August Week 29-32

Week 29 - July 31
Monday - Morning staff meeting to go over the projects we are all working on. We are finding better ways to have lunch in the office. I bought a pannini maker so we made cheese sandwiches for lunch for the office, along with my chocolate chip cookies. Went home sick with a suspected sinus infection.There is flooding up north and Willy from our office went up there to help with the flooding victims. Flooding and Typhoons hit Luzon in July& August, and September &October they hit the Visayas , November &December Mindanao. Seven flooded provinces were helped this weekend by LDS Charities and Mormon Helping Hands from the effects of 3 typhoons. There was a lot of damage caused to rice fields. 18,000 food kits were distributed. The food kits included rice, corned beef, and instant noodles.

Tuesday - I went to the MRC first thing in the morning to check with Elder VW to see if he could prescribe an antibiotic for me. Even though I rarely show the normal signs of a sinus infection he listened to me an wrote a prescription for me. Sister VW and I went to Eastwood to get it filled. You can get your prescriptions filled fast at Mercury Drug, it costs more here for antibiotics but no Dr. fee so I was happy. I started feeling better in about 2 hours, I was so thankful. We went up to the DTA’s office to present our sewing machine project. We got it approved so we are on our way to getting our infant kits going. At 1:00 we met with Mary Ann and the Soleta’s, we are loving our new leader and things are really moving along now for ARP. It has been so slow for the past couple of months, we are so excited to see what we can now get accomplished in bringing knowledge of addiction recovery to the people of the Philippines. At 2:00 we had a MOA signing for our Street Children Project through PMHA (Philippine Mental Health Association). 4 leaders from that group attended the signing and were so grateful and impressed with our ceremony. We really hope to be able to help with other Philippine Mental Health branches in the Philippines. This organization has such a good vision about how they can not only help these street children but give them education and skills so they can one day be self reliant. Quiet evening since Sky Cable was out, no TV no Internet. Steve saved the evening and we gathered around my I-PAD to binge on Madam Secretary hot spotting off his phone.

MOA Signing for PMHA

A Video of LDS Charities

Mary Ann, Sally, and  Dr. Banaag

Wednesday - Office and e-mail work in the morning. We had birthday lunch for Mary Ann with S&R pizza and a Mango Walnut Torte. Worked on laundry and cleaning for a while in the evening and enjoyed some HITS TV until the cable and TV went out again (only in the Philippines)

Our pizza lunch with Mary Ann

Mango Walnut Torte, it's the best!

Thursday - Committee Meeting at From 9 - 11:45. Worked on the Power Point for our Infant Kit Project. Enjoyed an evening with Teri McIver and Karen Tucker, we went to see Mamma Mia again. We ran into the Stinchfield’s, great minds think alike.

Friday - It was social day in our cubicle. The area where Steve and I work can often be a gathering place for people to come and visit. It started out with S. Grimshaw and S. McIver and I solving the worlds problems (poor Steve is just working away). Soon S. Kaneen joined us and then S.Tucker came down, then Tere from travel. Ana from H.R. came down and wanted to join us. She suggested we have a girls night out, I invited her to Book Club. Then we pulled out our new pannini maker and started making sandwiches for anyone who wanted to join us. S. VW also stopped in. We invited many of our friends to join us at Outback to help us celerate our 40th Wedding Anniversity (a day early).  We ended up getting seated upstairs putting where it is quieter, it’s a bit challenging for them to handle all of us but we try to make it easy for them. We have a reputation to maintain.

Dinner at Outback, 15 of us

Saturday - Our 40th Wedding Anniversary. We headed to the airport at 5:30 in the morning. We met Jairus and Mary Ann and flew to Iloilo. We got there a little too early for our lunch so the Solesta’s took us to a mall for a little while. We then went for a buffet lunch with the Service Missionary’s who are our Group Leaders for ARP. After lunch we headed to a 2.5 hour meeting to train on ARP and Family Services.  After that meeting we went to the graduation of 7 surrenderies and there family members.  The Solesta's provided and nice dinner of chicken and rice for them.

You never know what fish you might find on the floor at the Grocery Store
Only in the Philippines

Our lunch with the Group Leaders of Iloilo

Jairus always has good messages
of encouragement

Mary Ann's first visit with the Group Leaders of Iloilo

The Solesta's

Another very rainy day!

We love listening to these brave men sing

Most of them wrote down words to share their feelings of gratitude
Even though we don't understand the language we can feel.
It's special!

Don't you love the playboy t-shirt?
I think it's the only white shirt he had

Sunday - We went to church in Iloilo with the Solesta’s, their son Lester taught the lesson from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and it was really good. We went to Seven Fishes to eat before they took us to the airport so we could fly home. It was an easy commute home from the airport which isn’t always the case so we were happy. I made peanut butter brownies for the office for Monday and Steve made fruit kabobs for FHE.

Our meal at Seven Fishes

It's good if you like chicken and rice

Week 30 -August 6
Monday - We drove into Manila with the McIver’s to meet with Physicians for Peace to discuss an eye project with Sister Vieda. Then we met with Sir John Hoc from the Intramuros Kiddie Joy School. He treated us to a lunch at Barbara’s while we discussed the needs for his school. We will be working to put these two projects together in the next couple of weeks. We are excited about both of them. 

Steve working on the proposal with Sister Vieda (Catholic Nun)
 for the eye kits screening project

McIver's working with Physicians for Peace
for the wheelchair initiative

Our lunch at Barbaras with Sir Jon Hoc

Lovely music by this band, "My Way"

We see these students all over the Philippines
Love the uniforms

Just a sample of our commute home

Tuesday - Went to the Women’s Bazaar at the Mall of Asia, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas so I bought some ornaments. There were a lot of new booths and you can feel the holidays are coming. We brought in potatoes for a potato bar lunch. The rain keeps coming down so I’m not able to walk much and I miss it.

Wednesday- We had a major Welfare Member Project Meeting with about 14 missionaries. The Zorn’s who serve in Cebu are finished with their mission so they were in the office to wrap up their projects. We had a farewell lunch catered by 3rd Floor and short program to honor them. The Zorn’s are from Austria and have done an amazing job down in Cebu and many of the outlying provinces. They are like the quiet silent hero’s that you don’t see very often. We spend the weekend with them in Bacolod in March and learned a lot from them and their hard work and dedication. They will be missed.

Jairus and Kenneth presenting the Zorn's a picture

The Zorn's gave Jairus a notebook with all the projects they did.
Truly amazing what this couple accomplished, E. Zorn does not speak Tagalog or English
I can't imagine the frustration, what a trooper

Thursday - We have a new Area Presidency so we had a Devotional and heard them speak and then we were invited up to the top floor of the Area Office to have a "Meet and Greet". The new Area Presidency is Evan Schmutz, Taniela Wakolo, and Michael Teah. Elder Wakolo spoke in April conference Saturday afternoon. He is from Fiji and he and his wife have quite interesting stories to tell. We feel lucky to have a chance to get to know them. Our internet went out in the evening. Ughhhhh!! It could just about kill me but stay calm I can always hot spot off Steve’s phone. I don’t think I’d make a very good pioneer.

Friday - We got to met Dr. Jackson who founded the Mabuhay Deseret Foundation. Mabuhay does incredible work in this country. They seek out children in outlying provinces to find cleft lip and pallets, club feet, and eye problems. He and his wife were so pleasant and inspirational to visit with. Spent the afternoon packaging infant care kits and getting ready to present our project next week. We had dinner at Italiano’s with 5 other couples.

Ellen Jackson, Kim Morrison,
Franco, Dr. Jackson, Steve, Me, Jairus, Kenneth

Saturday - We had breakfast at Denny’s and then went into the office to work. When we left the waitress said "Good-Bye" we will see you tomorrow.  We don't go there everyday!  With no internet it makes it hard to get any work done or much of anything at all.  We had a hard time getting into our office though because of the Face to Face with Elder Stevenson. That was quite a big deal. Kenneth's daughter (Kenneth is an  Area Seventy who works in our office) was the female moderator and she did a great job. It was raining so hard we just came home and just stayed in the apartment watching Netflix (thank heaven for Steve’s phone).

Sunday - Rained hard again. We had dinner at the McIver’s with S. Gunnell. E. Gunnell stayed home to recover from a fall.  It's so slippery when it rains, most people fall a time or two.  Teri made enchilada’s and I made an apple pie. It is getting close to fall.

I hope I have not lost my touch
Baking in the Philippines is a challenge

Week 31- August 13
Monday - We woke up and drove to Bataan with Mary Ann in the pouring rain. We went up to Balagna and it was just a bit unnerving because Balagna got flooded two weeks ago because it has so many low spots and I did not want a repeat of what happened to us in Cavite three weeks ago. We met at a Shakey’s for lunch with several local church leaders and then went over to the Governor’s house to meet with the Mayor and the Chief of Police to tell them how we could help their community with our ARP program. They seemed very interested so when we were finished talking they took us next door into this big conference room where some 125 people were there for a conference on drug rehab. They marched us through the room to the front and introduce us and then had us speak like we were the keynote speakers or something. Camera’s are flashing all over the place, I’m always laughing inside. It rained like crazy coming home but we made it safely.

Lunch at Shakey's in Balanga

Franz, Mary Ann ,S. Lucilla, Stake Leaders,  Steve and  me

Meeting in the Governor's House

With the Mayor and Chief of Police

We were invited into a convention of about 125people
talking about solutions for addiction recovery

Out of know where we walked into this room
and I was asked to speak
Cameras flashing all over the place like I'm someone special

Tuesday - Steve stayed home to wait for Sky Cable to show up and fix our internet. I went into work but the electricity went out so I had no computer so I came back home and we just waited. At 4:00 the repair man showed up and was able to diagnose the problem and fix it. I have internet again, yah!! We went to have dinner at Friday’s to celebrate.

Wednesday - We met up in HR with Ana and the Tucker’s to go over all the details for our Pathways Graduation on Thursday. We then went into the conference room for a conference call with Dr. Jon Gunther from Salt Lake. He will be visiting in October and we are putting together some possibilities of hospitals and clinics for a 2018 Major Eye Initiative. Steve does most of the work on these eye initiatives we are in charge of and thank heaven because they are quite complicated and intense. These projects benefit a lot of people with eye problems. We brought in food for another Mexican Lunch. Our office lunches are getting quite popular and we are getting more employees to join us. We really like getting to know them. Ana came down and gave us a great idea for a January get away.

**Thursday - We had a committee meeting from 9-12. After that we went into the mezzanine conference room to attend the Area Office Pathways Graduation, Steve wanted to see it because he had to conduct our student’s graduation. Elder Wakolo spoke, he has quite a presence. His wife made candy bar lei’s for all the graduates, so cute. We took off for Beehive around 2:00 so we could be on time for the graduation there. It was truly one on the highlight so far of this mission. Judith arranged for a stage, corsages, sashes, music, and refreshments. Our students had their families there and were so proud to introduce them to us. We had two of our students speak of their experience with Pathway and the great opportunity to get this education. They did such a great job, their stories are incredible and they overcome so many life challenges. After the ceremony we had to pose for pictures, a million people taking pictures of us, it’s truly the craziest thing ever. Afterward we stayed and mingled and had refreshments, hot dogs and pasta. We will miss our students they are the best and we love all of them.

Steve and I with Algie and his family.
My friend Nancy's son-in-law Luke baptized this man while he was serving in this area many years ago

S. Grimshaw and Rosemary

Jude and his wife

I was Judith's speaking partner for a few weeks

This was such a special day for all the graduates

Look at all the people taking pictures of us, Hilarious!!!

Marites and me

Hot Dogs for a Treat.
Only in the Philpipines

Friday - Kind of a quiet day as Friday’s usually are. We met with Mary Ann for a bit and worked on baby hats for our infant kits. Kenny Rogers lunch was catered in and then we met the Elliott’s over at the temple to help them with family names in the sealing room. We had baked potatoes for dinner at Outback and a simple Friday evening.

Saturday - Started the day out with 4 mile run, it’s so seldom I get to run or walk because of the rain. The wind has been blowing lately and I love it, it reminds be of my Twindy Falls roots. We went to the Buendia Chapel in Makati to present ARP to the Manila Mission. On our way home we stopped to do some shopping at Lander’s. We ran into the Kaneen’s and had lunch with them. I love the veggie pizza there, seems safe with no mystery meats. Came home and made a chicken pot pie for
Sunday dinner and some granola.

Sunday - Only rained in the morning, it’s improvement. We had McIVer’s over for dinner and enjoyed the evening visiting.

Week 32 -August 20
Monday - We went to work early because our loaner car was coded. I made some calls home and then we headed into a Monday morning planning meeting. It was quiet in the office, I think since Tuesday is a holiday the management wanted a 4 day weekend. Spent time firming up our Senior Outing to Ta’al Volcano on Saturday. We had a meeting in the afternoon with Mary Ann and E&S Notarte viewing the church’s new videos about suicide and discussing other issues facing many people. We had dinner at Friday’s with 4 other couples. The waiter tried to guess what we would order based on our past dinners. He did a pretty good job.

Tuesday - Ninoy Aquino Holiday, I don’t know what that means but it’s a day off. We went to Denny’s for breakfast and then met up with the Gunnell’s to go take a river cruise. It was not the most beautiful cruise I’ve ever been on but always good to get out of Eastwood and enjoy the sites. The Gunnell’s are new so they really were intrigued with everything we saw along the way. We made several stops to drop off and pick people up. One stop included having a member of the Coast Guard get on board with us to make sure none of us would take pictures of the Presidential Palace. It was pretty cool to see where President Rodrigo Duterte Lives (in case you are wondering what his name is).

Fishing and playing in the Pasig River

You need to learn to take selfies if you are going to survive
in the Philippines.  The Gunnell's are our new friends

The people at the dock were so excited to see us and were so kind to us

Wednesday - Our car has been in the shop for over two weeks so we have to go to fleet every other day and get a car that is not coded. Today our car was coded so we had to come into work before 7:00 a.m. Got caught up with all my family members on the phone. We had our office lunch, it was sloppy joes, veggies, fruit, chips, and corn flake peanut butter bars. Nice evening walk with a breeze and 70’s music.

Our Sloppy Joe Lunch

Ana telling us her conversion story

Thursday - We got up early and went and picked up Mary Ann in Pasig. By the time Waze routed us to the N-Lex we went through Antipolo, Teresa, Marong, and who knows where else. Once we got on the N-Lex we headed to Floridablanca, Pampanga for a MDF (Mabuhay Deseret Foundation) eye screening. There were around 34 Barangays that were contacted. Around 100 people showed up, of those 100 there were around 44 who need some kind of surgery to improve their eye site. Cross eyes, cataract, and other problems that can be fixed. 4 different surgery dates were set, the Dr’s will do 10 a day. We were then invited to the Mayor’s office to meet him, then the long commute home. We treated ourselves to a dinner at Friday’s and then a night of TV on the couch.

These screenings are done in big covered areas
with cement floors and basketball hoops

Me , Jimwell and Mary Ann recording the surgery dates

We served 34 Barangays
100 showed up, 44 have appointments
to correct vision problems

This Dr. donates one day per month to help the poor and needy

These are the issues that we screen for

Mabuhay Deseret Foundation does such incredible work

Basketball is huge for the kids in the Philippines

Equal time for the girls, they are beautiful

Our meeting afterward with the Mayor of Floridablanca

Friday - We came in early for the fourth time this week to try to get some things done before the rest of the office showed up. We headed to the PHM (Philippine Mental Health Assoc) to meet with the leaders to discuss how to get the money spent that we provided for their organization last month. We also discussed ways to expand the program and take it to other areas in the Philippines. We really like this organization and their vision for the program. We even had help parking our car by the Street Children who will benefit from this program. Steve spent the afternoon working on the end of the month report that should not be due until next week.... Mani-Pedi night

Steve, me, Sally, Gila, Al

Saturday - We got up early and headed into the Area Office at 6:00. We are in charge of planning and organizing the Senior Outings one Saturday a month. There were 26 of us that left the office at 6:45 and in three vans and headed to Tagaytay. We drove two hours south and met up with our guides in the Ayala Mall. We then loaded into one Jeepney and one van where we were then taken down a beautiful mountain road to the ferry. We loaded into 4 boats and rode across to Ta'al Volcano, we were in Talisay in the provice of Batangas. We then got to choose if we would ride a small horse or hike up to the volcano. When we got to the top it was so beautiful. It was perfect weather, overcast with a nice breeze, it was a miracle it wasn't raining. We enjoyed the view and the foliage. The natives are so fun as well, always trying to get you to buy something. We always try to contribute a little bit here and there. We rode the boat back and closed our eyes and pretended we were at Lucky Peak (but only for a minute the Filipino view was truly amazing). It is always a much longer commute home but we put the men up front and the women in the back and rocked out to 70"s music. Guess whose idea that was?

We took 4 boats to the Volcano
7 in each boat

The boat ride over was so enjoyable

Most rode horses up to the Volcano
5 of us hiked up

It felt so good to be out of Manila and in nature

Ride 'em cowboy!

I love this picture!

360 degrees of water,  with steam coming up from the rocks

I Love Ta'al

All 26 Missionaries!

                                   

The jeepney ride home was toxic, thank heaven for our masks

Sunday - It's official, we are over half way.  We spent the evening in Taguig orienting the Stake Leaders on ARP.  A cute little family came up to me afterward and said "Do you remember us?"  We meet people everyday so I wasn't certain. It was a gentleman that I taught Water Safety to in June.  I'm being recognized in the Philippines.

It's time to start taking the M&M's out of the jar
We take out one a day when this jar it empty we are coming home!

Taguig Stake Leaders