Arrival in Manila!

.  We got to the Mission Home at about 1:30 last night, putting an end to a 31 hour “day” of travel and activity, with no sleep, I might add. Neither of us sleeps on airplanes, unfortunately.

                We were allowed to sleep in this morning, had a late breakfast, and then joined the new missionaries from the Philippine MTC for their orientation, then all had lunch together.  One of the new sister missionaries is the first missionary ever from the UAE (United Arab Emirates, a consortium of seven countries.)  She was very sweet.  Everyone, including MP and Sister, left for the afternoon and we were able to nap.

                 Had a lovely supper of sloppy joes, tossed salad, pickles, chips, and salad with Pres. and Sister Stucki.  No native food, yet! I have a rumbly tummy and don’t know if it’s from travel or because I forgot and rinsed my mouth with tap water this morning! I rinsed immediately with bottled water, but who knows? That’s the big no-no here—drinking the water. We will have a filter in our apartment, but Sister Stucki drinks bottled water almost exclusively.

                We had an interview right before supper when President Stucki gave us our assignment.  We will be housing missionaries. Here in Manila there are over 40 missionary apartments, and we will be checking them for cleanliness, I think, but mainly for working components—fans, etc.—and for safety, ie., bars on the windows, no rats, etc.! This sounds like something we can handle, if we can just learn how to navigate the streets with no addresses! The previous couple have been working on a system for that, and they will be training us for the next two weeks. We will be taking over their apartment as well as their assignment after they transfer to Palawan to help get two districts ready to be stakes, the first on that island. We’ll get our driver’s licenses and be shown where to shop tomorrow, Thursday, morning, begin training, and move to their apartment tomorrow night.