Under Construction

Dearest Family and Friends,

Christmas and New Years over! Check. And life is carrying on! A 2015 calendar is taking shape and we think we mostly know what kinds of things to put on there. One thing for certain...there are very few blank spaces. None, actually, because just like all of you, there really is more to do than 365 days can hold.

We finally succeeded on President Dahle's birthday, in getting an hour on the beach! We sat at a little thatch covered picnic table and held still. A breeze blew. There was no one at all to cti, so we watched the South China Sea roll in. President had downloaded a book, Ghost Soldiers, which is about the history of this very region after the Bataan Death March. We read some together! And walked in the surf! Happy Birthday for both of us! 

Happy Birthday President!

The assistants and office elders with Elder Gorringe.

Trick candles on Sister Gorringe's famous carrot cake!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Maybe we should have had some orange cones on our doorstep this past six months to warn all that we are under construction! We have taken note as some old roads we travel regularly are demolished, huge concrete chunks slammed apart by heavy machinery. Occasionally it's done in smaller pieces, chiseled away by men with shovels and picks. Eventually the nice new road appears. Are you seeing a metaphor here? Then, of course, there are the more subtle signs of overhaul elsewhere, like the online version when you get the blank screen that just says 'sorry, this site is closed for maintenance.' (I actually used that trick for a couple of days last week! Pillows over my head! It worked great!) We really have had our road bed scraped out past what we thought was our bottom layer, and yet I know with certainty there will be plenty more where that came from! The cones are permanent! Maybe eternal. Hark! Growth! And we are being carried.

The Metaphor

A note about our Christmas. Many, many miraculous missionary mothers sent us packages loaded with essentials as well as fun to be given out to each and every missionary who hadn't yet received a Christmas package! We filled our big room with boxes and bags and wrappings and undertook a most exciting Santa task! Everyone close at hand helped out. We gathered in two different zones conferences on the 23rd and 24th, hauled along our little tree and piled the packages all around. Every missionary came prepared to give a short message on each of the 9 Christlike Attributes focused on in Preach My Gospel, then 9 names were drawn! We had hymns in between. There was the scriptural Christmas story and prepared musical numbers given by each zone. A big lunch, and a wild rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas finished off each day. The packages were given out to delighted Elders and Sisters amidst picture taking and happy visiting. Fun!!! So fun! A big THANKS to any of you who were involved! 

And thanks to all of you for support and prayers sent our way! 

We send our love to you,

President and Sister Dahle

Missionary Christmas:

 

Ho Ho Ho! 

Monogrammed face and fingers cloths for each missionary. 

Christmas Eve story for another time. 

Don't worry, President Dahle taught the first discussion to the nicest policeman ever!

Happy New Year 2015!

New Year's Social: Brother Barangan never disappoints.

District Presidents and 

Mission Presidency and Wives

Seen in passing:

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.