Twenty-four hours

Dear Family and Friends,

  Really, you will get more like 27 hours, but that in the subject line just doesn't carry the same punch.

Saturday 

6:30 am. Leave for the Iba District family week celebration. We have a plan we think we will carry out through the day.

8:00 am. Arrive, see the church parking lot full of costumed baton twirlers, a marching percussion group, and families, including investigators, with a variety of banners and signs proclaiming 'family!', a few in matching t-shirts made just for today, even some banana leaf woven hats. (Very cool). And of course, missionaries!

8:30 am. We all march through the town, us under our bright green umbrella and wishing like mad that we had about a hundred family proclamation pamphlets to pass out like candy! One of these days we will start thinking ahead of ourselves. We give out our pass along cards without getting too far behind the parade. 

9:00 am. Arrive at a large pavilion all set up with professionally made banners that tell about our church and all that it offers to bless families. There is a large stage and many chairs. This is a beautifully conceived plan with great potential! There are booths set up to the side for health tests and donating blood; missionaries are not allowed. Food vendors gather around the back with their carts of tempting marienda (treats). The band plays while the twirlers twirl. Someone hands us a program that shows President Dahle as the concluding speaker! Surprise! There is also a nice slot titled Guest Speakers: that's me. :) Surprise again! That is when I start praying.

9:45 am. Again, I am blessed with a little idea of what to say. I say again, because this kind of speaking invitation happens regularly for both of us. President Dahle doesn't bat an eye. I do. But here I must say that those excruciating hours of standing in front of institute and seminary students ( and I should have bolded the word excruciating because my faith and my fear had many arm wrestling bouts), paid off. By the kindness of a loving Father I am able to do this.

10:00 am. (Here is where our own plans are tossed out) There is an hour of really fun games and activities before the closing remarks are given by the mission president. Wow! He really teaches every time! I am married to this man! He too, knows what to say. Elder Uchtdorf said it's okay for me to say, "I am so proud of him!"

11:30 am. Lunch. Someone so kindly hands us each a specially ordered meal from Chow King.

12:30 pm. We take the Elders and Sisters to their respective apartments in Botolan. We see that the Sisters new apartment is lacking in a few basic items, like drinkable water and a rice cooker. Almost equal in importance!

3:00 pm. Arrive at a baptism for four, our Elders' investigators. We are the 'concluding remarks'. Surprise!

4:00 pm. Shopping for Sisters, then a treat of Greenwich pizza! Hawaiian Loaded!

6:45 pm. Return to Sisters' apartment. Here I will note that the Sisters' apartment is located at the back of a large family compound which is guarded by five dogs, and an uncountable number of chickens. Uncountable because they run squawking hither and yon from the dogs. Naturally, the dogs are anxious to greet the new strange lady who reeks of terror, by barking and growling ferociously the whole way. (Only my walking partners can fully appreciate this scene.)

7:30 pm. Back on schedule! Now we are heading to Castilliejos to welcome and interview a late arriving Elder and his trainer. 

9:30 pm. Headed for home.

Sunday

7:30 am. Head back to Botolan for church.

8:55 am. The congregation sings "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" as a prelude/time to be quiet hymn. :-D I am not kidding! This is business as usual for the -ber months! It is wonderful. The night before we heard Kenny G. playing something holiday on his saxophone in the grocery store! I love Kenny G. for Christmas! Even now we are listening to him play, ...and so, I am offering this simple phrase, to kids from one to ninety-two... We usually wait for the first snowflake to fly, but we are out of control this year!!

9:00 am. The meeting begins, and you will never guess who the concluding speakers are. 

We cannot believe how greatly we are blessed! 

Our prayers are also with all of you!

Love,

President and Sister Dahle

Have you ever seen anything this charming?

The definition of cute

Transfer Day

Here are some of our heroes:

Olongapo bus station on transfer day:

Our newest batch!

On we go to conquer the foe! (also a shout out for the Cougs)

Dearest Ones,

     We are at the conclusion of our second transfer. We loved meeting our new arrivals! Wahoo! President Dahle should be bleary eyed and tipping over for the amount of sleep he hasn't had, and the learning curve he has been climbing. Oh my. There aren't any tutorials for creating, realigning, transferring, calling, and releasing in the zones and districts and the missionaries who inhabit them.  We are serious enrollees in the 'school of hard knocks and learn as you go.' Everything still feels like ground work, but I think we might be having some fun! 

     Last week we traveled to the very southernmost area of our mission and we were so delighted with what we found! Mariveles is a coastal town at the very bottom of the Bataan Peninsula and according to four great Elders who would know, you can see the lights of Manilla across the bay at night. The city is flavorful in a lovely way, and the geography is breathtaking. The sun was shining! Hasn't anyone decided to come yet?! ;)
     In other areas, President interviewed a new Elder and his trainer at the edge of the sea, sitting on poles arranged for the purpose of holding a small absent fishing boat. And a later interview, at a chapel across the street from an ice cream shop who's sign provided me, with the help of other waiting Elders, a good Tagalog lesson.

     The very best sight was, you guessed it; our own missionaries! We are learning where they live, where they walk and how they are doing. Our happiest days are those spent out seeing them and serving with them!    
      Another heartening fact: the youth members here are going out on missions in droves! Do you know what that means for the future of this part of Zion? And today we sent five of our own back out to help bring forth real growth in the church right here in the Philippines. We hope they see their future as bright and filled with purpose.

Larry is that you?

     Wildlife update: Since we came here there has been this rather loud croaking noise at night that sounds like its coming from our aircon unit at the top of the stairway. Only slightly disturbing.  Today we have learned by a telling that its a LARGE gecko. When it jumps on you, it uses its sticky feet to hang on and you can hardly get it off! But don't worry it's not dangerous. Ummm. Lets hope it stays in the outside part of the aircon eating insects and cockroaches, and doesn't waste its valuable time coming inside where I hope there are none of the above. Our wonderful lizards are doing a fine job and don't need any help!  I hope there will never be a picture of him! 

     

With love,

President and Sister Dahle

The yellow up the side of the road is rice that has been spread out to dry! 

The Bowens came for a mission tour

Dear Family and Friends,

It's preparation day again! This day gets here lightening fast each week, but that's because each day dissolves into thin air and it's bedtime again! Being engaged in much fun work must be the reason.  Each day has something to look forward to.

Last week we looked forward to having Elder Shayne M. Bowen and Sister Bowen coming for a mission tour. They walked through the door on Tuesday in time for lunch. They taught us while we drove through driving rain, over ice cream at our kitchen table, and at every other available moment, along with two big zone conference meetings and a mission leadership meeting. What a gift! The timing and content were, as you would expect, ideal. We are newly inspired and guided in our overall view, and the missionaries have been given improved vision for their possibilities! Did you know that you can train fleas to stay in a bottle with no real lid? If they believe there is a ceiling they don't even try to jump out of the jar.  Elder Bowen helped expose our false ceilings and encouraged more ambitious goals! The sky is the limit!

Elder and Sister Bowen with our lovely senior couples

Remember our cultural event from a few weeks ago? These four boys who participated all now have mission calls! (2 to the Philippines, 1 to Hong Kong, 1 to Redlands CA!) We will be here still when they return we are excited to see them when they get back!

We enjoyed the Bowens thoroughly and the experience was 100% lifting. Heavenly Father is so kind.

I've been playing our extensive playlist of Mormon Tabernacle Choir music. We have their patriotic album, and God Bless America came on. I asked Sister Mercy if she knew what they were saying.  When I told her she laughed that they would sing for God to bless only America.

With Sister Bowen

The kids playing in a "swap safari" after the storm.

I explained the best I could, then invited her to sing something patriotic from here, which she did with her characteristic smile and a fist pump at the end.

We have been 'dampened' by the edge of tropical storm Kalmaegi (Luis). It should be worn out by tomorrow in time for three days straight of road tripping. See what I mean by fun work? We are going out to visit our latest batch of missionaries, look them in the eyes, see where they live, interview and teach. And probably learn plenty from them and their trainers.

Merry Christmas! I mentioned the -ber months earlier, and sure enough! It's happening! There are trees and decorations for sale in The National Bookstore. Lighted figures and hanging designs that resemble stained glass windows are at roadside and just waiting to be taken home by any early enthusiast! I don't think there is Halloween as we know it, of course no Thanksgiving, so why not just go for the biggie?

This is a Christian country and make no mistake. There are references to Deity at every turn, from the sides of jeepneys to road signs to t-shirts. So the early celebrations are not just for the sake of retailers; we are not expecting to see too many Christmas Shoppers. One guess would be its for the fun of it (everything is more fun in the Philippines!), and from a sincere belief in Christ.

Have a wonderful week!

With love,
President and Sister Dahle

P.S. This little doll sat by me in Relief Society a couple weeks ago. She was confirmed today. We entertained ourselves by taking selfies with my iPad. Don't judge us...the scriptures refused to come up. :-/ ...plus I couldn't understand the lesson and she couldn't hear it. (She is deaf). Isn't she cute?!?

I don't want to be a pie!!! (Anyone see Chicken Run?)

Following this truck full of chickens...made me think of Chicken Run ;)

Little Green Men...

Dear All,

Two notable notes, in chronological order:

1. I have finally spent an afternoon out with the sister missionaries! Sister Winters (remember this is my sister!) and I offered our service to the four sisters who's area we live in, and they kindly formed two threesomes. It was an experience we had both been hoping for! It was raining cats and dogs, literally, so my companions voted for me to drive us around instead of using the jeepneys and trikes. Sister Winters got to do both and was completely delighted! I was slightly disappointed, but dry is also good! Three homes, four lessons, and a variety of investigators and less actives returning! Again the language barrier was in the way, but when invited to give my testimony or share a scripture (in English) they understood me just fine. And I did have an idea of what to share. Miracle. The Sisters were calm and sweet and brought a loving spirit with them to each brother and sister that we saw. One was a first lesson that they had ITL'd (invited to learn) just a few days before. She was touched and receptive, especially soft hearted because her husband had recently passed away. Her son was home and her best friend dropped by just then. Nice!

2. Yesterday morning there was a knock on our bedroom door. President was out in the house so I just called out to 'come in', thinking it would be Sister Winters. There was instead another knock and when I went to the door there was a nice Filipino man in a green t-shirt asking to come in and clean our CR. CR is the acronym for comfort room, which is a delicate way to say bathroom. The fact that there was not only one green-shirted man in my house, but SEVERAL was extremely surprising! They were all in different poses here on our upstairs landing engaged in some serious deep cleaning! This is our gym area, too. Undeterred! Under, around, behind, inside, outside every moveable and non-moveable thing. It was like that scrubbing bubbles commercial where each little bubble whirls and swirls all over leaving sparkling cleanliness in its path! I declined the kind offer for our bedroom and cr to be cleaned in this manner out of a sense of privacy, and because Sister Mercy had just spent an hour and a half the day before giving it the business. I retreated back into the bedroom only to see two green t-shirted men cleaning the outside of our window and the wide ledge that is a nice landing zone for little birds. This is a two story house! Later there was a long handled broom waving around cleaning off the underside of the eves?! Red alert! When I ventured out of the bedroom a little later they had shined every corner of every room of this huge place and left the floors slick and the whole place smelling just wonderful. And then just disappeared! Is anyone jealous?

We have learned since that the FM group sends this crew out every six months to give our compound a going over! The timing is probably not a coincidence since Elder and Sister Bowen of our area presidency will be here on Tuesday to do a mission tour. They will stay in our spare room that we have named The General Authority Room. Handy, right? We are excited to have them come, and admittedly a little nervous too. Two and a half days to keep my ridiculous inside. I'll let President Dahle be the one.

This is a phrase I have picked up from Sister Mercy. Whenever I try to clean something or wash a dish when she is here she smiles big, takes whatever it is away from me and says, "I'm the one!"

Upon rereading this I realize that it looks like I spend a great deal of time in the bedroom, which is easily explained. It's also the home office where I sit and read medical helper books and try to solve the variety of rash and fever mysteries while President Dahle spends time doing some of his official president stuff, making endless phone calls and producing official documents, and reading the weekly letters...which he thoroughly enjoys!

Another note on the English speaking, for those considering a mission here or who is even just curious: one SundayPresident Dahle was giving a talk and he came to a part that he really wanted the congregation to understand so he asked one of the branch presidency counselors to come and translate for him. The translator struggled around many of the phrases, until he finally stopped and said,"President, they understand you just fine!" Everyone laughed and was relieved for the sake of the brother. So, it's all good with the English speaking! No worries!

Tomorrow we are on the road again!

Sending this early because our P-day will be taken up with wild preparations. My kingdom for Costco and Kohlers! :)

With love to each one,
President and Sister Dahle

What a great week! One for the record books!

Dear All!

What a great week! One for the record books.

Don't worry, you won't get a novel. Just the inside flap.

Elder and Sister Winters are here! This is a very special Senior Missionary Couple from Glendale, Arizona serving their third mission! And Sister Winters is my sister! It's funny to explain it to our Filipino friends because everyone is Sister- not just the missionaries- so we have to add the phrase 'same mother and father'. They are shocked! Try to imagine how it feels to be halfway around the world and suddenly, there is your little big sister and her sweetheart there for the sole purpose of missionary service, however they can, in whatever way they can...and to be a sister. (I hope she realizes this will be part of her work). It definitely calls for high kicks! They are living just up the road for the month of September and will be coming here serving as right and left hand to get some organizational projects completed. Heavenly Father is so very kind!

When we first walked through this house and saw the china cabinet, complete with all the fancy dishes and some stemware, Downton Abby came to mind. But alas, no Downstairs! Friday night the newly formed presidency of the Olongapo mission and their wives came for dinner, and it all came to life at the expert hands of Brother Barangan! What fun! What did we eat? I'm not totally sure, but it was so delicious. We foreigners sat across from the Filipinos and were able to watch and learn how to properly eat each beautiful thing!

Then came Saturday! We had all our Senior Missionaries for a meeting! We have so every much to learn, and their collective wisdom and experience is rich. Again, more is going on than we knew, and they are doing so much good! There was definitely more room at our large table...

And finally, in the evening, we attended a baptism that was long awaited! Along with four others, Sister Mercy's husband, brother Jerry was baptized! Happiest day ever! We have invited ourselves to their temple sealing in approximately one year! They have four children that will join them there. Wahoo!

On Sunday we met Xyk. He is eight and brings himself to church since he lives nearly next door. His baptism is in two weeks. At the end of the meeting block he came to the bench in front of us and got on his knees looking back right into my eyes. He wanted to meet. Then, he saw that I had gum and asked about some 'chiclet'. I shared. We were instant and fast friends. He took my hand and we went in search of my asawa/kasama. It will be fun to watch him for the next three years! Missionary secret: always carry chiclet.

I can't end without a lizard update. As bad as they are at hide and seek, they excel at playing dead. There was one in the kitchen sink that I felt sure was a goner...we were staring at him from inches away! He did not flinch. I don't touch lizards under any circumstances, so we tactfully left the room to give him leave to escape if he was indeed still alive. And he was gone. Wow! That is mature composure!

With love,
President and Sister Dahle

Presidency Dinner