First Day at Church

            Today was our first day at church. We were told we could attend either Makati 4th Ward, which is the international ward where all is done in English, or the Makati 3rd, which is a Tagalog Ward. Today we chose the 4th. Hiatts attend both.  I'm not sure where our records will be, but I assume 4th.  Anyway, we hardly felt like we were in the Philippines.  There were a few Philippines, a couple of New Zealanders, several church employees, embassy employees, businessmen/women, and many senior missionaries from the States, and one young man from Iran. Elder Northrup was asked to say the opening prayer, which made him feel right at home! As in the States, there is a dearth of pianists. The sacrament music was by a senior sister, Primary's pianist is leaving this month, and the RS pianist was on her last day today.  I feel fairly certain we'll both be playing soon, especially since we told the bishop's wife that Elder loves primary!
            One really fun thing was that the bishop's family played the special music today: one on piano, one on violin, and two on cello.  They played Love One Another. Brought back lots of nice memories. Their mom said, "At least they didn't drive away the Spirit!"  That, also, sounded familiar!
            Cooked our first real meal, and it was pretty close to real. We had few choices because we haven't fully stocked our pantry yet.  After sleeping most of the afternoon, we went on a walk around the building--first up to the roof, 40 stories high and a magnificent view of the city, with several furniture groupings that made it really inviting.  Then down to ground level to walk around the pools. It was a beautiful, cool evening with a lovely breeze.