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.