Always Room for One More
This past week brought a change for us—we will now be working all day on Tuesdays. The temple presidency asked if anyone was willing to switch to mornings on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, since they needed workers in the morning on those days and had too many in the afternoon. We thought it would be nice to have at least one morning shift, as that would give us a free afternoon to get things done. But instead, they signed us up for mornings and kept us in the afternoons as well. I’m sure it will all work out.
Our afternoon shifts are truly overcrowded with female workers. In our preparation room, there are two rows of five chairs for the women and two rows of four chairs for the men. There are also eleven chairs across the back where most of the couples sit. Sometimes we have as many as 37 women on our shift. If you do the math, you can see there isn’t enough room to accommodate all the women. But as the women arrive, we squeeze together and make room for each one who enters—sometimes there are as many as eight or nine women sitting on just five chairs.
Every time one more woman squeezes in, I am reminded of the parable in Luke 14 about the banquet—where the Lord sends His servants out to gather people to the feast. He tells them to go out to the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in, that His house may be filled. We have workers who come from the highways and the hedges—other islands and distant cities—and they are truly filling the Lord’s house and feasting at His banquet. Everyone is welcome and there is always room for one more. I love this so much!
This past week brought a change for us—we will now be working all day on Tuesdays. The temple presidency asked if anyone was willing to switch to mornings on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, since they needed workers in the morning on those days and had too many in the afternoon. We thought it would be nice to have at least one morning shift, as that would give us a free afternoon to get things done. But instead, they signed us up for mornings and kept us in the afternoons as well. I’m sure it will all work out.
Our afternoon shifts are truly overcrowded with female workers. In our preparation room, there are two rows of five chairs for the women and two rows of four chairs for the men. There are also eleven chairs across the back where most of the couples sit. Sometimes we have as many as 37 women on our shift. If you do the math, you can see there isn’t enough room to accommodate all the women. But as the women arrive, we squeeze together and make room for each one who enters—sometimes there are as many as eight or nine women sitting on just five chairs.
Every time one more woman squeezes in, I am reminded of the parable in Luke 14 about the banquet—where the Lord sends His servants out to gather people to the feast. He tells them to go out to the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in, that His house may be filled. We have workers who come from the highways and the hedges—other islands and distant cities—and they are truly filling the Lord’s house and feasting at His banquet. Everyone is welcome and there is always room for one more. I love this so much!
Transportation in the Philippines
There are a few unique ways of transportation in the Philippines. I thought I would share a few pictures I’ve taken of different ways to get around.
Filipino Tricycle - they are not allowed in the area where we live, probably because of so much traffic but we see them everywhere when we travel around the smaller cities.
Jeepney - a modified, elongated Jeep originally made from surplus U.S military jeeps left in the Philippines after World War II. They are usually brightly painted and you enter them from an opening in the back. Very popular and they have routes that go everywhere.
Motorcycles - they are everywhere! Motorcycle drivers are crazy, at least some of them are!!! When we come to a stop light they will all drive up to the crosswalk on every side so they can get a jump on things when the light turns green. There are taxi motorcycles and delivery motorcycles and sometimes I have seen families of 4 all riding on one motorcycle.
We have a 12 passenger van that is here just for the temple missionaries. We usually only use it when we all go someplace together, otherwise we use a taxi which is nice because driving here is way different than at home.
Meeting Bethany’s Mission Companion
This week I was able to have a nice visit with one of Bethany’s former missionary companions. She was Bethany’s second companion. I met her once before but this time we were able to get a picture and have a nice chat. She was in the waiting room with here two little girls waiting for her husband who is the bishop of the ward and was with the youth doing baptisms and I was assigned as the waiting room attendant. I believe there are no coincidences in the temple. We look forward to seeing her again when Bethany comes to visit next year. 
Lunch Invitation
On Monday we were invited to go with the temple presidency and two of the sisters who work in the office to go to Talisay City and have lunch with the Millers who work in the temple on Saturday mornings. She is from the Philippines and he is from the US. They lived in Texas for a while but moved back to the Philippines so Sister Miller could be close to her grandkids. It was so sweet of them to invite us over and she made so much yummy food. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing more of Cebu and getting to know them better.
All in all it was a good week, and as always went by fast. We hope all of you had a good week. I’m so thankful for modern technology that allows me to keep in touch with my family and see your wonderful faces. I love you all so much and always look forward to our visits. Write if you can we miss you all so much.
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