Photo Update Sept 9- Sept 23rd

 

Dinner at Asuk! It was delicious! So much meat. I guess I’m getting used to the meat here because I thought it was delicious!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are already singing carols at church meetings and after we got gas tonight the attendant wished us "Merry Christmas"! It's a ber month here! It will be a wonderful Christmas season I am sure!

So, I have to tell you about the baptism picture. As you can see in the picture one of the little girls is holding my hand. She didn't want to let go! She's 8. The other little girl is 11. She could NOT stop staring at your dad. Maybe because he is bald? I am not sure - but really just stared at him. After the baptism was over I asked the missionaries why the 2 daughters that were old enough weren't baptized the same time as their mother. Elder Norda said to me - "Because they have a Word of Wisdom problem." I was pretty much shocked! It just seems so crazy that the Elders were telling me that these adorable children had a problem with the Word of Wisdom! But I guess it is true. Their mother was able to stop drinking coffee so that she could qualify for the beautiful blessing of baptism...but the children as still drinking coffee with their lola (grandmother). You just never know what the Elders are going to share with us!

Spirit of Christ In the Philippines, Christmas starts in September (idk why). It's a great opportunity for us to share the Spirit of Christmas to members, leaders, most of all, interested friends. The Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Christ. Today, we got to do a tradition in the mission for the first time this year. We got to do Luke 2! It helped us really feel the love of the Savior during our visit and got to share that love with the people around us. We know that if we help bring the love of Jesus Christ to everyone around us, we will see His hand in our lives. And we get to help others come unto Him and feel of His love for them as well! Sharing Luke 2 from our hearts really does bring the Spirit! Elder Rosaroso Elder Kooteti #merrychristmas

The previous post is just to prove that it really is CHRISTMAS here in the Philippines - that was a message from one of our missionaries!

Goodbye Sister Torres & best wishes in Chile. Sister Torres finally got her visa after a 6 month wait in our mission.

Last p-day of 9-square! We played with the 6 different zones this transfer. It was really a great way for us to interact with the missionaries and learn a little more about each of them. But both of us are glad that it was the last one and now maybe we can do some other p-day type activity! Maybe hiking!

That is a sunset view from our house tonight.

Thank you for your faith. Thank you for your prayers. We have felt them and it is real. I know that my Redeemer lives what comfort this really is. We are both doing unbelievably well and feel such peace and strength.

Your dad & I went for a walk this evening. We enjoyed an incredible lightning and thunder show! A couple of times I was scared that we were going to be struck by lightening. When we got back to our house, our security guard came out to meet us. He told us that we need to be very careful because there are Philippine cobra and pythons that are in our neighborhood and they come out and go across the road at night. So you can just let our grandsons know that we really do have cobras and pythons here! We will let you know if we ever see one! (I certainly hope not!)

Mount Arayat

I haven't been feeling well all week and my cough finally got the best of me. So have spent the morning focused on healing! But here is a photo of your dad at a special baptism this morning.

Elder Trujillo-Coello

I just LOVE this watching kids be kids here!

It took a bad cough to make me stay in bed for a good part of the day yesterday- but it was a blessing in the end because that is what I needed. I'm feeling so much better this morning! It is well with my soul. The past week will always bing a tear to my eyes and a lump to my throat. But I can say - that this past week is sacred and there aren't words to express my thoughts & feelings.