Oh Christmas Tree

Dear Friends and Family,

This is the Christmas Letter! It's going to look like every other letter except we wish to refer you to our blog for a few pictures we have been collecting of the Philippine style Christmas trees and their creative bent! 

Road trips! Nearly to the top of the mission twice, and nearly to the bottom of the mission once. Quite a bit of driving around in the middle to boot. Deliveries! New missionaries and trainers, boatloads of Christmas packages, and setting apart six brand spanking new Elders and Sisters, then releasing one. It feels like the number of missionaries going out from the Olongapo Mission is rising! Two years down the road there will be a leadership explosion! It has certainly been going on all along to a good degree, but we have met the current outflow, and are excited for the missionary work they will do and the leadership they will provide when they come home! And we will still be here to see them! Wrap your head around that one...! I'm going to have to learn a few new Tagalog phrases in the next two years since I sort of told one I would be practically fluent by the time he came home. Joke lang. Magandang umaga po. (Spell checker is sending off alarms) 

Heading out: Elder Mongroban and soon to be Elder Villegas

Destination: Hong Kong and California

What will we do on Christmas Day? FaceTime. All of our children and grandchildren will be at our house in Lehi for Christmas Eve, which lines up perfectly with our Christmas morning!! It will be so fun to see every single one. This is at the top of the many good reasons Heavenly Father inspired great minds in technology! There will be a hospital visit to an Elder who's sickness timing is particularly unfortunate. He might get caroled. His neighbors might get caroled. We have some miniature candy canes to share with the neighbors, who may also get caroled. The Winters like to carol! We will be back up. Later, Christmas dinner with our senior couples and our Elders at the office.  I'm especially grateful that one of those senior couples is my amazing sister and her sweetheart, Elder and Sister Winters! The Gorringes, Whites, and Wrights have become like family, as have the Elders that do so much to keep our boat afloat. In other words, we plan to get through this first Christmas away with colors! And with any luck, they may even fly.

May your Christmas be full and happy, filled with the truest Spirit! Our gratitude for the Savior and the Plan of Happiness has quadrupled as we have engaged in new ways in His work. Testifying about and relying on the enabling power of the Atonement regularly has given new life to our own understanding and deepened our gratitude immeasurably. We have been so blessed!

We love you! Merry Christmas!

President and Sister Dahle 

Manila

Inside the lab... The 'weather' inside is frightful. 

At the window of the hospital lab

Emergency room. Please note the falling snow. 

At the beach

Uncle!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Don't be alarmed by the subject line! It's not what you think. 

Today we sent off fourteen perfected and well loved missionaries. We have been here long enough that we have come to know them. We have one-on-one experiences, like a long walk around the hospital neighborhood to stretch the legs of a watching companion. We have inside jokes like, "Just put a cute white belt on it!" There have been jogs around the compound, some fun future prospect conversations, several weird rashes, and a rabid cat bite! (Not really, but that's what the pet owner said. When this sister called, it had been a long day for both of us and at the idea of that on top of everything else we both just laughed like a pair of hyenas.) We had to say goodbye to two of our assistants. One just released today. The other was serving when we came here, and was since called to be a zone leader where he was especially needed. This was Elder Marfori. That was a tearful parting all around. The thought of losing these dear friends has driven me to an extreme length! I can't believe this is me saying it. I'm going to learn how to use Facebook. Uncle!!

As we sat together last night the thought of all that power and experience walking out the door struck me as wasteful! So we asked them to write their very best words of counsel and teaching for the new missionaries that will be sitting in those exact chairs in less than 48 hours. Tonight, as I write, there are thirteen chairs waiting with a very special message of hard earned wisdom waiting just for them. It will fit in their shiny new planners if they choose. Kind of like the famous last words so plentifully given in the Book of Mormon!

Going home

Wisdom waiting to be passed on.

The next batch and recipients of the 'wisdom'! They are going to be great!

Three sets of parents came here to scoop up their daughters. You can imagine!

Oh! The storm was a spring shower accompanied by a soft fall breeze. We still had some 'refugees' for the night who cheerfully completed two giant projects that I needed help with! The Christmas gift bags are loaded and the vitamins are packaged for the next six months! I will remember this good trick! 

Last weekend we attended District Conference in Santa Cruz. It's about a three hour drive up to the top of the mission. So instead of coming all the way home Saturday night and going back in the morning we stayed in a hotel there, which just happens to be on a beautiful beach. It was dark, but there was a wedding celebration ending and we watched as they sent off those lanterns that burn and float up and out over the ocean! The morning view was amazing! The hours in between left us wishing the management would decide if they were a live rock band dance hall or a hotel. The drummer helped President Dahle stay alert while he worked on the transfer till 2:00 am. And I have test driven my orange earplugs with double pillow coverage. So funny! Miraculously we woke rested and cheerful! And the conference was a joy!

New missionaries in ten hours! Can't wait to meet them!

Thank you for your many prayers around the storm. We were so blessed. And now we have a tried emergency plan which also gives us great comfort.

We love you so dearly,

President and Sister Dahle

Down time part of transfer day:

Matching up new missionaries with their trainers:

Anxiously waiting to see who will be training them for the next six weeks.

Opening the envelopes containing the name and picture of their assigned trainee.

First conversation of many. A life changing friendship begins.

Alarming! It can run twenty miles an hour! 

I clocked it while running screaming from the room. 

President and the Elders had a little challenge evicting him by way of spider heaven. 

Alarm clock. With no off button. 

Maybe Snooze. 

Seen in passing:

Storm Watch

Dearest Friends and Family!

Hello from your less local weather report! Maybe you haven't really been looking at it, but we surely have! This is the single most stressful time I have seen for President Dahle. Ruby has hardly completed a twirl (not a real meteorological term) without him knowing about it. We worked hard and fast Saturday morning to analyze every corner of our vineyard and get a safety plan of action in place. President Dahle's counselors who are natives, conference called with us, the office staff, and the Winters. Weather.com and CNN did their part. For a day it looked like we would be on the outer fringes. This morning it sashayed to the right, and the go button has been pressed! The suspenseful rest of the story will be the first topic in next week's email. Hopefully there will be little to tell.

Between two appointments an hour and a half drive apart, we spied 15 minutes unspoken for! President aimed for the sunset at a nearby beach and buried the speedometer...so to speak. We grabbed our trusty cooler containing a makeshift picnic and jumped out of our van with intent to sink the sun in the West Philippine Sea! As we hastened across the street we saw four gentlemen just WAITING for us; ok, they were sitting together shooting the cool evening breeze. We had a great visit! We have been invited back to that historic park...site of the Bloodless Battle, for it's 70th year anniversary celebration. One of our new friends was four years old at the time, and remembers some surrounding events. They have kids, grandkids or neighbors who are Mormons, one grandson currently serving a mission, but none of them, as yet, have given it a chance. We will send the missionaries! And try again another day for the picnic.

New friends found near the beach. 

We have one black lizard (Stealth Man)! We caught him behind the garbage can with a pink lizard! Date night? They both ran like the wind. When the can was emptied and returned there was discovered another clinging to the same back side! Then, what to our wondering eyes did appear, when last night we opened a cupboard door and one nearly fell smack in the middle of my peanut butter and honey! I wonder if it was the same one that scampered across my finger tips last week? GOOD NIGHT NURSE!!! 

Follow-up Training was Friday. Have I already explained this two or three times? Bear with me... This happens 3-5 weeks after a new batch arrives. It gives us a chance to look them in the eyes, assess progress, hug them as needed and feed them a good meal. They get a short interview. They talk with their fellow batch mates with such joy...so many stories to tell already. And a chance to share how they are figuring out their new lives. I have begun to imagine them leaving their anxious families just a few weeks before, and taking those first steps away. What a vulnerable time. I am not supposed to be a 'mother' to them, but I can't stop thinking about the hopes and prayers of their own mothers. I remember well. Seeing this side is the best! What great faith! They are growing at warp speed. Heavenly Father's plan!

One line about the trainers of the above. They make all the difference and hold the most important calling in the mission. We depend on them so very much. Grateful!

We hope you are all safe, well, happy, and making the very most of your family time as Christmas draws near. Thank you for your prayers, emails, and continued cheerleading on our behalf. It means the world to us!

All our love to you!

President and Sister Dahle 

Who wouldn't want to live here?

It might as well be Bedford Falls. 

Her name is Shierrylene. Fun! CTI everywhere!

Drive by sunset

Remote control trike?

Six week old twin brothers! Mother on the left. 

Helping hands on the right. 

Two Big Weeks

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!

At the weaving shop

Didn't know this was being taken!

Retail Therapy

New Friends

A History Lesson

Sunset the day before Thanksgiving

President Dahle with President Bowen

Dinner coming up, complete with turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. 

Missed Grandma Moss's yams, though. 

Our closest neighbors, and friends, the Clarks of the Angeles Mission. 

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. 

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.

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

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.

These Sisters are the Primary President and First Counselor. 

They do everything! Just two. 

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?

They say it's paisley on Sunday

No room inside