Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: What is a Bed Spacer?

Another transfer--#18 for President and Sister Clark--is in the books and everything is settling back down. We again taught the departing missionary workshop on Monday, enjoyed lunch and the testimony meeting on Tuesday, welcomed new missionaries on Wednesday, and survived transfers on Thursday. In between, we got our work done. Sister Whiting input 64 baptismal records into the church's system--the most she has done at one time. It was two weeks worth, a big batch. As she has mentioned before, it is tedious, detail oriented work that is very satisfying. The best part of the week was that we were fed a really good meal by the mission 6 of the 7 days! We could get used to that!

Last night was the 6th meal mentioned, as we had dinner at the mission home with the stake and ward leaders of the Mabalacat Stake, as part of President and Sister Clark's outreach to the units in the mission. Of the 12 units in the mission they have hosted 11 so far for a thank you dinner and a discussion on how the mission and the stakes and districts can improve their cooperation in missionary work. Those invited are the stake presidency and bishops and their wives. When the count of those who would attend came in for the Mabalacat Stake--33--it was higher than it should have been as they had included the bishopric counselors and their wives. President Clark informed the stake president the dinner was only for the bishops and their wives and asked him for a revised count of those who would attend. The revised count came back at --33. We don't know if the request to limit the guest list to bishops and their wives was lost in translation or ignored, but at any rate, the mission hosted them all; the largest group by far!

Today as we waited for church to start in the Tarlac 1st Ward, the counselor in the bishopric approached Elder Whiting and asked him to give a name and a blessing to the infant boy of a ward member. Dad readily agreed and gave a wonderful, sweet blessing to little Alexander (yes his name was Alexander) Lagman. Elder Whiting was very grateful to be able to participate in a baby blessing this weekend, as we will miss our twin granddaughters' blessing. Such a tender mercy for us.

So when we think we have seen it all in this country, we see something else we can hardly believe. While in the office one day last week, Sister Whiting looked up from her work to see a herd of goats wandering around the church compound eating the shrubs and just making themselves at home. We left shortly after that with instructions to the Assistants that when they left to herd the goats out before they locked the gate. Then on our way into the office one morning, we passed an old beat up little club cab truck. We see in the back seat a person leaning back with eyes closed, and trailing out the window was an IV tube leading to the IV bag being held aloft by a man standing in the bed of the truck. Oh my!

We have seen on occasion signs advertising for male and female bed spacers. We weren't sure what a bed spacer was, or even if we wanted to know what a bed spacer was. But we learned last week that a bed spacer is another name for a roommate. Mystery solved! Even though English is widely spoken here, the way some English words and phrases are used, they just as well be speaking a foreign language!

We leave you with the following scripture that President Russell M. Nelson told the 2016 new mission presidents to engrave on "the fleshy tablets of the heart":

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been call of Him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." --3 Nephi 5:13--

Mahal Kita
Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week helping out with transfers

Departing Elders with Elder Whiting and Elder Pugh. On couch L-R: Elders Ybanez, Dabi, Webster, Brown, Taylor, Whiting, Bundy, Pugh, Thacker. On floor L-R: Elders Montenegro, Burton, Faasavalu. Not pictured Elder On and the
departing sisters, Sister Dequilla and Sister Mepania.