Today the Cebu City Philippine Temple was dedicated in three sessions by President Thomas S. Monson. In attendance was President Eyring, Elder Oaks, Elder Walker of the Temple Department, Bishop Burton of the Presiding Bishopric.
Elder and I were doing our job watching out for and looking out for and securing doors and watching while the paid security did their thing with the Visiting Party. It went well with absolutely no incidents other than some very excited people wanting to rush Elder Oaks but that was under control in no time.
We listened to President Monson three times with his own personal remarks before he read the dedicatory prayer. He had some awesome things to say and many remembrances to share. Some from his days as a boy in Primary collecting Pennies for the Primary Children's Hospital. President Monson is 82 years old and starting to feel it. Since we could not be out in one of the rooms with everyone else, we were in one of the offices with a closed circuit TV watching the proceedings. It was a wonderful experience.
After the dedication was complete there were Filipinos everywhere taking pictures of the temple and of each other and several approached Elder and I and asked to have their picture taken with us. You would think we were rock stars. We figured out that some of the people come from Islands where missionaries are the Filipinos that live here and we are a novelty as some islands do not see American Missionaries at all. So now we are stars. Goodness.
Elder and I were doing our job watching out for and looking out for and securing doors and watching while the paid security did their thing with the Visiting Party. It went well with absolutely no incidents other than some very excited people wanting to rush Elder Oaks but that was under control in no time.
We listened to President Monson three times with his own personal remarks before he read the dedicatory prayer. He had some awesome things to say and many remembrances to share. Some from his days as a boy in Primary collecting Pennies for the Primary Children's Hospital. President Monson is 82 years old and starting to feel it. Since we could not be out in one of the rooms with everyone else, we were in one of the offices with a closed circuit TV watching the proceedings. It was a wonderful experience.
After the dedication was complete there were Filipinos everywhere taking pictures of the temple and of each other and several approached Elder and I and asked to have their picture taken with us. You would think we were rock stars. We figured out that some of the people come from Islands where missionaries are the Filipinos that live here and we are a novelty as some islands do not see American Missionaries at all. So now we are stars. Goodness.
Sister Burningham, thanks so much for your posts. I came on to your blog several weeks ago while searching for information about the Cebu temple and dedication. I served as a missionary in Cebu in early 1970 (what you could call the "olden days"). My companion and I lived in Cebu and served, if one can believe it now, as zone leaders for all the Visayan Islands and Mindanao. There was, of course, only one mission in the Philippines then and we had only 5 branches on Mindanao and five branches in the Visayans. The growth since then has been remarkable and it is gratifying to see the saints in that part of the world have the blessing of a closer temple.
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