We have had a wonderful couple of weeks here in Cebu. Last week I didn’t write because we went on a wonderful tour of Cebu. We enjoyed seeing many of the sights and history of this island. See pictures below. My favorite part was going from the city to out in the country. There is so much beauty here in the Philippines. It seems like people here are either very well off or extremely poor. It is heartbreaking to see how some of the people live and yet they are some of the happiest and loving people you would ever want to meet. Which is a great reminder that happiness comes from within and our love for each other and not worldly things.
We have tried some Filipino food, some we like some we can pass on. One of my favorites was Lechon - roasted pig. It was delicious. We have had a lot of rice and noodles and I really like those. We have a pot luck and FHE every Sunday at the temple president’s house and we have been able to try different vegetable dishes and even had Filipino spaghetti. Who knew they had their own version of spaghetti! It was pretty much just like ours but sweeter which is strange because it seems most of their food is less sweet.
Joe actually drove the big van this week. We had to go the store and couldn’t wait for the other missionaries. He did pretty good, it seems as if his aggressive driving is an asset here. He just needs to get used to going much slower than he likes to go.
Working in the temple is wonderful, we love it so much. Joe and I are now the baptistery coordinators on our Thursday shift. We had the best group of youth come in last Thursday. The road 5 hours on a bus to get here and stayed in the patron apartments for 3 days. Their first session they did over 2,000 baptisms. They were so respectful and so excited to be in the temple.
The temple continues to be very busy everyday and we are still having multiple own endowments everyday. Last week we also had three weddings.
Taking photos after church happens most Sundays
I had an interesting conversation with one of the workers this week. She told me that her daughter wanted to be baptized but was afraid to ask her since they were catholic. When she finally got up the nerve to ask and explained to her mom about the first vision her mom became so excited. She told me she had been searching for a church the believed Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were two separate beings but never could find one. So she started taking the missionary discussion right away. They gave her a Book of Mormon which she read right away. She said when she read the BOM it was familiar to her. Apparently her grandfather had a BOM and would read it to her but it was stolen and she could remember what it was called, only that the stories were familiar. She had search churches and libraries looking for the book but never could find it. She is now a good faithful ordinance worker and many of her family members have joined the church.
We have to fly to Manila this coming Wednesday to have our fingerprints taken so we can get our missionary visas. That should be interesting. Manila seems even crazier than Cebu. Luckily we don’t have to drive, they are sending a driver to pick us up at the airport and then drop up back there when we are done.
We miss everyone so much, but thank goodness for FaceTime. We do love serving here and we love the good, kind Filipino people and we certainly love serving in the beautiful temple.
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