The Lost Plates of Jack and Leiana

 On our "shortcut" home, we are seeing many temples. The first stop on our temple trip is Auckland. Jack and I went Friday night to do some initiatory and catch a session. We then went Saturday night with former Tacloban Missionaries. Only Sister Nau made it. We had hoped to see former Elder Fruean, Sister Lolohea and Sister Fue, who had recently gotten married.

 It's hard to believe our time is over. Of course, we are totally exhausted and couldn't make much longer at the pace we were going. But aside from that, it has been hard to say good-bye to people we may never see again. This was my Relief Society Group. These women were incredible and so much fun. They'd get talking so fast and then everyone would laugh. They know how to laugh here and make a bad situation better. front row: IreDene, Sister Villanueva, Mylene, Sister Talidano, us, Bee Gee, Delia second row: Donna, Sister Talidano RM, Joy, ?,? Lyle, Jessa Back row: ?, ?, ? Ruth, ? Sister Katipunan, Bella, Eva, ?, ?, Pianist  The Relief Society Presidency: Jane, Jessa, BeeGee and Irene A photo with Bishop Talidano and his wife, a former missionary who served in Tacloban city, as well as Joemar a convert from a year ago and his wife Jane. Saying goodbye to Alyn and Ali, recent converts. Ali has the most infectious joy for a 3 year old. And the 2nd Counselor's dog, who was...

 We ended up going to the Molo 2nd ward for church. It was a totaly blessing for us. We were looking at what church to go to as we were centered between three different ward buildings and had to walk. We were thinking the Molo looked closest. We had walked to the grocery store in Molo and met the missionaries. They invited us to go to church with them. It was such a great invitation, we took them up on it. The ward is a little quirky and we fit right in. They have quite the sense of humor. We have an Elder Pew in the ward. The meeting conductor slipped and pronounced his name Filipino style- Elder Poo. That name has stuck with him. They love to have family home evenings and play silly games. The bishop is a retired master sargeant in the Philippine Army. He can still to knuckle and one handed push-ups.  He's a former bishop and she's a young wife. I think there's about 45 year age gap. However, they are very happy together. She's a high school teacher on my side and her...

 We were asked to do a presentation for the Young Single Adults on Time Management as a Discple of Christ. I didn't want to do a lecture. So I found all kinds of games and scriptures to use. I hope it went well. They seemed to have a good time. Of course, I bribed them with fudge. I had a fun time with the presentation. We started off talking about what is time. I had them all stand up and close their eyes. They needed to sit down quietly when they thought a minute had passed. The first person sat down at about 18 seconds. Then at 47 seconds, 54 seconds, a whole bunch from 57-60 seconds, and a few at 1 min 16 seconds. We talked about Joshua 10:12-14 and Mosiah 40:8. I then had a puzzle race. Each group got a 48 piece puzzle to put together. I just didn't give them the overall picture. It was a struggle although some did great. We talked about without seeing the big picture, it's hard to know how to put things together. We then did the jar with large rocks, pebbles and water...

 We moved one last time while in Iloilo (our 4th apartment in 8 months) so that the new office couple could just move once into our apartment. This is possibly the smallest but the best decorated. Some friends were teasing us about moving so often. They said if we paid our rent, we could stay in one place. Jack replied that the housing manager in this mission isn't so good. [He's the housing manager.] Their response was "yeah, I hear he is getting sent home soon." Jack's response: not soon enough.