REUNITED IN HEAVEN

This past week has been a busy and stressful one. Following the passing of Eileen’s father eight days ago there has been a lot of communication with family making plans for the funeral next Saturday in Provo and monitoring the rapidly decline in Eileen’s mother’s health.  Knowing that we will be going home for the funeral, I have tried to get as many apartment inspections completed (with their accompanying delivery of items varying from small hot water kettles to large washing machines and wardrobe closets) as possible.  The visits this week took us out to the east end of our mission, the rural or province areas.  We made these trips while Eileen was concurrently fielding nursing calls from between three to ten missionaries per day, most requiring multiple interactions. We have had missionaries this week be admitted to the hospital for Dengue fever, possible TB (thank goodness it wasn't the real thing), and required surgery. On Friday we learned that our son Vijay and his family were evacuated, along with many of their neighbors, in the middle of the night due to a fire near their home.  And then yesterday, about one week and two hours after my father-in-law passed away, my mother-in-law passed away.

My mother just a few days before her passing. She loved the outdoors and loved to walk.

Our son's home with the flames within one block. We are so grateful that his home was spared.

In an effort to take a break and de-stress a bit we went out to eat yesterday at a local Pizza Hut.  We were going for the ultimate in “comfort food.”  While we were there the restaurant had Christmas music playing quite loudly.  They were not the familiar children’s songs but the ones that were popular during our parent’s generation.  We had heard that they start celebrating Christmas early in the Philippines, but it was only August 31^st!  At first it was a bit funny and maybe annoying.  Then as I thought about the words which were all about the birth of our Savior, God’s gift to man of His only-begotten-son, even the Lord’s Prayer put to music, I realized that that was “the food” that would help me the most in dealing with the challenges of the past week.  

The Christmas decorations are out and Christmas music was played for prelude today at church.

My father-in-law had been telling us for months that he and Elsie would be going together; that he had “discussed it with the Lord” and was sure it would happen that way.  My mother and father-in-law got their wish.  When Heather was explaining to Cameron that his great-grandmother might pass away soon, he said, “Well isn’t that what we have been praying for?”  Somewhere in my life, between the trusting faith of childhood and the assurance of a 95-year-old man, I have developed an unhealthy skepticism – trusting too much in logic or “in the arm of flesh” (2 Chronicles 32:8 and 2 Nephi 28:31) and not enough faith in our Lord.  This recent experience is one more lesson for me that God loves us, is aware of our challenges, and is involved the details of our lives far more than we realize.  

The last few hours of Dad's life with Mom. They certainly adored each other.

Our mission includes the city and the province. The city is very congested with tons of traffic.  The province is beautiful and green.

This guy was riding his water buffalo through the street

This huge lake is on our mission's entire southern border. Many live on the edge of the lake. There are actually bathers in this lake.

Rice fields of Infanta

These two Elders are in Infanta, the city furthest from Antipolo within our mission. They leave at 5a.m. to arrive for a 10a.m. District meeting. They are teaching 40 discussions/week and sound like they are having a tremendous success.

There were dogs in the middle of the road, several water buffalo on the side of the road. We usually had to go around them as they would not move.

The Marikina Highway was washed out in 3 places. My heart rate definitely jumped a bit thinking of crossing over this bridge (or lack thereof). I wondered how many guardian angels were with us that day protecting us?

Three good missionaries trying to find an apartment

Loading the wardrobes onto a trike.  The alley going into the missionaries' apartment was not big enough for the van to get down.

These sisters get the award for the cleanest, neatest apartments in the mission.

I knew as soon as I saw their bookcase the apartment would be extremely neat, which it was.

These Elders get the award for having the best looking lunch of any missionary I have ever seen. Most don't have any food in their fridge.

Chicken Curry made by Elders.

Trike with bananas

Trike with coconuts

Trike with 2 sofas on top

This very nice not came from the missionaries in Morong after hearing of the passing of my parents

This is the garbage truck. The men were dumping out the garbage and sorting it  as the truck was moving. I give them a lot of credit for their efforts to recycle.


The last two videos are in a small way trying to show how scary it was to drive on the washed out Marikina Road.