Beatiful Inside and Out - by AnaLee

The people that I met made the experience the most meaningful to me. I wish I had more pictures with all the wonderful loving people that I met there. I was able to spend quite a bit of time in the temple and felt so loved by association from those who have worked with my parents.  We also enjoyed watching the rebroadcast of General Conference with one of the Cebu stakes. I think mom was trying to introduce me to everyone she knew there, and so many of them were all in one building!! I met a lot of people, including a sister named Analeeza. (I think I can remember her name.)

I found the people there to be guapa/guapo, very beautiful, both inside and out. It came through in their smiles and kind words.  They were always smiling!

Auntie Lea! Such a sweet lady. She works at the desk in the patron housing building. She was always smiling and waved to me as we came and went. She has a daughter serving a mission right now in the Philippines.

On the ends are Karl and Jasmine 

These are a couple of the kids that mom and dad have adopted since they've been there. Jazmine is currently taking the missionary discussions. We had a great dinner with them my last night. The sister missionaries stopped by to have something to eat.  I was having a great conversation with Karl about the word of wisdom and he wanted to know more, so we asked the sisters if they wanted to teach him the discussion on that subject. They committed him to live the word of wisdom and he accepted. Great people!!

4. Fun Things to Eat - by AnaLee

Mom still had a pretty well stocked pantry that she was trying to clean out before they left, so we didn't have to buy too many meals while I was there.  When we bought anything it was purely for the benefit of my cultural experience.There wasn't anything too crazy like squid or anything.

Beyond the coconut, white rice, and sweet and condensed milk that was everywhere and in everything there was . . . 

We found these fish among rows and rows of other sea food critters of all shapes and sizes at the market in Carbon.  They had a nice looking LapuLapu fish there so we bought it. .  They fillet it right there in front of us.Didn't want the head so Pres. Belleaza took it

This was the fish soup that the Belleaza's made for us from the fish head we gave him-from Carbon. It was actually very good! No eyeballs. (They were his treat!)  They use a lot of ginger which I love, but I got a big chunk in this and it made my eyes water.  There will all kinds of veggies. The leafy greens are called peckay. 

This was part of the buffet we had while in Bahol on the river tour. The pork was pretty tastey!!

Taho is a Philippine delicacy made of fresh soft/silken Tofu, Arnibal (brown sugar syrup), and Sago “pearls” (which are similar to Tapioca pearls). We also had this on the floating restaurant in Bahol and I thought it was pretty good.

Durian fruit aka the stinky fruit.  I learned that this is actually banned in some public places in Asia because it is so odorous!  I didn't actually try the fruit, but President Belleaza brought some durian jam for me to try.  I didn't think it was that bad actually.

Mangos are delicious!!  I could eat them everyday!!

We bought some avocados at the market in Carbon also.  They were ripe enough to eat just before I came home.  Yummy!!

Sapodilla, we bought these just to see what they were like. I had actually tried them in Utah but Mom and Dad had never tried them before. They are kind of like a mix between an apple and a pear. It was alright.  The more ripe it is the sweeter it gets. I think the one we ate was a little too ripe for my taste.

My favorite treat there!  This comes from a buko fruit.  My mom froze it and then made a smoothie with fresh pineapple! Orange Julius has nothing on this stuff!!

President & Sister Belleazon brought these over for us on Sunday night.  They are called pinaypay or banana fritters.  They are deep fried in coconut oil (of course) and then rolled in sugar.  Also delish!!

Called Bananaque we bought these hot from a vendor on the street by the temple block.  Well, technically a member who has a store bought them for us and delivered them to the apartment.  They weren't done when we were out so she offered to pick them up for us. They are small cooking bananas on a kabob that are fried and rolled in brown sugar.  Not too bad.

I was too exhausted on the flight over to take a picture of my Asian style dinner which included tofu(not a fan), but I did remember on the trip home. This was the meal that I had on the plane from Cebu to Tokyo.  It was pretty good.  Chicken and rice with steamed veggies, a fresh julianned salad with balsamic dressing, some other veggies, the one on the left I didn't like much but cauliflower and carrots were alright (airplane food is still airplane food after all.)  Watermelon, both yellow and red.  At first I thought the yellow melon was pineapple, but as soon as I stuck my fork into it I knew that it was the yellow variety of watermelon that I had heard about.

I actually brought home a bunch of 'snacks' for the family to try out (These are only a few of them).  We just picked them up from the grocery store while we were out.  Some were really good, others were OK and the durian candy was purely for the experience of it.  I personally thought that the chocolate bars tasted fishy - if that's even possible.  The kids didn't think so though and Bonnie actually liked the white chocolate bars that I brought home.  Of course we could eat the dried mangoes all day!

3. Bahol Island - by AnaLee

We spent a whole day on the island of Bohol. My parents had been here before (see post of July 28, 2014) on a different tour, but this is definitely on my list of places to come back to . . . one day!

The Loboc River

Our first stop on the tour was for lunch on the floating restaurant featuring a Filipino cuisine buffet. It was a very warm day but it was gorgeous! The cruise included live entertainment and a view of locals getting out of the heat and enjoying the "unpolluted' river. I think at one point a man swam up to our barge and of the the workers gave him a life jacket.  When we came back around we saw a little boy wearing it.

Bardge(aka floating restaurant) on the river.

I loved the colors!

So beautiful. 

At one point along the river there was a short stop where we were treated to local entertainment.  They played their ukulele and sang and danced in their costumes. There were all ages included. A couple of the youth performed a dance with four long bamboo rods that was kind of impressive.

dancing with bamboo

Of course all ways something to buy

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever!!

Tarsier Preservation

These guys were so cute!  They could probably fit into your pocket, or at least your purse.

The second stop was at the tarsier wildlife conservation.  We saw about 10-11 of these animals often called "the worlds smallest primates". They are about the size of a man's fist. They are a protected species and threatened due to illegal trading, and deforestation.  Their main predator. . .the domestic cat.  They were all sleeping, because they are nocturnal and eat insects. They were so cute sleeping though. Those eyes are huge when they open them. They don't move their eyes, however their heads can rotate 180 degrees. 

I forgot to open my eyes!! (but what's new?)

The Chocolate Hills

Unique to Bohol is a natural feature named The Chocolate Hills. These are small grass covered conical shaped hills are scattered all over an area. There are between 1,260 to 1,776 individual mounds. The hills are covered in green grass, which turn to brown during the dry season, making them look like dollops of chocolate. Dad and I were able to view all of them from a high viewing deck. We made it up the 210 steps to the view deck without even stopping.  Yahoo- feel the burn! 

From on top of the viewing deck

Our departure time from Cebu was late so we didn't get to see some of the places that were scheduled for the tour.  Even though we were a little disappointed, it had already been a long day with lots of sitting and we still had another 2 hour boat ride back to Cebu.  

Bohol was my favorite place to visit. It was so green and clean and probably the closest to what I pictured the Philippines to be like . . in my head. It was a good day!

2. City Tour - by AnaLee

Cebu City Tour

We took a guided tour around Cebu City.  It was nice having someone to tell us about the different places we stopped at.  I loved the history!  This tour took us to some very interesting places.  The Taoist temple was probably my favorite. We also saw Heritage of Cebu Monument, one of the oldest houses in the city the Yap-Sandiego Ancestral house, Fort San Pedro, and Basilica Minora del Sto. Nino which was next to the Magellan’s Cross monument. It was a very nice 3-4 hours in and out of a nice van with aircon. I learned a lot about the history as well as the current situation of the city. A while later I found a fun site called Everything Cebu that explained the places we visited in greater detail. There are a lot more sites on there than what we were able to see in one day. You can go check it out here which is a link to the Historical Sites if you want to see more.

Taoist Temple

Everything here is symbolic from the number of steps and scales on the dragons to the cloud pillars and guardians stationed at the entrance.   Built in 1972, the temple is the center of worship for Taoism, which follows the teachings of Lao Tze, an ancient Chinese philosopher. 

In front of the Taoist Temple. There were 81 steps leading up to the temple (representing the 81 chapters of Taoism scriptures). 9 is an important number.

This was the stone that held special prophetic meaning for the founder of this temple. 

We learned that Filipino dragons have 5 claws.

These dragons were beautiful!

Fishing with a needle not a hook. This is a reminder of the virtue of patience.

Heritage of Cebu Monument

This fairly new monument shows scenes relative to Cebu's history including the Basilica del Santo Niño, and the Magellan’s Cross. The scenes depicted in the Heritage Monument included  the Battle of Mactan between Lapu-Lapu and Ferdinand Magellan. There were also a couple important individuals depicted in the monument including the late president Sergio Osmena Sr. and Blessed Pedro Calungsod. (see Calungsod Chapel below.)

Yap-Sandiego Ancestorial House

The Yap-Sandiego ancestral house is made of coral stones and molave wood glued together by egg whites.  Built in 1675, the old residence was passed on to great great grandson of the Yap’s and we were told that the family stays there a couple days of the year in the "functional bed room".

Mural in the room where we were standing in the above picture.

 Fort San Pedro

Fort San Pedro is a military defense fortification built by Spanish and native Cebuano laborers and started under Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in 1565. He led the expedition that occupied the island of Cebu under the crown of Spain and laid the groundwork for the Spanish settlement in Cebu. Fort San Pedro is the smallest and oldest fort in the country and is located at the Port Area of Cebu City.

Standing inside the triangle fort with our tour guide Alberto.

Magellan's Cross

This is what it is supposed to look like inside

 The kiosk containing the cross of Magellan was actually closed for renovations when we visited, but there were ladies selling candles and dancing there.  We learned that it was what they called a regular holiday called Araw ng Kagitingan, also known as the Day of Valor,or bravery. It marks the greatness of Filipino fighters during World War II. 

The plaque above the kiosk reads,  “From time immemorial this spot has been set aside to commemorate the erection of a cross in Cebu by the Expedition of Magellan. When King Humabon of Cebu and his Queen, son and daughters, together with some 800 of their subjects were baptized by Father Pedro Valderrama. This hallowed site was improved in 1735 by Rev. Juan Albarran, Prior of San Agustin and in 1834 by Rt. Rev. Santos Gomez Maranon Bishop of Cebu. The image of the Santo Nino found by the expedition of Legaspi in a house near the present site of the Cathedral of Cebu is venerated by the faithful in the nearby Church of San Agustin.”

Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño

Cebu’s historical Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño is the oldest Catholic Church in Cebu. It houses the image of the Sto.Niño, a representation of Jesus as a black Holy Child.

There were a lot of people there that day to worship. I felt like I was intruding just a little bit, but there were also a lot of people like us there to just see it.  The roof of the basilica had some large murals on it that were kind of impressive. We were also told that there are plans to renovate and use the large pipe organ, one of only two in Cebu. I hope they are able to do it.  I love hearing the organ play.

San Pedro Calungsod Chapel

Inside the chapel

We also stopped at the San Pedro Calungsod Chapel. It is dedicated to Calungsod following the Vatican’s announcement of Pedro Calungsod’s scheduled canonization in October 2012. Our guide pointed out that what makes the chapel unique is that it boasts of 100 walls, each standing at different heights and with varying widths. The walls face one direction so that when viewed on one side it appears solid and yet transparent on the other side. Incidentally, the church pews are spaced such that they follow the same grid as the walls.

Not my picture, but this one made it look very pretty even if it was modern.

This was our driver.  He didn't speak English but he was very nice,  although very quiet. We ended up seeing him again.  He picked us up and took us to board the SpuperCat for our trip to Bohol.

1. Macton City - by AnaLee

I was able to visit my parents in the Philippines for a week, (April 5-13th). It went by so fast, but we packed a lot into that one week. It made me feel better to hear people say that they had been there for 6 weeks and still felt that they didn't have enough time.  There is never enough time! What a blessing though and I'm so grateful that I was able to have this experience.

This is the first post in several installments.  I was initially going to just put a quick one together and be done, but . . . it sort of snow-balled.  Hope you don't mind that I took over.

Lapu-Lapu

One of the first trips we took together was to this historical site honoring the native hero Lapu-Lapu. This place marks the spot where the chief killed the explorer Ferdinand Magellan.  Coming there with three ships, the men that survived left on just one ship and completed the trip making them the first ones to circumvent the globe.

In front of the Lapu-Lapu shrine in Mactan City

Mural depicting the great battle of Mactan where Lapu-Lapu  killed Magellan. The plaque reads "Here on 27 April 1521 Lapu-Lapu and his men repulsed the Spanish invaders, killing their leader Ferdinand Magellan.  Thus Lapu-Lapu became the first Filipino to have repelled European aggression."

Sister Sorensen interacting with some girls that were there.  School is out for their summer break (Apr-May).

Market vendors have found the location a nice place to sell their stuff. This was my first experience shopping and it was so fun seeing mom in her element. She knew her way around.  I learned a bit about the currency and generally how to convert dollars into pesos. Honestly though, I just had dad take care of the money part. He had an app for that!

Elder Sorensen next to this beautiful shell ornament. Probably wouldn't fit in my carry-on though.

This adorable little girl was flying a home-made kite made of string and a plastic bag.