December in the Philippines

It’s Been Busy a Month

December has been a busy and joyful month here in the Philippines. Christmas is celebrated on a much grander scale than back home, and the festivities begin surprisingly early. In fact, Christmas decorations start appearing as early as September! Filipinos call these the “ber” months—any month that ends in “-ber” is officially part of the Christmas season. So we have been hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations since September.

The Temple is beautiful at night!

On December 8th, we attended the Annual Temple Workers Christmas Devotional and Party. This event had been announced for weeks, and everyone was eagerly looking forward to it. Shift coordinators spent weeks organizing dance routines and collecting money for the luncheon, adding to the excitement.

The devotional began at 10:00 a.m., and the festivities continued until 2:30 p.m. It was a lovely devotional—the Presidency and matrons spoke, and we sang beautiful Christmas hymns together.

After the devotional, it was time for lunch, and we returned to our apartment so Dad could change into his Christmas suit. He has so much fun wearing that suit, and it was a big hit—so many people wanted to take pictures with him.

The suit was a hit!

After lunch, the party began—and I’ve learned that Filipinos truly know how to celebrate. A proper party always includes karaoke, dance routines (often inspired by exercise videos copied from YouTube), and plenty of food. Each of the sister shifts performed a dance routine, and I was invited to dance with every group. Not wanting to choose just one shift, I decided to sit this one out.

It was such a joy to mingle with the other workers, laugh together, and simply enjoy having fun with people we’ve grown to love. The party was well attended.

Group Photo From Temple Worker’s Christmas Devotional 

On December 11th. we said a sad and hard goodbye to the Hardings as they left for their new assignment in the mission office of the Tuguegarao Philippines Mission. We shared so many great experiences with them and will miss them so much.

At the Mall

We spent many hours with the stake choir practicing for the Stake Christmas Devotional. It ended up being a lovely evening with musical numbers and spoken words. Here is a link to some of the highlights: https://fb.watch/EhP4rheu_X/?

Our Stake Choir along with the Primary Choir

We have such a sweet group of sisters who sing in the alto section of the choir and we have become friends. They are so sweet and wanted to do a going away party for Sister Harding.  We planned the party for weeks and in the end we were able to keep it a surprise. One of the Sisters cooks professionally and she prepared a lovely meal for all of us to share.

They call us the Alto Girls

On Christmas Eve, we had the opportunity to serve at the Giving Machine. I have always wanted to do that, and it was such a fun and meaningful experience. Last year, the Giving Machine was located in a mall closer to our apartment, but this year it was moved to a mall farther away by the ocean. The mall that hosted it last year said they would do it again, but only if they received a percentage of the donations. Since the policy is that 100% of every donation goes directly to the charity, that arrangement wasn’t possible.

Unfortunately, the new location didn’t have as much foot traffic. The mall is attached to a casino and is more high-end, with mostly designer shops and only a few restaurants. While we were there, only three people participated. Hopefully next year they will find a place with more opportunities for participation. 

Even so, we enjoyed the opportunity to serve and felt grateful to be part of something that brings hope and help to others. We are looking forward to serving again at the Giving Machine on New Year’s Day.

Serving at the Giving Machine was so much fun!

Later that evening on Christmas Eve, President and Sister Clarke - Mission Leaders for the Cebu Mission - invited all the senior couples to dinner.  It was a lovely evening, everyone brought something yummy to share, we read scriptures from the Book of Mormon and New Testament about the birth of Christ, sang Christmas hymns and played some fun games. We enjoyed getting to know the other senior missionaries a little bit more.

At President and Sister Clarke’s House

Christmas Day was pretty quiet, we talked to our kids in the morning which was Christmas Eve for them. It was so good to talk to all of them but it sure made me homesick. In the afternoon we had dinner with the Stirlands and enjoyed some time together. It was a very quiet day.

In the Temple and In the Ward

We continued to serve in the temple each day and we were so busy. As the weeks went on in December, our temple workers that come from other islands began heading home to prepare for Christmas and be with their families. By the week of Christmas we were down several workers on each shift so we were working extra hard to keep up with many patrons coming worship in the temple. So many patrons and so few workers. One day we even set a temple record for the most people receiving their endowment in one day. That day we had 70 people attend the temple for the first time - it was pretty amazing. In addition to all the endowments, there were several weddings and many, many families being sealed together for eternity. We worked hard but it was a very wonderful and beautiful week. 

In addition to all the patrons, I was training these two sweet ladies

One day early in December these six young men, along with the two sisters from our ward attended the temple for the first time. 

Young Men and Sisters from the Lahug Ward

The next day was Fast Sunday, and each of these young men bore their testimony. They shared how the Church has changed their lives for the better. All of them are preparing to serve missions—some already have their papers submitted, and a few have even received their calls. They testified that they are children of a loving Heavenly Father and that they know they have a purpose in this life. You could see the light in their countenances. The gospel has made such a difference in their lives. When they return from their missions, they are more confident and are usually able to speak English much better, which opens so many additional opportunities for them to succeed in life.

In December, we also had our ward Primary program. Our sweet Primary children knew every word to every song and sang with all their hearts. Each child had their part memorized. It was beautiful and quite impressive, and it brought an abundance of the Spirit into the ward that day. The children here are so darling, with their big dark eyes and black hair. I love getting to know them.

These cute Primary children were so impressive!

Moments like these remind us why we are here. Watching faith grow in the hearts of these young men and children strengthens our own testimonies and fills us with hope for the future of the Church in this part of the world. We are constantly reminded that the Lord is deeply aware of His children, that His gospel changes lives, and that it is a privilege to witness His hand at work and to play even a small part in His great and loving plan.

As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves approaching the one-year mark of our mission. It is amazing to reflect on all that we have experienced in just one year. We have grown and learned so much. We have laughed and cried, faced challenges we weren’t sure we could handle, and discovered that our way is not the only way. We have been humbled, taught, and stretched, and we have learned to rely on the Spirit more than ever before.

We know we were called to serve at the Cebu Temple for a reason. Yes, we have talents, experience, and abilities to share, but we have also learned how much we still have to learn. Living in another culture has taught us powerful lessons, and we have come to understand more deeply that this is the Lord’s work. With us or without us, His work will move forward. We are simply grateful that we were called to labor alongside Him, with Him as our guide.

Our hearts are full—full of love for the work, for the brothers and sisters we are privileged to serve with, and for the trust our Heavenly Father and Savior placed in us by sending us to the Cebu Temple to be part of this sacred work in this portion of His vineyard.

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