The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

 We took the Udalls to Guimares Island to do some snorkeling in the marine reserve. Once again it involved some boat rides. However, this time we had the boat to ourselves.  We stopped at a sandbar in a cove and had the area to ourselves. We went snorkeling all around the area, seeing unicorn fish, trigger fish, a crab in a huge conical shell, a sea snake, and much much more. Boating through the mangroves in the waterways between the islands. We stopped at a sandbar in the middle of the sea. It was about waist deep for a long, long ways. We went in and enjoyed the water while the guys were looking at a lionfish. This venemos fish was in the water with us and they failed to mention it until we got out.

 After Christmas, the Udalls and us did a little Island hopping on the north eastern side of Iloilo. We caught a tour that took us to several islands.  The first was a selfie island where they took lots of photos. We sent Jack to take most of the pictures while we played in the water.   We then stopped briefly on a sandbar The next place we stopped was a spot we could go snorkeling. We only had a half hour or so to snorkel so we didn't take any pictures. We were then to "stop" at the "mini Borracay" white sand beach. Everyone wanted to go to lunch. However, as we sailed by, we saw some monkeys come out of the trees. You can see them if you zoom in. Lunch was an all you can eat seafood-scallops, muscles, crab, fish, etc.  It was in the largest town on the islands. It had about 16,000 people and even a cell tower. After lunch we stopped at a place you can cliff jump. We spent the time in the lagoon. It was probably really a lake just on the other side of the rocks...

 We decided to go out and visit the missionaries for Christmas this year, taking a page out of Elder Valencia's playbook from last year. He had so much fun putting on a santa hat and delivering supplies that we decided to try it. He was right. It was lots of fun.  I had made brownies several days before and packaged them up to give out. We loaded the truck with their requested supplies and packages that had arrived since zone conference and headed out. We would put on our Santa hats and carol them. Often the missionaries would join with us. Jack had a special message to share with them as well. At lunch time we met up with the Ivisan district and took them out to lunch at Pizza Hut. We ordered 6 large pizzas and had just enough left over to deliver to the sisters who were waiting for us to drop off their supplies. They were grateful for the food as their cupboards and fridge was bare. The Ivisan District plus us in our Santa hats

 I can't believe Jack and I are celebrating 34 years of marriage. My grandmother said that I would never go anywhere marrying someone by the name of Jack Smith. Little did she know. We have lived in Tokyo and the Philippines. We have traveled to many beautiful places in this world and look forward to seeing many more. For our anniversary, Jack wanted to go for a walk down to the ocean. It ended up being a 3 mile tour. It reminded me of Gilligan's Island in some ways. However, we did see some beautiful sunsets and a cloud that looked like a Tahitian Dancer.  Such a beautiful sunset with a lovely fishing boat picturesquely situated. Me looking like I walked 2 miles and have another 1.5 to go. Can you see the Tahitian Dancer in the clouds? Pretty amazing.

 In both missions, I have had times when I am in charge of the supply and shopping. With the end of the year winding down, and the accountants in Manila not wanting us to spend any money from Dec 23-Jan 1st, I have been doing lots of shopping to prepare. Part of it was picking up new mattresses for apartments we will be opening in January. We tied down 10 mattresses to the back of the truck then drove slowly to our storage unit. I thought that the truck would tip if we took a corner too quickly. I had to get a picture of me pretending to be the Princess and the Pea. One only gets to live out those fairy tales once upon a time. Just so you know, Jack and I have both sworn never to drive a truck again after our experiences here in the Philippines. We are not truck drivers.

 We often see flocks of Egrets on our drives around Iloilo. Jack, being punny, mentioned that we need to live the rest of our mission so that we leave with no egrets. It's our theme, now that we have about 67 days until we leave our mission. Hopefully you can also live those days with "no egrets". The egrets were just flocking this morning. They are beautiful to see.

 We spent the night in Kalibo near one of the main plazas. For some reason, there was a battle of the bands tonight. When we say band, we mean a percussion band. Think xylophones and drums, many many kinds of drums. You could hear and feel it from blocks away. Not just one band, many bands. They moved very slowly as well. We got a few pictures. The cutest thing was the little kids with water jugs hanging around their necks and beating on them with drumsticks. We loved that just because there's a lot of people banging on drums in the street, the traffic didn't need to stop. Arial view of one band. You can see all the drums in the back and middle. The front line is the xylophones. They are loud.