Week 61--August 21-27, 2016

 Another transfer week with 16 missionaries exiting on August 23, Tuesday. They all returned with honor and are wonderful missionaries who will be missed. The longer we are here the more we get to know these missionaries and grow to love them and admire their commitment and dedication. Pictured left to right are: Sister Carian, Sister Mulet, Sister McInnes, Sister Aneli, and Sister Ohuafi.

Left to right:  Elder Uele, Elder Adra, Elder Mines, Elder Samante, Elder Waltz.

Seated left to right: Elder Stratton (from Idaho Falls) and Elder Newman..
Standing: Elder Foster, Elder Broadhead, and Elder Campbell.

Left to right: Elder Newman, Elder Miguel, and Elder Wood.

Elder Campbell with us. Elder Campbell was the Finance Secretary before Elder Harrington, and he proved to be invaluable as Elder Harrington was learning the programs.

 Elder and Sister Brady also exited on Tuesday. They are in Baguio seeing the rice terraces and enjoying themselves before they head for home.

Arrival day on August 24, Wednesday, brought 21 new missionaries--ten are sisters and eleven are elders. Pictured left to right front row: Elder Abasanta, Elder Lucana, Elder Elder Morris, Elder Peterson.
Row 2: Sister Villagen, Sister Loveland, Sister Lelis, Sister Galutera, Sister Simon.
Row 3: President and Sister Bertin, Sister Freeze, Sister Ligaliga, Sister Maputi, Sister Aldemita, Sister Santillas.
Row 4: Elder Meyer, Elder Smith, Elder Richards, Elder Rasmussen, Elder Bulanon.
Elder Dait did not arrive until later and is not                                                                                           pictured.

We have learned that a missionary needs to be prepared at all times like a Boy Scout. Just before Sacrament meeting started Tom was asked to be the concluding speaker which means he has to fill up the remaining time. He did a wonderful job and spoke on the six characteristics of a good leader from a talk given my M. Russell Ballard.

We had Sister Hulme and Sister Lata for dinner on Sunday as their "last supper." Sister Hulme is being transferred to Baliwag. Sister Lata will stay in our Ward as a trainer of a new missionary.

Since Sister Cherry quit we have been serving meals from McDonalds. We can get 2 pieces of chicken, rice, and gravy for PHP136. It is a really good meal. We add a cookie and fruit for a complete meal.

It rains hard every day, but, of course, it is the rainy season. While we have witnessed a few similar rain storms in the US it hasn't been day after day after day like here.

Week 60--August 14-20, 2016

The Primary children were having a Cultural Event at the Stake Center on Saturday, August 20. They have gathered at our ward building to practice their dance, the cariñosa which means the loving or affectionate one.  The cariñosa is the national dance of the Philippines and is of Hispanic origin.

The fan and handkerchief play an important part in the dance as it places the couple in romance scenario.

 The girl dances around the kneeling boy first, and then they switch places

Sister Hulme and Sister Lata have been teaching Jacqueline Dulay for several weeks. She was baptized on Saturday.








Tom is finally happy. After seeing decorated eggs like these at the mission home  he was able to purchase some. "According to legend as long eggs are decorated, goodness will reign over evil. The practice of decorating eggs dates back to ancient times in the belief that eggs have great powers embedded in them. From the simple colored eggs evolved designs which contain meanings both for the creator and receiver of the egg. Today, eggs are decorated and given as gifts to others for well-wishing. Each egg is hand-crafted and made from a real chicken egg shell. The designs and colors in each egg cannot be duplicated in detail since each egg varies in size, shape, and shell texture." The process is the same batik process we saw for fabric in Indonesia.

We have enjoyed watching some of the Olympic events this week. Garnalee is sad that she didn't get to see any of the gymnastics.

Thursday was farewell day for Elder and Sister Brady. They left Malolos at 2:15 for the Mission Home but didn't arrive until 7:30 PM. The trip took five hours and 15 minutes for a trip that is 15 miles. The traffic in the Philippines is definitely getting worse.

We welcomed Elder Nielsen as a new AP this week and will be saying good-bye to Elder Goodwin. He is going back out into the field. It has been a pleasure to get to know him.

On Saturday we went to see the movie Ben-Hur. It was good movie, and we enjoyed it very much.

Week 59--August 7-13, 2016

Monday, August 8, we saw the two extremes of the Philippines. We were going to the SM Mall of Asia which is probably one of the largest, if not the largest mall, in the Philippines to shop at the Women's Bazaar. We traveled in an area we had never been before. We passed a row of culverts setting by the road waiting for installation as sewer drains. Several had become the home of otherwise homeless people.

 The homes of some of the people are very sad. The area we were in was down by the docks of Manila. Elder Broadhead said that Kaloocan is a lot the same as what we were seeing.

 The shanties are built with whatever material can be salvaged. They are occupied by squatters who are homeless people.

Senior B & B (Bazaar and Bowling) Activity

We were in charge of this month of the Senior Activity. So we decided to go to the American Womens' Bazaar, have lunch there, go bowling, and then dinner. To add some fun to the bowling activity we bought 12 Snickers candy bars so that each person could be awarded a prize. There were lots of "snickers" before the awards ceremony. That was the conclusion of our dinner at the Thai/Vietmanese restaurant. President Bertin won the prize for the highest score and Elder Harrington won the prize for the most gutter balls. Rather than say the worst bowler, Sister Broadhead was awarded the best non-bowler prize.


Garnalee was all smiles after knocking down all of pins. The sisters discovered that it is possible to bowl in skirts.

Tom is ready to bowl his next ball. He was hoping for a strike. However, he threw another gutter ball. That is because the bowling alley didn't have any left handed balls. :-)








We had an audience of young people who gathered to watch us bowl. We had no idea that a group of old geezers would be so interesting. As we visited with them we discovered many were criminology students. They enjoyed watching us and asked for pictures as we left.

 President and Sister Bertin and Elder Brady watch Sister Brady bowl her next ball.

 We all gathered for a group shot on the bowling alley. Left to right: Sister and Elder Brady, Sister and President Bertin, Sister and Elder Harrington, Sister and Elder Broadhead, Sister and Elder Rogers, and Sister and Elder Swift.

 This week has been a week of rain. We have seen more this week than any other time since we have been here. Saturday was a day of heavy rain. This picture was taken from our parking garage. The rain coming down is easily discernible.

The Saturday session of the Novaliches Stake Conference was cancelled due to the rain.

As we were out driving it was so dark in the middle of the day that the street lights were on. As we were headed to S&R shopping the rain was dancing off the water running down the side of the street.






Sister Cherry arrived at the mission home Monday morning and announced that she was quitting because she needed to earn more money. She left five minutes later. President and Sister Bertin are now checking our other options of providing the meals for the missionaries at Zone Conferences. This next week it will be two pieces of chicken, rice, and gravy from McDonald's.

Week 58--July 31-August 6, 2016

Wednesday was Zone Interview day. Sister Bertin, Sister Brady, and Sister Harrington all arrived in blue.

And on top of that we all had on white skirts. We decided that great minds run on the same track. This is not the first time that we have all arrived wearing the same color of clothes.












Tom read Jesus the Christ 50 years ago on his first mission but he has decided to read it again. He has set a goal to finish by the end of the year. Garnalee has been reading it for several months and is almost finished

On Monday for Family Home Evening we decided to go see the new Star Trek movie with the Broadheads. When we got to the movie theater the movie had already been pulled. Movies here don't usually stay for more than a couple of weeks. We hadn't seen the new Jason Bourne movie but the Broadheads had. They were willing to go again. So we went to see that movie. There was so much action and chasing of people that we were tired just watching it.

On Tuesday the Missionary Recommendation came through for our replacements. They are the Dicksons from New Hampshire and will arrive on December 17.

Tom had to go pick up lunch at the Mission Home for Mission Leadership Council on Thursday. The distance is three miles and the round trip normally takes 45 minutes to an hour. On this day the traffic was backed up on Zabarte and it took him 50 minutes to go from the Mission Office to Mission Home. He decided to take the back route on Maligaya coming back but is still took 30 minutes. Not a good day traffic wise in the Philippines.