Old Spanish Quarter Outing!

 The Senior Couples visited Intramuros, the old Spanish Quarter. (Notice the kids shoes.) They played those bells well! 

Philippino Cosco

Wllie, a church employee from our office took us to S&R. now the ride in the traffic to get there was definitely Philippino! But once we were inside - - -the Philippino Cosco! It is a tad bit smaller and there are a few things that you won’t find in the US. Other than that, we were right at home.

 1/2 a Pig.

Lots and lots of fish!

Traffic (Dun dun Dunnnnnnnnnn)!!!!

There is simply no way to describe Philippine traffic. There are very few hard and fast rules. One of the rules is “Go with the Flow”. Lines on the roads are suggestions. Drivers will easily make 2 lanes into 4 lanes. They move in and out. There is a certain sense of cooperation, as everyone just goes with the flow. A second rule is that he whose bumper is ahead has the right of way. People will signal (or not) and move directly and quickly in front of you. You have to learn when to give way. If you leave a space someone will quickly fill it, whether they need to or not. It’s a compulsion. And you’ll never get anywhere unless you learn to stick your bumper out and move into another lane. But don’t look over your shoulder or they won’t let you in. If you are trying to break into traffic, such as when you have to make a   u-turn (the only way to change direction on major roads. There are very few traffic light and left turns). You just have to keep slowly moving your nose into the traffic until someone is forced to give way. The next scary thing is the motor bikes. 1000s on the streets as they are cheap and they buzz in and out like they had a death wish. Elder Staton calls them “bumble bees” and we agree. They actually have frequent fatal accidents. The guy on the motor bike always loses. Then there are the jeepneys, which are an open-air small bus. They navigate as though they had road priority. There are lots of those too. And then there are the “tricycles”. These are motorbikes with a cab to the side. All in all the roads are an un-choreographed dance that simply has to be experienced to understand. Bruce is doing quite well. We have decided that if it take us 15 or 20 minutes longer because we are less aggressive, that it is okay. I think I will just let him do the driving until we do long hauls out into the provinces.

So What are We Doing?

We are trying desperately to learn as much as we can from the Statons, the couple who have run the Wheelchair initiative for the past 2 years. We have about 30 service missionary couples who have been called to help run the program. The first large problem is the corruption in the country. Many wheelchairs were given out in the beginning to government and private units to give to their people. Assessors were called and trained to fit the chairs to the people, but after time it was found the people those chairs were intended for never received them. The chairs were given out as political gifts or stolen. So now we have to be very careful and our wonderful service missionaries visit every recipient and make sure things have been done properly. There is just a lot of people to learn about, many organization to learn about, a huge computer program to learn to run, and a lot of people to co-ordinate. We know we can do it because we have been called to do it and the Lord doesn’t want the program to fail.

We have learned that Christ came to walk the earth to establish the church and through the atonement bring to reality the new and everlasting covenant. But the second great thing the Lord did was to care for the poor and the needy. Caring for the poor and the needy has been added to the mission statement as the 4^thprinciple. We are so glad to be serving the Lord in serving the poor and the needy “in this church, in any other church or in no church at all.” Joseph Smith

President Oakes

We arrived at a very special time. Shortly after our arrival Pres. And Sister Oakes arrived to spend a little over a week here in the Philippines.  He was accompanied by Bishop and Sister Couse of the Presiding Bishopric and Elder and Sister Robson of the Seventies. We joined with the church employees in their devotional with Elder Oakes in our building. We participated in a mission wide zone conference, and at the broadcast of an area wide broadcast from the Buendia chapel in downtown Manila. One of the really great highlights was the cultural program presented at the MTC cultural hall. The young people of the stake presented about 10 of native dances of the Philippines. The costuming was wonderful. Several of the dances were from the primary children and were great fun.

Elder Oakes messages were timely and wonderful. For the young elders he told us he never prepares a message but speaks to concerns he has felt. He spend some time talking about those who would like to serve but whose family responsibility prohibited it. He said that “the desires of our heart” can make up for what we cannot do when we try our best, our very best He talked to the Elders about Priesthood and Priesthood keys. He said that Priesthood Keys are the right to direct Priesthood authority and this gives women certain priesthood responsibilities, such as in the temple, while in God’s plan they do not hold the keys to direct.  

In the area wide broadcast Elder Oakes counseled the Saints to establish the Gospel culture. He told them to maintain what was good in their culture but their most important culture was that of the Gospel.

Another interesting point was that Elder Oakes mentioned a scripture about the Sabbath, “that we should go to the house of prayer and offer up they sacraments upon my holy day. But he didn’t know where the scripture was found, he said he uses the topical guide to find scripture. And it made me realize that even among the apostles, men are called because of their strengths and not in spite of their “weaknesses”.  One of Elder McConkie’s gifts was his excellence with the scriptures. But Elder Oakes great gifts lead him to succinct and logical treaties on gospel doctrine. Elder Oakes also mention that he had never been a full-time missionary, Elders quorum president, a Bishop, a Stake President or Mission President. As an apostle he was called as the Philippine Area President to learn the experience of those offices.  Prior to being an apostle he had never held a position where he held priesthood keys.

Arrival!

We have arrived! The flights to reach Manila is long and very tiring. SLC to Seattle is 1:40 hour , Seattle to Tokyo – 10 hours, and then Tokyo to Manila is 4 more hours. We left Salt Lake at 11:00am on Monday and arrived in Manila at 11:30pm on Tuesday night. Of course you lose a lot of hours. 

We were in a hotel for the first 5 days and have now moved into an apartment that was vacated by another set of missionaries. We have been looking for a nicer place but after a lot of looking we are just going to settle here until the broker can find something with some pretty specific parameters. The shower took me 3 days and a quart of bleach to cure. The previous missionaries were ill and had left under the assumption that it would be cleaned and it was, by me.

We work out of the Area Presidents Office. The compound is across from the temple and includes the MTC complex, Missionary Recovery Office (sick missionary go there to heal) and temple patron housing

We live in Eastwood city which is basically a very large outdoor mall with large condo towers. Philippinos buy the units, furnish them, and then rent them out as an investment.  Outside our building we can find a TGIFriday, IHop, Chili’s, Outback, KFC, McDonalds, and hundreds of other restaurants.  The problem for seniors here is gaining weight as it is just too easy to eat out.

 We left from Salt Lake at 11am on Monday, October 20, 2014

We arrived at 11:30pm on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 after 15 hours on a jet.

 View from our Hotel.  The building on the far left is our new home.  At least a very small part of it is!

They dry rice on the outside lane of the road. We saw the men out there working it with a rake and bagging it.

They have arrived.

They are looking for a permanent place to stay.

They are figuring out driver's licenses.

They indeed found out it's very hot.

They are learning their job, but feel in over their heads.

They plan to get to pictures and blog posts as soon as they have a real apartment and internet.

Stay tuned because this is where said blog posts will be, whether from me or directly from them.

~Christie.