We spent the week in Baguio at Camp John Hay, a former American army base, for the Mission Leader Seminar. There are actually pine trees and mountains there, and we drove up to 5,000 feet through winding roads. (It was much better than two years ago, since the area presidency allowed us to drive ourselves instead of riding the bus, so my motion sickness was minimal.) We were taught all week Monday - Thursday by our area presidency and fed at least five times/day--there were desserts and fruit juice at every break in addition to large buffet meals. Something about sitting ALL day + eating = sleeping (for me), so I tried to only eat at meals.
One highlight was meeting my cousin Verl Walker's daughter, Beverly Monroe, who Allison Kimball had told me about months ago. She and her husband are serving in Cebu East Mission. Their mission home is on the beach and they have great snorkeling in their back yard! She told me about spending summers with Aunt Geneve and how much fun it was to be on the farm. One summer she remembers Aunt Geneve was the RS President and caring for Beverly's mother in a wheelchair, trying to help her rehabilitate, and helping on the farm and teaching piano and was feeling very overwhelmed. She later told Beverly that every morning before the alarm went off she would wake up and receive instruction of what was most important to do that day, and she got through it one-day-at-a-time.
The hotel was decorated for Christmas and there was a Christmas village behind the hotel: for 50 pesos you can go inside a snow globe with fake snow. And if you're willing to pay more you can make a smore! The lights were beautiful and the weather was so cool and nice--I actually needed a sweater outside and we both wished we had parkas inside during the meetings.
Although the area presidency taught most of the time, they had 45 min set aside for "best practices" and had asked five mission presidents to share. They'd assigned Stewart to share our predictive baptismal poster, "The Stairway to Heaven", which he did masterfully (and was the only MP who stayed within the time limit) and gave an outstanding presentation, teaching from the scriptures with slides of the poster from a missionary apartment and the requirements for the people being taught. I was so mesmerized I forgot to take a photo.
The last event was Thanksgiving dinner late Thursday night where we had mostly Filipino food which turned into a program of Karaoke with the Filipino mission presidents -- they love to sing! We were glad to slip out after it was supposed to end to talk with Derrick & Julie and Dan & Amy, even though they were still celebrating with their friends. We saw a lot of great photos of Thanksgiving food this week!
By Friday we were very anxious to return to the mission, and Stewart spent Saturday meeting with assistants, missionaries with concerns, and going to a great baptism in Malolos to visit with troubled sisters, and more phone calls into the night. I was thankful to stay home and work on my zone conference presentation for Monday and appreciated help from Dallin, Fenton, Hannah and Sage. There is a typhoon forecast for Tuesday that will go over the Philippines south of us (Naga) but Metro-Manila will be in the outer bands. We are hoping and praying that all the missionaries will be safe and the damage to the fragile homes and people will be minimal.
We are so very, very thankful for all of you--for your extra prayers and support -- and for our Savior and His gospel. And that next Thanksgiving we will have stuffing and pie!
Love,
Mom
Walk-in snow globe! They may have pine trees, but it doesn't get cold enough to snow. Styrofoam pellets only.
View from our hotel room at night.
Thanksgiving dinner with mission leaders from Legazpi, Cabatatuan . Such nice people!
Cousin Beverly Walker Monroe -- thanks Allison!
Creepy statue of Manual Quezon, in case you ever wondered how "Quezon City" got its name. He was president during most of WWII and worked to unify the Philippines.
Smores. Only "campfire" in the Philippines. Lots of burning of trash, tires, and cooking food, but this is the only place to roast marshmallows!
President & Sister Montemayor, president in Cagayan de Oro (Janeece's mission) and parents of one of our great missionaries who trained five times!
Dinner at the hotel.
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