Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Time to Build an Ark?

It started raining steadily four days ago and hasn't really stopped since. It will let up for a while, then start pouring again. The upcoming week looks to be more of the same type of weather. The frogs love it and they are croaking their little hearts out, and everything is greener than green. There is some flooding and the humidity is unreal. Fortunately, it is cooler than normal and that is a good thing. Our umberellas are getting a good workout and it's hard to keep our feet dry. The big downside is that missionary work slows down because of the weather. We hope it doesn't get much worse.

It's been an uneventful week for us for the most part as we manned the mission office. Elder Whiting is working on October rent and Sister Whiting is working on October return home travel. We always work about three months ahead in these areas and it seems like it makes the time just fly by. Elder Whiting did spend about an hour one day on the phone with Richard Hendrickson, CEO of Lifetime Products, having their quarterly Board of Directors Meeting. Lifetime is doing well and expanding their manufacturing east to Knoxville, Tennessee. This is all good news because it means our retirement is secure.

We took Friday afternoon off and traveled in the downpour to S&R (aka Costco) in San Fernando--about an hour's drive away. On the way down, we passed a car with a metal street sign attached to the luggage rack rack that said "Cougars Avenue" and had the BYU logo on it. We could hardly believe it! We honked and waved and Sister Whiting flashed the "Y" sign. They rolled down their windows and gave us the thumbs up and big smiles. They were Pacific Islanders and were wearing BYU gear. There are BYU fans even in the Philippines! It was fun to see. Then we ran into Elder and Sister Pugh at S&R and had a great visit. So all in all, with the stocking up on American food, seeing the BYU fans, and running into the Pugh's, it was a good day.

Yesterday we served lunch in the mission office to the Stake and District presidents of the mission along with the Area Authority Seventy who was doing his quartely training at the stake center. Today, we splashed our way to Dapdap and attended meetings there. Sister Whiting was asked to give the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and actually mixed a few Tagalog phrases in with her English. Mabuti! There were about 45 in attendance, including us and the elders. About 15 attended Sunday School, and there were 7 of us in Relief Society. Small in number, large in spirit and testimony. After the meeting, we went to the Capas National Shrine where the Bataan Death March of World War II ended, and where 31,000+ soldiers who had survived the march died. Most of them were Filipino, but there were nearly 10,000 Americans as well. It was a somber reminder of the brutality of war. It was ironic that our Sunday School lesson was in Alma--the story of Captain Moroni and Amalekiah. We discussed why there are so many war chapters in the Book of Mormon, and when a follower of Christ is justified in going to war. It was a faith and partriotism strengthening day for us.

We leave you with this thought from our Relief Society and priesthood lesson today:

"As Jesus took the bread and broke it, and took the cup and blessed it, he was presenting himself as the Lamb of God who would provide spiritual nourishment and eternal salvation."
--Howard W. Hunter, Teachings of Presidents of the Church, Lesson 15: the Sacrament of the Lord's supper--

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting