We have been keeping very busy and we noticed that it's been almost a month since the last blog update so here are some of the things that have been happening.
In September the church in cooperation with the World Health Organization and The Philippine Department of Health was involved with helping in the effort to have all children 5 and under be immunized throughout the Philippines for measles, mumps and polio. Church members would go house to house, all houses not just members, handing out information on where parents could take their children to receive the free immunizations. The members who participated were encouraged to wear the yellow helping hands vests so they could be identified as being from the church. The response from parents to have their children immunized was good.
The last week of September was family week and the church participated with other religions at an iPeace celebration. iPeace is a group of churches and organizations coming together for the betterment of communities. The church was invited to participate for the first time last year and because of the great response was invited again this year. The young missionaries set up a booth where they were able to teach about the church and give out church literature to those interested. We went down with two of the other temple missionary couples on Monday and helped them set up and Elder Henthorn and Elder Sorensen went back on Saturday afternoon to help at the booth. There were referral slips which individuals interested in learning more about the church could fill out and then the missionaries would contact them for an appointment.
The first Saturday in October a church group from Dubai in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) came to the temple for several days to perform ordinances. They were able to come at this time because that weekend was an Islamic Holiday so they were able to all get off work at the same time. They brought with them over 700 family file names that they wanted to perform baptism and confirmation for as well as some of the other ordinances. One of the couples is from Sri Lanka and they received their endowments and had their three children sealed to them the first day they were here. Because of the time differential between the Philippines and Utah the General Women's Conference was being rebroadcast that weekend and the temple was closing early. Since this was the only time this group could come, the temple made arrangements so that they could perform baptisms after the temple had closed for the day. Arrangements were also made for them to perform baptisms on Monday even though the temple is closed on Monday. We were able to help them in the baptistry on Tuesday afternoon, the last day they were here, and they completed the last of the family file names they had brought.
Last weekend was the rebroadcast of General Conference, one week after conference again because of the time differential, so we were blessed to participate with the members here. Many members the internet so they come to the church to see conference. The Saturday schedule was 8:00 am - 10:00 am Priesthood Meeting, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm Saturday Morning Conference and 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm Saturday Afternoon Conference. Sunday was 9:00 am - 11:00 am Sunday Morning conference and 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm Sunday Afternoon Conference. Very few members can go home between sessions so they stay all day and bring food with them to eat at the church or buy something at one of the close food stands or markets. It is nice to watch conference in your home but there is a special feeling being in the church with other church members while being taught by the Living Prophets and Apostles and other church leaders. One advantage of watching conference a week late is we were able to have the text of the talks on our tablets and instead of hurriedly writing notes we just highlighted the parts of each talk that touched us as we followed along. On Sunday the temple missionaries prepared food for the young full time missionaries to eat between conference sessions. The food was set up in the canteen in the patron house. It is always so fun to associate with the young missionaries and see and feel their great enthusiasm for the work.
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| Some of the temple missionaries heading out to pass out information to local people about the free immunizations. They are walking toward the temple and you can see Angel Moroni above the tree behind the power lines. |
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| A church member trying to help comfort one of the children as local residents wait to have their children immunized. |
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| Sister Sorensen with Sister Pickett and Sister Jopson at the plaza where the booth was set up for Family Week. Sister Pickett is from Arizona but could easily be part of the Pickett family from Fayette. The structure in the background is Fort San Pedro. Fort San Pedro is the oldest and smallest fort in the Philippines. Built by the Spaniards to repel sieges by hostile natives and Muslim pirates, the fort was deemed finished in 1738, some 200 years after it started construction. |
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| This was the booth where people could come and learn about the church. |
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| The Church's Booth showing information about the church, videos were always playing and plenty of church literature available including copies of the Book of Mormon, in English and Cebuano of course. Elder Sorensen was able to talk to a group of young women about the temple, families and family history and gave each of them a Proclamation on the Family. |
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| Two of the Sister Missionaries talking to a group of young women about the church. Behind them one of the Elders is talking to a brother about the church. |
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| This is the group from Dubai with members of the temple presidency and temple missionaries. The one young man on the back row has received his mission call to serve in Provo, Utah. The group represented members from various parts of the world working in Dubai. |
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| This is the Church Leadership for the Dubai group. Bishop Johnson is in the center with his wife and his counselors and their wives are on both sides. The Arriba couple on the right of the picture are from the Philippines. When the Dias family were sealed in the Cebu Temple the sealer was Brother Alfornon the father of Sister Arriba. |
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| The Dias family from Sri Lanka who were sealed while at the temple with the Dubai group. They were in church with us Sunday, which was fast and testimony meeting, and the oldest boy, who is eleven, gave a very strong and powerful testimony for someone so young. The gospel strengthens and blesses families all around the world. |
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| Feeding the missionaries on Sunday. The Sisters got to go first. |
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| The Elders filling up their plates. Yes, there was food left over after the Elders were finished so the temple missionaries go to eat also. |
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| President McCurdy, Philippines Cebu Mission President, on the left watching his missionaries. |
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| This is most of the missionaries that enjoyed being fed by the temple missionaries. |
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| Some of the Sister Missionaries wanting a picture of the Temple Missionaries. |
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| The Temple Missionaries, we love helping the young missionaries and associating with them in the work. |
