Cebu Temple

On Wednesday we had an opportunity to attend the Cebu Temple for the first time with several of the office Elders, Sister Tanner and the Tanner’s daughter-in-law, Heather, who was here for a visit. Gratefully, Sister Tanner drove us in. We are not quite ready to drive ourselves into Cebu just yet. The Cebu Temple is beautiful and reminds us of the Ogden Temple. 

On the way back we stopped briefly at a mall to see about internet service and on the way out drove through standing water from a passing rain storm.We are hearing reports of a typhoon to the north of us that may leave as much as a meter and a half of rain in less than a week. That is a lot of rain.

We also stopped at a store called S&R which is very much like Costco. It even carries many of the Kirkland products. We were able to stock up on some food, including a small block Tillamook cheese.

 

And for fans of StudioC

 

The mission home is a beautiful home in a prime location and is used a lot.

For church today we accompanied President and Sister Tanner to the northern end of Cebu Island to visit a small branch near the town of Bogo.  The meeting itself was held in a home and was an interesting mix of Cebuano and English. We sang the hymns in English, prayers were Cebuano, talks were a combination of both and the Sunday School lesson was delivered mostly in Cebuano while writing in English on the chalk board. 

Scenery on the way to Bogo. There is a lot of sugar cane and some corn grown on that end of the island.

In the native tongue we were traveling in the bukid – in the jungle or mountains.

 

Janica, you will be pleased to know that we probably saw a hundred goats today. Many houses have goats and/or chickens. There are quite a few cattle and we even saw three horses, which are rare here.

We also passed a cemetery. The crypts are all above ground.  Dad told how he slept a night in a crypt during the war when his unit occupied a graveyard. Sister Tanner told us that families rent space in the cemetery and if they don’t pay the bones will be removed and placed into a bucket instead.

If you enlarge this picture and look closely you can see the occupant of an open crypt near the center of this picture.

 

A typical open air market that we passed on our way. I didn’t even notice ‘Charles Angles’ until after the picture was taken. 

This is the main Bogo meeting house. After a major typhoon here about two years ago this building housed several dozen people for several weeks until homes could be repaired or re-built. Often LDS meeting houses are the safest and most secure buildings in the area when events like typhoons occur .

Almost back to our house I was able to get a shot of the local swimming hole.

After a full week in the office we feel like we are starting to learn our duties, but there is so much more to learn about running a mission office, we still feel a bit overwhelmed. We absolutely love the young missionaries here and want to do all we can to assist them in their work. The members are very friendly and accepting and we hope we can be of help to them as well. And of course, we also hope we can help take some of the burden from President and Sister Tanner who have an amazing load to carry.