Pacific Rim

All's well that ends well.  On Wednesday Elder McNett took Elder Velasco in to Cebu for a follow up visit with Dr Po, the surgeon who did the operation on him last week. Everything is looking good and he and Elder Goulding are now back again in their area on the island of Camotes (Paradise according to Elder Velasco).  Of course we 'had' to stop for lunch after seeing the doctor.

Elder Goulding, Elder Velasco.

What is not shown in the picture above is Krispy Kreme right across the street - what is also known as vitamin K. These eateries are located in an area of Cebu near the temple known as the IT Park where there are several technology related companies and we always see a lot of young people out walking, especially at lunch time. It is also home to that most elusive of street signs.

The Cebu Stop Sign.

This may not be the only one of it's kind in Cebu, but it is the only one we've seen in the last year.

It was time for Zone Conference again.  On Thursday the Lilo-an and Consolacion Zones met in the Lilo-an Stake Center. President Maughan spoke about his vision for the Cebu East Mission, the mission training plan and the importance of the restoration of the Gospel to the earth with Priesthood Keys. Sister Maughan taught about the importance of keeping study journals. Elder Baladad and Elder Grimpluma led workshop discussions. Sister Broughton and Sister Abril also gave an excellent, well prepared presentation on the need to reflect on our service and where we might improve. We are really grateful for the opportunity to participate in these missionary gatherings.

Of course there was lunch and pictures. Point a camera in any direction and the scene will instantly fill with missionaries.

Groupie?

This seems to be especially true with Selfies  - or what should probably be called Groupies.

In our mission there are several non-native missionaries that come from the Pacific Rim. We have, or have had, missionaries from Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Guam, Vanuatu, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Australia and New Zealand. They are an important and growing missionary force here in the Philippines. Three of our missionaries from New Zealand were at the meeting and had a group picture. Their English accent is beautiful. We love to hear them talk.

Elder Tyrell, Elder Susi, Sister Broughton,, Elder Lag'aia

Three of the above are from New Zealand, one of them is from Portland, Oregon? Can you tell who it is?

  

If you said Elder Susi, you are right. Elder McNett happened to be walking by and for some reason they asked for a picture together. Then they wanted what sounded like wokie wokie.

The person in the middle was a bit confused until finding out it was wacky, not wokie.

Elder Lag'aia is a bit of a ham. Make that a big ham. He photo bombs every picture he can.  We even asked him to take a picture of the Office District, thinking if he was taking the picture he couldn't be in it. How wrong we were.

Also this week, Elder Calumpang and Elder Blanco helped deliver a washing machine to the future home of  Elder and Sister Weatherston who are entering the MTC this week and scheduled to arrive the first week of October.

And Lilo-an Stake Conference was this week. President Schmutz of the Phillipine Area Presidency was in attendance and presiding.  He was the President of Cebu Mission when the Cebu East Mission was created in 2013 and is back now in the area presidency.

President Lim was released after many years of service and President Juntilla was called to take his place. The extended family of President Juntilla sang for us at the Adult Session Saturday evening. There were 25 memebers and 4 generations of the family singing. It was wonderful.

Juntilla Family singing Count Your Blessings.

We also had a nice rain this week. We were on the edge of a typhoon so it was just wet without a lot of wind. This is how it looked from the office.

Thought for the Week

"My beloved brethren, may I remind you, if there were a perfect woman, do you really think she would be that interested in you?"

Dieter F. Uchtdorf