Week 9--August 23-29, 2015

 This doesn't look like Idaho Power approved electrical meters to us. Notice the low hanging wires. Occasionally tall trucks knock down the wires.They bring a cherry picker to individually read the meters once a month.

 Eggs anyone. We followed this trike to work. A person can go to one of the open markets and buy as few or as many eggs as you want.

Two of our three new senior couples arrived this week. The Swifts were staying at the mission home but President and Sister Bertin were busy visiting a missionary at the hospital who had had surgery due to a brain bleed. We all went to dinner together at TGI Fridays.On the left are Elder Ence, Elder Broadhead, and Elder Swift. On the right are Sister Ence, Sister Broadhead, Tom, Garnalee, and Sister Swift.

 After dinner we went to Cold Stone Creamery. There were 10 employees in the the store. After they served us our ice cream, they turned up the music and entertained us by dancing.

 Sister Broadhead decided to join in the dancing.

 Since Sister Broadhead had joined in Elder and Sister Swift also decided to join in, too.

The employees motioned for the rest of us to come up and dance so Tom and Garnalee joined in the fun. Tom was having a hard time getting the steps down so he soon gave up.

However, Garnalee was able to follow along so she stuck with it. she was the "last missionary standing."

Tom and Garnalee had the opportunity to speak in Church on Sunday, August 23. Tom centered his thoughts on pioneers which was celebrated in Utah a couple of weeks ago. He pointed out in  his talk that most of the members of our ward are first generation members so they are pioneers, too. Garnalee based her talk on lessons she learned growing up on the farm, such as the importance of work, prayer, family history, and the temple. After lunch we meet the Broadheads who are from Toledo, Ohio, and will be taking overseeing the apartments. Sister Broadhead will be the mission nurse. Tom started studying the Financial Secretary Guide to be ready to take over the financial responsibilities. He discovered that most of it is out-dated.

Monday, August 24, was a busy day for Garnalee. She had a bunch of referrals in Referral Manager that needed to be assigned out. The weekly newsletter needed to be sent to the missionaries who are arriving in September and she had to find Elder Loveland's exit questions that he sent in the mail run. Fortunately, they were located in his file but not where they should have been.

August 25, Tuesday, Garnalee received notice of seven new missionaries that have been assigned to our mission. Three are Filipino and will come in November, three are from the United States and will come in December, and one is from Tonga arriving in January. That means a lot of letters to send out with attachments welcoming them to our mission. The letters are all done electronically but still take a lot of time. She also has taken over entering convert baptism information into the Church system so part of the day was spent doing that. She has been asked to teach the Primary children the song "Keep the Commandments" so she has been busy creating visual aids to assist in learning the words. Tom spent his day writing missionary orders which must be deducted from their support and will be delivered through the mail run. He also worked on the chart that generates graphs President Bertin sees regarding Key Indicators, e.g. number of lessons taught, number of investigators being taught, etc.

Wednesday, August 26, we had our regular lesson with Xavier. He finally committed to baptism on September 4. Last week in the newsletter all of the missionaries were invited to read the New Testament before Christmas. Tom saw a check off chart for reading the Book of Mormon, and decided to create a similar chart that reads "I Have Read the New Testament" made with 256 squares. We have accepted the invitation to read the New Testament  by Christmas, and have decided to write down our impressions as we read.

August 27, Thursday, Tom got up early and went walking in the hallways, up and down the stairs, and the parking area for 30 minutes. He said it was cool and fairly pleasant and even if it is raining he can still walk. Each day Garnalee has different tasks that need to accomplished for either arriving, departing, or in-field missionaries, besides doing referrals and convert data entry. Most of her days are busy which she likes.

Friday, August 28, was weekly planning meeting at the mission home. One of the big jobs Garnalee needs to get accomplished is exit clearance papers signed by all of the foreign missionaries that will depart between January, 2016 and May, 2017. Tom and Elder Campbell generated 65 quarterly rent check approvals so that the rent checks can be given to the Zone Leaders when they come for Mission Leadership Council next Thursday.

August 29, Saturday, Tom walked and discovered that he can listen to a Dave Ramsey podcast while he is walking. We went to see the movie "Inside Out." Garnalee liked the movie much better than Tom, I guess that is because she is still a kid at heart. We were going to go see "Fantastic Four" but it had already left from the movie theaters here.

Week 8--August 16-22, 2015

Tom was asked to create a map of our ward boundaries (La Mesa Ward) with all of the street identified which is an impossible task. The streets don't have street signs and the streets wind in a never-ending maze. When it is finished the ward members will identify where they live on the map so the missionaries can find them.




Xavier was at Church with a white shirt and tie because he wanted to look more like a member than an investigator. The lesson was on tithing and fast offerings which he was familiar with as many Christian churches have tithes and offerings.

We have moved our weekly office planning meeting from Sunday evening to Friday morning. This change will allow the office elders to spend Sunday evening teaching investigators which is prime time for them and allow us to attend ward functions.

Monday, August 17--Tom worked with Elder Campbell on financial reconciliation items and budgets. After lunch we both worked with Elder Biggs on ordering items for the mission such as Books of Mormon, proselyting pamphlets, etc. The Centrum from the last order hadn't arrived so Tom went to Mercury Drug to pick some up. The cost for five boxes was just under P5000. So he had to make a trip to the ATM to get the cash. Garnalee worked on the funds request for departing missionaries to pay their exit fee and give them some cash to purchase food if needed. She is also entering the referrals that are received into the system, and then either assigning a missionary to go visit that referral or if the referral isn't in our mission she assigns it to a different mission. We have a Google map that shows all of the areas of our mission and so she knows if it is in our mission or not. We have been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting next Sunday. Garnalee felt she received a tender mercy from the Lord as she started to write her talk. She decided to share lessons she learned from her parents while growing up. The thoughts, scriptures, and quotes from General Authorities just seemed to flow onto the paper.

Tuesday, August 18--Garnalee worked on copying the missionary assignments for the September Departing missionaries and placing them in their folders so they will have that record when they get home to share with their families. Many of the Filipino missionaries' parents don't have e-mail and so they never receive information from the mission about the leadership positions their missionary has had the opportunity to have. It was really quiet at the office because all of the office elders were at District meetings and the Ences have gone to Cebu with a couple from their ward. Tom worked with Elder Campbell on medical claims to Aetna.

Wednesday, August 19--Garnalee created folders for three missionaries that will be coming to our mission in a few months and entered several referrals into the system. We attended the lesson that was taught to Xavier which was on the Plan of Salvation. Sister Talalima and Sister Pader taught the lesson using an intricately fashioned wooden puzzle pieces that aided in teaching where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. Tom shared the scripture in I Corinthians 15:40-42 from the Bible that talks about the three degrees of glory. Xavier said he had never read that scripture before. It is important to point out doctrine in the Bible to the investigator.

Thursday, August 20--Typhoon Goni is passing across the northern end of Luzon Island so the rain today was really heavy. Our internet at the office has been really slow for the past couple of days. We don't know if it is because of the Self-Reliance Hair Workshop that has been going on in the Camarin Church next to our office of if it is just the infrastructure of the Philippines. Free haircuts have been given at the workshop so there has been a lot of people coming and going all week. Tom set up his computer in the front of the office next to Garnalee and worked on the mission history all morning.

Friday, August 21--We had our monthly planning meeting at 8 AM. We had a wonderful lunch prepared by Sister Cherry. All of her meals are always very good. Slow internet again this afternoon so it was hard to get any work done. We went shopping to buy a few items to put in the apartment for the new senior couple that arrives tomorrow.  Heavy rain again today.

Saturday, August 22--Tom went to the mission home to work on the newsletter with President Bertin. After he arrived, President Bertin received a call from one of the missionary apartments that they had been robbed during the night. They had left the gate into their apartment and the door unlocked. So needless to say, an article on security was included in the newsletter. We took the Ences out to for a last supper before they leave in couple of weeks and then played a game of Five Crowns. Heavy rain again today. 

Week 7--August 9-15, 2015

This plant is growing at the  mission home. The blossom looks like an Olympic torch.

The grass around the mission home is very well manicured. In many areas, including this lawn, the grass is cut with a pair of scissors by a gardener.

Each day as drive to the mission office we see this man. He is selling cigarettes to the jeepney drivers. They will buy one or two cigarettes from him. He even provides a lighter for them to light the cigarette.

A closer picture of him showing the box he carries his merchandise in. He has a towel under his hat to protect him from the sun and we also think to absorb the sweat.

This street peddler is selling small towels that most of the people in the Philippines carry to wipe the sweat off their brow and neck. Many of the young children will have a towel stuck down the back their shirt to catch the sweat.






On Sunday, August 9, we were asked to attend a lesson being taught to an investigator. The investigator is Filipino who has been taking lessons for 10 years. He is a 23-year law student who is studying to take his bar exams. He has lived in Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Preston, Idaho. He attended BYU for a couple of months. He will be an excellent member of the Church. Tom gave the Priesthood lesson today on "The Sacred Calling of Mothers and Fathers."

Monday, August 10--We had our first experience of being at the office by ourselves. The Ences and the office elders were all out on mail run to various areas in the mission. Tom worked with Elder Biggs on the transfer board and North Grid. The North Grid is an Excel document that displays all ten zones and the assignments of the missionaries on two pages.

Tuesday, August 11--Garnalee spent the morning sending out letters to bishops and stake presidents for missionaries who are departing on September 23. She also prepared the release certificates for the missionaries going home in September. We also attended the dinner and testimony meeting at the mission home for the nine missionaries who are going home tomorrow. Tom spent a couple of hours working with President Bertin setting up Dropbox so he can do the weekly newsletter.

Wednesday, August 12--Today is transfer day. We also had nine new missionaries arrive this morning, two are VISA waiters heading to Australia. Tom got a haircut today for P40 and with a tip of 10P that is just over $1 in the US. Garnalee's haircut at a salon a week ago was 480P which is just over $10 US. We had the opportunity to meet with Xavier Zamora (the investigator) again today for another lesson.

Thursday, August 13--Garnalee spent the whole day doing missionary letters. First she emailed the parents of the new arrivals to let them know that their missionary had arrived safely in our mission. She included pictures of the missionary with the mission president and his wife and the missionary with their companion. She then emailed a welcome letter and information packet to three new missionaries that will arrive in November. She then prepared envelopes to stake presidents with the release certificates for the missionaries who are going home in September.
Tom, Elder Campbell, and Elder Ence received a training on lease agreements from an employee at the Area Office. The Church leases over 2000 apartments in the Philippines alone.

Friday, August 14--Tom and Garnalee spent time with Elder Biggs on ordering supplies for the mission. Garnalee also spent time with Elder Biggs learning more about system to enter the data on converts.
An interesting side note, Chad sent us an email with a link to a website called Quora. The article was talking about the inefficiency of eating rice with chopsticks rather than a spoon. The article was illustrated with several pictures showing people eating rice with chopsticks. One of the pictures was of Tom when we were on our mission in Hong Kong at Cheung Chau Island. The picture had been posted on our blog but we have no idea how Quora got the picture.

Saturday, August 15--Just a regular PD of laundry, cleaning the apartment, and some grocery shopping. We did treat ourselves to dinner out at Chili's. Tom did spend several hours with President Bertin at the mission home working on the weekly newsletter which he will be doing from now on.

Week 6--August 2-8 2015

One last picture form our apartment. This is the unit in our shower that heats the water. The shower is the only place in our apartment where we can get hot water. We heat the water to do dishes in an electric teapot.

 Some days going or coming from the mission office we take the "short cut" which really is not a shorter distance it just has less traffic. We see these shops along the way. They 10 by 10 feet in size. This one is selling clothes.

 A row of the shops.

 The pots are sitting out with food cooked ready to serve  breakfast.

 Shoppers milling among the shops ready to make their purchase. One of the shops sells fresh eggs that a person will pick up and examine to see which ones they want to purchase. They are sold individually and they aren't refrigerated.






The local hardware store.

Many of the people will wear a towel on their head to protect them from the sun.

 A typical afternoon rain storm. The rain is falling in sheets.

We didn't know we would be running a shot clinic when we arrived. All of the missionaries received flu vaccines on Thursday and Friday as part of our Mission Tour with Elder Ardern, the Area President, and his wife. We were in charge of getting the paper work filled out and directing the missionaries to an area to receive their shot. We had the able help of several other senior couples.

 There were 94 shots administered on Thursday and 101 on Friday. The 11 office staff all received their shots on Sunday, August 2. There was a total of 206 shots given.

Some of the missionaries took the shot in stride.

 However others were terrified.

This tricycle with a load of balloons for a graduation was in front of us on the road on Saturday afternoon.








Tom shared his testimony on Sunday, August 2, and started off with a few sentences of Tagalog. He said, "Magandang Umaga, mga kapatid. Ako Si Elder Harrington," which means, "Good morning, brother and sisters. I am Elder Harrington." Garnalee was asked by the bishop to help out in Primary for the first hour and then go to Relief Society the second hour. Tom volunteered to give the Priesthood lesson next week.

Each Sunday evening we have a planning meeting with the mission president and his wife, the Assistants to the President, the Financial Secretary, the Mission Secretary, and the two Senior Couples. Tom read the minutes from the last meeting. The mission president requested that future action items be color coded according to the person responsible.

Tom has ordered a Filipino Nativity scene That will be hand craved. What is unique about a Filipino Nativity is there is a palm tree.

On Monday Tom worked with Elder Biggs on the seekly Key Indicator report that he will take over when Elder Biggs goes home in September. Numbers gathered from the Zone leaders are entered to create a statistical report. Garnalee copied several talks for the departing batch of August missionaries and did the funds envelopes for them.

Garnalee and Tom walked to SM Mall for her to get a haircut. Tom went to the grocery store to buy rice. Before leaving Tom asked, "What kind?" Garnalee answered, "White!" Sounded easy enough but when Tom got to the grocery store he found at least 20 different varieties of white rice. Tom asked the salesperson which was the best kind. He answered, "California is the most popular seller." As the salesperson was weighing out the five kilos of rice, Tom was standing by the brown rice and decided to get five kilos of that, too.. Five kilos was the least amount that could be purchased of each kind. So Tom ended up with 10 kilos of rice which in Idaho is 22 pounds. That is a lot for an old guy to carry! Upon arrival home, Garnalee cooked up a cup of the white rice. It was very good with the Chicken Salsa we put on it. We are wagering whether we will be able to eat all of the rice before we go home.

For Family Home Evening we read the lesson that Tom will teach in Priesthood meeting titled "The Sacred Callings of Fathers and Mothers."

Tuesday, August 4, Tom found the mission history that the previous missionary had started for 2015 so he can begin catching it up. Garnalee prepared the packets for the departing missionaries. She puts all of the paperwork from their individual folders in the packet along with contact cards for the previous mission president. She also learned how to do travel requests for the November departing missionaries. She also e-mailed her first batch of letters for leadership position changes to missionaries that will happen next week at transfer time. A very busy day.

On Wednesday, August 5, Garnalee spent the day creating folders for arriving missionaries and saving letters to folders of exiting missionaries. She also did more position letters as the letters need to go out to the missionaries and  also their parents are notified of the change. Tom spent the whole day working on the La Mesa Ward membership map.

We have found a new favorite in Mango shakes. They cost P20 which is $0.44.

Thursday, August 6, we helped with the mission flu shots. We were invited to the mission home to have dinner with Elder and Sister Ardern, the other senior couples, and the mission president and his wife. Elder Ardern shared that the Church is growing more rapidly in the Philippines than any where else in the world. After only 53 years here the 100th stake will be organized soon. By comparison, after 150 years in New Zealand there are only 26 stakes. Elder Ardern thanked the senior couples repeatedly for coming to serve.

Friday, August 7, we were ready for the our day of the Mission Tour at 8:30 am it began at 9 am. Elder and Sister Ardern spoke and trained all morning. Sister Bertin mentioned how she appreciated having senior couples in the mission. She told the young missionaries that they don't get to check off  "I have Done My Mission." They need to prepare to serve a mission with their spouse as a senior couple. We helped with the flu shots again.

Saturday, August 8, we went to S&R (a Costco type store) with the Ences. We both left the store with a cart full of merchandise. We wondered if we would be able to get all of the stuff in our car. The trunk was packed tight. Tom was driving and each of the passengers had something on his or her lap with a bag between the passengers in the back. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and putting the purchases away. The Ences came up to play Five Crowns about 8 pm. We laughed and enjoyed their company. Tom won which he thinks is rare.

Week 5--July 26-August 1, 2015

On Sunday, July 26, we attended the La Mesa Ward which is the ward we will attend the whole time we are here. The songs and sacrament prayers are in English but the talks and lessons are in Tagalog. They speak Taglish which is a combination of English and Tagalog so we can get the general drift of what they are talking about. Bishop Villalester is a new bishop and is married with five sons. Sunday evening Tom and Elder Ence attended a Self-Reliance meeting for ward leaders.The opening session talked mostly about the Perpetual Education Fund and how to submit an application.

We panicked on Monday when Tom tried to get money from the ATM. He received a notice that his transaction couldn't be completed from two different machines. For Family Home Evening we studied two conference talks. One was President Henry B. Eyring on fasting and the fast offering and the other was from President Boyd K. Packer on the plan of happiness and love and marriage. Both were very powerful talks.

Tuesday morning Garnalee called the credit union to see if there was a problem with our card. They reported no blocks on our account so we decided that Garnalee would try her card today. Tom walked to an ATM close to the office and received the same message so he came back and got Garnalee. As we alked up to the machine the security guard told it was out of  P$1000 bills. We asked if there was another ATM close by and he told us there were some other ones across the street in the mall. So we proceeded to head to them. Fortunately when we tried the machine there we were able to get money. Now we know that when the machine is out money it can't complete our transaction. No need to panic. We decided to keep P$10,000 on hand for an emergency.

On Tuesday morning we attended one of the weekly District meetings. The Zone leaders inspected the 72-hour kits to check for out-dated food items. Each missionary is issued a 72-hour kit in a sturdy backpack so in case of an emergency they can grab it and evacuate. Elder Lopez, the district leader, gave an excellent lesson on humility.

Once a transfer we have an activity with the other senior couples in our mission. Before heading out we had a discussion on the development of maps for each area and what a value they would be in keeping track of members and the less active.

For our activity we attended the Ayala Museum in Manila. The fourth floor had a display of gold jewelry dating back more than a 1000 years. The intricate workmanship on the jewelry was beautiful.

One floor of the museum told the history of the Philippines and the Filipino people through amazingly detailed 50 plus dioramas. The next few pictures are just a few of the dioramas we saw.

 As were leaving the museum we passed this tree. It was huge with six branches off the trunk. It was beautiful

 As we left the museum the Bertin bought a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for a treat on the way home. They were as delicious as the ones in the US.  The traffic to the mission home was going at a snail's pace. It took us two hours to go 25 miles. We took this picture of the traffic in front of us as it headed up the ramp on one part of our trip.

We also saw this jeepney in front of us. If the inside is full then people just climb on the back and hold on. If you look closely you will notice there are four people on the back end. You can see one leg of the fourth person between the legs of the person on the left.

 The senior couples in our mission. Left to right: President Kim and Jennifer Bertin, Garnalee and Tom Harrington, Kathy and Clark Ence, Christine and Kenneth Jones, and Connie and James Rogers.

Another group picture in front of the beautiful tree. The Ences, the Rogers, the Jones, the Harringtons, and Jennifer Bertin. President Bertin was taking the picture.









Thursday was "Shake Day." The whole country was practicing for an earthquake. The authorities say the Manila Metro area is overdue for an earthquake. The mission participated by using the phone tree that is set up. A message was sent out by the APs (Assistants to the President) to the Zone leaders. They were to contact the District Leaders who were to contact each missionary. All 211 missionaries were accounted for in a matter of minutes.

Elder Biggs printed out a Google Earth map of the La Mesa Ward boundaries which Tom hopes to put numbered stickers on to identify all of the families in the ward. That will be a great help to newly assigned missionaries. We like to take evening walks together but it still too hot and humid for that.

Friday was a busy day at the office. Elder Biggs shared with us all the jobs he does and that we will be taking over. He has a lot of responsibilities that we will need to learn. We went to dinner at
TGI Fridays with the Ences. We had an enjoyable evening together.

Saturday we went to see the latest Tom Cruise "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation" which cost us $7.02 US for the two of us. Tom has decided to make a larger scale map of La Mesa Ward. He worked most of Saturday on it.