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