Pictures from Celestial Motors activity...

6.25.15...

Hi Family,

The rainy season has begun in the Philippines! We have had some amazing storms, with lighting, thunder, and sheets of rain that you wouldn't believe! It rains for a while, and if you walk out in it, you are still so hot! After the rain, the water in the flooded roads disappears, the sun comes out, and everything is dry again! Still hot, sometimes you can feel a little breeze, which is wonderful!

People put hankies, or t shirts on top of their heads, if they don't have an umbrella, anything to keep their head from getting wet! One day I was walking back from the temple, and it started to rain, and a sister ran up to me with an umbrella, and said let me walk you to the door, so your head wont get wet! I said "I love walking in the rain, and told her Thanks anyway!" she thought I was crazy!

Dad and I were in charge of an activity for the Senior couples last Sat. We took them to a jeepney factory in San Pablo called Celestial Motors! We are good friends with the owner, and knew them well! It was great to be back in our mission, It was so fun looking at the Jeepneys, and they wanted to take everyone on a jeepney ride, and everyone wanted to go, but we had an appointment at Arabela's for lunch, so the plan was that we would stop on the way back! Off to Arabela's we went with 19 people in 2 vans and one car! You can't believe the memories and feelings that flooded back to me as we drove roads we have driven so many time! I started raining, and had a light rain most of the time we were there! The owner at Arabela's remembered us, and even his wife came out to greet us! The food was excellent and all the couples wished it were closer, so they could eat there more often! We did a little shoe shopping and walking around the little town of Liliw, and headed back down the mountain to Celestial Motors, where they had a lovely snack prepared for us of rice cake, and buko pie! They are such kind people! The ride in the Jeepney was a highlight of the trip! He drove us to the San Pablo Stake Center, and we walked around and down to the lake behind the Stake Center, then back! It started raining real hard, and flooding started happening in the streets (oh the memories)So we all had a real Filipino experience riding in the rain in the jeepney! What Fun!! We got back to Manila about 8:00 pm, with a very successful activity day behind us! As much as I loved our mission, and the experience of going back, I'm glad those 3 years are behind me and that I'm not constantly worrying about 160 missionaries all the time!

I have been given the opportunity of serving on a shift in the Manila Temple one day a week! That is such a blessing in my life! After the recorder heard from my Stake President, Bishop and the Area President, and they all gave approval, I was set apart by the Temple President, President Abasanta. He gave me the most beautiful blessing! I started serving there last Wed. We have to get up at 4:30, so we can leave Eastwood by 5:30 and drive to the Temple to get me there in time to get in my white clothes for 6:00 prayer meeting! Dad then just goes over to his office and works! I love it, all the little Filipino sisters hug me and kiss me on the cheek, and are so willing to help me, and always worried if I have had my lunch! Yesterday was my 2nd day there, and it was wonderful! I loved doing that work again! I get off at 1:00, and I only wish Dad could have the experience as well! So grateful for the Area President allowing me to have this experience while serving as a missionary!

We have been invited to go to the Asia Mission Presidents  Seminar in Hong Kong, the 1st week of September! We are excited, and it will be so nice for us to meet the 10 Mission Presidents that we have contact with almost daily in Richards work! 

Thank you for your wonderful Fathers's Day greetings! You are all amazing, and we continue to give thanks to our Heavenly Father for such a wonderful family! We love you! thanks for your love, prayers, and support to us on this mission! We feel of your spirit and the love of our Heavenly Father as we see Miracles happen every day! Hard to believe we have been gone 4 months now! 

We love hearing from our missionaries,Julia and Davis, and feeling of their happiness in their service! We pray for Richmond and the Andersons as he is so close to leaving! It is exciting times to be involved in this work! We hope you all have a great summer, and be careful in your activities! We are so much grateful for all of you! ( that is how the Filipinos say it) and I love it! We pray for you constantly and love you! Keep us in touch! It is so fun to have James and Brooke comment on our letters and send us pictures of our great grand babies, and their gardens! Love it!

I hope my brothers and sisters don't mind getting our family letter! Can't wait to hear about the Winward wedding, and the new baby for the Harrisons, and mission plans, and hear about JaNae's baby and your trip out there! Also all the news with the Payne missionaries coming and going! We are so blessed as a family!

We love you all!

Love,

 Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Elder and Sister

Father's Day 2015...

To all of you who I love so much, 

There have been many times when I have wanted to send an email to all of you, with my feelings about what we are doing here in the Philippines and my thoughts about each of you and the feelings of my heart. In my mind I have penned many messages but it seemed like before I could put them on paper, something would come along that would require my undivided attention and I would never get back to writing. Today was different however, even though I have a few things to deal with, I decided I had better not let this opportunity pass. Our meetings today in our ward and the wonderful messages I have received  from you, prompted me to set down and write what I'm feeling. Thanks for your wonderful fathers day greetings. It gives meaning to why we are here. Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be a father and  my greatest desire was to have a family. You can imagine how I felt when a patriarch laid his hand on my head and pronounced that "The Lord will bless your union with choice spirits and together you shall teach them the true principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.There shall be no discord or bickering in your home. The spirit of peace and happiness shall reign therein, and there shall be harmony and understanding between you and your children". I came away feeling that I had a lot to live up to. Then the most important factor, was when your mother decided to be my eternal companion, the mother of our children. She had the same goal and desires and together we prayed that we might realize the fulfillment of those promised blessings. As you know, the very place where we started our eternal family, the temple, we were taught that there were certain laws that, if we covenanted to keep, would be a blessing to us and by being obedient to them, we would have eternal life. I want you to know that your mother and I trust in the Lord. We know He keeps His promises. We want, more than anything else,to have an eternal family! There isn't a day go by that I don't think about what we are missing out on, to be honest  this has been harder than when we were here before, but I know that we are helping to make the Savior's pathway straight in helping to build the kingdom in anticipation of His second coming. I love our Father in Heaven, I love my Father, I love Nada's Father, and I love all you Fathers and potential Fathers. There is no way we can be Fathers without Mothers, so to all of you Mothers and potential Mothers, I love you. May we all work hard and help each other as we strive to be an eternal family.

With all my love,

Dad, Grandpa, Great Grandpa

Happy Fathers Day to all of you wonderful fathers!

 This morning in our prayers, Dad expressed our love for our sons and sons-in-law and their goodness! How grateful we are for the fathers to all  our grandchildren, and the amazing husbands to our daughters, and daughters-in- law! We love all of you so much, and the way you are leading your families in righteousness! As well as teaching them how to work, serve one another, love life, respect others, and being obedient in all things, and preparing them for life! We feel so blessed and honored to be the parents and grandparents to this incredible and amazing family! We pray for all of you daily as well as give thanks for this family! We are so thrilled to be a part of it! We love, love you all so much! It is hard to express that love, but it is eternal, and we are so aware of the many blessings we have! 

Hope you all have a Happy Fathers day, and pl;ease know of your worth,you are valuable in the Eternal Plan of Happiness!

We love you!

Love,

Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma

6.15.15...

Hi everyone! I think I missed a week, and I have no idea where that week went!

Hope all of you are well, and enjoying the summer time with swimming, camps, and vacation! 

The Philippines celebrated Independence day last Friday, so there are no people at work at the area office! We decided to take a little trip as well! We went with 2 other couples. Loaded up in a van on Friday morning, and took off to Subic Bay! It was a beautiful drive, also a Holiday, so there was traffic, like taking 45 min to get through the toll booths! Our plan was to see the memorial of the death march that happened in Butaan, but they closed it off, because of the Delegates  in the Philippines were there in mass! But we saw the cross at the top of the Hill, and the markers of their march! Such a sad story, We drove to a place where monkeys were every where, baby ones, big ones, middle size ones, they are so entertaining, climbing in the trees,across the roads, scratching, and moving branches, so we can see them better! There were so many, all over the place. then we proceeded on to the bats, fruit bats, they were huge, their wing span was like 2 feet! They almost darkened the sky, there were so many flying around way up in the trees!It just so happened that one fell to the ground, on the road, and we could see something moving. A Filipino on a bike stopped and pulled the dead bat out of the road, and there was a baby bat as well! So we were able to get up close! The baby didn't want to be separated from his mom, and crawled over and tucked his head into his mothers neck, and the mother was just cold. It was so sweet, but sad! The Filipino  man spread the wings of the mother bat, and they are transparent, and they were so big, and golden in color! The bat has a little fox face and the body looked like a huge hairy rat! The man laid the baby bat on top of his mother,and folded the mothers wings over the baby, and tucked them in his back pack, saying he was going to take the baby to a clinic, or maybe have them for dinner! But off he went on his bike with the bats! The flying fruit bats were quite an amazing sight!

After that we went to our Hotel, where Dad hooked up to WiFi, and worked some on his work, then we walked down by the bay, it was a black sand beach, and reminded me of the beach by where Samantha got baptized! Yes there was garbage in the sand! We met another couple the Neagles and went to dinner there in Olongapo, where we were staying! small world! The Naegleys were from, west Bountiful, and she took Susie and Trav's engagement pictures! It is always fun when you make connections! We all had such a good time, and ate American food at TEXAS JOES!

Dad got up early and worked, and we left at 7;30 for the Subic Safari! Got there just as it opened and right ahead of 2 buses full of Filipino's. We got in a jeepney like thing, that looked like cages, and headed out to the wild, after we bought 2 chickens to feed the Tigers! The tigers came right up to the vehicle, and the guy held out the chicken through the bars, and he would eat it! We were just right face to face with them! they would lift their big bodies and huge paws up and lean against the cage we were in! Oh my gosh, never been so close to a beautiful tiger before! They were quite fascinating!  After that we went on a walking tour around the zoo, and saw many birds, animals, rodents, and reptiles! We saw one big Lizard, and we thought he looked just like Fuie!! He had that fat tail like Jakes Lizard did! We saw a funny animal show, and checked out the whole zoo! Can I tell you how hot it was? No, you just have to imagine!! Hot and humid! Then back to the city for lunch> dad and I talked them in to finding a Pizza Hut, because of a good shrimp salad! We finally found one, and got seated, and they were "out of stock" with the shrimp salad! We laughed, so disappointing after all the trouble to find it! We are in the Philippines!

We met up with the Neagleys again, who had made arrangements for a boat tour around the bay! Just as we got out in the ocean, a storm came up, so we headed another way, and it followed us all around the bay! It was very interesting, and what a sight! 

 I love the beautiful blue sky, and the fluffy white clouds, and the clean air, we could breath! It was beautiful country side, a little different than our mission, as we had coconut trees all over, and I hardly saw any in this area of the Philippines! We loved the fresh air, and were so glad the Area President encouraged us to get away for the Holiday week-end! Of course you are never away from the work, it is just a traveling IFR!

Sunday, we had our Motel Breakfast of pancakes, and headed to the Clark to go to Church. There was a Philippine Area broadcast from Salt Lake that all the branches and Stakes in the Church were watching at 10:00 A.M. Just out of Olongapo, we had a flat tire on the Van! Yaa!

We unloaded the back of the Van, so we could get to the tire, and find everything to change a tire! It brought back so many memories of your dad changing tires in our younger days, when a flat tire was more common! He just kind of took over, with the help of the others! One of the men said, "He is doing all the heavy work, and he is the oldest!" Dad was amazing, and the strongest! They got it fixed, and we were on our way and made it to the church in time, for an Area Broadcast from Salt Lake City! All seats were taken, the church was full of these beautiful faithful Filipino saints, we sat on the last row on the Stage! It was an inspiring conference and the spirit was so strong, as the Brethren from Salt Lake taught us! How blessed we are to be here and learn and progress with these wonderful Saints! After Church, we headed back to Manila, sharing snacks we had left over, and got home at around 2:30! It was a great get away, with some wonderful couples! 

We have been ask to call our 9 new mission Presidents, 3 coming to the Philippines and 6 going to Asia Missions, and give them information on IFR, and other things! It takes about 45 min. to pass that information on to them,and answer their questions. We have already talked with 3 of them, and need to get a hold of the other 3. Three of them are Filipino,s , and the Area President invited us to talk to them when they had a Training last week here at the area office!  I think they enter the MTC for Mission Presidents right away, like 23rd! Can you believe it has been 7 years since we entered the MTC to go on our 1st mission! Now we are back here again, having a totally different experience!

Dad just ask me how many pages this letter is, so I had better close, and get busy! We have an appointment at 6:00 A.M. with another mission President tomorrow, to work with the time it is in the States, so we get up early to accommodate! We love you all so much, and we are so grateful for all of you! Best Wishes to Emily with girls camp, and we would love to see the production of Savior of the World in Farmington Stake! Wish we could hear Britton do his solo! Loved Julia's letter, she is doing so good! Susie hope you keep feeling well, and can get your rest, and energy back! so excited for another grand baby! Angie, hope all your little ones are doing good and that Hanna is feeling well in her pregnancy! so excited for another great grand baby! Hope Brad and Family got home safe, sounds like they had a wonderful trip! Can't believe Davis only has a transfer left! Thanks for the letter Jason, always fun to hear from our children! Good to talk Ted last week! Doug record Britton for us! Congratulations to Jessica getting a Teaching job for next year! Congratulations to the kids that are playing summer ball, and those learning to swim. Hope you have a fun summer! We love all of you and pray for you every day, and miss you so bad! Keep us informed with all your activities!

Thanks for your love, support and prayers! You are all wonderful!

 Love to all,

Mom and Dad

Grandpa and Grandma

6.3.15

Hi Family,

It sounds like the big FHE was fun  at Wagstaffs! Sorry the ST George group couldn't be there! Everyone loved the lesson and the activity! You must have had at least 46 there! What a family! We are so happy you all get together, and we love you all so much!

Our house help Rubi, Bishop and Abish said they would meet us at the Temple at 8 on Sat. morning! I couldn't wait as we haven't seen them since we got back! We were at the Temple at 8, and it was extremely hot as we waited outside for them! While we were waiting, we saw so many people we know! The Nagusbu District happen to be there, and oh my such a reunion! I thought one brother was going to pick dad up, he was so excited to see him! One lady, Sister Asia, just cried, she was so happy to see us! We also saw a young man we knew that worked in the yard at the mission home, while we were there. He had rotten teeth, a big hunch back  and was only 3 feet tall, and barley had shoes on his feet, only shoes people gave him, and they never fit! He was trying to earn money for his mission! I didn't think a mission was possible, although he was faithful at going to church, and blessing the Sac. He lived in the poorest of circumstances, just around the corner from the church there in a little lean to with out power, or water! He tried, but couldn't speak English very well! His name is Arnel, and he saw us setting on the concrete by the flower beds! We recognized him immediately, and it was so good to visit with him.  He was so handsome, had all new white teeth and had served a good mission, and was there to see a companion get married! He talked to us and spoke such good English and looked so sharp! Still with a big hump on his back, and still only 3 feet high, but his spirit soared, and it was a miracle to us! He still lives in the same humble place, and has a job working on a farm!

Rubi and group finally arrived at 9, and we should have know they were on Filipino time,  We had a good time waiting in the heat, finally sat in our aircon car, and waited! It was so very good to see Rubi, we just hugged so tight, and cried and laughed! Bishop (our guard) looked great too! Abish is growing up , and is hoping to go to BYU Hawaii! We got the guards to unlock our building and we brought them in the office, and turned on the aircon, and had the best visit! They came for a sealing of a friend, and I was concerned about that, and they said they would rather be with us, than go to the sealing! They went over for pictures afterwards! I can't tell you how good it was so see them! She really was my savior when we arrived  here in 2008! she helped me so much, understand the cultural, and help me with the food, and taught me so much! I love her! 

Dad and I were the speakers in Church on Sunday, which was a great experience, mainly because we studied twice as much! I'm glad we don't have to give a talk every week, like when we were here before! This was in a Filipino Ward, and the people loved dad and his talk, he related with them so well! They are such wonderful people! In our American ward they have ask Dad to teach the Gospel Doctrine class next Sunday, and that will be good!

We see miracles happen every day, and enjoy our mission so much, especially the people we work and serve with! I love my companion more everyday! We have a lot of fun together and are enjoying this experience! We really appreciate all of your prayers, and are so glad we can picture all of our little grandchildren praying for Grandpa and Grandma on a mission, and our big Grandchildren! You a are all wonderful, and we feel so blessed, and know Heavenly Father is watching over our family! We pray for all our missionaries as well, and love to hear from them!

However, We do miss you! I guess that will always be the case!

We love you all, and feel so blessed to have all of you in our lives! We pray for you all the time!

All our love!

Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma