We have been in Cebu City for one week now and are loving the time in the temple and associating with the Filipino people, they are so kind and beautiful.
We are just starting to learn our way around and rely heavily on the other senior missionary couples for help, they have really taken care of us and we are enjoying the time together with them. We had our first ride on a jeepney (look on the internet for pictures) and a taxi. We now feel that we know how to walk across the street (four lanes) which is an adventure every time with jeepneys, taxies, cars, and motorcycles all going by with apparently no rules. We always tell our children to look both ways before crossing the road to make sure no cars are coming but here you would never get across the street if you waited for a clearing. You make sure you can get across the first lane and hopefully the second and make it to the center line and then wait as traffic goes by on both sides of you until you have a brief opening in the next lane and then make your move towards the other side of the road. A real accomplishment each time you make it.
We have been touched by the stories about typhoon Haiyan from first hand accounts. Some members here have gone to Tacloban to look for family and described the area as looking like an atomic bomb had been dropped on it. The one speaker in church last Sunday went there looking for family and was quite graphic about what he saw and experienced. He quoted Brigham Young and said "today's sermon it to go out and rescue those people." The stake center (which is located next to the temple) has been a staging area for relief efforts. We have been able to help put together food bags, which the members have already done several times and work late into the night until they are finished. The disaster becomes more real as you associate with those who have been personally affected by it. This week I was helping on a temple session, which was mostly young missionaries and President and Sister Schmutz the mission president, and recognized two of the young sister missionaries that were trapped in a building and had to swim to get out and were miraculously saved. Even with the great loss of life there have been and continue to be miracles.
We love all of you and are so glad for the opportunity to serve.
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