Manila Visa Trip

Most foreign missionaries in Japan need to go to Manila once a year for visa requirements. Jack and I got to accompany 37 missionaries for that trip. We were taking 1/5 of the mission with us, including half of the leadership. We took one of the two Assistants to the President, one out of each set of Zone Leaders, a bunch of district leaders and regular missioanries. It took us many trips to get us all to the airport.
We started at sunrise with our flight out of Tacloban. The sunrise was beautiful, rising over Samar Island in the background. They had a bus for us at the airport to take us to the MTC. There we got hotdogs for breakfast. (Don't ask) The actual visa stuff took only a few minutes. We then had some time.

The missionaries were having a great time seeing friends from when they were in the MTC. They also saw their teachers. There were so many joyful moments. I even bumped into a friend. She is the wife of a mission president in a different part of the Philippines. It was so good to see a familiar face.

A small group of us went to the Manila Temple. I was hoping to do a session but we at least got to do iniatory. It was definitely the highlight of the trip. Jack and I then went to visit our batch-mates as they call them. This is another couple that we went through the MTC with. We brought them chocolate milk to remind them of the fun we had at the MTC together. That was far too short of a time.

It was then back on the bus, making sure all 37 missionaries were still with us. We got dropped off at the airport, but at the wrong terminal. You can't walk from the one terminal to the next. Luckily Jack had the number to get the bus back to get us to the right terminal. We still had plenty of time before our plane left. I did have to round up all the missionaries and make sure 37 got back on the plane.
 
We then got to take off from Manila with a sunset flight.

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