Saturday, November 24, 2012
Thanksgiving
November 24, 2012
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. We had Thanksgiving with the new missionaries
and senior missionaries at the mission home.
I made two turkeys, gravy, and rice stuffing. I loved the rice stuffing and think I might
continue making it when we are home for holidays. Here in the Philippines there is not and
stuffing bread available so I would have had to leave the bread slices out to
dry and then cut it or crumb it. Well if
I had done that we would have had ant stuffing because if we leave anything on
the counter it is covered with ants in seconds.
Rice stuffing is made just like regular stuffing: sauté the onion and
celery season it as you would bread stuffing, then combine it with rice cooked
in chicken broth. It is so good. We had a pretty traditional meal with the
other couples making mashed potatoes, and an apple crisp dessert. There are no pumpkins or canned pumpkin here
so that mean we could not make pies.
The day was very nice other than missing my kids and
grandkids. It was difficult to not be
home with everyone. We were able to talk
to the Mitchells, Faith and Josh and Dan's girls and Julie, before we lost
internet, but we missed talking to the Pearson's, Tisdale's, Padilla's and the Sheldon's. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful
family and are thankful for them and our many friends who support us on our
crazy adventure.
We have been to Iloilo twice this month and will have PEF
training here in Bacolod November 30 and December 1 with all our service
missionaries and our boss Franco and Jibb from Manila. We have everything
prepared for the training: motel reservations, meeting accommodations and meals
catered. We are anxious to learn about the recent changes implemented and how
they will impact our work. Hopefully,
things will be streamlined a bit. It is
so difficult to get the applications complete and the tuition checks released
we often find ourselves banging our heads against the wall with
frustration. Our work is very rewarding
though as we see the students doing well in school and changing their futures.
Our mission had a new couple arrive Tuesday, whose name is
Chin. He is Chinese American and she is
Caucasian. They are from North Salt Lake
City. They will live in san Carlos. Elder Chin is a retired pharmacist and his is a registered nurse. They seem very nice and will be a great
addition to the mission. Our mission
will increase by about 100 missionaries before spring due to the reduction of
missionary age and increase of missionaries serving. That will be exciting. We heard that a mission has been opened in
China with about 80 expected missionaries so that is very exciting. What a
blessing that will be for China. The
church is really growing here in Asia.
Once again, I want to thank our family for their love and
support as well as tell them how very much I miss them. If and when we serve another mission we will
request is be one of the shorter missions in the U.S. so we can still see our
family occasionally. This being
thousands of miles away from them is the hardest part of our mission. We love you so very much and pray for each of
you daily.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Sisters Adams, Sinema, Lopez, Bevens, Anderson
November 6, 2012 Blog
November 6, 2012
Last week we took our car over to Panay on the ferry. We did really well for being the only white
people on board. On the return trip Dan
had to back onto the ferry as it had only one entrance for loading and
unloading so it required backing on. We
were the first vehicle so that made it a bit easier. The ferry from Bacolod to Iloilo had openings
on both ends of the ferry so loading and unloading are much easier. We went to
Panay for a week. We drove all over the
island to familiarize ourselves and to meet with our service missionaries. We arrived by ferry on Tuesday and returned
on Monday. Saturday Dan trained the
priesthood brothers in their cluster meeting of all the leaders from the
Island. While he was teaching, I sat in
the Institute and caught up on some of my correspondence. I also met Sister Scott, another senior missionary
couple from Snowflake Arizona. Amazing
another senior missionary from Arizona. She has only been in the Philippines
two months. She is a wonderful woman and
I had so much fun showing her our family photos and getting to know her. She told me that her youngest daughter had
been trying to have a family for five years and was not having any
success. Her children got together and encouraged
her husband and her to serve a mission so her daughter could get pregnant as a
blessing from their service. Amazingly,
her daughter is already pregnant. What
an answer to prayer and a blessing for their willingness to serve the
Lord. We pray for similar blessings for
each of our children from our willingness to serve here in the
Philippines. (We do not need any
blessings for ourselves, so we pray our children will receive the righteous
desires of their hearts.)
Later President Ardern, the second counselor in the area presidency
came in to sit on the comfy couches for a rest and we visited for a little bit
about PEF. He was so excited about the
proposed changes. He confirmed that in
the Philippines we needed to continue to provide for four year programs, but
believes we can find outside resources to provide scholarships so participants
do not have to incur so much debt. He
also is very excited about adding a mentor component to the program. He made me feel so much more excited about
PEF! I am so excited to be a part of the
program here and help the young people better their lives. What a blessing this is for us.
I love reading the updates from all of our friends and
family on Facebook, in emails and letters.
I don't feel so isolated when I hear about your lives. I need to tell each of you not to worry when
you hear about Philippine weather issues, because we live on a pretty sheltered
island and rarely suffer from the tragic weather of the other islands. If you hear of tropical storms and do not
hear from us directly you can always check our mission president's Facebook
(his is Marlo Lopez) and he puts at least bi-weekly mission status reports. If we are not traveling we come into the
office and have internet to try to keep you informed, but we do not have
internet at home. Please do not worry about us. The Lord will protect us.
Now on the spiritual side (if you don't want to know just
skip this part). I was suffering from
severe homesickness. I so missed our
children and grandchildren. I just felt
so bad I was scheming up ways to come home to see everyone. I have never felt so depressed before in my
life. I do not know why someone who has
endured and triumphed over so many sorrows in one lifetime could not remember
the healing power of the Atonement of my Savior when I needed to feel it. When I was divorced I knew to pray for the
Saviors healing power and he did lift my sorrows. When our daughter Holly died, I relied on the
comforting spirit of my Savior and he lifted my burden and gave me the strength
to move forward with my life and support our family. Even though I struggled understanding why losing
my sister Karen to cancer was so difficult for me, I knew that the Lord would
lift my burden if I but asked. In my
darkest hour I just have to ask for the healing and uplifting power of the
Atonement to remove my burden and it is done.
Yes, I am a slow learner! I did
finally remember and thankfully did ask for that same blessing with regard to
my homesickness and I immediately felt normal again. Yes I still miss you all, but I am able to go
about my responsibilities with joy and happiness! I am so thankful for my testimony of the love
of my Savior and the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior,
Jesus Christ. I love reading the Bible
and Book of Mormon and learning more about God's plan for me through the
teachings found in the scriptures. I love our prophet Thomas S. Monson and the
wonderful teachings we were able to hear at General Conference and cannot wait
for the talks to be available here in the Philippines. I love reading then over and over. When we get to Manila in December, I will buy
a copy of the November Ensign so I can have a paper copy to read and reread.
I love each of you and an thankful for your part in my
life. We pray for you each day by name. Sometimes too long (or too big of family) and
then dinner is cold. Oh well small
sacrifice for us, but so worth it.
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