Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Bazaars and Mattresses and Frogs

Another week has come and gone and time just keeps marching on. We keep busy with our office duties and love rubbing shoulders with the young elders and sisters. They are doing amazing things in the mission as our baptism and reactivation numbers are impressive if we do say so ourselves. For the most part, the missionaries are obedient and hard working, and it shows in their success. Although our assignment doesn't give us much opportunity to do the real missionary work, we hope we are contributing to the success of the mission by taking care of the necessary temporal and support tasks so the elders and sisters can focus on the work of salvation. Our goal is to have the mission run so smoothly that no one notices what we do. We don't always achieve that, but we try.

Last Wednesday, we drove to Manila with Elder and Sister Pugh and Sister Clark and attended the American Bazaar held in a convention center by Manila Bay. It reminded us of a mini Swiss Days with booths full of handcrafted items for sale and yummy food. There were no Bratzlies or Swiss Tacos though, but there was roast beef and mashed potatoes Yum! We three women had a good time shopping while the men sat and visited. Neither one of them were thrilled to be there, but we told them they had to drive us there and carry our packages. They did end up having a great time talking to people from all over the world. We are planning another trip to the bazaar (they are held monthly) some time in the future.

As if that wasn't a busy enough day, that evening we had the assistants and office elders over for tacos. Again, it was a hit with all of them. Boy can those elders eat! of course they always leave us with a wonderful message and are very grateful to be fed. We enjoy having them over.

Thursday, we loaded two mattresses and fans into President Clark's truck, and took them to the sisters serving in Guimba. They were very grateful to get them. We then went up to San Jose and met the Zone Leaders to pick up some things and deliver pouch mail and supplies. We treated them to lunch and Greenwich--pizza and pasta! Yum! Those were the highlights of the week other than last night. We were hit with a deluge and we were so glad we were home when it hit. The rain came down like a fire hose with thunder and lightning and wind for over an hour. We heard reports from our missionaries and neighbors of waist deep floodwater in some areas of Tarlac. Our missionaries had to cancel lessons because they just couldn't get to them. After the storm blew itself out, we were serenaded to sleep by the low, deep croaking of frogs. Only in the tropics.

We leave you with one of our favorite Book of Mormon scriptures in Third Nephi as the resurrected Savior is ministering to the Nephites: "And when he had said these words, he wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them." He who is Endless and Eternal has time for each one of us.

Mahal Kita
Elder and Sister Whiting