ANYONE WANT RICE?

Both yesterday and today, Saturday and Sunday, Eileen started getting texts and calls from the young missionaries at 6:30 AM.  The missionaries are required to get up by that time, so they assume that everyone else is up.  Eileen keeps close track of who she talks to and their issues.  She then provides a brief report for our mission president and his wife summarizing the issues and also records them formally in a church provided “Emed” computer program.  Once a month she meets with our mission president, his wife, the Area Medical Advisor (AMA) and Area Mental Health Advisor (AMHA) to discuss the missionaries’ medical issues.  Of course, if there are more critical issues they are addressed with the AMA and mission president immediately.

Over the last three days Eileen has been contacted by 23 missionaries, some multiple times.  The interesting thing to me (Russell) is that 95% of the time she really enjoys the work.  Since she cannot practice as a nurse here, she functions more in a triage role. Yesterday morning, she talked to two missionaries from different areas that she advised to go to the hospital.  We even offered to one to go and pick him up and take him to the doctor.  In both cases the missionaries declined to do so because they had baptisms later in the day; which they would rather die than miss.  I think they were just hoping Eileen could suggest a magic bullet that would fix them long enough to make it through the baptisms.

On Wednesday, we went into Pasig and Taguig (Metro Manila) to do apartment inspections.  One set of sister missionaries told me a week prior to our visit that there were a few things wrong with their apartment, one of which was that their microwave did not function.  I questioned that since I put a new microwave into that apartment less than three months ago.  They insisted that it had never worked properly which we found interesting since the prior sister missionaries from that apartment had made brownies, in part using the microwave, for us after we helped them move in.  At the last moment the sisters said that they were unable to meet with us but that they would leave the key to their apartment with the guard.  When we arrived, we retrieved the key and entered the apartment.  Eileen walked to the microwave and tried to get it to work.  She opened it up and found a bowl of black colored rice inside (see the attached picture below), complete with small insects. My assessment was that the rice had been burnt and then never taken out.  We left the bowl of rice on their counter with a plate over it so the bugs would not escape.  Upon questioning, the sisters said it was mold on the rice but maintained that the microwave had never worked.  Interesting!

I asked this Elder to put hot packs to the lesion on his face.  He decided this was an easier way to do it.

Quite honestly I was grossed out by this photo the Elder shared with me,  but even more grossed out when I saw what came out from this lesion. I am not sure what he is growing in there but it sure looked nasty.

Sister Simister was one of the 5 missionaries who won the clean toilet -fridge contest. It is pretty hard to find blueberry cheesecake here and it is not cheap. Each missionary that won got a slice of cheesecake courtesy of the Healys.

These sister missionaries sang at zone conference. Sister Alder is in the middle.  They paid someone in their ward just 180 pesos, or $3.50 each to make the dresses. That was including the fabric. It seems like a great deal to me.

These elders sang at zone conference.

We bought a large bottle of pickles for the Alders at a place which is similar to Costco. I never knew so many people could be excited about pickles. Several of the missionaries stopped and got a big dill pickle from Sister Alder.

Our two Assistants to the President, Elder Ivins and Elder Mulet. They have both just started eating. Look at the difference in portion sizes.

Taguig, Pasig and Taytay Zones at Zone Conference

Sister Healy, Sister Gajete and Sister Bradshaw

Mold or burnt rice, we are not sure which. We just know that it looked totally inedible with lots of flies coming out of the bowl.

Chinese New Year was a big deal here in the Philippines. These dancers went right up to the door of our apartment building.

ELDER COOK AND THE VOLCANO

Last Sunday evening a volcano located approximately 40 miles south of Metro Manila erupted spewing ash as far as our office in Antipolo.  Our apartment is about 60 miles from the volcano and we woke Monday morning to a light layer of ash covering everything outdoors.  Other than the color being wrong it reminded me of a light dusting of snow in Utah.  The Taal volcano is located on an island in a lake south of Manila in the Cavite Mission.  Residents of the island and nearby areas have been evacuated and the news has been warning of possible further eruptions.  Evidently, the eruption has been getting a lot coverage in the U.S. news as we have had many inquire as to our safety.  We, and all the missionaries in our mission, have face masks that we can wear.  We have only used our masks on days when the wind blows, and the ash gets back in the air.  We have heard that some of the missionaries in the Cavite Mission have been relocated to other locations within the mission.  We have also heard that the Church’s disaster relief efforts have been responding to the crisis.  

Elder Cook, an apostle from our church, arrived in the Philippines last Saturday and had been planning to hold a joint missionary conference with our mission and the Quezon City Mission Thursday afternoon.  We received word Tuesday afternoon that the meeting had been rescheduled to Wednesday morning at 8 AM, in Quezon City.  With the airport having been closed and further eruptions expected, I (Russell) think they wanted to get Elder Cook out of the country ASAP.  The two hours we got to spend with Elder Cook were wonderful.  Elder Cook talked about this being the 200^th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s first vision and the subsequent restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.  He emphasized the need to utilize the Book of Mormon more in teaching the gospel.  He spoke of the Philippines first being dedicated in 1955 and the building of the first church meetinghouse in Makati.  He said that today we have over 800,000 members of the Church in the Philippines but with a population of over 100 million that there is still a lot of work to be done and spoke about the urgency of that work.  Elder Cook also spoke about his experience with assigning missionary callings.  He said that the inspiration often has more to do with placing a missionary with a specific mission president than to a specific location, emphasizing the mission president – missionary bond.  What stood out to me the most was his testimony of Jesus Christ.  He told us that, “I know the Savior's voice, I know the Savior’s face.”  He then proceeded to give an apostolic blessing to the missionaries, telling us that our efforts would not only bless us, but our families as well. I think I and all the others in the room that day will remember forever how we felt as we listened to an apostle testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Later in the week, while visiting some of the young missionaries in their apartments, two told us how much they appreciated our efforts on their behalf.  One was specifically with regard to a medical issue and our having taken him to the hospital a few times.  The other was with regards to housing.  Both comments made Eileen’s day!  It is amazing to me the amount of joy that can come from a heartfelt expression of gratitude.   

Map of where the volcano is in relationship to Manila

Image from CNN newsroom, the Taal volcano caused many volcanic lightening strikes.

Image from CNN newsroom, woman evacuating amid the ash with her baby wrapped in plastic 

Image from CNN newsroom, local fisherman with volcano erupting 

The volcanic ash outside of our apartment building

Ash on our car

Eileen loves to swim in the pool, but it is ashy sludge now

Elder Cook met with the Quezon City and Antipolo missions early on Wednesday morning and later in the day with some saints who were sheltering at a church in an area affected by the volcano.

Missionaries waiting for jeepnies after devotional with Elder Cook

The devotional with Elder Cook was held at the Pasig meetinghouse.

Heading out on the rented jeepnies

Elder Ivins is our funny AP.  He has been sick and when I asked what medicine he was taking he told me he was taking Triactin. When I questioned what medicine that was he kept asking us "you don't know what Triactin is?"  He finally told us that he takes the medicine "'Try acting' like a man." That gave me a big laugh.  This is the missionary who does 240 push ups in the morning and 240 every evening. 

Eileen and Sister Gibson taking a selfie for our friend Fran Moulton who is in Centerville. Fran served with Sister Gibson on Temple Square. Sister Gibson is from Tasmania.

LANCE'S BAPTISM

While in the U.S. helping our daughter with her family and medical needs, I (Eileen) received a text from a missionary in our mission, describing an injury he sustained while playing basketball. When I returned to the Philippines, I was able to look at his foot. It did not look good. I subsequently sent him to two different doctors at two different hospitals. Neither doctor looked at his foot, but rather sent him to get an X-ray which showed no broken bones and he was told he was fine.  Last weekend this elder contacted me asking if it might be possible to have an MRI of his foot. I was able to get the name of a reputable sports orthopedist and went with him on Monday to see her. Russell was very gracious about being my driver all day. As he mentioned last week in our blog, driving is pretty hazardous here and Taguig is our least favorite place to drive. Russell left early in the morning to pick up 2 elders and their companions, driving them to the ER in Taytay. One elder had suspected measles, and the other had a huge infected boil. I took a jeepney to the hospital and met the elders there. Later in the day Russell drove me and the elder with the hurt foot (Elder W) and his companion to Taguig to see the orthopedist there. While at the hospital in Taguig, I also met up with and accompanied another elder with kidney stones to the urologist.  Elder W. was examined thoroughly by the sports specialist.   She noted a great deal of instability and requested an MRI. Tuesday, Russell and I drove back down to Taguig to transport the elder to get his MRI.  Wednesday, we returned again to see the doctor and get the results. It was determined that Elder W. had significant injury to his foot, which if not treated appropriately could cause long-term damage. The walking he had been doing for the last 7 weeks had most likely compounded his problems. I felt rather sick about the situation.  Elder W. was wonderful about not wanting to be a whiner, but he trusted in the system. Since I was part of that system, I felt like I let him down.   Elder W. will be returning home sometime this week. My hope is that sometime in the future he can return to the Antipolo mission. 

One of our assistants (APs) to the President is quite a jokester. Friday, he drew up a petition requesting that Elder W. stay on his mission. He made some suggestions such as: 1) have Elder W. sit in a red wagon which his companion could pull around each day; 2) the AP would carry him around piggyback to all of his appointments; or 3) one of our sister missionaries who is hoping to be a physical therapist someday could practice doing some PT on Elder W.  The AP had the senior missionaries sign the petition. When Sister Alder expressed hesitation, he signed her name for her. It was all in fun and lightened the mood. Elder W. is taking the petition home with him to put in his journal. It was really wonderful to see the love and concern the elders have for Elder W. Many hugged him tightly as he left Tuesday for his MRI, probably aware that this test could signal the end of his mission in the Philippines. 

We have really enjoyed the use of a driver for a couple of previous apartment inspections down in Metro Manila. It has been helpful to not have to worry about the navigation, the parking and traffic. We had planned on using a driver on Wednesday for our apartment inspections, but late Tuesday night that fell through. I was really concerned about driving in Taguig with how tired we both were. Russell performed very admirably.  Even when driving around the parking garage under the hospital for 45 minutes, he totally kept his cool. Unable to find a parking spot, a doctor recommended valet parking. It was well worth the $1 extra to utilize the valet. 

We really get to know more about the missionaries as we inspect their apartments. Some apartments were pretty close to perfectly clean. At other apartments we can tell that it doesn’t even occur to the missionaries that someone will be looking at their living accommodations. This past week we went into a two-story apartment and found the main floor spotless. The elders then mentioned in a concerned tone that we might want to look upstairs. The other companionship was not there that day as they were at training. Etched into the wooden floor was a birthday wish from one companion to the other. I was not a happy senior missionary. We have wooden floors at home, and I would be livid if this happened in my home. It turned out that a new missionary used alcohol to write the message on the wooden floor. When they became aware of the etching in the floor, they tried to get the message off by putting more alcohol on the floor and burning it off.  Needless to say, the floor needs to be refinished. We are hoping it can be done before the landlord sees it. 

Saturday Russell baptized Lance. We are so grateful to have been a part of their being taught the discussions and their baptisms. It was only at the baptism that we learned that Lance’s name was not Lance. When Russell asked Lance what his full name was, he learned it was Warren Feliciano Mercado Cendana.  Another little girl was going to be baptized on Saturday. Russell was asked while at the baptism to baptize her also. She was terrified of the water and refused to go near the baptismal font. Russell kindly tried to talk with her, but her English skills were minimal. He politely advised the others there to wait until she was ready before attempting to baptize her. Grace was very gracious about inviting this girl’s family over to our apartment complex to go swimming so she could get used to being in the water.

Today Lance was confirmed and the whole family was at church. It was his two girls’ first time going to Young Womens and Primary and they seemed to really enjoy it.   In Relief Society the lesson was on the conference talk “After the Trial of your Faith”.  Grace offered several comments, some in English, some in Tagalog. I was so impressed with the depth of her faith and knowledge. She talked about how many trials they had the week of both her and Lance’s baptisms. She discussed the poem “Footsteps in the Sand”, about the man who thought God had deserted him in his darkest hour, only to learn that it was during those trials that the Lord had been carrying him.  She also talked about the fact that Lance had only 30 minutes of sleep in the last 24 hours but came to church because they knew that is where they should be.  We feel so blessed to be able to have met this wonderful couple and see their progression in the gospel. 

This is a picture of the boil on the missionary's legs before it got bad.

Elder W's foot at the time of the injury

Elder W is not supposed to be walking so here another elder is helping him down the stairs - there are 4 flights of stairs at this apartment and they are very steep

A beautiful wood floor ruined by a birthday wish

This ironing board owned by the missionaries has seen better days

Into the clouds near Infanta

Lance, Grace and their daughters

Sister Tampis, Cendana family, Sister Lulab and Eileen and Russell

Russell and the girl who will get baptised at a future date

True mother/daughter love at Lance's baptism

DRIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Between Monday being a local holiday (Rizal Day), and then with New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day on Tuesday and Wednesday, traffic has been kind of light this week.  Even on Friday when we did housing inspections in Pasig (part of Metro Manila) the congestion was less than usual.  Since we first arrived I (Russell) have been considering when would be a good time to write about driving here.  Navigating traffic here is unique and something foreigners notice immediately upon arrival.  Maybe this is a good week to talk about it since I’m not currently frustrated by it.

Most foreigners look at the traffic here and think that there are no observed rules of the road and that it is just a mass of confusion.  My perspective, as one who has to drive every day of the week in my role, is that there defiantly are rules which are observed by the vast majority of drivers.  It is just that the rules are much different than what foreigners are used to.  

Rule One - do not hit anyone or anything!  He who hits is at fault.  It doesn’t matter if the motorcyclist pulls in front of you, clips your front bumper, and then falls over, you are at fault.  If someone hits your side or back, then they are at fault.  But if the front end of your vehicle comes in contact with anything (or if you back into anything) then it is your fault.  This rule causes you to be highly focused about observing and avoiding all things in your path, and only moderately interested in what is going on beside or behind you.  Mirrors are nice to have when trying to back into a parking spot but are used far less when actually driving forward.  Remember, it’s the responsibility of those behind and to the side of you not to hit you.

Rule Two - do not materially exceed the speed of traffic around you!  Most of my driving here is done between 20 and 40 kilometre per hour (yes, 12.5 to 25 miles per hour).  Speeds of 50 to 60 kilometres per hour are wonderful when traffic (or lack of it) allows, and driving at speeds of over 60 are unusual.  Many times in heavy traffic you will be moving at only idle speed to 10 kilometres per hour.  Traffic often can literally be “bumper to bumper” with the vehicles on your sides being just inches away.  With traffic being so much heavier, even with speeds being much slower, your focus has to always be on what is immediately in front of you and anticipating what other drivers might be trying to do.  When everyone is anticipating what all other drivers are doing there are less mishaps.  Driving faster than the rest of the traffic messes that up.

Things like lines in the road marking lanes or crosswalks are generally considered as nice suggestions to be observed when convenient.  Even driving on only your side of the road seems to be too restrictive for some (particularly motorcyclists) in heavy traffic.  More than once I have seen gridlock occur at an intersection because those turning left have filled up all lanes of oncoming traffic.

Traffic congestion in Metro Manila probably ranks as being among the world’s top 20 worst places to drive, and two of our six mission zones (Pasig and Taguig) are within Metro Manila.  However, once you get out into the province the traffic lights up and the scenery is often beautiful.  Faced with either being tied to the office or traveling every week to see the missionary apartments, I am glad I get to travel and see the places where our missionaries live and serve.  At times, driving here is actually enjoyable - not relaxing but entertaining. 

Unfortunately, both Eileen and I have witnessed traffic fatalities not far from our home; Eileen when she was driving two missionaries back from the hospital on Halloween, and I just a week ago yesterday.  I was delivering a washing machine by myself early on a Saturday morning.  A motorcycle driver was lying on the side of the road, no longer moving, with many others stopped around him.  It was a grim reminder to pay close attention and always remember how fragile life is. 

On a different subject, the missionaries taught Lance again last night in our apartment.  Grace was home sick, as was their daughter who has chicken pox.  When he came in, Lance apologised for wearing shorts.  Eileen said, “Don’t worry, I’m in slacks - it’s our P-day!”  Lance then proceeded to tell us about Grace’s urinary tract infection and how she too was having one of those days!  I guess we shouldn’t refer to our “preparation-day” as “P-day” around non-missionaries.  

Metro Manila traffic jam

Trikes line the streets while waiting for passengers. Once moving they cut in front of cars, do turns in the middle of the street, it is all rather crazy.

Crossing the Barkadon bridge. What is normally a 2 lane bridge turns into several lanes.

You are supposed to drive on the dirt road here rather than the pavement. Sometimes it is hard to know where to go.

It is hard to tell from the photo but there is an electrical pole in the middle of the right hand lane. Cars swerve around it. There are also electrical lines again down everywhere.

New Years Eve luncheon

Sister Gibson made mango graham cake, a popular local dessert.

President Alder and Russell with their mango shakes.

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This little piggy went to market! Somebody is having pork for dinner.

Fireworks as seen from our window on New Years Eve.