Getting From Here To There

The streets in Metro Manila are very crowded and the people's choice of transportation are many. There are few rules yet everyone seems to be very careful and get through it all by inching themselves forward until they find a break in the traffic. Then they excitedly get their speed up to 30 mph for maybe a quarter of a mile, and then they slow way down to inch through traffic once more. I have seen many close calls while we have been here, but so far only one accident. It was between a Jeepney and a Toyota Camry. If you know what a Jeepney is then you can guess who came out ahead in this match-up.

 

This reminds me of a scene in the Disney movie "Cars" when Mater tips over the sleeping tractors out in the pasture. We call this "cow-tipping" in America.

Here are a few pictures of other modes of transportation within the Cavite Mission boundaries -

 Sorry folks, this is for One Way trips only -

although the next picture does kind of worry me

 Heading home from school

 Walking down the middle of the street

 
Bottle delivery or pick-up

 

 If it has our name on it - it must be a great way to travel!

Making a living

 
This really scares me because . . .

 

 You never know when something like this could happen.

I love this picture, and if you look real close you can see the man sitting to the left of the Baka (local cow). Cool!

This is a very unique and beautiful country and I am enjoying the culture of the Philippines.

The Guardian Of The Mango Tree

Just so you know, the mangoes in the Philippines are "Celestial Mangoes!" They are extremely sweet and juicy, and I have fallen in love with this wonderful tropical fruit. We are lucky enough to have a mango tree in our backyard. I have been watching that tree, waiting for the mangoes to ripen. Our gardener made us a long stick with a net and hook on the end to help us pick them. He also offered to climb up the tree and get the hard to reach ones, until he saw The Guardian.

 This is a partial view of the beloved mango tree. Right in the clearing in the upper middle is what appears to be a black dot, but when you zoom in closer you will see what it really is.

 
Enlarge this picture to get a better look

It's a big spider! Our gardener, who's name is Ryan, told me that he is afraid to pick the mangoes because this big guy might get him. I have heard that these spiders are poisonous, and then I also heard that there are no poisonous spiders in the Philippines. Well poisonous or not, I am scared to death of spiders but I love mangoes.
Huge spider + delicious mango = dilemma! 
Eventually our gardener caught the spider in the same net that we are using to pick fruit off of the tree. I don't know how he did it, but Ryan got the spider in the net, then maneuvered it out of the net and into this plastic cashew container from S&R. (Costco in America) 
The Guardian of the Mango Tree Has Been Captured!

I was even brave enough to put my hand next to it so you can see how large it is. Those of you who know me understand that putting my hand next to a sealed container with a spider in it is a big step for me. Even now as I write this post, I can feel things crawling on my arms, legs, and down the back of my neck. I have my feet up off the floor just in case his spider friends decide to climb across my toes.

Ryan took the spider home with him. I don't even want to ask him what he did with it - I'm so afraid that his family served it over rice.

So what happens to all the mangoes when the watchful eye(s) of the "Guardian of the Mango Tree" has been defeated? Well, besides all the ants that have deemed the area safe to lay their eggs, I have gathered the luscious fruit and eaten them or given them away. I also made 5 batches of mango freezer jam. 

Thanks to my daughter Stephanie, I received some boxes of Sure-Jell in the mail and the above picture became the lower picture. Yummy!

Our Mango tree continues to produce fruit and so many are falling to the ground, getting bruised and smashed. Every morning I go outside and pick up all the ones that fell during the night. They usually get thrown over the fence because the ants and other bugs get to them before I do. So sad.

Quarterly Interviews

The very first quarterly interviews for the Philippines Cavite Mission took place in July, 2013. At that time we had 88 missionaries and
6 zones. I remember how exhausted we were after completing those 6 days of interviews. 

Now, just 10 months later, we have 10 zones and 204 missionaries. (Including senior couples) We still complete all interviews in six days, but we see 2 zones per day, (only one on Friday's) and are busy from 8:00am - 8:30pm. The moment we walk thru the mission home door, President and I each find our own horizontal surface. We take off our shoes, and lay down to rest.

The missionary interviews are the most sacred and spiritual moments of our calling. Our time with each missionary is looked forward to and loved. President has a personal interview with each elder and sister. I also visit with them, but my time is centered around family and health; plus this time I asked them to share a favorite scripture with me. The Spirit is strong during interviews - and I believe this is why President and I become so exhausted by the end of the day. It is not physical, but spiritual. The zone leaders are very organized and move the missionaries through in a timely manor so that they may return to the Lord's work within a reasonably short amount of time. It's really pretty amazing - the whole process - if you really think about it.

Here are the pictures I took of our May interviews. I do not have a picture of every missionary or every Zone. Sorry if your son or daughter was missed. I could only take a few breaks during the day and I snapped a picture of who was there at the time. 

CARISSA ZONE

NAIC ZONE 

BACOOR ZONE

 

MOLINO ZONE

SILANG ZONE

DASMARIÑAS ZONE

CAVITE ZONE

 

In the month of July 2014, one year from our starting date, we will have approximately 236 missionaries. During the coming months more zones will have to be split, more apartments will need to be prayed for and found, and interviews will take longer - but what a grand experience this year has brought us.

Happy Birthday President Tye

 We had a full week of birthday wishes and singing for President's first birthday in the mission field. He received phone calls, gifts, cakes, and even had the Primary children of the San Gabriel Ward sing "Happy, Happy, Birthday President Dear." As you can see, he was singing along with them.

His beautiful cake was made by Sister Romelyn Briones. She is an amazing baker and her husband serves as President's 2nd counselor. Since the ward was still in meetings, we went out to the parking lot and shared the cake with the elders assigned to the ward.

If you look closely the cake is up against his white shirt as he blows out the candle. It was a miracle that the blue frosting only touched his name tag. Easy clean up.

Elder Chidester, Elder Faatoia, President Tye, Elder Fisher, Elder Caliguiran pose with the cake - all of them are clean and spotless, but then we cut the cake.

 The blue frosting on the cake was staining everyone's lips and teeth. We were all laughing at our blue and white mouth's and fingers. I didn't plan ahead and we had no utensils or plates - just paper cups that I found in the back of our car. Great memories!

During missionary interviews, President received another cake from the Tanza District. We were so busy with the tight schedule that we didn't get to share it with the missionaries.

 

And . . . four of our children and their families from home ordered cupcakes for Dad, but the bakery messed up the order and he received 2 more cakes. At this point we were begging missionaries to help us eat all four of the cakes!

 While interviewing the missionaries in the Bacoor Zone, Elder Abon and Elder Chon gave President some awesome gifts. The yellow sign has special meaning. President is always telling the missionaries to "Alis ka na!" This means to leave now - get out of here, or literally "Leave You Now!" Missionaries like to linger longer when meetings are over or visit with each other on transfer day at the mission office. President wants them out working and not wasting the Lord's time, so he says,
"Alis Ka Na!"
These zone leaders decided to get him a sign to hold up instead. Cute!

And the baseball cap has PaPa Tye embroidered on it. This also has special meaning to the missionaries. We found out that they like to call us Papa Tye and Mama Tye because we are their mission parents, and also because the definitions in Tagalog are Papatay (murder) and Mamatay (die). The Filipino's love to laugh and it is fun for them to tease us. We LOVE our missionaries! They are the best in the world!

May MLC

I didn't get as many pictures of MLC this month. Probably because our

house-help resigned just a few days before and I spent most of the time in the kitchen getting lunch ready and cleaning up after. But, I did get some pictures of the dessert that was set out at the end
of the meeting.

Scroll through the pics and I will add comments if needed.

 The miracle of the fishes and loaves - if we humble ourselves and give all that we have, the Savior will multiply it and we will receive much more than we started with. Theme for the month of May - Humility.

 

 

I wish the kitchen at the mission home was bigger! Just like home, this is where all the "kids" want to gather.

 

 I love how there is a whole group of elders and sisters squeezed in together having a great time in front of the camera, laughing and showing off their ice cream - and then there is Elder Anderson and Elder Coffey in the background completely oblivious to all the craziness.

I asked the whole MLC group to make a funny face and this was the best of the four shots I took. Some really got into character and had fun with it.

 Beautiful group! Have I told you yet how much I love all our missionaries?

Mission President Seminar

The most exciting and long-awaited event of the year for a Mission President and wife is the Mission President Seminar. It's a time to strengthen eternal relationships with dear friends who, by the way, are the most amazing people on the earth. We have all become the dearest of friends through this calling. In the evenings when all scheduled meetings for the day are over, those who arrived with us the end of June 2013: 

President and Sister Reeder

President and Sister Tanner

President and Sister Rahlf

all meet in one of the bedrooms and sit and talk for hours. The sisters sit on the bed sharing ideas, giggling, looking at pictures, and comparing medical woes of the elders and sisters. The Presidents are gathered in their own conversation, comparing notes on obedience and mission goals/totals. Together we are stronger because we have the love and support of each other.

 I will forever love these couples!

 

 President and Sister Rahlf and President and Sister Reeder.

Sister Tanner and I checking out a quilt.

(Those cute men in the white shirts and ties in the background are our sweethearts.)

 This is a view from our balcony towards Manila.

This is the view towards the ocean and hotel pool. We stayed at the Sofitel Plaza, Manila. Our room was on the 10th floor.

The afternoon before the Seminar started, I took some time out for pampering. President Tye recorded the moment. 

FYI: I had 2 women working on me at the same time, I felt so spoiled. Then I noticed that the lady sitting next to me had 5 doing her hair and 2 giving her a pedicure at the same time. I think she was an actress or someone important. She kept asking the owner, "Now you promise this will not hurt my hair? I want the foil out right now if it is going to make it ugly." He told her that it may make her hair a little dry but she only needed it done this one time. 

Oh my goodness, I love beauty shop chatter!

On our last day, the Area Presidency, Area Seventy, and Mission Presidents were busy talking business so these beautiful ladies had a picture with me. How lucky am I?

Sitting: Sister Reeder (Naga Mission), Sister Ferrin (wife of Area IFR), Sister Andaya (Tacloban Mission)

Standing: Sister Rahlf (Cauayan Mission), Me!, Sister Nielson (wife of Area President), Sister Tanner (Cebu East)

I'm ending this post by showing pictures I took of the sunset on the last evening of Mission President Seminar. It was beautiful!

 

 Paalam, Ingat Po!