Earthquake!!

David and I were sitting in the living room last night, talking on the phone to Camella, when our couch felt like it was bumping up and down. At first, I thought, "What are the neighbors doing?!" But then David said, "We are having an earthquake!" I felt kind of dizzy for awhile afterward, but it only lasted a few seconds. Our first earthquake! We heard later it was 5.6 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was about 30 kilometers out in Manila Bay, which is why it was so mild. However, from 17 stories up, mild was NOT what I was thinking!

From the news:
MANILA, Philippines–A magnitude 5.7 quake jolted parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, on
Wednesday night.
Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs),
said that the epicenter of the earthquake was at 22 kilometers west of Calatagan town in
Batangas or about 14 kilometers north-northwest of Barangay (village) Wawa in Puerto Galera
in Oriental Mindoro, according to the US Geological Services, with a depth of 36 km.
Solidum said the earthquake was felt at intensity V in Puerto Galera and Batangas City and at
intensity IV in Bulacan as well as in Mandaluyong and Malabon cities in the National Capital
Region.
In Quezon City, the tremor was felt at intensity III. At these intensities, objects indoors would
be seen swaying due to the quake.
Radio and TV reports said the quake was also felt in Makati and Pasig cities.
Solidum said that they had yet to determine the exact source of the earthquake, which struck
at 7:52 p.m.
“Initially we are looking at the possible movement of the Lubang fault. But it could also be the
Manila Trench,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Aftershocks may be expected because of the magnitude of the temblor.The Philippines sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where continental plates collide causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Another Senior Outing

We had another senior outing last Saturday when we drove to the birthplace of Jose Rizal, a Philippine national hero. He was born during our Civil War and was executed for fomenting rebellion by the Spanish in his thirties. He was an amazing man! He was a botanist, a poet, an engineer, an author, an excellent dancer, and a champion of the Filipino cause against the oppression of the Spanish.

A child's bed

The parents' bed

David in front of the Nipa Hut in the back yard. I'm not sure of the translation of that, but it was Jose's favorite place.

Me also in the back yard, to prove I was there. The house was very nice, but I was most impressed with the kitchen they had a "stove" on top of a slab of rock about waist high, with stone (or concrete) tripods built over depressions in the stove. One could build a fire in the depression, and set a pot on top of the tripods, and cook without bending over the fireplace. There were two "burners". It was really very innovative.  Just outside the kitchen was the Comfort Room, or CR--Filipino for bathroom. There were two separate one-holers side by side in their own little rooms.  The only disturbing part was that the well was located about ten feet away! But there was a wench from the kitchen level (second floor) down to the well, so the cook could have water pretty readily.

A model of the house, with the view from the well side of the house. The kitchen was in the part that extends out the furthest, and the CRs were between the well and the kitchen, on the upper floor.

 After the Rizal House we drove further south to the University of the Philippines Los Banos campus, where we went to their agricultural college and saw the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful! Some of the places reminded me of Ankhor Wat and Indiana Jones. The maintenance was a little lacking, but the trail through the jungle was fun, down many steps to a creek and with lots of different flora.

David and tree with awesome roots

Cute little creek-side picnic areas, again not too well-maintained.

A giant ferny-thing

The paths were mostly steps.

These look a lot like Ruth's diffenbachia, only very large.

Elephant ear--about a foot long

Little waterfall

Don't know this one, but isn't it gorgeous?

Some kind of bar or refreshment area that, overgrown with vines, etc., reminded us of Indy.

A very persistent plant growing right out of the retaining wall

A candle tree--see the candle-like pods

Orchids and evidence of the temperature in the jungle

Stake Conference

I haven't written as much lately, mostly because when we are home we are either eating, planning for the next day or too tired to think! We have been trying to get our work for this transfer done a little bit early so that we can be free when Jon and Maria come to see us July 6-13. We are really looking forward to seeing them!

We had heard that at a stake conference before we arrived, the talks were in Tagalog and not many people attended.  We wondered if that would be repeated at the one we just had. It wasn't. The crowd size was comparable to home, and at the Saturday night meeting, the talks were really very good.  Our stake president sounded just like a stake president. His counselor spoke, and the stake Young Women's president, and the stake Relief Society president. Their talks were very spiritual and uplifting. Perhaps the highlight was the choir number. Filipinos can sing, with gusto! It was quite lovely.

The Sunday morning meeting was broadcast from Utah to all the Philippines. Presiding was Elder Cook, and one of the speakers was Elder Michael Teh, a Filipino. It was very good to hear his remarks. The choir sang again, and was, again, a treat to hear. David directed the congregational music for that session. We got to go home at twelve, which was nice, since we usually stay until three to attend both wards. That made it a good Father's Day. I made David a carrot cake, which turned out pleasingly well.

It was one more testimony that the Church is the same the world over, and another testament to it's truth.

Do-Overs

Well, we had a new transfer last week, and now we are back at checking apartments again. We hand out supplies, and then get a slurry of new texts asking for supplies. We are learning that this job is not one that is ever going to be "done"! It gives us new chances to visit with the missionaries, though, so we love it.  We are about to get elders that have been looking for months into a new apartment, and were feeling very relieved, then got a text from other elders whose landlord is being uncooperative and pretty much unfriendly, and since they live in arguably the worst apartment in the mission, they are looking hard. Then we got a text from the president tonight telling us two elders that we had been helping to look for some weeks have just been emergency moved out tonight because their apartment was unsafe. We don't know what that means, but think it must be because of people, not critters.  They have had rats come up their toilet in the past, and President didn't move them out, so I think something else must have happened.  So now we must help them find another apartment much sooner than we thought.

One elder was moved last week because of death threats. A lot of things that I never associated with missions before! I also never realized how very hard missions are. Hats off, again, to our sons, son-in-law and daughter-in-law who have served missions.  It's probably a good thing we did not know, or we might not have been able to send them off!  On the other hand, we were discussing the other day the things 18-year-olds find hilarious, like being bitten on the eye by a cockroach while sleeping, that older folks would find just flat-out horrifying! I keep wondering how I would have reacted to the living conditions here when I was twenty-one.  Hopefully, better than I would now. (Young) missionaries cannot have air conditioning because they can't afford to pay the electric bills. They get support that is way above the norm here, but still does not include enough for that luxury, so their apartments have been easily in the high 90's during this unusually hot summer here. (They do get one fan per missionary, so, generally, four per apartment.) We buy familiar food, which makes our life much easier, but that is harder if not impossible for the young missionaries. We bought delicious Blue Bell ice cream this week, but figured out we paid $10 for the half-gallon size! That is about 430 pesos, and they get Php 4000/month, so would be hard-pressed to pay for American ice cream. WE don't do it often.

Which reminds me, we made "Frito Pie" tonight, with regular Hormel chili bought at the Sam's Club lookalike, but although they import all kinds of Lay's products, Fritos is not one of them.  So we made our "Frito" pie with Tostitos. It was, actually, quite yummy!

They are generally working very hard, though, and the conversion rate is very high here. We are having lots of baptisms, made easier because the people are already Christian, so don't have that hurdle to jump. Families are very important here, another plus.  I love being out driving and seeing not only mothers and grandmothers with babies, but fathers, brothers, and grandfathers, too. And they are such a friendly, helpful people. Manila is a city of over 11 million, but everyone smiles when you look at them, and generally speak.

This is, definitely, an experience.

Very Special Day

We spent the morning helping elders move, loading them and all their personal stuff into the van and driving them to their new apartment. We had planned on going-home activities with the two elders finishing their missions, which start with donuts and juice in the office in the morning while the president gives them an exit interview, early lunch of pizza, and then a trip to the temple. We were able to meet everyone at the temple, so only missed the food part.  We ate granola bars and yogurt in the car.

We had a lovely session in the temple with one other senior couple, the president and his wife, the Assistants to the President, the elders that were going home, and a sister whose father had passed away about two weeks ago. She is getting transferred to Palawan tomorrow, and wanted a chance to get to the temple for some peace.

After the temple, the tradition has been to visit the American Memorial Cemetery of the Philippines, where over 17,000 servicemen who died in the Pacific Theater are buried, and another many thousand whose bodies were never found are listed, engraved on the marble walls of the memorial.  Back in 1961, Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Philippines to the preaching of the gospel at that site, and one of the leaving missionaries read his dedicatory prayer.  It was beautiful, and it was especially interesting to think of what has transpired since that time and fulfilled many of the promises of the prayer, and what more is to come.

Following the cemetery we went to the Mission Home for a delicious meal, then had a testimony meeting. This is also customary, and we hear testimonies from the leaving missionaries.  This time that included President and Sister Stucki, who will go home June 29, I think. It was an especially meaningful meeting this time, as all four spoke of the enabling power of the Atonement of Christ, in helping us to achieve our potential as missionaries and as his children. We are so blessed that we found and joined His church, and for the growth we have been able to make because of His enabling power. I can't recapture the Spirit from the meeting, but it was powerful, and made us so glad to be here helping His Kingdom to go forth, and to help the young missionaries bring such joy to the people they teach.

Villa Escudero

Last Saturday we had a Senior Missionary outing with a group of 25 from the Area and other missions, plus six from the Manila Mission. We drove about two hours south of Manila out into the beautiful countryside (we are so tired of the concrete jungle!) to Villa (Veel-ya here in PH) Escudero, a working coconut plantation started in the 1800s and opened to the public as a resort area, while still producing, in 1981. You can find out more on the internet. The family still lives there. There is a big waterfall from which they began producing electricity in the early 1900s, and many of the staff there is second and third generation, and they all live there. There are cabañas for rent, and a restaurant, plus, you can also eat down in the water by the waterfall, as I will post photos as evidence.  They have a large open-air pavilion where they performed an hour-long cultural exhibition, and we road over there in a carabao-pulled cart.  There is also the most unique museum I've ever visited. It had lots of great Philippine artifacts and natural history exhibits, but they've also received gifts from all over the world, so we were also treated to shrunken heads! One of the most unique items was a large picture of  Christ returning in glory, formed by the words of the New Testament in it's entirety. You had to use a magnifying glass to read it, and we couldn't take a picture, but it was amazing.

Auto-cooling our carabao

Sister Theler, one of our office missionaries

Another view of our carabao cart

I doubt if you'll ever see David barefoot again!

Our enthusiastic server

 

 

The lovely spread

Proof that we were here

View from above

The view above the falls from the side of the pavillion, and the cabañas which can be rented.

Pre-show entertainment, from the in-house music school

The rhythm section

They did dances from several different provinces

Spanish influence

This one was so much fun! Those coconut shells are their drums, and they strike them as they dance. Notice ones on their backs, too.

Cock fighting is a big pastime here, and was portrayed in this dance.

The granddaughter of an original staff member, getting her start in the troupe.

Part of the original outbuildings. We didn't take a picture of the residence, but it was similar in appearance.