Week 58

October 22, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kelli Ann!! Hope you had a wonderful birthday. 

Kelli Ann Morgan

This has been a very busy week as we have processed and said good bye to the going home missionaries, completed the transfers for the next 6 weeks, processed 10 new missionaries that arrived on Wednesday and managed to keep the office running. 

Early Monday morning our ‘going home missionaries’ came into the office with all of their luggage. They needed to weigh everything and see if they were able to make the weight limit for their flight home. After that chaos was over, they went to an area chapel for instruction in finding a job, resume writing and job interview skills (this is very important for the Filipino missionaries and is a great service for them). Early Tuesday morning we were over to the mission home with the missionaries to do any last minute travel or release concerns. We then went to the Temple with them and had dinner and had the farewell testimony fireside. 

Elders Ramos & Comenta, Sis. English, Elders Curwen & Tomlinson

 Early Wednesday morning the missionaries were off to the airport and/or bus terminal and we were off to the chapel helping with the transfer meeting until about 1:00pm. Ten new missionaries arrived at noon from the airport. President began his interviews with the arriving missionaries and then sent them out with the city elders to work for the afternoon. Thursday we were over at the mission home for the orientation of the newly arrived missionaries. We presented a portion of the training about how to complete the Baptism and Confirmation Record correctly and also about how they would get their mail. We had 3 elders that were going directly over to the island of Palawan so they stayed overnight Thursday in the office with us so they could make their early morning flight out to Palawan on Friday. We enjoyed having them in the office with us. We joined them in reading aloud from the Tagalog Book of Mormon and then had prayer with them. 

We will see 2 of them again soon since they are going to the same area where we will be assigned in December. On Friday evening, all of us in the office decided we should have a ‘we survived’ dinner so we went to the Texas Roadhouse here in Manila to celebrate. This morning we sat down and looked at the calendar and realized that it starts all over again and we will do this all again in 6 more weeks!

While we were at the Area Office on Friday afternoon, we ran into 2 of our missionaries at the Medical office (mom had the Church physician look at her ingrown toenail while we were in the Area Office). One of the new elders that arrived this week was sick and we found out that he had to be admitted to the hospital. He had developed a cyst on his tailbone and it needed to be drained. Since President and Sister Stucki were at a District Conference in Palawan for the weekend, we were asked to watch over him and make sure that everything is okay. We went out to the hospital this morning to check up on him. He is doing well and will be released Sunday afternoon. That is quite a welcome to the Philippines for him – at least they took him to a good hospital. 

So this week has been very busy – all of the processing in addition to the regular day-to-day office routine. We sighed a sigh of relief last night. We made it through a transfer. Maybe there is some hope for us.  We are looking forward to Sunday.

Once again, we are doing well. We are so fortunate to be here and have been so blessed to be assigned in the Philippines. Manila has made me a very aggressive driver and I have learned to have one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the horn while driving in the city. 

We hope that you are all doing well. We hope that the kids are enjoying school and that all of you are happy and enjoying life. We again thank you for your love and your prayers. We continue to pray for each of you every day. Keep on doing good and pressing on. The time is certainly going by fast for us. We do miss you all very much. We wish that we could give everyone a big hug. We love you so very much. Remember to BE good, DO good and BE men and women of Christ. And as always, always remember to say your prayers.

Love,

Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Janene and Grant