These two weeks have been very busy ones for us, but busy is good! Two weeks ago, we made our way back into the mountains to visit the Saints in Pisapungan. It had been a long time since we had been there and all of the rain had made the dirt road in to Pisapungan barely passable. But we rode in the branch president's pickup truck, and he is a very capable driver so we made it in and out without incident. It almost felt like a trip out to Trout Creek back home, except instead of quakies, pine trees and scrub oak, we were surrounded by green jungle. Elder Whiting had bought a pair of rubber dress shoes to wear in case we had to go through mud or water. They did the trick, even if they made his feet sweat like crazy. As we got ready to leave, the villagers threw a large lizard (Komodo Dragon?) in the back of the truck where Elder Whiting was riding. It thrashed around but had its mouth and feet bound by wire so it couldn't bite or claw. It was going to be someone's dinner.
These past two weeks found us in Munoz twice working on the house for the senior couple who arrive next week. With the help of Elder and Sister Dansie, we have the place ready to go. One day, we had a fridge, stove, washer, and queen bed delivered--all of which came strapped to the top of two trikes. They had driven two hours from the store and charged just 300 pesos for delivery--about $6.38. We gave them 100 pesos for their lunch then went to work setting up the appliances and bed. The hardest part was assembling the cheaply made bedframe because nothing fit right.
Other events in the past two weeks were a trip to Manila to transfer a sick missionary and her companion to the Missionary Recovery Center (MRC), a late night/early morning trip to the local hospital with another sick sister missionary, several apartment inspections, a trip to Angeles to install a water filter system in an apartment and drop off orientation books for binding, and other miscellaneous duties. We have had lots of late nights and early mornings, and haven't been on a regular schedule for a while. On top of that, we attempted to watch conference live with mixed results. We appreciated some down time today.
Speaking of conference, yesterday and today was General Conference in the Philippines. We enjoyed meeting with the Saints as we watched the sessions on the big screen in the stake center. Imagine the thrill we had when we saw some of the Saints from Pisapungan and Dapdap. That is a very long way to travel. It was a huge sacrifice of time and money for them to attend.
One reason for our trip to Angeles was to celebrate Elder Whiting's birthday on Thursday--since we had a Munoz workday planned on Friday, his actual birthday. We went to an upscale mall, wandered around, had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and dessert at--wait for it--Coldstone Creamery! Who knew they were in the Philippines?! On Friday, Elder Whiting's mission phone lit up with happy birthday texts from most of the young elders and sisters, (over 60 texts!) and yesterday, Sister Clark brought an ice cream cake to the office for him. He was very appreciative of all of the attention.
Several weeks ago, President Clark challenged our missionaries to step up their proselyting efforts, to make the month of October, "blessed". So we hope to be October Blest, then continue into next month with November Quest. (One of our tired zone leaders hopes that the theme in December will be December Rest. But that's not likely!)
We leave you with some of our favorite thoughts from General Conference:
From Elder Stevenson: "The Savior's name, or some form of it, is found in every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon." (Another Testament of Jesus Christ) And from President Nelson: of all the things Father Lehi could have said, he said ..."men are that they might have JOY!"
Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting
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| Jeepney of the Week |
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| The road into Pisapungang. It's blurry because Sister Whiting was being bounced around and couldn't hold the camera steady. |
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| Elder Whiting and his rubber shoes in Pisapungan |
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| Someone's dinner! |
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| The appliance delivery! |
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| Happy 63rd Birthday Elder Whiting |
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| General Conference Sunday with thousands of dragonflies in the air. Check out the one in the top right corner of the picture, then try to zoom in to see more. |
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| Full parking lot on General Conference Sunday |
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| We pass this man every day. He sells cigarettes one at a time to people, complete with a light! |
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| Not all traffic is trikes and jeepneys! |
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