Week 27

March 16, 2011

We had a wonderful evening on Monday at our Zone Family Home evening. This was an unusual week since we had only our zone missionaries. It was rather quiet but good. One of our zone leaders said that he enjoyed the Family Home evenings in his previous zone but he loved to come to our home because we teach them ‘good stuff’. That made us feel good that we were contributing something. We played a scouting game (of course what else do I know) called Kim’s Game where we let them look at some random objects on a table and then cover them up and have them try to remember what they saw. But this time I asked them details about the objects. We related that to Mormon and being ‘quick to observe’. We had a lesson about having a love for the scriptures and making scripture study a lifetime pursuit. We love our missionaries. We have, however, found it difficult to plan for the amount of food to prepare. This time we had too much left over but we just packed it up for the boys and they loved it.

We were blessed to have a tour of Manila on Friday with President and Sister Howard. We went to Fort Santiago first. This was the original city of Manila built by the Spanish in the 1500’s. The original city is ‘walled’ off and it was interesting to see the European influence in the buildings in this area. The Philippines has many national heroes as they have fought for independence three times. One of these heroes was J.P Rizal. He was a surgeon, schooled in Europe, and wrote many of the propaganda letters to the Philippine people concerning their worth and ability to govern themselves. He was labeled a traitor and was imprisoned at Fort Santiago. We saw his jail cell (much nicer than Liberty Jail or Carthage) and the place where he was executed. They have a large park here in Manila named after him. There is a monument dedicated to his honor at the park.

We also went to the Manila Ocean Park. This was fun although it would have been much better with the grandkids at our side. We ended the night by having dinner at the world’s first 5 Star Hotel. The Manila Hotel was the world’s first 5 Star Hotel because this is where General McArthur was headquartered after WWII (he was a 5 Star General). They are proud to have this distinction – they said this is where the Star rating for hotels first began. Dinner was great. The hotel workers were dressed in traditional Philippine formal wear and they looked great. We were able to get some good pictures of the people. We had a delightful time with the other couples.

We are doing great. The work continues to go forth and we are blessed to be a part of this great work. We love the people here. They are so kind and good to us. Hope that everyone is doing ok and that everyone is getting over their colds and flu bugs. Sounds like this has been a tough year for sickness. We pray that everyone is well. Thank you again for your love and prayers. Keep holding on. Let us know if there is any way that we can help you. As always, BE good, DO good and BE a man or woman of Christ. And always remember to say your prayers.

Love,

Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Janene and Grant