Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: FINGERPRINTS, APARTMENTS & MEDICAL

This past week we went to Quezon City to the MTC to get fingerprinted for our visas. Although we are less than 10 km away from the MTC, it pretty much took the whole day. We took care of some business at the Area Office which is in the same complex as the MTC and were able to get a good look at the Manila Temple which is across the street from the MTC. We enjoyed talking with some senior missionaries from the Cebu East mission who had flown in that morning specifically to get fingerprinted. They were flying out later that day. After visiting with them, our commute time didn’t seem so bad.

Russell has decided that he will be the housing coordinator for our mission and let Elder Bills do the finances. Although Russell is very capable of doing the finances, it seems like fixing the housing situation for the missionaries has been a pretty big priority. Now that the senior missionaries have their housing taken care of, he has started working with the young missionaries on their housing. This past week he asked the office Elders and the Assistants to the President if he could practice doing housing inspections by looking at their apartment. Although, their apartment was fairly clean for having 4 young men living in one place, there were some things that were sorely lacking. The missionaries were sleeping on mattresses on the floor, storing their clothes in their suitcases as there were no places to hang them up, and didn’t have hot water of any kind to wash dishes with. The next day Elder Mulet and Russell went to go buy items for the apartment to make it seem more livable. When we took the items to the apartment I (Eileen) was blown away by how clean it was. I guess the missionaries were embarrassed that we saw their somewhat messy apartment. They made a concerted effort to make it as clean as possible before we arrived with their new supplies. It looked great!!! I was really proud of them for their efforts. I am hoping with some new furniture and cleaning supplies they will really be able to make the apartment into something they feel good about living in.

We have heard that rainy season starts in the Philippines in August. Although it has rained a few times since we have arrived, we didn’t experience any really heavy rains until August 1^st. Since that time, we have had torrential type rains. They were so bad the rain leaked through the space around our air conditioner all down the wall and all over the floor. Hopefully we will be able to have someone look at it early next week.

Friday evening we had our first dinner party. We invited President and Sister Alder, the Bills couple, and Sister Gibson over to eat dinner with us. Sister Bills was ill and couldn’t come, but everyone else came. It was pretty tight fitting 6 people for a sit-down dinner in our apartment, but I think we all enjoyed the comradery and the food. Since we don’t have an oven or stove, I thought I would try a crockpot meal. I threw some meat, potatoes, carrots together and cooked them all day. I was very grateful when we returned home from the office at 5pm and the apartment building was still standing. I was worried that I might burn the whole place down.

Other than housing, my biggest challenge on this mission has been getting medical care for the missionaries. Since no appointments can be made at a doctor’s office and doctors are only in on certain days and hours, it is anybody’s guess as to when the missionaries should go to be seen. I had one missionary who needed to see an ophthalmologist this past week. The hours noted on the clinic’s website indicated the doctor was in on Tuesday and Thursday from 11-3. I called to confirm, and the receptionist said the doctor would not be there on Thursday, only on Saturday 11-3. The missionary companionship went out on Saturday in a downpour, only to be told upon their arrival at the clinic that there was no doctor there, try next Tuesday.

Another missionary had a fairly big health challenge a few days ago. He went to a big hospital in Manila. It took 3 hours each way to get there. His condition was diagnosed, and he was told to come back the next day for an ultrasound. He went back the next day, and was told they were all full, come back on Monday or Tuesday. It is difficult for the missionaries to be able to get their missionary work done when so much of their time is spent getting medical care.

On a more positive note I have been experiencing some severe ear pain and suspected an ear infection. I went to the medical clinic next door to be seen. I received excellent service. The total bill was the equivalent of eight U.S. dollars for the doctor and six dollars for the antibiotic. You can’t beat that in the United States. Currently the missionary insurance does not cover this clinic, but I am pushing for it to be insurance approved. That way when missionaries are sick, I could send them to this clinic, and join them while they are being seen by the doctor.