Thursday - Travel to Our Mission Field

Monday, we were packed by noon and dressed by 1:00 PM. By 3:00 PM our son Steve, loaded our bags into his car and we were on our way to the airport. It seemed normal to drive away, but then I remembered that we wouldn't be coming back for eighteen months. It's nice to have Marlene's brother living in our home while we are away and have first-hand reports on how things are there at home.

We arrived at the airport and unloaded our bags. Wow! we were packed like we were moving...
 

4 big bags to check in, 2 carry on bags and a computer. We packed about everything we were told to bring, we are fully inoculated and we have a few extra testimonies in case we lose one along the way.

We were at the airport 3 hours early and avoided any rush. We were the only people at the check in desk and had no pressure dragging the bags around or going through security. The bags were checked all the way through to Manila... we just hoped that they would show up at the same time we did.

We had a long travel ahead, but we were ready and anxious to get to our mission field. We left SLC by 6:00, arrived LA at 8:00. Left LA at 1:30 AM and traveled about 15 hours to Hong Kong, China. Marlene celebrated her birthday somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and lost 14 hours of her birthday, so her aging has been suspended. We had a pleasant flight and met several people that we really enjoyed. One young man was returned missionary from China. He was a fun conversationalist and very engaging. Wednesday morning we saw the sun rise and looked out the window to see the shoreline of China.
 

This is what we saw of Hong Kong as we were approaching the airport for landing.

Touchdown! Here we are in China!

A look at our home for the last 15 hours.

Marlene is faithful in keeping her journal and took time in the airport to do a little updating.

Free Internet services to communicate with family and friends at home. We landed at 7:30 AM and didn't leave for Manila until 1:30 PM so we had time to relax and take in the sights from the airport.

Our view of Manila as we were approaching the airport.

We're in the Philippines! We passed immigrations, found our luggage, and went through customs to meet Clem, our driver that took us to the Holiday Inn, downtown Manila. It was a 20 km drive through evening traffic, so an hour and a helf later we arrived at the hotel. We were tired from the journy and ready for a good night's sleep.

No comment.

View from our room the next morning

On our way by 8:00 to get our Philippines drivers license.

Waiting at the LTO Land Transportation Office for the hard copy of our license.

Our drives Joey, ?, and license facilitator, Lawrence.

One of four temple sites in Urdaneta.

The new Mission Home and office in Urdaneta.