WAITING AT THE BARKADAHAN BRIDGE

This past week has gone by quickly.  Perhaps that is because we have been quite busy.  It seems just when we think we have things somewhat under control, reality sets in and we learn of something else that is not functioning quite as it should.

We spent two full days doing apartment inspections. You would think that going to see eleven apartments, none of which are farther away than 20 km away couldn’t take that long.  On Thursday morning we left around 6:30 am to go to Taguig, which is in the southwest corner of our mission.  Since Taguig is near Manila the traffic is even more congested.  It took three hours to reach our first destination.  This was partly my (Russell) fault since I did not remember that our car could not go into the Manila area on Thursdays.  We lost an hour going back to change cars. To reduce traffic in the Manila area, vehicles with license plates ending in certain numbers are prohibited from being driven there on given days of the week.  We waited to cross one bridge we needed to use for an hour, both on the way there and again on the way back.  Much like the Jakarta metropolitan area, the Manila metropolitan area has grown in population and vehicles faster than the infrastructure. 

I am amazed at what you can learn about people by looking at how they take care of where they live.  We witnessed quite a range of housing cleanliness and neatness during our inspection visits.  While the quality and size of apartments/houses that the young missionaries live in vary quite a bit, some take far better care of what they have. And it does not seem to correlate with their housing conditions.  Some young people just care more and are more self-reliant. Hopefully, we will be able to both provide better living conditions for the young missionaries over time and also teach them how and why they should take better care of what they have.

On Saturday we went to the Pinto Art Museum with the other senior missionaries.  It is the number-one tourist attraction here.  The architecture and gardens were beautiful.  The setting is a collection of Spanish, colonial era, houses and buildings.  Or I should say it was built to resemble that since most of the structures are not that old.  Afterward we went to the one Mexican restaurant in Antipolo.  The food was quite good.  This is the second time Eileen and I have eaten there.  Hopefully we are making friends with the owners.  We are going to try and do as we have done in prior missions and organize outings with the other senior missionaries a couple of times each month.  I believe it helps to get out and see some of the local culture.

Earlier this week President Alder asked us to start attending a ward on Sunday that is about a half hour (10 km) away.  The Tayuman Ward is part of the Taytay Stake - one of the five stakes in our mission.  We also have a district out on the eastern end of the mission.  Today they welcomed four new members who were baptized yesterday. We also met several investigators the missionaries are currently teaching.  Hopefully we can be an asset to the ward.

Jeepney photo of the week

Russell doing apartment inspection. The green in the background is a mosquito net

 You need a new ironing board and iron Elders!  The cord was wrapped with electrical tape where the wiring had frayed, and the ironing board is held together with rope.

These missionaries did a great job with being clean despite some logistical challenges

They must always have their 72 hour kits ready to go

Traffic was 5 cars wide in a 2 lane road waiting to cross the bridge

If you look closely this lady on the back has her oxygen tank on her lap while riding on the motorcycle

Vendors sell their wares walking through traffic

I was disgusted by this toilet and very tempted to send the photo to the  missionaries' mothers in the U.S. The Elders hadn't cleaned the toilet or taken out the garbage for the last 6 weeks.

Most fruit stands are beautiful, but there is no where to park to get to them.

Pinto Art Museum, very hot and humid.

Elder and Sister Bills mimicking statues

The grounds are beautiful

We loved the flowers

The artwork wasn't really our taste, but we loved the architecture and gardens.

The gong below is from Mindinao and reminds of us our gong at home which we bought in Indonesia.

Since Eileen's maiden name is Cannon, of course she needed a picture in front of the cannons.

The video below is to show the traffic on the bridge.