Catching Up

 Temple Wide Training

With all the craziness from the typhoons I didn’t share much of what was happening in our normal day to day lives as we continue to serve in the temple. 

Although I miss being “just a temple worker”, being a trainer has been so rewarding as I watch our sweet new sisters move from their first day full of nervousness to fully trained confident temple works. The bond I feel with these good sisters is so special to me when I see most of them they usually give me a hug and thank me for teaching them the right way to do the ordinances and other responsibilities in the temple. 

Two of the cute returned missionaries I was able to train

On October 27th we had a temple wide training day. I’m not sure if this happens everywhere, but our presidency said we’re supposed to have a temple-wide training twice a year. I don’t remember that ever happening when we served in Redlands. We attended one here around March or April earlier this year. We met in the foyer of the temple—which is pretty big, but still not big enough for everyone—so the training was spread out over four Mondays to make room for all the workers. I remember they just showed  the usual training videos we watch every week and their wasn’t really a lot of training or  discussion.

This year they decided to do it all on one Monday and have us as trainers do most of the training. They divided the workers into five groups that would rotate to different areas of the temple for training. As trainers, each of us was assigned a specific topic to teach, which meant we had to give our presentation five times. It actually turned out to be a great success. It really felt like everyone walked away having learned something meaningful they could use in their temple assignments.

After the training everyone gathered at one of the chapels for lunch 

We had a great turn out 

After the training, we kept hearing comments like “That was the best training ever,” “We learned so much,” and “We’re so thankful for this.” It felt really good knowing we were able to make a difference in the way the workers perform their responsibilities and the temple presidency was very pleased with the way the training turned out.

It’s Hard to Say Goodbye!

Just when we had settled in to our new schedules and training was going great, we learned that one of the missionary couples -Elder and Sister Harding - is being transferred to another mission to work in the mission office.  Their former Stake President is the mission president there and put in a request to Salt Lake to have them transferred. The transfer was approved and they will be moving on the 11th of December. 

Here we are on Sunday - The Hardings are in the middle.

It will be so hard to say goodbye, the three of us couples have become very close and really enjoy each others company. 

About the matching dresses. Wendy and Patty both brought the same dress with them when they came to the Philippines and ended up wearing them on the same day a few Sundays ago. I guess I got a bad case of FOMO and said I needed that dress too. I ordered it on Amazon and it got here just in time for us to wear together before the Hardings leave us. We were quite a hit in our matching dresses and some of our sister temple workers including the Matron wanted to take a picture with us.  

Our fellow temple works thought it was so fun and loved taking a picture with us

Thanksgiving in the Philippines

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, so I was especially sad to be away from our family this year. I love gathering together, cooking side by side, and simply enjoying the day. That’s why it meant so much to me that our girls got together and made our traditional Thanksgiving dinner—they even cooked all our favorites. Seeing them carry on our family traditions truly warmed my heart.

Thanksgiving at Home

Here in the Philippines, we ended up celebrating with two Thanksgiving dinners: one with the Senior Missionaries from the Cebu Mission on the Monday before Thanksgiving and another with just us three missionary couples on Thanksgiving Day. Both were a wonderful taste of home and filled with such enjoyable company.

In the Patron House dinning room with the Cebu Mission Missionaries 

At the dinner with the mission missionaries we had great food, played some fun games and enjoyed each other’s company. 

Thanksgiving Dinner in our little apartment with the temple couples

Here we are with the other temple missionaries in our apartment for our simple Thanksgiving Dinner. It was delicious and we enjoyed a relaxing evening after our temple shift.

The Kindness of Others

Recently we have been the recipients of some fun and also some interesting gifts from some of the sweetest people we know.

This is Brother and Sister Bacalla in the photo with us. Every Sunday they came to our cottage meetings wearing the cutest fuzzy slippers, and we always commented on how adorable they looked. One day at the temple, one of the assistant matrons told us she had a gift for all the couple missionaries from the Bacallas. When we arrived home, we found a bag hanging on our door—and inside were our own pairs of fuzzy slippers. It was the sweetest surprise. We love and miss them dearly. They will be serving in the temple presidency at the new Davao Temple, which will be dedicated on May 3rd. Sadly, I don’t think one pair fit the recipient, but they will always be a sweet reminder of two pretty amazing people. Side note - Brother Bacalla was the one who taught dad the veil in Cebuano.

Another fun gift is this cute bag. Each of us Sister Missionaries received one from two sweet sisters we helped train. With the way our schedules work, we often end up sharing in the training of new sisters, and as it turned out, all three of us had a part in training these darling sisters. (I wish I had a picture of them!)

They live on another island and only come to serve in the temple once a month for a week. A brother from their island happened to be coming for his week of service, so they sent the bags with him to deliver to us. Each bag was a little different, perfectly matched to our individual personalities—such a thoughtful touch. They even tucked in some treats to go along with them.

This is an interesting gift sent from some members who live on the Island of Leyte. They gave the Stirlands a box of them. It’s called Binagol. Here is a description of Binagol:

Binagol is a sweet, dense Filipino dessert made from taro root (called “talyan” locally), coconut milk, sugar, and egg yolks. The mixture is cooked until thick and then packed inside a coconut shell (“bagol” in Waray) — which is where it gets its name.

After filling the coconut shell, it’s covered with banana leaves and steamed.

Filipinos love to give and share food. In the last couple weeks we have received a papaya, mangos, lots of sticky rice and a few other things. They are so kind and always making sure no one goes hungry.

We hope all of you are doing well. We miss you all so much and look forward to the day when we will all be together again. Write if you have time, I sure love hearing from you. 

Sending love and hugs to all,

Mom/Sister Beth  Andreasen

Earthquakes, Volcanos and Typhoons, Oh My!

 Typhoon TinoPH

We have found that life is never dull here in the Philippines! While many of the people in northern Cebu were still in the recovery stage from the 6.9 earthquake, we received word that a Typhoon was headed our way and would likely make landfall November 3 close to the epicenter of the earthquake. 

As you can see Typhoon TinoPH (Kalmaegi) is heading right toward us!

One funny thing about a typhoon is how different it is from an earthquake. An earthquake strikes without warning, but a typhoon creeps slowly toward you while you just watch it come. We didn’t know what to expect and didn’t receive much guidance on what we should do, so we just stayed home and waited.

We did notice on social media that some people were preparing their homes by tying them down with ropes. 

We wondered if this helped keep their roof on or keep the house together 

but we weren’t able to get the after shot. We hoped it helped. 

Around 3 AM, we woke up to howling winds and heavy rain, with thunder and lightning shaking everything. It was loud and wild outside. There was no going back to sleep! We felt completely safe in our little apartment on the temple complex, which is on a hill, but we knew so many others were not as protected. The devastation afterward was overwhelming.

This is just a small glimpse of what people throughout Cebu are dealing with.

As you can see the devastation is overwhelming

As the wind and rain continued into the early morning, we assumed the temple would likely be closed on Tuesday. We couldn’t imagine there would even be patrons. But then we received word that the temple would be opened as a refuge from the storm, and that even though we were scheduled for the afternoon shift, we would be needed as soon as we could get there. The only workers expected were the full time missionaries and volunteers from the 2nd and 3rd floors of the patron house.

At 4:15 a.m., our temple president sent a video of the storm, and it was absolutely raging. He sent another around 5:30 and another around 6:30. 

I don’t know if this link will work, but here’s a link to a video that was posted by one of the security guards when things were calming down: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1518148539522487&id=100001454087605

From the videos, we could see that the winds were slowly lessening, but when we left for the temple around 7:30, the wind was still blowing pretty hard and the rain was still coming down. I grabbed an umbrella - Dad did not and we made a run for the temple. Even with my umbrella, we were both soaked by the time we made it inside the temple doors.

As expected, there were no patrons at first, so we spent the morning rotating workers—some serving as workers and others as patrons. We were able to keep both the endowment sessions and initiatory open all day long. As time went on, a few patrons actually started showing up. Most of them were missionaries from the Cebu Mission and the Cebu East Mission, about 24 missionaries in all.

These sweet missionaries were supposed to go home Tuesday morning, but all their flights were canceled and they were stuck in Cebu. With the storm raging outside, they were safe and protected in the temple. If I’m being honest, I couldn’t believe the temple would even be open that day and thought it might be a waste of time to go when no patrons were expected. But I was so wrong. We felt such a deep sense of peace there, and I was so happy we could welcome those sweet missionaries and give them something meaningful to do to take their minds off the disappointment of being delayed another day.

It turned out to be a tender mercy for all of us, and it seemed the Spirit was extra strong that day. I’m so thankful we were able to be there for them and to feel that beautiful spirit together. In addition to participating in initiatory and endowment ordinances, the missionaries were also able to do baptisms. As the day went on, we had a few more patrons come in. Even though it was a long day—working both shifts—it’s one I will remember for a long time. The missionaries were finally able to leave the following day and have since been safely reunited with their families.

We worked again all day Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday, things were slowly picking up again. The temple was still quiet compared to normal, but a youth group of 46 arrived from another island, ready and excited to do baptisms. They basically had the baptistry all to themselves for a couple of days.

It’s always fun to visit with the youth outside the temple and get to know them a bit. A few of the boys were walking with us, chatting, when one looked up at Dad and said, “You are so tall!” Haha! He really is tall, but compared to these tiny boys, he must have seemed like a giant!

On Friday, I asked when they planned to head home, and they said Saturday at noon. That surprised me—because we had just learned another typhoon was right behind the first one, and it was supposed to be even bigger and stronger!

 

Saw this on Facebook - Pretty scary!

If it were me, I’d be heading home early. Sure enough, Friday night we heard all the ports were closed and all boat reservations were canceled. Many of the passenger boats had even headed south to wait out the storm. Those poor youth, their leaders, and the adults who came for temple work were all stuck at the patron house.

We got a message from our bishop saying that anyone who needed to could evacuate to the church building. Sunday services would start an hour earlier and combine two wards so everyone could get home and prepare. By Saturday, quite a few families had already gathered there.

When we saw our baptistry friends at church Sunday morning, they said they hoped to leave Monday afternoon. After we got home, we realized they probably didn’t have much to eat—the cantina was closed, and even if it wasn’t, they might not have had money for food. We reached out to the other missionary couples and asked if they wanted to pitch in to help feed our stranded friends. Of course, everyone said yes!

So the three elders walked down to Jollibee and ordered food for them. On the way, they ran into their bishop, who told them there were 67 people in the group—youth, leaders, and adults! After ordering the food, they stopped at the grocery store to buy water, since there was no running water in the patron house.

One of the sisters we work with at the temple saw the elders heading out and asked where they were going. One of them joked, “We just felt like taking a walk in the rain.” Later, when they came back with a huge box of food, she laughed and said, “It’s not raining water here—it’s raining Jollibee!” We all thought that was hilarious.

She later told us how grateful she was that we were helping “their people” in ways they couldn’t right now. We were just so happy we could do something. As it turned out, those sweet youth were very hungry!

Here is a link to a video that  was taken when the food was brought in, I hope it is public: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1460204428385648/?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&fs=e&fs=e

Dad headed down a little later with a huge bag of Halloween candy for their dessert and they loved it.

As it turned out the super typhoon took a turn north and didn’t come our way at all, we just got a little rain and some light wind. Unfortunately those in northern Luzon where hit pretty hard and there is much suffering there just like here in Cebu.

As of today there are two more low pressure areas swirling around and heading our way. It’s not  clear if they will become typhoons or not.  But I  do know, our Heavenly Father is watching over us and we are safe. We continue to look for opportunities to serve and help those who have lost so much. I’ve heard  so  many say with a huge smile on their face, “Life goes on”. The people here are so resilient and strong, their faith gets them through and they will rebuild their homes and their lives. I have so much to  learn from them. Once sister in her 70’s said the water in her home was to her neck, but there she was serving in the temple and telling me she was fine.  This is typical of what I hear everyday.

We hope all of you are  doing well,

We love and miss all of you,

Love, Sister Mom/Beth