Week 26--December 20-26, 2015

Zone Conferences took place this week. The mission was divided and five zones attended on Wednesday, December 23, and the other five zones came on Thursday, December 24. We were asked to do a Family History presentation as part of the Zone Conferences. We talked about the doctrine behind Family History and how it can be a tool to help strengthen the testimony of the new members. Research has shown that new members who go to the Temple within the first six months of membership are twice as likely to still be active 18 months later. We had our fan charts enlarged to 2 foot by 3 foot and displayed them at the conferences.

The missionaries were spiritually fed in the morning with a message delivered by Sister Bertin about "Who is Jesus?" and President Bertin's message was on "Miracles." the missionaries then watched the video of "Ephraim's Rescue." We were physically fed with a wonderful catered luncheon. Then the afternoon was lighter with a talent show, gift exchange, and the singing of Christmas carols. Each of the groups had fun displaying there talents. There are many talented missionaries in our mission.

One of the fun carols we sang was the Twelve Days of Christmas. We were divided into twelve groups and each group had to act out there day as it was sung. We laughed and had fun.

The island girls doing the hula.

Elder Leishman is a very quiet missionary. He surprised us as sang and hammed it up on stage.

Barbershop Quartet with a fifth added at the end.

 Notice the sunglasses and the bright red sequin jacket.

 Baliwag zone performed a song togther. Elder Goodwin, who is from Blackfoot, is in the second row.

Fairview Zone did a rap with Elder Campbell on the box.

 Elder Heaton, one of the Assistants to the President, grew up on a cattle ranch. He would spend his free time practicing his roping skills. He brought his lassos with him and entertained us all.

 The Novaliches Zone made up a rap and incorporated Family History and Garnalee's fan chart into their song.

The elders from New Zealand and one elder from the Philippines have amazing harmonizing skills.

The palm trees in front of the mission office form a perfect heart for a picture.









Tom used Luke 2 to teach the Sunday School lesson interspersed with Christmas carols on Sunday.

Friday, Christmas Day, was spent at the office straightening Tom's desk and entering items into the cash register. It was a good thing were at the office as LBC, the UPS of the Philippines, came to deliver a big box for a missionary. He ended up having a Merry Christmas as he was close enough to come and get it.

We both finished reading the New Testament this week. Garnalee on Tuesday and Tom on Christmas Day.

Week 25--December 13-19, 2015

On Friday, December 18, we came to this area known as Gen T De Leon to pay rent to a landlord for a missionary apartment. We met the missionaries at a school nearby and they led us down the narrow roads to here to pay the rent. The narrowness of the roads in the communities always amazes us. We needed to go in the other direction so we backed out instead of trying to pass this car. In many cases the roads are only wide enough for one car. So if a car is coming from the opposite direction one must yield.

 The Primary children sang the song "The Nativity" for the Ward Christmas Party on Saturday, December 19.

 As we came out of church on Sunday this chicken was wandering down the sidewalk. We hear roosters crowing all during our meetings each Sunday.

The dog is tied up but he isn't paying any attention to the chicken. It was barking at some children that were walking on the edge of the road. It is common here to see dogs and cats just pass each by on the street and not pay attention to each other. Very different from American dogs and cats.

This was transfer week which makes for a busy week for us. This batch of 12 missionaries departed on Tuesday, December 15. A testimony meeting in the evening is always the highlight of the week for us.

The next day, Wednesday, saw the arrival of the next batch of 18 missionaries. Four came from the United States, 1 from New Zealand, and the rest are Filipino.









We took time out to go see the new Star Wars movie, "The Force Awakens" with the Broadheads on Thursday. It was exciting to see Hans Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker 37 years after the first Star Wars.

We drove from Gen T De Leon to S&R Shopping. Sister Google said the trip would take 15 minutes but it took 90. Very typical of driving in the Philippines.

On Friday evening we were invited to attend the returned missionary reunion for the La Mesa Ward. President and sister Amistad, Manila Temple President, spoke at the meeting. He was the mission president to several of the returned missionaries when he served as the mission president of the Davao Mission from 1993-96. We were asked to share our testimonies. It was a wonderful meeting with uplifting counsel given to the returned missionaries. One of the things President Amistad shared was a discussion he had with a mother of a future missionary. She asked, "What can I do to help my son prepare for his mission?" President Amistad said, "Teach him to cook!" After the program we had a nice dinner.

 Because of transfers we were both behind on our responsibilities so we spent Saturday at the office. Garnalee left Tom at the office and drove home to get the laundry done which was a real adventure since it was raining very hard. She had to juggle an umbrella, the laundry basket, and unlock the lock on the cage. Tom had his first jeepney ride home from the office which he said was an adventure.

Saturday, December 19, we had our Ward Christmas party. We played games, told knock-knock jokes, Santa came, and finally at 8:30 PM we ate dinner. The games were very simple but fun. One game we played was "Telephone." We were given a partial verse from the Book of Mormon and it was passed down the line with the last person writing what he heard on his hand. It was then checked against the original message. Garnalee's team won! Another game was "Buried Treasure." Candy was buried in flour and each person had to blow the flour to reveal the candy, and then pick it up with their teeth. Garnalee ended up with a mouth full of flour and flour all over her face when she tried to get her candy.

Week 24--December 6-12, 2015

Our Filipino style nativity set arrived this week. This set has a horse, sheep, and carabo for the animals. The wise men are bearing gifts of rice, bananas, and mangoes.

The Thursday before going  home each batch of departing missionaries attend a career and employment resource training that is taught by Elder and Sister Peck. The December batch is all smiles!

Elder Heaton, President Bertin, Elder Suldan, and Elder Algar get into the Christmas spirit by helping to sort the huge amount of mail and packages that arrived this week. There were 27 packages at the Post Office and three big boxes from Julie Hess that had 11 smaller boxes in each one.

Elder Algar is having a hard time with the idea that he is going home. He put a sticker on his forehead that reads "Property of the LDS Church." He is going to be greatly missed. He can be asked a question about who is where and he knows right off.






This is a "White Christmas" Philippines' style. We had 19 people baptized in our stake--San Jose Del Monte, on Saturday, Dec. 12. After the baptisms we attended our Stake Christmas Devotional that consisted of Church video clips interspersed with musical numbers. It was a wonderful evening.




Garnalee had a very touching experience this week. The week before transfers happen she is given a list of new positions for the mission. The positions are for zone leaders, district leaders, sister training leaders, trainers, and a new assistant to the President. She sends letters to each of the missionaries confirming their calling, and then letters to the parents are sent to let them know about the opportunity that has come to their missionary. Elder Suldan is the President's selection to replace Elder Algar as an assistant to the President (AP).  As she was preparing the letters to the parents, Elder Suldan wandered by and noticed a parent letter she was working on. He said, "You send letters to the parents?" Garnalee answered, "Yes."  She then went on to explain that a letter is sent to parents by email. If the parents don't have email, which is the case with some of the parents in the Philippines, then she prints the letter and mails it through pouch mail. She also told him that a the parent letter is placed in the electronic file that is kept on each missionary, and when the missionary goes home he/she is provided a copy of that electronic file on a DVD that he/she would be able to share with his/her parents. Elder Suldan was very excited that his mother would receive a letter letting her know of the opportunity that he has been given to serve as an Assistant to the President. Later that afternoon, Garnalee learned that Elder Suldan has been a member for four years, is the youngest of nine children, and is the only one in his family who is active. His father passed away while he was making preparations to come on his mission. His mother lives on a farm with pigs, chickens, dogs, and raises rice to support herself. Now Garnalee understood why Elder Suldan was so excited to know that his mother would receive a letter about the opportunity that he has been given.

Another long but inspiring week!

Week 23--November 29-December 5, 2015

In Montalban, Tom is out apartment shopping. This the view from the apartment we are going to rent for elders. There is no room between the buildings. This neighborhood is bursting with possibilities for missionary work.

This is a statue of Jesus Christ at the entrance of  Montalban Memorial Park.

We stopped at a roadside stand on Tuesday, December 1, and purchased this beauty for P200 which is about $4. We could not have done that back home in Idaho.

 Tom tore out the cucumber plants and planted some more. The ones on the left were planted 3 weeks ago and the ones on the right two weeks ago.

The little ones on the left were planted three days ago. We are going to be eating lots when they start to produce.

He tried planting lettuce but we haven't seen any plants yet.




Tom is doing a great job teaching the Sunday School Gospel Doctrine class. He was told on Sunday by one of the sisters how much she enjoyed the class. Garnalee was asked to teach Relief Society next week on Recognizing and Understanding the Promptings of the Holy Ghost.

Tom has been working on getting rent checks and tax forms ready to go out to the 65 landlords of the apartments. Garnalee is busy filling mail run orders, entering baptism records, and working with Tom on finance things.

We spent our Family Home Evening this week on modifying our Family History presentation for the Christmas Conference.

Friday, December 4, as promised we delivered a rent check to the Malolos sisters' to give to their landlord who lives next door to them. The best part of the trip was having dinner with the Broadheads at a Chinese restaurant (Hap Chan). Our favorite was the fried rice and sweet and sour pork. It was only $5.39 each for a wonderful dinner.

Saturday we meet the landlord of the Rogers' house to pay her the rent at the mission office. We then worked for the next four hours on rent and apartment issues. Lots of good things were accomplished. One of the tasks that was accomplished was to order new cell phones. It seems that the missionaries loss one or two per week. The missionaries have to purchase a replacement for $18.14.

After working at the office, we went grocery shopping. At the mall you can have your car washed while you shop. Since it had been several weeks since the last wash we decided it was time. When we came out of the mall it was raining on our freshly washed car.