The Philippines, Round Two!

And here we are again!

When we applied for a second mission, we didn't request any particular place or type of mission we wanted to serve.  We left it open, as we did with our previous mission.  We did, however, mention that we'd be happy to go to the Philippines again.  When we received our call by mail, it came as a very comfortable relief that we should be returning.  We knew pretty much what to anticipate and didn't have to worry about what to bring with us, or what it would be like, or how we would be received by the people here.  We already knew!  And we knew that there is a great need for senior missionaries in the Philippines, too, and that we could help out.

This time, we were called to the Cebu East Mission.  Cebu is about 500 miles south of Pangasinan, where we served before.  It's in the Central Visayas Region and shows up in yellow on this map.

We were to report to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah on December 26.  So we flew to Salt Lake City on the 16th, in order to attend the baptisms of two grandchildren, who live there, and spent Christmas with their families.

Cousins Kaitlyn and Derek were baptized on December 17, Kaitlyn's 8th birthday.

Our five days in the MTC were much like our last stay there, with classes morning and afternoon with three other couples and an instructor.  It was fun getting to know these good folks, who were headed for Portugal, a Girls' Camp in the Redwoods, and the country of Jordan (as Humanitarian Services missionaries only).  The content of the curriculum was much the same ("Preach My Gospel"), though a little technology training was added in this time.  Even though we'd been through it before, it's so amazing how strongly the Spirit works with us there, testifying to the truthfulness of what we're learning and sharing.  Our instructors are young returned missionaries and they are just super.  The week went quickly.

The traditional MTC map photo

When we boarded our plane on January 2nd, we left all our winter clothes behind.  Our daughter, Margie, took us to the airport and we handed her our warm jackets at the door.  There's no winter in the Philippines, or anything close to it!  Three flights - - one very long - - got us to Manila, where we were taken to the church Area Office, then to the immigration office, to take care of some legalities.  We spent two days in Manila and were able to attend the temple there.

On our third day in the Philippines, we flew to Cebu and were met by our mission president's wife and the mission secretary.  They drove us to the mission office to meet President Maughan and the others working in the office.  Then we drove to the mission home.  In Urdaneta, our previous mission, the mission home and office were on the same property, but that's not the case here.  In fact, when the mission was formed, in 2013, they couldn't find a suitable house to buy for the mission home.  What they ended up with is rather a mansion in a gated community.  Very posh, for the Philippines!  We had dinner there with the Maughans and the two office couples, and we stayed there one night.  President Maughan talked with us and told us we'd be assigned to work on the island of Bohol.

 We took a little walk along the shore in the beautiful neighborhood where the mission home is.













Early the next morning, we were driven to the port and left there with a brand-new van, which we took across with us on the ferry to Bohol.  The route from Cebu to Tubigan, Bohol is about 28 miles and took us an hour and a half.

At the Tubigon port, we were met by the zone leaders and Elder and Sister Bell, the other senior couple on Bohol.  We have these good folks to thank for helping us to feel very much appreciated here and to learn our way around. They took us to a little grocery store in Tubigon and then to our house in Calape.  After unloading our stuff, we went to the church to meet with President Nueva, the Calape District President - - a very nice man - - and his counselors.  After visiting a bit, he took us all to lunch!  Then the Bells showed us the public market in Calape.  There is no grocery store here in Calape - - just the merkado, where people sell all kinds of things.  And that was our first day actually in the mission field.

Our new digs

On a few subsequent days, the Bells showed us some other places, particularly Tagbilaran, the only actual city on the island, where we did some more large-scale shopping.  It's nearly an hour from Calape.  There are a few supermarkets in "Tagbi," inside malls, as they typically are in the Philippines. We bought some things in the mall that our house needed, like some shelves for the kitchen, a desk, and a water-cooler, and ordered a memory-foam mattress topper.  Now we're very comfortable here!  Senior missionaries really are treated well.  : )

                                                                   

We've had lots of adventures around the island of Bohol already and will share more pictures as the weeks roll by.  We've been here almost seven weeks now!  It's so fun to meet more new people as we tour around and visit the branches here.  More about our work and our beautiful surroundings soon.  : )