Week 49--May 29-June 4, 2016

Transfers happened this week which makes a busy full week for us. We attended the Camarin Zone meetings on Monday to hear the transfer announcements. We had to be out the door by 6:45 AM to make it to the office before 7 AM because we code on Mondays. The nice thing about going in early is we get to leave at 2:30 because of coding.

Tuesday was exit day for 13 missionaries. We have grown to love these missionaries and will miss each of them.

Sister Strickland looks beautiful in a baro't saya which is the national costume of women in the Philippines. The sleeves were very stiff and high. She purchased this to wear home to New Zealand.

 A final parting picture with one of our favorite missionaries, Elder Suldan. He often mentioned how we were like parents to him.

Everyone is enjoying a final meal of Sister Cherry's wonderful cooking on Tuesday before going home tomorrow. Sister Cherry makes an awesome pancit. Seated around the table are Elder Gemida, Elder Pangan, Elder Roa, sister Misalucha, Sister Strickland, and Sister Teorabwati.

 Seated around the table are Elder Suldan, Elder Hartfield, Elder Salisbury, Elder Singayan, Elder Tiano, and Elder Tinasas.

 Elder Egbert poses with Elder Perkins who is one of the Assistants to the President.

 The whole exiting batch gather in the living room just before the testimony meeting begins. Each missionary is given the opportunity to share their testimony before departing. Left to right are: Sister Strickland, Sister Misalucha, Sister Teorabwati, Elder Salisbury, Elder Singayan, Elder Hartfield, Elder Roa, Elder Egbert, Eldr Tinasas, Elder Gemida, Elder Pangan, Elder Tiano, and Elder Suldan.

Early to the office Wednesday morning to greet the new batch of 13 missionaries. All are Filipino missionaries except two sisters, one from New Zealand and one from Vanuatu. Front row l to r: Elder Valdez, Elder Torres, Elder Mariano, Elder Balacas, Elder Laude. Middle row l to r: Sister Lata, Sister Collado, Sister Bertin, President Bertin, Sister Daniel, Sister Billy. Back row l to r: Elder Batilong, Elder Gatucao, Elder Sacay, Elder Dizon. 




Thursday arrived with Missionary Leadership Council meeting followed by training for new leadership positions. Tom had all of the rent checks, vouchers, and BIRs ready to distribute to the zone leaders who will give them to the missionaries who will give take them to the landlords and get the forms signed and returned to the office. Everyone in the apartment gets rewarded with an individual package of Oreo cookies when the signed documents are returned.

Tom always gets up early on Sunday morning to prepare his Sunday School lesson. He says if he prepares too far in advance he will forget what he wants to present. That's the excuse anyway.

Week 48--May 23-28, 2016

 In the US if you get a flat tire you pull to the side of the road to change it. Not here! As you can see the jeepney is in the middle of the road and the driver is changing the flat tire. This time the jeepney is empty. We have seen tires being changed when the jeepney is loaded with people.

We wait our turn to pass the jeepeny that is stopped in the middle of the road as vehicles from the opposite direction pass on both sides. After we passed the jeepney we discovered it was replacing a flat tire.

 We make regular trips to the post office to pick up packages. Each package has an assigned  number and is recorded in this book. A post card is mailed to the office letting us know that a package is available for pick up. When we arrive the package number is located in this book. Garnalee then has to sign the book that she has received the package. The packages are all stored in another small room from which it is retrieved. In today's computer age it is amazing all the labor that goes into such a simple operation.

Garbage truck loaded and heading to Montalban. We have watched the garbage being collected here. The people put their garbage in empty rice bags and set them on the side of the road on garbage day. The truck comes along with one door on the back end open. One of the the workers tosses the bag of garbage up into the truck and the other two workers empty the bags. All the workers are only wearing flip flops.

The people do sort the garbage according to recyclable and non-recyclable.







For Family Home Evening each week we have decided that after we read our scriptures we will read two talks from the previous General Conference. At that rate we hope to review all the talks before the next conference.

We are impressed with the entrepreneurship of Emma and Grace. They decided to sell cakes and cheesecakes for Mother's Day. They pre-sold 36 cakes. They each netted $175 toward the cost of Especially for Youth this summer.

Tom has learned the importance of balancing the cash register against his cash on hand each night. Contributors to that decision are forgetfulness and it is much easier to recall the receipts from one day rather than many days.

Week 47--May 15-22, 2016

Sister Mepania and Sister De Leon joined us for dinner on Sunday, May 15. They serve in our Ward with us. Sister De Leon is a VISA waiter that will be going to the Hawaii Honolulu Mission soon where she will serve in the Visitors' Center at the Laie Temple. (Garnalee scrunched down so she isn't towering over the sisters.)

Twice a year the missionaries give their apartments a thorough cleaning. We call it a Power Scrub. Monday,  May 16 was the first for this year. Sister Custodio has emptied the fridge and is giving it a good scrub. Elder Egbert is very talented as he can get rid of the cob webs on the ceiling and sweep the floor at the same time. The hope is if the missionaries keep their apartments clean they will be healthier. On our way home we purchase a watermelon from a roadside stand. It is hard to believe we buy a fresh watermelon in May.

 One of the most swanky neighbors in the Philippines uses a goat to manage the weeds. With the speed that everything grows here this goat will have plenty to eat.

 the security guards are friendly and helpful. They always salute us when we come and go from them gated community where the mission home is located. It is very typical to see guards here with guns.

 This is one of the many "restaurants" in the Philippines. Any one can set up shop on the sidewalk and get a meal for a few pesos.

Are you ready to go Back to School? Summer vacation for students is April and May so that parents and children can enjoy the cooler weather before is gets too hot. School will start again on June 13.

We attended the Manila Temple on Thursday. We had to wait two and a half hours to attend an endowment session.  We took the mail from our office to the mail room to be distributed to the other missions in the Philippines and to be flown to the US. We walked by the MTC with flags flying from various nations.

 It is interesting to see how road construction allows for the trees that happen to be in the roadway. Never mind that they seriously impede the traffic flow.

The pedestrians have to make their way around the businesses that take up all of the sidewalk space. The Vulcanizing Shop changes the tires right out on the road which we view as dangerous with the cars going by in close proximity.

Saturday was Senior Couple Activity. We went to the Sarao Jeepney Factory. Tom stands next to a 1953 jeepney. Up until 2000 they were mass producing jeepneys on an assembly line system. In 2000 the laws changed and mass production wasn't allowed. So all the jeepneys, today, are hand made and no two are the same.

Jeepneys are made to order like this one for the Bellevue Resort.

 This as close as Garnalee is going to get to riding in a jeepney. One that is nice and clean and empty except for her.

A jeepney in the early stages of construction.  

The couples gather around one of the ornately decorated grills, Left to right: Sister and Elder Brady, Sister and Elder Harrington, Sister and Elder Swift, Sister and Elder Broadhead, Sister and Elder Jones, and Sister and Elder Rogers.

We left the jeepney factory and headed to our next destination. Along the way we passed this woman who was taking a bath along the side of the road. She would dip her bowl into what appeared to be a puddle and pour the water over her head or whatever part of her body she was cleaning. We decided that there was too much water for it to be a puddle and that water was flowing from a pipe.

Our next stop was St. Joseph's Parish Church which was built in 1792. Inside was housed a beautiful bamboo organ that was completed in 1824. The original black keys on the keyboard were made of carabao horns and the other keys were made of native wood and covered in plastic. The organ pipes are made almost entirely of bamboo. After age and disasters had rendered the organ unplayable for a long time it was restored in 1975. There is an annual International Bamboo Organ Festival held here each year to celebrate the music of the reborn instrument and its unique sound. One of the teachers played the organ for us.

The couples gather for a picture on the balcony above the organ. Left to right: Sister and Elder Jones, Sister and Elder Broadhead, Sister and Elder Harrington, Sister and Elder Rogers, Sister and Elder Swift, and Sister and Elder Brady.

Week 46--May 8-14, 2016

May 8 - Mother's Day. Garnalee got many well wishes from family, friends, and many of the missionaries here in the Quezon City North Mission.

We helped to celebrate President Bertin's 65th birthday on Monday, May 9 (actual birthday is May 10 but they were off to Baliwag for Zone Interviews) with a sinfully rich chocolate cake we had purchased for the event.

We're published! Tom finally got around to sending the article in that President Bertin had asked him to write. As soon as the Blackfoot Morning News received it they published it. It must have been a slow news day.

Week 45--May 1-7, 2016

The Merri Miss girls--front row (l-r): Jewel, Maureen, Jennifer; back row: Clarisse and Princess.

 We have had several of these characters in the office recently. This is a medium sized one. They came to spray this week. Hopefully we won't see any more.

One of the reasons Tom is not losing weight is because of the great lunches Sister Cherry makes for the missionaries whenever they meet at the Camarin building. This week there are Zone Interviews for two zones and Mission Leadership Council Meeting. This lunch of veggies, rice with gravy, pork chop, and Rice Krispy bar is very typical of the kinds of meals she prepares. Tom has told her if she moves to Blackfoot and opens a restaurant he will be her best customer. He has even suggested a name for her establishment. It will be called Holy Carabao: (as opposed to Holy Cow) Philippine Cuisine. He believes it would be a great hit in the US. Her specialty dish is pancit which everyone loves.

It was a clear day so Tom took this picture. You can see Quezon City in the background.










Tom wrote an article and sent it the Blackfoot Morning News about five missionaries from Blackfoot all serving in the Quezon City North Mission together. It was recently published and we hope someone will safe us a copy.


A special event this week was Easton graduating from the University of Northern Colorado on Saturday, May 7.


 It is hard to believe that this little boy is that old.






And today he is this handsome man on the left.










Monsoon season starts the first of May, and we had several heavy rain showers this week.

Garnalee has had one of the landlady's calling her almost daily for the past couple of weeks. She says she needs to hear her cheery voice. The landlady calls herself Cherry. She consented several months ago to let the missionaries visit her. She lives outside the mission boundaries so Garnalee had placed her name in the Church's referral system and assigned her to the Quezon City Mission where she lives. In visiting with Cherry this week Garnalee learned that the missionaries had never visited her. Garnalee contacted the Referral Manager team and had the referral escalated. Cherry called on Friday to let Garnalee know that her daughter had passed her bar exams and that two young missionaries had visited her. She is willing to listen to their message. Will have to wait and see what happens.

It has been a typical week for us serving in the office. But we should mention that we really enjoy serving with the other missionaries and are comfortable with our daily routine. We believe we are having a positive impact on the mission.

Week 44--April 24-30, 2016

We have talked about the jeepneys and put several pictures in about them. This picture shows what the spare tire on most of the jeepneys looks like--bald.







The Philippines is not in complacence with OSHA rules. We see construction workers wearing flip flops. We see men working on sewer lines in flip flips or no foot wear at all.  We see garbage collectors wearing flip flops. Flip flops is the national foot wear of the Philippines.

Cutting of the grass here is done with hand clippers or a machete. I'm sure the footwear would be flip flops.

Tom is required to zero out his Church ATM card once a year. He had received notification that he needed to do that immediately. He spent most of this week getting that done. He has to use or deposit the cash on hand, and than he has to have President Bertin's approval once the process has been completed.

Tom spent Wednesday in Malolos with Elder Broadhead. They went to the apartment in Pulilan to pay the HOA  and garbage collection fees. They met with a land lord to sign papers for a new apartment in  Malolos. Next on to Guiguinto to check out another missionary apartment. While in Guiguinto the missionaries gave Tom the water bill for PHP1600, which is enormous. He suspects that the bill has not been paid for several months. He needs to check to see which missionaries were assigned to that area previously.

Tom is starting the work on rent checks for the next quarter. That is another one of the big jobs he has take care of because there are 68 apartments. With so many changes recently that will be a big job.

On Saturday we were replacing the toilet seat. The bolts were in a small, hard to reach area. Garnalee offered to try to tighten them since she has smaller hands. She needed to take off her jade bracelet that was purchased by Tom for her when they went to Bejing. When she was putting it back on when it slipped from her hand and fell to the ceramic tile floor and broke. She is very sad as the bracelet has special meaning.

Garnalee's week has been the usual things of entering baptism records, sending letters to missionaries, creating folders for the ten missionaries that have been assigned to our mission just this week, sorting mail, filling mail run orders, and answering missionary questions. Zone Interviews started this week so there will be more days of missionaries at the office during the next few weeks. They bring enthusiasm and life to the office.

Week 43--April 17-23, 2016

 This is what 150 cases of the Book of Mormon looks like. We were running low and so Garnalee decided to do a big order. Part of them are stacked in the storage room and the rest are against a wall in the office.

Sister De Leon and Sister Muller joined us for dinner on Sunday, April 17. They have been serving in the La Mesa with us for several months. Sister Muller was transferred  to the Valenzuela Zone and made a Sister Training Leader which means she will go on exchanges with other sister missionaries and work with them to become better missionaries. Sister De Leon was made a Trainer of a new missionary that will arrive on Wednesday.

Tuesday was Exit Day for 18 missionaries. We have really gotten to know this batch, and we will miss them.  Pictured are Elder Haeane, Elder Ang, Elder Rodriguez and Elder Aue. In the background is Elder Perkins who is the new Assistant to the President.

Garnalee and Sister Bertin loading their plates with Sister Cherry's Pancit and rice with gravy.  YUM, YUM!!

 Elder Pedroza, Elder Baylosis, Elder Semana, and Elder Blancaver from various areas in the Philippines.

Missionaries gather for the testimony meeting. In the front row are Elder Rosales, Elder Ramada, Elder Alejandro, Elder Valdazo, Elder Rodriguez. In the back row are Elder Harrington, Sister Broadhead, Elder Broadhead, Elder Heaton, and Elder Goodwin.

 Sister Bagay, Sister Mendoza, and Sister Gementiza smile big for the camera.

A quick picture with Elder Blancaver before he gets in the shuttle to the hotel.

 One last picture with Sister Talalima before she leaves. She was special to us as she served in the La Mesa Ward with us. She is from Tonga.

One last quick picture before they all depart.

All 18 missionaries gather for a final picture before departing for home. Front row: Elder Semana, Elder Ramada, Elder Blancaver, Elder Baylosis, Elder Pedroza. Second row: Sister Bachiller, Sister Mendoza, Sister Talalima, Sister Bagay, Sister Gementiza. Third row: Elder Rodriguez, Elder Rosales, Elder Haeane, Elder Ang, Elder Mabala, Elder Aue, Elder Valdoza, Elder Alejandro. Fourth row: Sister Bertin and President Bertin.

The new arrivals: front row (l to r): Elder Dingal, Elder Pelimiano, Elder Buque, Elder Agustin, and Elder Serrano. Second row: Sister Panzo, Sister Miñosa, Sister Cambe, Sister Sanchez, and Sister Mepania. Back row: Sister Bertin, President Bertin, Elder Rosero, Elder Pepito, Elder Burgos, Elder Peterson, and Elder Vukomanovic.





Along with the exit and arrival of missionaries it is also transfer day for missionaries. This makes for an extra busy week.

We were shocked when we received our electric bill this week. It had increased by 50% from the previous month.

We went to dinner on Friday with Elder and Sister Broadhead to celebrate her birthday. We went to Tri-Mo where we had been a couple of times previously. We had the beef sharwarma (warp) which is our favorite with a 2 liter bottle of orange soda. The bill was PHP280 which is $6. After dinner we went across the street to the local bakery for sugar donuts. They also had banana bread for $1.74 a loaf. We bought one and it was good as Garnalee's and we didn't have to heat up the apartment making our own.

Saturday was spent going to the Distribution Center by the Temple to buy mini scripture sets that are wanted by missionaries and then on to S&R for shopping where we spent $425. We went with the intention of purchasing enough vitamins, calcium, and fish oil, and Vitamin C to last us until the end of our mission.