Happy Thanksgiving

Even though Thanksgiving is not a national holiday here in the Philippines we had a pot luck Thankgiving meal with our district on Monday evening.  Ten of us, including President and Sister Tanner and our zone leaders, gathered at our house and enjoyed Kentucky Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, rice, sweet potatoes, fruit, and pork, with no bake cookies and ice cream for desert.

Yes, the sweet potatoes here are purple.They are called camotes.

At our regular district meeting Tuesday morning we each had a chance to express what we are grateful for.

SM-Cebu

On Saturday we drove in to Cebu to restock some groceries and pick up office supplies at a major mall there, SM-Cebu. It has hundreds of shops on four floors. We needed to look for binders to hold information given to both arriving and departing missionaries. We didn't find all that we needed, but we were able to order enough to last a while. Not only that but we took a new route home and made it! We are actually starting to learn our way around. Our next goal is to learn the way to the Cebu Temple - and back. Sometimes the best way back is not always the best way to go, depending on several factors such as day of the week, time of day and major intersections on the way. We are learning that getting around here is part art, part science and hope to do a future blog entry on the topic of daily travel here.

Today was the Ward Primary program. The size of the Primary here is about the same as our home ward in Coalville, which is to say not large, somewhere around 20 children. What they lack in numbers though they make up in enthusiasm. Most of the children had their parts memorizied - in English - and the songs they sang were in English too. It was a delightful program.