Dear Family and Friends,
No one probably noticed, but we had a two week absence from writing the weekly email! We really were absent for five of the days due to a trip to Baguio for the Philippines Area Mission Presidents Seminar. There was cool weather and pine trees! Wahoo! We had two days of training interspersed with collaborating and commiserating. We were inspired and fed spiritually and physically! The food was a nonstop array of delectables. The last day we travelled to some cultural sites, enjoyed a program by native dancers, visited a weaving business full of hand run looms, and shopped! Thanksgiving dinner was exquisite, followed by Christmas carols and then dancing. There was a live band and we sang along to Karen Carpenter and contemporaries while cutting the proverbial rug. It was exactly what we needed. It was fun and restful and wildly helpful. We came home ready to go again! Thanks to our unparalleled Area Presidency, their wives, and many other helpers!
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| At the weaving shop |
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| Didn't know this was being taken! |
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| Retail Therapy |
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| New Friends |
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| A History Lesson |
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| Sunset the day before Thanksgiving |
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| President Dahle with President Bowen |
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Dinner coming up, complete with turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie.
Missed Grandma Moss's yams, though.
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Our closest neighbors, and friends, the Clarks of the Angeles Mission.
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We were trying to get a picture of the mission doctors, Elders Arner and Morrison, who save me daily, and their wives.
The Arderns and Bowens didn't even try to resist the chance to photo bomb.
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Today was MLC. Best day! All zone leaders and sister training leaders come to this monthly meeting and counsel! We were able to pass along some of what we learned last week and we hope they will flow the water to the end of the row by taking it back to those they lead. I think the world should be very excited about the leadership that is growing in missions around the globe! We certainly are!
Three weeks ago President Dahle had a contest. The missionaries texted in a number between 1 and 100, and whoever guessed closest to the number we were thinking, won . . . Us! So lucky!
President spent 24 hours with the winning companionship, and I went with the nearest Sisters just for the day. What a great experience that was! In case anyone has forgotten, missionaries work long, hard hours! We both went to lesson after lesson, cti'd (contact, testify of a unique truth, invite to learn), and at days end were exhilarated and wiped out. President got the most interesting cti. It was a gentlemen who owned an outdoors billiards table with a roof over it. They had a fun chat, then President offered to play a round with the challenge that if he won, the owner would have to get baptized. He won! We haven't been invited to font side yet, but we can still hope!
I have ridden in a trike. Finally.
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| First trike ride with Sister Ulanday |
A bid for Senior Couples: We are losing two of our four couples by June! Panic! This is not bribery! It's not! But two weeks ago, we had a Senior Missionary outing to lunch on the beach! On the way there, we stopped at a special camp and had fun learning how to survive in the rain forest by using a large knife to design tools out of bamboo! The mind reels! We fed tropical fish at the dock, and saw a full Jacque Cousteau array. Lunch doubled as a time to meet and plan and counsel. Mango shakes! BUT OF COURSE, the actual and true draw is the wonderful work and the association with the missionaries and the members and the building of the church here! Richest experience possible awaits! Bring your friends! Consider it?
With our love,
President and Sister Dahle
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| Senior Missionaries at Play |
We try to visit a different Branch or Ward each Sunday. We were at the San Juan Branch and I spent my time in Primary.
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These Sisters are the Primary President and First Counselor.
They do everything! Just two.
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Daughters of the Branch President. He was called when the oldest one was an infant. She is now ten.
They are about to have their fourth. Aren't they beauties?
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| They say it's paisley on Sunday |
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| No room inside |
