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

That's what it's all about!

Dear Ones!

Sometimes I like to do a warm-up paragraph or two before the main breaking news story, but not today! Last Friday we had the greatest blessing, with the help of our amazing office couple, the Gorringes, to transport a family of ten to the Manila temple for endowments and sealings! The head of the household is one of the branch presidents who had not yet been to the temple.  President Dahle talked with him and invited him to get himself and his family ready, gave the date of November 14, and said that we would be the ones to take them there. IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!  Mom and Dad, and their two adult, married children and spouses were endowed and sealed. One couple has an 18 month old little boy that joined us in the sealing room in all of his adorableness! And at last, the three teenaged children of the patriarch and matriarch came in together and joined with the rest of their family to be sealed altogether. No need for me to tell any more about the experience, except to say that it was beautiful. And, that it was the culmination of missionary efforts from many over the years. We are all enlisted! Yesterday we were out in Bagac working with our Elders there, when President Dahle brought out the picture of them at the temple on his phone to invite that family to also prepare. One Elder got a close look and spotted their daughter-in-law that he had taught the gospel to when he was a brand new missionary in a completely different part of the mission. He was so excited to see her there! Pure joy.

Sealed

As we finished yesterday in Bagac we walked the few steps to waters edge and watched a fishing boat as many hands hoisted it onto the beach, then gathered around to get their two fish each as thanks for their labor. Fascinating to get up close momentarily to the daily works and walks of their lives. The fishermen were happy and friendly, even shared a fish with our Elder, who then shared it with a member sister who's house bordered the pathway back to the street. 

Today our world's pace has slowed. It feels odd! President has crashed in a long overdue nap, again proof that Heavenly Father is so kind. I voiced my concern over this stillness and before he put his head on the pillow he smiled and said, "Just wait". 

It's raining! Exception rather than the rule these days.

Another chapter in the lizard saga: Friday morning as we were driving down the road a member of the teenage-danger-seeking-lizard-club landed skillfully on the driver's side window! He was so cool! Made his way boldly down to the ledge where the glass goes into the door, then faced the wind to get the full view of his travels. After he had seen enough he executed a perfect dismount into the air. Wow! Who was that green guy? 

We love you!

President and Sister Dahle

Harvest continues along with crop 2 planting

New crop in more ways than one

Slammed

Dear Everyone,

That is the best description I have for the last ten days. My oh my. We might be old people! Most days there is way too much to do, so you just get started on the noisiest task. Then keep moving, keep smiling, keep doing, then go to bed. And by the greatest miracle ever its definitely not done, but The Prophet hasn't called to say you have ruined the church, so you go ahead and get up the next day and repeat! Our sneakers are smokin'! Or, our orthotics are wearing thin. :-)

We saw a most precious sight on Instagram this week. Love that technology! It was Eli taking some of his first steps. We have played it over and over, just as we have the dozens of other little videos and pictures we have gotten of our kids and grandkids these past four months. It's my favorite bedtime activity! One daughter commented on the first steps video, that she doesn't "know how Mom can stand to watch this"! It's true that I can just imagine him running into my arms. But in reality, he would probably run away crying to his mommy because he definitely likes her best. Someone told us that we would miss our children way more than they would miss us, and we have been promised that they would be more greatly blessed by our willing service. So, I can stand it, almost always cheerfully. I trust His promises. We see His hand every day.

Yesterday there was a little, bent, 87-year-old sister who is made of spunk and fire, at the front door. She needed her temple recommend renewed! She came here on her own in a jeepney! She reportedly spoke in church last Sunday and waved her finger at the congregation and threw down the gauntlet, "If I can make it to church every week, so can you!" Hooray for enduring examples! 

Sister Spunk and Fire

Brother Jan opened his mission call in our living room! He and some friends, a brother, and his seminary teacher joined him here. He leaves in five weeks for the San Pablo Mission. We are sending out our best!

THE Big White Envelope

It is getting cooler! I can't believe it! We have felt a cool little breeze three times, and the early mornings and night time have a different feel. It's like Fall, maybe. Wahoo! So for future reference, this is a good season for visiting the Philippines! Come for Christmas! Come for a year and a half! Two!

So much love,

President and Sister Dahle

Seasoned Elder on the left greets Brand New Elder on the right. They are cousins! This has happened with another set of cousins before, and will happen again after the new year! FUN!!!

Up at 2:00 am to get on the bus that brings them here. 

They have been oriented and fed. 

Where did that come from?

Messages for today:

Fun ride to church!

Apparently five Miss Universe winners have come from Olongapo! 

Their pictures are on this welcoming arch so you can see for yourself.

Here is the steeple...Orion chapel coming up!

"The traffic is terrific!"

Transfer Week

Dearest Family and Friends,

It's transfer week. That means by noon today there were 13 Elders and Sisters here with one day left in their mission! Only one! They are worried about some things looking forward: "Can I still speak in my native language? Can I learn to go places alone again? Will I be able to figure out what I'm supposed to do with my life?" And they won't say it out loud, but many go home to uncertainties of family relationships and how they will meet other basic needs. Embrace them when you see them!

Last night we had a Philippines-wide broadcast by Elder and Sister Oaks, Elder Robbins, Bishop Causse, and Elder and Sister Ardern. They gave out tools! The exact ones these Thirteen will need. We hope they will be utilized daily, to guard against our greatest concern for them; inactivity. We pray for their barges to remain lit all the way through their storms and their fairer days! Embrace them when you see them.

Tonight there will be a pizza party, a final testimony devotional, emailing families, wonderful conversation, repacking, and much weighing and reweighing of large suitcases. Tomorrow morning after our goodbyes are said I will find small piles of discarded items that just wouldn't fit. It's interesting to see what is chosen to be left behind. Generally clothing, personal care items, language study books, a fancy first aid kit and one tragic choice it seemed to me, a mission's worth of weekly planners! Ouch.

Then on Wednesday the cycle is refreshed with fifteen brand new missionaries straight from the MTC! They have a different air about them than the ones we just said goodbye to. A little fresher, nervous, excited, optimistic and ready to try their hardest, compared to the Thirteen; competent, deeper, self-assured, weary and a little worn around the edges, maybe even solemn, but so well matured and ready to go forward in more permanent ways. Once again, Heavenly Father's plan is perfect. We are so grateful to be part of it.

There have been a few of our very best hunters and fishers that have finished their mission early for medical reasons. We are so sorry to see them go, but know that this is all part of an all-knowing Father's plan. Please, embrace them when you see them.

Our Christmas trees are up! Are you shocked and appalled? When in Rome...!

Tree of Treasures!

Group effort! Yes, Johnny Mathis did his part.

With so much love,

President and Sister Dahle

P.S. We have had some other adventures this week!

All Saints Day:

We drive past this cemetery every time we head 

south. Graves on top of graves all the way up the hill. 

We took this picture from across the bay. It gives the rest of the story of the cemetery; spreads clear up the point of that mountain. 

On All Saints Day, Nov. 1, it's like Memorial Day. Families come and clean, paint and decorate their loved one's final resting place. 

Along the road food carts appeared to feed all the visitors. Some leave food at the grave as well.

Mabayo:

Mabayo Branch baptismal font. Not kidding!

Mabayo Elders

Where we went to church today...Mabayo Branch. 

On the road to and near Mabayo:

Guard Chicken

Down on the bay.

   Who's that good looking guy?

Caught on the path to the beach.

Yes, beach living.