Sunday Guests

We sat by a couple in Sacrament Meeting Sunday morning, and found out that they had been staying at the Patron House while they attended the temple on Friday and Saturday.  Since check-out time is 8:00 AM, they had lots of extra time before they had to catch their plane at 9:00 PM.  We invited them for an impromptu lunch after our meetings, and we had a really enjoyable visit with them.  Brother Joel and Sister Cheryl Blancaver live in Kalibo, Aclan, Panay.  They have a business raising and selling chickens-- about 200 per day!  They also process some of the meat to sell as hot dogs.  Their stake includes the resorts at Boracay, so they have many members who work at the resorts.  Sounds like a great place to visit!

Cheryl and Joel Blancaver

We had also invited some other guests from the Patron House to come to dinner/supper at 5:30.  These women are all widows who live at the Patron House whenever the temple is open, and work at the temple four or five days a week. 
They are really fun to be around, and they are good cooks.  We had purchased and prepped the ingredients for pancit, a noodle-meat-shrimp-veggie dish.  They all worked together to cook it.  So fun to have someone else cook!  Some of you might know how much I don't like seafood,                                                                                      but this was delicious (or lami in Cebuano!)

Left to Right: Nelia Gementiza, Mariane Lagumbay,
Ron, Cristina Montecalbo, Jesusa De La Cruz,
Diana Carpio




One more pic of our beautiful temple. 
You also need to imagine the beautiful weather
-- temperature at about 30.  Come visit us!!

More Pics from Carbon Market

                                                Carbon Market last week was fascinating!                                                                     The fruits and vegetables were fresh and yummy, and the people were kind.

                         We were early enough that it wasn't too busy, but it had rained
                                  during the night, so we had to do some puddle-jumping..

Here's the delivery guy with huge bags of calamansi fruit-- kind of like sweet little limes. 

And here's the garbage guy.He's got a heavy load!

 
                                 Ron was in banana heaven.  So many delicious ones.  Mmmmmm....

                          Some of the vendors were very willing to have us take their pictures,
                             but in the photo below, the woman in the red shirt was too shy.

Adventure time!

We have been on several adventures here in Cebu.  Elder Dan and Sister Tammy Hobbs, from Pocatello, Idaho, have been so welcoming.  Last Monday we traveled to a big mall--Ayala Mall-- on a jeepney with the Hobbs.  Tuesday we drove to a huge outdoor market called Carbon.  It's sprawling, maze-like, crazy-busy and fun!  Lots of delicious produce-- even the gecko thought so!  Here's a video that Elder Hobbs put together.

https://danandtammy.blog/2018/01/29/1651/

From Ron:  We are somewhat settled in Cebu and enjoying getting to know and serving with the local temple workers and other missionaries.  On my second day here, I was the lone officiator in the evening temple worship session -- our sessions are usually small, 8 to 15 people, and so there are rarely followers (other male workers in the session) here, and I have officiated in one session per day since.  Only one session yesterday was large enough to have a follower and he was being trained.  The number of women attending the temple far exceeds the number of brethren.  Mary-Rose is being "broken in" a bit more gradually.  

We have a small cantina in the temple and we are the only foreign missionaries who eat the Filipino food.  We are careful in what we select, however, to ensure our health.  We have to wash all our fruits and vegetables in vinegar water before eating them.   It's interesting to see the variety of foods available.  We can't find powdered ginger anywhere, probably because there is lots of fresh ginger root, but we did find Cheez Whiz!

It is very humid here, but this is the "cool" time of the year. Nothing over 100 degrees.  We have braved a couple walks to a store a few hundred metres away (no regular blocks like home).  Driving here is crazy and I have not ventured to do it yet.  The main rule is "If I am  ahead of you, I have priority."  One intersection near here has 5 roads coming into it.  There are no traffic lights at most intersections, including this one.  You all go into the middle and see who is ahead of whom, and the car that is ahead or has its front in front of you gets to move.  It is a slow process getting through.

There are two large stores here much like COSTCO and even carry a lot of Kirkland brand items.  The prices are roughly 20 % higher than at home for "Americano" items.  The store near us is much smaller but we can get groceries, pharmaceutical and home items there.  We saw red and yellow watermelon at one store so of course I had to choose carefully so that I was buying the best two!  They are not as sweet as our melons, but still "lami" (yummy)!

We now can charge up our electronics without worrying about "frying" them.  We are still working on getting our communications set up -- now have cell phone minutes for local calling, and have learned about a new app, "Marco Polo" that allows you to send a 30 or so second video of you talking to home, where the receiver can look at it at their leisure and then reply so the original sender and see their reply at their leisure.  Nice way to "talk" when the time difference is 15 hours.  We love seeing our kids and grandkids!  

Leaving on a jet plane

January 12th wake-up: 5:00 AM MST

Pack up, drive to the airport, return rental car, and check in.

Departure from Salt Lake: 8:15 AM MST

Arrive in Portland: 945 AM PST

Departure from Portland: 1149 AM PST

January 13th

Arrive in Tokyo, Narita, Japan: 335 PM Japan time!

Departure from Tokyo, Narita, Japan: 5:20 PM

Arrival in Manila, Philippines: 9:40 PM

Total time in the air: 18 hours 26 minutes

Total time travelling: January 12, 630 AM MST to January 13, 1100 PM Philippine time

(minus 15 hour time change)  25.5 hours, almost all in daylight.

We did sleep for a few hours on the planes, but we were so glad to get to Manila.

                                                                  Approach to Tokyo

                                              Looks like they have irrigation in Japan!

                                                         
                                                                Sunset in Tokyo

                               
                                                          MANILA AIRPORT!
The guy who met us was in a purple shirt, no name tag, but he knew our name and said he was from the MTC.  We were so relieved to see someone that we decided to believe him!  He drove us to the MicroTel Hotel, which was on our list, and told us that we would be picked up at 730 to go do travel papers-- on Sunday.  So we dragged ourselves out of bed after a too-short sleep, showered and got dressed up, and waited, and waited, and waited....Then went back to bed, since no one answered our calls.  We got up at 11-ish and had a wonderful lunch-- chicken satay and garlic rice, also delicious mango juice. We took a taxi to the nearest LDS meetinghouse, where we attended the Quirino 2nd Ward, which meets on the third floor of a big Church Area building.   The meetings were mostly in Tagalog with random English words or sentences.  It really warmed Ron's heart to see three generations of families together at church.  There's been so much growth here since he was here as a young missionary in 1969.  We have loved talking to people here.  They are so friendly and welcoming!

                                                         
                                                              The hotel restaurant

                                                                     
                                                                        Mmmmmmm....

                                                Crazy traffic! and look at those power lines!

                                                         So many motorbikes!

Salt Lake City

Instead of going to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, we were trained in the Salt Lake Temple for three amazing days.  We met 22 other people who are going to serve in temples all over the world.  We were excited that Ron's cousin LuAnne and her husband Barry Wolsey were there, too.  They are assigned to the temple in London, England.

This temple is such a tribute to the faith of our pioneer ancestors.  It is beautiful physically and spiritually.  It was a unique experience to sit in the Assembly Hall where the temple was originally dedicated in 1893, and where all of the leaders of the Church have met since then.  It brought back memories to Ron of being taught by several apostles in that room before he left on his mission in 1969.  The dedication and sacrifice of all those who crafted this beautiful building is awe-inspiring.

                                                   
                                                               Assembly Hall

                                                        Our fellow temple missionaries

                                                           Barry, LuAnne, M-R, Ron

We enjoyed a Walker cousin dinner at Little America on Tuesday night.  

So many stories and so much laughter!

                                      L-R: Joni, Helen, Nola, M-R, Ron, Bill, LuAnne, Barry

Back: Bill, Ron, Barry

Front:Helen, M-R, Joni, Nola, LuAnne

So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye...

We are loving missionary life, temple work, our Savior Jesus Christ, and each other!

November and December were full of good-byes.  It's hard to leave our favorite people.  
I wish we had pictures of all our family, but at least we got to hug them all before we left.

Brad & Liz, Faris & Pat, George & Nola, Ron & Mary-Rose

We spent a few days in Boise in November with this McMullin bunch. 
Fishing and a temple dedication-- what a great way to spend time together!

Not a great pic of either of us, but we did have a good time.  Love you, Mom!  

                                                                    This little darling

                                                             Strickland darlings

                                                                     Shannon fam

                                                                     John & Gennie

                                                                 Jenkins family

                                                                       and Paul

KC and Jen, our patient MTC language coach and tutor.

Still more darling grandkids.  

The crazies!