Visit to Morong to see the Artist Pechango and his home and other attractions

Kids in the parking lot playing with their bikes
The tail fins are really snazzy

Trike with 57 Ford Tail Fins

Jeepney in the parking lot of the Teresita chapel

Artwork by Penchango

Looking into his studio

His home on a bank next to the river. Notice the waterfall

Sculpture and waterfall

Landscape and fountain

Looking to his home with swimming pool to the left.
It is not in good repair.

We went to see a member who is also a famous artist. Is name is Pechango. He paints with his hands not a brush and is known for some pretty nice art work. I took some pictures of his home which used to be a resort. The resort was not managed or kept in good repair so this man bought it some time ago and made it his own. There is a swimming pool but not maintained and some amazing gardens and waterfalls that are natural. Trikes and Jeepneys overrun this area and for some reason the Trikes like the 57 Ford Tail fin so I got a nice picture of it. On our way home we made a Comfort stop at the Teresita Chapel. A Red Jeepney parked there had a UCLA emblem on it so we took its picture and also of some kids playing in the parking lot on bikes. The ride there and back was really hectic with way too much traffic. What should have been an hour ride became a 2 and 1/2 hour ride.

Ouch that bites.

Just found out today that our car rental was to have been $150.00 a month. Here in the Philippines they have been charging only $50.00 per month for the past 9 months. Ouch. Its always something.

Our work here in the office, looking at other apartments and a typhoon watch

Our office has had several items that have been neglected over the years due to giving attention to other matters I assume. The security radios have been in ill repair for several years and not usable so some have had to be repaired. The licenses have not been kept up to date so that is underway with an upcoming class for all guards to become licensed. Seems that the Temple maintenance have been working their radios without a license. What that means is that signals can cross into our radios and vice versa and they can hear all conversations. Not a good thing for a couple of reasons. First and foremost...each department should listen to their own people not to the other departments people. Too much information. Then the access card inventory has not been updated for three years. These access cards get employees and missionaries into the MPAO, (Manila Philippine Area Office) and that other visitors do not have access. Other visitors need to sign in at the desk, get visitor badges and have the people they see for business come to the lobby to assist them to where they will be going. In doing an audit of cards and who they are assigned to I have found that many former employees who left the company did not turn the card back in or just handed it off to the next employee, volunteer or other occasional visitor. SO, I have been busy determining who has left and deprogramming the card from our system without the card being present. It is laborious as I have to go to about 12 different card readers and deprogram the card. It has taken about a month to do that and as of yesterday it is finally all done. The new MTC expansion to be completed in March, will have a new advanced system of card readers and the MPAO will be updated with the same. The new system will allow me to program the cards from the computer and not at each reader. This will be a wonderful advantage for all concerned. The new card reader at each department will have the same capability as the old one whereas it will record who comes in and goes out on what date and what time to let us know who is where in such a case of an incident like a theft as we had a few months ago. And it does happen here once in awhile.

We have been looking around for other possible apartment locations close to the MPAO for incoming missionaries so that there is a choice. Once you get off the plane you are tired and want to sleep, brush your teeth etc and just want a place to call home. Our apartment is especially nice but not all of the apartments are this nice. And the costs of some things become increased without warning. Our apartment complex has some amenities but not all are great. No place to really walk around. The surrounding neighborhood is not that comfortable...at night you would never go out so we found another barangay called Eastwood Village which is by far more upscale and the apartments are nice and about the same price as ours. We took President DeLaMare and his wife around to see them and see the neighborhood and to see ours. We wanted to show them that there is a choice if the new senior missionaries want to go other places. The advantage of being here is that all the senior missionaries are in the same place in case we need something from each other or rides here or there or just to know that we are close by. Our intent is to eventually have all the senior missionaries in apartments in Eastwood in the next 18 months. Everyone has a lease at this point so we don't want to break a lease. We have three incoming missionary couples coming soon so we want to make sure they understand their costs and possible locations for apartments. The Mission President and wife agreed. We had dinner with them last night as well. We had a nice visit with them.

After we got home and reading our email we received news that there will be a typhoon watch here for the next couple of days. It is forecasted for the north but typhoons do what they want to at the last minute so we have warned all the couples to be prepared with food, water, necessary provisions, and fully charged cell phone. Elder and I are not all that prepared so we will scope that out today to make sure. As part of a family home evening a senior couple showed pictures of Typhoon Ondoy and the extreme damages it caused last year. We had no idea and pictures say it all. We will pay attention to this and be prepared should the typhoon come our way. Winds can get up to 200 kilometers. Pretty strong winds.

Stay tuned for the next exciting adventure.

Went to the American Women's Club of the Philippines Bazaar

This is at ground level where a lunch area and food are sold. Good tasting food actually.
Sister Ayres got into this picture.

This view of the Bazaar is from a restaurant that is at the corner ceiling area of the building.

Another good shot of the bazaar from above.

I enjoy coming to the Bazaar to look and to do some shopping. Many of the Senior Missionaries buy a lot of stuff and then have to ship it home. Pretty expensive to do that and you have to be careful...what will it go with and where will you put it.

Evening out October 8

At Dad's Restaurant

We were invited out to dinner by Alan Mercador who is the vendor for the church regarding card readers and cameras. The food is great with all kinds of selections to choose from. The music group comes around and plays all your favorites. They are so fun to listen to and great voices. They sang a Beach Boys song entitled "Let me take you to Aruba", Elvis's song "I don't have a wooden heart", "Una Paloma Blanca" and a a couple others. So I took a picture of them as you can see.

Sad News

Our supervisor Jess Batoon was accosted last Friday night on his way home from work. We just found out about it today when Jess came into work after being absent Monday thru Wednesday. He informed us by text message that he had hurt his foot and could not come in. Today when he reported he came into our office with some forms to sign regarding his absence to give to Human Resources.

He told us all about being confronted with drunken teenagers and had been hit in the face and then knocked down to the ground and kicked and mauled. There was a young man living in the neighborhood that saw it happening and came and stood in front of Jess with his arms stretched out protecting him from the kids. Before the young man did that Jess found a wall to climb up on so he was against the wall with the young man in front of him with arms stretched out. He saved Jess's life and Jess became very emotional telling us about his "Good Samaritan".

Jess also was emotional telling us that the Gospel has saved many Filipino's from the ills of drinking and wrong doing. Those that live in shanty's and have accepted the Gospel in their lives and let it change their lives have moved out of the shanty's and found better living conditions and have elevated their lives with education and better jobs. He said the incident only further strengthened his testimony of the Gospel.

Jess needed hospital attention which he got and he also reported the incident to the barangay police. The police rounded up the kids and have ordered them to be in court. The kids say that it was Jess that started the fight but the police didn't believe them as they were all drunk. Jess has an ID card he carries with him that has a picture of the Manila Temple on it to show the police. Of course Jess is more believed.

Elder Burningham and myself are very upset that a good man like Jess Batoon was attacked like that for no good reason. He is a middle age man of 52 and he wears glasses which were destroyed from the attack. New glasses will be on order soon for Jess.

Jess kept this to himself until today so that no one he knows will go out and retaliate this act. It would only make it worse.

This is a really good man!!! We are quite grieved about this but so grateful he was not further hurt and that he was not robbed of his possessions. I forgot to mention that Jess was carrying Pepper Spray and got it out but it was knocked out of his hands. He did throw a few punches to protect himself but it was only after the good Samaritan came did the altercation stop.

Jess did shed some tears while telling us about this but recovered with a couple of jokes which meant you can't keep a good man down if he has a sense of humor. We are grateful Jess is ok but suffers from post traumatic syndrome.

What is happening in the office. And an accident.

Back side of the building where scaffolding fell
Scaffolding that fell on the pool cars

Scaffolding that fell on one of the pool cars


Another look at fallen scaffolding.

As of today 10-06 we have put together a plan to have our staff radios repaired and have understood which ones to be replaced. The ones replaced are very outdated and need updating. Elder Burningham has found a good supplier that we trust to get a quote from to replace the old ones by the end of next month. When I say old...I mean ooooollllllllddddd. When Methuselah was a kid. Even when the Liahona was outdated. There are a lot of things that have taken second third or fifth place even in the list of "to do" things around here for some time.

On October 16th we will have Elder Cook and Elder Jensen here from Salt Lake and the Facilities Management has decided to do some repainting, re plastering and thorough cleaning before they arrive. Its just like home you know. If you know someone is coming you clean and repair. Not any different here either. Having said that....there are risks that should not have been taken. I am posting pictures of fallen scaffolding that happened this past Saturday evening the 2nd. The scaffolding was not secured to the building correctly and the maintenance people were not wearing helmets so when they fell, one worker received a concussion and the other one was pretty banged up. Discussing this with our security staff yesterday I raised the concern that even though it is not the security that is in charge of this we needed as a department to stress to Facilities Management that it is "Safety First". One of the officers, Alex, said the word OSHA when discussing the incident. I said, "OSHA?" and he said "Yes" and started to explain what it meant. I told him I knew what it meant but didn't know that there was an OSHA here. They all said, "Yes of course". Well....clearly the maintenance was not compliant. And our staff remarked to several that it looked dangerous. The pictures says it all doesn't it? The DTA has been sent the pictures of the accident and I hope he gets an alert out to the Facilities Management Department. Pretty serious incident and should not happen again. Its a law suit just waiting to happen.

October 6th, 2010 - Baptisms for the dead

Today I was privileged to do two family names for two of the deceased women in Elder Burningham's family. He did the baptizing and I was the patron. The baptismal font is very small and the lockers are very small. It is for small people that's for sure. Today we will attend a temple session and I will be proxy for an endowment for one of them and have asked Sister Durfey to do the other one.

The temple has a brides room so I used to it to blow dry my hair and reapply my makeup before going to do initiatory work for the two deceased women in our genealogy.

I did the baptisms this morning and when I got back it was about lunch time. Elder and I went to get a hamburger in SM Marikina Mall not far from here. It is a good hamburger place called WHAM Burger. YUM.

Urdaneta City Philippines, New Temple announcement

The news was given to us through extended family members that it was announced on October 2nd, 2010 at the morning session of the 180th General Conference that a third temple has been announced to be built in Urdaneta, Philippines. Plus four others announced around the world. What we are experiencing is the literal gathering of Israel through Temple Building and worship. But we fail to recognize it as this. We knew it was coming but still not sure if it is real. We should believe it.

It will take three to four years to build it if it is anything like Cebu. Cebu was announced in 2006 and dedicated June 2010. It is really good news to the Philippine people.

Thursday Sept 30, 2010 Spaghetti dinner at our apartment

We hosted our second Spaghetti dinner for no reason at all..."Just because" and had a wonderful time. I really didn't take pictures of us all as I have done that before. But I did get a picture of everyone stuffed into the elevator to go to the ground floor to go to their various apartments. This is a fun shot.