidents should we report them to you?" I said yes and that has not always happened. The church will just pay for the repairs on chapels where things have been stolen, such as copper wiring, electronics, door handles and even levers to the toilets. The philosophy is that if there is a possibility that a suspect becomes known then there would be retaliation on some of the members. Not worth it. So its "Play the game". Just as mentioned above. The brothers I spoke to and relayed this information knew exactly what I was talking about. Sad but true.

Monday Feb 8, 2011 good day and sad

Sad day for us. When we got to our office we were informed that Ryan Apduhan and wife Tess lost their baby at five months gestation. A daughter...and she will be buried today. Our hearts are heavy for them. Ryan is our Receptionist and a Security Officer with our Security Staff. That is the relationship between us.

And our officer Jener and his wife had a baby girl over the weekend, healthy and full term. We rejoice for their good news.

Week of February 1st through the 4th

Elder B has been meeting with vendors regarding the specifications for Security electronics such as CCTV cameras, DVR players, monitors. The bidding is open but specifications are not clear. Still working on it.

The Golf Cart shopping is getting close to a purchase. Many things to consider. It will be of great interest to see how it all comes together.

I (Sister B) have been laid up for a couple of days with a sore muscle in knee and leg. Taking muscle relaxants and Advil. Hot Rice pack is of great help also.

My Power Point Presentations will get some updates from Ryan Apduhan once he returns from his leave.

We are looking at Apartments for a new senior missionary couple coming in on Sunday. Hope we can have something affordable for them to look at here soon.

Its a two steps forward and one step back kind of a week.