Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Supper, Shopping, Storms, Stuck, Stake Conference, And Transfers

It has been a busy, busy two weeks, and we let a week slip by without a post, so be prepared; we are going to make it up to you!

On Labor Day, we had the four sisters who live down the street over for dinner. We do this once a transfer, and it was a good thing, because Sister Gonzaga and Sister Cutar have been transferred to other areas, with Sister Cutar being called as a Sister Training Leader. They are wonderful, obedient missionaries and will do well wherever they are.

Tuesday the 6th, Sister Whiting and Sister Clark took a trip to Angeles to the Capiz Shell Factory, where they purchased and ordered some beautiful Capiz shell items. It was also a lot of fun to watch the workers create these beautiful pieces.

The rest of the week was spent in the office. Saturday the 10th, we drove the mission truck over to Muñoz to look for a house for the new senior couple. It was a waste of a trip as we were not able to even see any houses. Turns out the first house we looked out two weeks ago, which we thought we couldn't get, became available with some conditions. The landlady is really being difficult, though. We went again yesterday thinking she would sign the lease only to be told she wanted her attorney to look at everything. So it was another frustrating day, and Elder Whiting has to go back early tomorrow to meet with her and her attorney. Hopefully he can get the deal done. The time draws short and the senior couple will be here soon!

So after the frustrating morning a week ago, we started our drive to Cabanatuan as we were staying overnight there because we were speaking in stake conference the next day. We left plenty early for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Cabanatuan, intending to check into our hotel and be early for the Saturday evening adult session. Well it ended up being a 4 1/2 hour ordeal as we were stuck in traffic not knowing there was construction on a bridge. Most of the time we were at a dead standstill--we could have gotten there quicker by walking! We were an hour late for the evening session. But we had a good evening as we met Elder and Sister Dansie for dinner, then slept well at the nice Harvest Hotel.

We gave our talks in Stake Conference, picked up a departing missionary, made our way back toward Muñoz and San Jose via a different route which was very beautiful and had very light traffic to pick up another departing missionary. We delivered them to the mission home, had some dinner and went home to bed.

Monday we taught the career workshop to the 7 departing missionaries--our smallest group yet. Tuesday, we said goodbye to this wonderful group of missionaries. Wednesday, we welcomed 20 new missionaries. Because some of them had come from the Provo MTC, and because of a national holiday on Monday, they had to do their immigration processing that morning, so instead of getting to the mission at 10 or 11 a.m. they were delivered to the mission home at 4 p.m. We did our arrival orientation, which with this size of group took about two hours, had a nice dinner, and the missionaries departed to their accomodations for the night. We were assigned to get all their luggage to the mission office, which took two trips. With help from the office elders, we accomplished this task by 10:30 p.m.

Thursday was an early arrival at the office for us for transfers, which went quit smooth. The 20 new missionaries got their companions and were sent on their way to areas near and far throughout the mission. We can't help but say a prayer that they will adjust quickly and not be too overwhelmed by the demands of missionary work and the strange culture. We can tell they are a good group and are going to do great things.

Regarding our trip to Muñoz yesterday, it was not a total waste of a trip as we stayed to the baptism of two 17 year old young men. Elder Whiting was asked to be a witness, which was a special tender mercy for us as we missed our granddaughter, Chloe's baptism that very day back home. The Lord is mindful of His servants. We are very blessed.

Last night we went to dinner with President and Sister Clark at a coffeeshop that serves great food. They told us we had won a cupcake and asked us to pose with "I Love Javalogy" signs for a picture. We thought it purdent to hold th sings in front of our nametags as we were pretty sure we would end up on their Facebook page. So we were just four anonymous white people instead of missionaries endorsing a coffee shop. We had a wonderful evening until it came time to leave.

In the Philippines, all businesses have security guards/doormen/parking attendants. They greet you, open the door for you, and will go out in the street and stop traffic so you can back out and get onto the highway. This is a real service in this country of heavy traffic and no rules. It is difficult to back out into traffic without help. We usually tip these guards a few pesoes for their help. The Javalogy security guard (Javalogy is located right on crazy busy MacArthur Highway) was a cute little man who greeted us with a big smile and opened the door for us. There was a brief power outage during our dinner, and he came in to check the breaker box, which was right by our table. As we were preparing to leave, Sister Clark noticed a commotion in the street outside. A van was stopped and a man was on his phone frantically talking to someone. In front of the van was the security guard. He had been hit by the van as he attempted to stop traffic to let a customer back out. We didn't see it happen, but he lay there not moving at all for a half hour until the ambulance came and carried him off. We do not think he survived the accident. It made us sick. To top it off, when we finally felt like we could leave, there was Elder Whiting and President Clark out stopping traffic so we could back out. Scary! Our wonderful evening out ended on a very somber note.

Today we attended Burgos Branch. Our missionaries were the featured speakers in sacrament meeting, and when they were finished, the Branch President called a member up to the stand, handed him his mission call, and the young man opened and read it right there in sacrament meeting! We had heard that this was commonly done in the Philippines, and it was a treat to get to witness it.

Sister Whiting lead the singing in Relief Society and they sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", because after all it is September, and the Christmas season is upon us. Our new missionaries confirmed that the Manila MTC has already put it's tree up, and the nativities are being built around town. Religion doesn't hide in this country, it is front and center in all phases of life.

The past two weeks we have witnessed several intense lightning storms that remind us of the description of the "great and terrible tempests" in the Book of Mormon at the Savior's death. We have had much of "exceedingly sharp lightnings", thunder that shakes the rafters, and deluges almost every day. We never cease to marvel at the intense weather the Philippines gets.

We leave you with the following thoughts:

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ DID come to Joseph Smith.
It's as true today as it was in 1820.
We are so very blessed to have this knowledge.

Mahal Kita and Maligayang Pasco
(see if you can remember what the last part means)

Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week

Dinner with the Sisters L-R: Sister Gonzaga, Sister Cutar, Sister Whiting,
Sister Fosita, Sister Evans, Elder Whiting

Creating beautiful pieces of art at the Capiz Shell Factory in Angeles

Banner Announcing the Guimba District Conference

Program for the Cabanatuan Stake Conference we spoke at.
We were each given our own program with our name on it.

Elder Whiting with the Jollibee in Muñoz on Grandparent's Day.
Sister Whiting was not asked to have her picture taken.
Now we know who looks like a granparent!