Week 17-October 17-24, 2015

 Tom and Garnalee at the Manila, Philippines Temple on Wednesday, October, 21 with the other senior couples as part of our senior activity.
Tom was asked to be an escort for a member who was receiving own his endowments. His name is John Thorpe who is originally from New Jersey. He joined the Church four years ago.

 all of the senior couples attended the Manila, Philippines Temple. Left to right: Tom and Garnalee Harrington, John and Connie Rogers, John and Marjorie Broadhead, KC and Chris Jones, Doug and Jacquelyn Swift, Mary and Robert Brady, and President Kim and Sister Jennifer Bertin.

In front of the Manila Temple with one of the many spires in the background.

 Before going to the temple we gathered at the Mission Home for some Family History instruction given by us. The instruction included how to register for a Family Search account, editing features on Family Tree, and adding Memories.

A visit to Krispy Kreme found Garnalee leaving with a few Halloween donuts. They were delicious!









There was wind and rain all Saturday night from Typoon Lando. When we arrived at the meeting house we were told that church had been cancelled but since there were a few members who had already arrived the bishop decided to go ahead and hold Sacrament meeting. The power went off shortly after the meeting started but since there are windows on both sides of the chapel going ahead with Sacrament wasn't a problem. Tom was asked to give a short talk since the speakers hadn't shown up.

Tom's cucumbers have been beat by the storm. He is hoping they will recover and still produce cucumbers.

Because of the storm, coding was lifted on Monday, October 19. It was nice to be able to go home a little earlier in the afternoon. Tom was out with Elder Broadhead checking a new apartment in Meycauayan and didn't get home until 8 PM. Garnalee was really concerned about them because the rain was really come down for a few hours in the afternoon.

Zone Conferences continued this week on Tuesday and Thursday for Montalban, Malolos, San Jose Del Monte, and Fairview. Garnalee is grateful that the work load for her is a little lighter this week with the extra load of Zone Conferences.

Tom is continuing to hassle with replacing rent checks for several of the apartments. Missionaries sometimes forget about the rent, the check is lost, and then it has to be replaced.

Thursday, October 22,  Tom spent a lot of time doing his cash register in preparation for printing out the monthly statement of operations. He received an email earlier in the day stating that his Church VISA 1 credit card had been frozen. It seems they don't like you to continually take money out of the account without telling them where you have spent it.

Friday, October 23, was our monthly planning meeting where we go through the calendar for the upcoming month. Tom also went with Elder Broadhead to checkout another apartment for missionaries. Garnalee spent time doing some a variety of jobs. We had a real scare when Tom couldn't find his wallet. He had checked Elder Broadhead's car but no luck, and he decided he had left it home. When we got home, no wallet. Garnalee said a prayer that the wallet would be found. Tom called Elder Broadhead and meet him down by the car. Elder Broadhead went to the passenger's side and Tom went to the driver's side. Tom immediately saw his wallet. It had slid down between the seats but hadn't been visible when he had checked earlier from the passenger side. The prayer had been answered.

Tom has spent several hours this week working with Elder Campbell, the former finance secretary, on doing monthly reports and getting everything all caught up.

We went to dinner on Saturday evening at a new place, Burgoo. We had a great dinner of Manhattan Salad, a salad with romaine lettuce, apple, pineapple, and candied walnuts, and ribs, shrimp, fries, and corn on cob.

Week 16--October 11-16, 2015

 Missionaries serving in the Quezon City North Mission that are all from Blackfoot, either currently or grew up there: President Kim Bertin, Elder Tom Harrington, Sister Garnalee Harrington, Elder Jake Goodwin, and Elder KC Jones.

 President and Sister Bertin, Elder and Sister Harrington, Elder Goodwin, and Elder and Sister Jones all who can be claimed as Blackfoot-ites.

 Elder and Sister Harrington working with the youth of the San Ildefonso Branch with family history on Saturday, October 3.

Some of the youth from San Ildefonso we had the opportunity to help create Family Search accounts and enter family names into Family Search. Each youth was hoping to find five family names they could take to the Manila Temple on October 24, to perform ordinances for. We were able to help them find some names. With the new policy from the Church on permission from the closest living relative of the deceased for ordinances to be done, some of the names we found have to cleared for the work to be done.



 We had the opportunity to watch the remaining two sessions of General Conference on Sunday, October 11, at the stake center. We left the meeting feeling spiritually fed. We both were impressed by Elder Durrant's talk on "Ponderizing" the scriptures.

The job of leases and rent payments is going to be a big part of Tom's responsibility which he is finding to be challenging. When a person deals with 200 missionaries housed in 70 apartments and keeping everything running is a big job. Out of the 70 apartments there are always a half dozen or so where the missionaries miss place the rent check. That creates a huge problem for Tom in trying to track down the check and/or to request a replacement check. That process can take weeks. He is currently working on leases for four new apartments so apartments have consumed a large portion of his schedule each day.

Garnalee has fallen into a routine with her responsibilities and is not feeling so overwhelmed. She has taken over the filling of the mail run orders to free Tom from the pressure, and so he can focus on other things.

Sister Bertin had a can of pumpkin brought back for each of the senior couples from the US by Elder and Sister Bowen when they went to General Conference. Pumpkin is one of the items that can't be found in the Philippines. We will save it for Thanksgiving. Garnalee is hoping she might be able to make a pumpkin pie. She has only been able to get the oven up to 350 degrees so a pie might not happen.

Last Saturday after watching General Conference Garnalee made an Apple Crisp. We both wanted something that meant fall.

Week 15--Oct 4-10, 2015

Sunday, October 4, was Fast and Testimony meeting for us instead of General Conference. Because of the time difference we always have General Conference a week later. It also gives those countries that need the talks translated the time to get that done. Tom gave the Sunday School lesson, and they have asked him to do it again.  He is an excellent teacher, and they are going go utilize his talents while we are here.

After being overwhelmed last week, Garnalee is feeling better this week. She is able to schedule each of the tasks she needs to do and keep them up to date. She even found time to help Tom with a couple of items.  Tom is feeling better about his responsibilities also.

When we arrived at the office on Friday morning, Garnalee checked the emails and discovered three missionaries that are VISA waiters had been assigned to our mission. They will arrive with our November batch that is now setting at 29 new missionaries. That is the largest new batch we have had since we arrived. Several apartments will have to be opened to house them.

We watched the Saturday morning session of General Conference at the Mission Home with President and Sister Bertin, the Broadheads, Elder Welch, and Elder Algar, We watched the Saturday afternoon session at home on the IPAD. We loved all of the messages.

Another busy week and nothing photo worthy.

Week 14--September 27-October 3, 2015

 An updated photo of Tom's cucumbers. They are really growing. Amazing to Tom is that a garden can be planted anytime of the year.

A missionary that had served in the Quezon City North Mission sent a box of items to be distributed. In the box were some handmade tops that had been made by a member of her home Ward. The children loved the tops.







We have discovered this week how busy we are going to be with our responsibilities. We went to the office for a couple of hours on Sunday after Church to try to get caught up. Elder Campbell, the former financial secretary, came to help Tom with some financial tasks that needed to be completed namely MSF which is Missionary Support Fund which has to be every done two weeks. To thank  Elder Campbell for all of his hard work we had him and his companion, Elder Lorenzo, over for dinner.

Monday was a long day. It is our code day so we didn't arrive at the office until 10:30 AM but we didn't get away until 8:30 PM. We had to do mail run for three zones. Mail run includes sorting the mail that has come and filling orders for proselyting pamphlets, boxes of Book of  Mormon, reporting sheets, name tags, fans, rice cookers, DVD players, stoves, etc. Garnalee also worked on letters that needed to be sent to bishops and stake presidents about missionaries coming home.

Tom went to the Philippines Area Office for training with the financial director on Tuesday. The distance is about 25 miles, and it took him an hour and 40 minutes to get there and an hour and 35 minutes to get back. Garnalee stayed at the office and worked on inputting baptism records until she had to give up that computer to the young missionary who comes in on Tuesday afternoons to work on maps and graphs for the Mission Leadership Council. She then went to her other computer and sent out welcome letters to the new missionaries coming in a few months. tom dropped Garnalee off at the office at 7:30 AM, and we didn't leave until 6 PM.

On Wednesday, Garnalee started working on the rest of the baptism records that needed to entered. She has entered 65 baptisms in the last two days. She sent out letters to the stake presidents about missionaries going home and printed the release certificates. Due to unreliable the mail systems, we send the release certificates home with the missionaries in a sealed envelope. Tom went with Elder and Sister Broadhead to one the apartments that houses sister missionaries. The sister missionaries were moving to a new apartment. Tom had to meet with the landlord to give him an additional 6000 PHP because the new apartment is more expensive.

It was a busy day but not as productive. MLC was held today so there were missionaries around wanting things. We had to pick up the lunch for the MLC which cuts into our work time. However, Garnalee is glad that we only have to pick up the lunch. Sister Bertin shared that a friend of theirs serving as the office couple in Canada has to prepare the lunch for MLC. Garnalee did get the cover sheets and folder labels created for the new missionaries that are coming. Tom spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get things working correctly on the computer. Tom had to go to the bank to get money for a landlord and cell phone load so we left at 3:15 PM.

We start off our Friday with the office weekly planning meeting. Tom got the cell phone load ordered and completed some IMOS tasks. Garnalee finished the last of the tasks that were on her to do list for the week. So to celebrate we went out to dinner.

Saturday was a trip to the San Ildefonso Branch to the north. We are helping with a Family History activity with their Branch. As we arrived in Bustos, we got stuck behind a funeral procession. The deceased is in a white Rolls Royce hearse that is decorated with white flowers on top and white and purple balloons. The mourners walk behind the hearse to the cemetery. Cars are not allowed to pass and even if we could pass there was another funeral procession coming from the opposite direction. We followed the procession for about 3 kilometres that took about 30 minutes when they turned off into the cemetery. Consequently we were about fifteen minutes late to meet with the Jones' landlady to pay her the rent which made her late for work.