We taught, trained, testified, lifted, strengthened and cried a little this week. The daily work is challenging, but lives are changed and the rewards are forever.

The departing batch this week. We return these seven to their home and family to build the Kingdom and serve the Lord there. They each return with honor and a closer relationship with the Savior.

They will travel tonight to the Manila temple and stay in the patron housing and spend tomorrow in the temple. The local missionaries will take a bus home and the others will fly back to Canada and the States.

Elder Peterson. Time to load up the vehicles and what won't fit inside the suitcase you wear home. This is the first time I have ever seen a suit coat here. It was hung in a closet upon arrival and returned today on his way home.

Somehow it works on Elder Peterson.

 A carabou in the field.

 Dried coconuts along the road. They eat the coconut meat and burn the shells. The shells also make good tile floor buffers, I'm told.

 A Nepo hut in the middle of the rice field. Just like the Christmas tree ornaments on the mission home tree.

 Irrigation canal, fields, huts, homes, mountains and the forever heat and blue sky.

 As the last harvest is dried and shipped to the mill a new crop is planted and the circle of life begins anew.

 The last of the recent crop is dried today.

There is always a reminder of the sustaining influence of rice. It will keep the birds and chickens going for another season. It will provide a chicken in every pot along with the mountains of rice consumed every day.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Christmas Decorating

Today is Preparation Day and the day we celebrate Thanksgiving in the Baguio Mission Home. We were invited to a special turkey feast at the mission home, hosted by the mission president and his wife. They sourced parts of the dinner from all over the Philippines as they traveled for meetings. Fortunately they have a great freezer and a lot of experience to make this all possible.

 The Butterball turkeys were done to perfection... fall-off-the-bone tender!

 President Jensen is a master at carving the birds and was generous with the pre-dinner samples... to everyone's delight.

 The kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly baked turkey and all the trimmings.

 Mashed potatoes & lots of gravy, stuffing, sweet potato pie, carrots, tossed salad and Jell-O salad, and muffins with strawberry jam!

 More mashed potatoes and gravy with the main course... Thanksgiving turkey!

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 A plate of delicious Thanksgiving bounty!

 Dig in and enjoy. The American and Canadian missionaries dug right in... the local Philippino missionaries were a little cautious, but after the first taste they were ready to clean their plates too. They especially enjoyed the sweet potato pie and turkey.

 After dinner President Jensen gave instruction to the missionaries to decorate the mission home Christmas tree and they jumped right into it.

President Jensen brought a 7.5 foot pre-lit Christmas tree from Costco with him. What a joy to see the missionaries decorate the tree while they sang and delighted in this sacred holiday season.

 Elders: Frost, DeGuzman, and Lee savor the first bites of Christmas fudge.

 The sisters get the honor of placing the little Philippine Nepo huts and bright red ornaments on the tree.

 Many hands make the decorating work go quickly.

 We all took a little time to sit and enjoy the Christmas tree... the glow of the lights and the colors of the ornaments and ponder the events of that sacred birth long ago.

Now it's time for the serious desserts: pumpkin pie, cherry pie, cakes and toppings.

It was a wonderful few hours away from the heat and noise of the day. We joined in the common bond of love of the Savior and serving Him. The food was amazingly delicious and prepared with great love, but our hearts were filled with gratitude for the most precious gift of all... the Lord Jesus Christ. We savored the sweetness of the occasion both temporally and spiritually. We are so blessed and we thank God for those blessings.

Haircut Time

Today is Monday, Preparation Day for missionaries and that means a haircut for me today. I go to Arto on main street. You can't miss it. It's where everyone that is anyone in town goes for a haircut. You see the police there and the presidents of local organizations and a lot of retired men that are all connected by friendships of years gone by. I fit into the mix mainly because I have long grey hair and need a haircut.

This is Arto's barber shop. I was standing in the traffic filled street to take this shot. I'll have to add another picture from across the street so you can get the feel of open air, traffic, marketplace and people.

 I was here this morning a minute after 10:00 and had one person ahead of me. I got the man waiting to take a picture of me in the chair. Arto uses his scissors like a true professional and keeps everything sharp and clean.

 A self-portrait in the chair. Arto keeps focused on his work.

 Tools of the trade: fan for the hot days (everyday), rubbing alcohol, baby talc and brush for a dry off after the haircut. The electric converter to power the US made electric clippers in the drawer (used very sparingly, maybe 30-45 seconds) and a sharp razor and scissors also in the drawer.

 Another great haircut from Arto! Most haircuts cost 40 pesos (94 cents), but Arto charges 60 pesos ($1.40) and it is well worth it!
 I'll really miss this experience when we return.

 A few days before this Mom got her hair cut at the chapel after a zone conference. Sister Cooper is a senior sister from Australia. She works at the Employment Resource Center in Dagupan and has offered to cut the sisters hair, so mom took advantage of the offer. She has cut mom's hair a couple of times and it has worked out just fine.

There was a lot of hair blowing around the room and I was a little nervous how mom would feel about the haircut. But not to worry... it turned out just fine. The question now is... Who will cut mom's hair when Sister Cooper goes home at the end of January?

This picture was before my haircut and after mom's. This is Sister Eldredge. She left for home, Sandy Utah, today. We will miss her. She was a very strong sister missionary.

This Week - Sticky Rice and More

A few miscellaneous pictures on the camera this week.

A gift from a member... sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. It is a sweet blend of rice, coconut and sugar. It tastes sweet, has a definite coconut flavor in a gummy rice base. It was given piping hot and is best eaten hot, but people eat it hot or cold. It often comes in a small cigar-size wrapped in a banana leaf and sold on the street to people in passing cars, buses, bikes, trikes and just walking to the market.

This is what it looks like... it tastes better than it looks, but it is not for the weight conscious.

Power out, flashlights on! Last week at dinner time the power went out for over an hour, but that didn't slow down mom. The flashlights came out and the cooking went on.

We had a "candle light" dinner at home. As soon as we finished dinner the power came back on and we enjoyed a few hours of A/C in the office.

Packages gt to us, but often they have been opened and run over by a truck or two.

Mom was in heaven again when we went to the mission home to connect to the internet. Our connection had been out for 8 days and she was going through grandchild withdrawls. I disassembled the phone and computer equipment and hooked it up again at the mission home. It was great to get connected again.

We chatted for hours and it was great! We got the internet set up in our home again and everything works well now.

We enjoy being a part of the baptisms each week.

The sister in the middle had been reactivated and is now going to the temple with her family and her "branch family".

Sister Jensen, Sister Perkins and Mom were discussing the experiences of the week, plans for coming district conference and a few new recipies.

Happy Birthday wishes and songs shared at zone conference.

Mom working at the desk at home. The windows now have grid-style bars over the windows to prevent future theft.

The backyard trees are growing. We shared a stalk of bananas with our landlord.

These bananas still have a little longer to grow before they are ready.

Philippino oranges have a greenish skin, but still have a wonderfully sweet orange fruit inside. They do have a few more larger seeds.