Along every highway are signs for "vulcanizing", but they're usually tire shops, some very small with only a few tires.  Ken remembers when his grandfather advertised vulcanizing in his service station but we don't use the term at home anymore.  We took a few photos of the signs that we drive past regularly.

Because it is so humid and hot here things grow with very little soil and tending.  It's a good place to grow rice, which is the staple of the Philippine diet.  (There's a McDonalds here in the mall and they give you a riceball with your big Mac).  After the rice is harvested and dried they gather the chaff and burn it.  Then they get the fields ready for another planting.  They can get three crops a year.  It's planted and harvested by hand.  Hot, hard, and backbreaking work!

Rice is grown in the fields and then it is laid out to dry,  usually along the sides of the highways.  We saw some yesterday which was laid out in the sun and chickens were walking in it and pecking around.

There are several edible things here that are delicious!  We really like mangos and the photo is of Ken holding a mango that is ready to serve.  In his right hand is a whole mango and also a seed from the one that is ready to serve.  They're really big seeds and take up about 70% of the whole mango.  Sister Bremner showed us how to serve them.  Bananas are also good here.  The photo shows how they look kind of small and wizened but they're sweet and delicious, more-so than the big ones we get at home.  It's kind of like the difference between carrots that are grown in your garden and are sweet and flavourful and carrots that you buy at the grocery store which are just okay tasting.  The little bananas are sweet and flavourful.  There's also photos of a carved pineapple which we bought at a stand by the road and a watermelon.   Both are better here than what we get at home.

This is a photo of some hamburgers we got at "Star Mall" a few kilometers from home.  They have black and turquoise and green and pink buns.  Amazingly they taste like regular bread.  Notice the fries which are covered in mayonnaise. The mall photo is from the inside of Star Mall.

Here in the Philippines the "carabao"(pronounced just like "caribou" except for the last syllable which  rhymes with "how") is the national animal.  It is used for hauling and pulling and also for working in the rice fields.  We've  seen them herded across roads, transported by truck and pulling wagons by the side of the road.

Here are a couple of photos of trikes (mopeds with a sidecar) that are loaded.  They were taken through the windows of our car while we were driving so there are some marks on them that were on the windows of our car.  These are the goods that are sold at roadside stands found on the edges of the highways.

We just have to put another post on about electrical wires.  We continue to be amazed at the way they are organized.  These are pictures we took in our community of Baliwaug on the way home from the District Center church on March 17.

This is our church in San Ildefonso.  You can see our car in the parking lot.  One other individual in the branch has a personal vehicle.  The rest come to church by trike or by Jeepney.  Some can't afford the money to pay for transport to the church.  We're assigned to work in this branch but we live in Baliwaug which is a 45-60 minute drive.  We don't live closer because there is no housing in the San Ildefonso area that us acceptable for the church to rent for senior couples.  I'm glad every day that the standards of rental for senior couples are so high, for example there must be air conditioning, must be North American toilets and showers, there must be parking and the premises must be gated and have security.  In the church we meet upstairs on the second level for Sacrament meeting.  There is no air conditioning inside but there are fans which are turned on high to the point where there is a high wind as part of every meeting.  The priests put a hymn book on the sacrament table to keep the cloth from blowing away.  The windows are also wide open and  the noise level from traffic is high.

This is a picture of a motorcycle on the road to San Ildefonso.  The driver and passenger were also carrying two big bags of rice.  That's the best way to transport groceries (and chickens and pigs)
here.

We have several acerbic comments to make about laundry here. First of all, Leslie remembers her grandmother having a washer which worked this same way.  That was in the late 50's or early 60's. No comment required.  We took care to buy no-iron shirts for Ken.  That would have worked

if we had a dryer but we hang our clothes to dry and Ken practices his ironing.

Elder and Sister Bremner drove us to Manila (abt 1-1/2 hours) on March 9.  We drove to the Manila temple which was closed temporarily for repairs.  The photo is of us and the Bremners in front of the temple. The Bremners are a senior couple in our mission and they live about half a block from us. She used to be Melanie Carlson and Leslie went to school with her in Cardston.  Notice the workmen up on the scaffolding.  They didn't have harnesses.

The electrical wiring in Manila is quite a birdsnest.  We're surprised that it works at all.  Here are several pictures of what we mean.  There seem to be extra wires that are looped or woven into the rest.

  Oh, so much has happened lately. We had a very enjoyable stay at the MTC.  The classes awesome, the Spirit everywhere, the devotionals and Sunday meetings amazing. The food was very good, lots of food. We met people with connections everywhere. We met Lauren’s and Aaron’s next door neighbors on their way to their mission in California. Elder Rodgers met a father of a sister missionary in our mission. We spoke to a young man (Elder Nielson) from Myrle’s and Jackie’s ward. We met him in the cafeteria of the MTC. He loved Bishop Rodgers and enjoyed hiking with him. The week flew by so quickly. The last Sunday there Lauren, Aaron and the cute William drove down to visit us. It was fun to see them. It also brought back many memories of the MTC for Aaron. We left the MTC Monday night and landed in Manila on Wednesday am. It was a long, long flight. We tried to sleep and slept some but it’s not easy while you’re sitting up.  We went from to LA then on to Hong Kong and then to Manila. We amazingly found all our luggage there. We were picked up, after we came out of customs and immigration, by a driver who took us to meet an area office official to get our paper work completed. We got there a bit late and the staff had gone for lunch so the wait began. We were warned it may take 4 hours to have the documents completed which included finger printing.  After we finished that and were preparing to leave for the mission home, our driver accidentally locked the keys in the car. Shortly thereafter his boss arrived with a spare set. Then through unbelievable Manilla rush hour traffic we arrived at the mission home. We met President and Sister Bertin and ate and visited with them and then crashed in bed. We attended meetings with them Thursday and Friday, then were taken to our home in Baliwag.  We are assigned to the San Ildefonzo branch in the Baliwag District.  It takes us an hour to drive the 20 miles to our meeting house due to traffic. Saturday we got up at 3am (jet lag is only gradually getting better) to begin unpacking and getting settled. We shopped at the nearby SM mall for food etc. Another couple, the Bremners, are in our housing complex, she and Sister Rodgers were in school together in Cardston. They have been a huge help in getting us settled and showing us around. There was a baptism in our branch that night of a young woman (Irene Manio).  It was in San Ildefonzo and was Elder Rodgers 1^st attempt to drive these roads. We drove back the next morning for church. Surprisingly there were most seats filled.  We meet in the chapel with several huge ceiling fans to cool us from the heat. We sit on plastic stacking deck chairs. The meeting was spirit-filled and went from Tagalog to English and back including those bearing their testimonies. They enjoy the music and sing out even if it doesn’t match the notes on the page. After the meetings, which were more in Tagalog we met with the Branch President and the branch mission leader and the two sets of Elders in the branch.  After lunch and our planning meeting we had a nap. We didn’t wake up until the next morning. PDay we did laundry the old fashioned way in an washer/spin dryer and then hung the clothes out to dry. We got more groceries and household items and cleaned our home. In the afternoon we went to S & R, a Costco-like store, to further stock up. 

   So driving here is pretty much crazy. Any inch or rather cm. you give them and they will take it and now they are in front of you. There are Jeepnies which are old war jeeps which have been extended so they hold about 20 Filipino bodies or ten short American bodies, which you can hire to take you somewhere like a taxi. As well there are Tricycles which are basically mopeds or slightly larger motorbikes with side cars attached which are also used for hire to take you somewhere. For example we have district conference on Sunday and the branch has booked four jeepnies to transport members to the district centre. We met the missionaries yesterday at the chapel and made some visits. We saw Fernand, who we discussed in Sunday's missionary meeting as someone we could visit. His home was a 12x12 concrete box with a curtain door, and he was living with his parents and 3 other siblings. We found out that he will be made an Elder on Sunday at District Conference. We also saw an sweet, 83-year old lady, Sister Arelleano. She didn't speak much English.  sSe bore her testimony at church last Sunday. We drove over with the Elders to the Branch President's home and there haven't been many vehicles there judging by the looks we got driving in. We passed him on his motorbike on our way there.  He was also transporting four other members of his family on the same bike.   The Elders find their way around by just walking in the area. Many homes were cave-like, all lined up together on a so-called street, which really is a dilapidated alley. They're very poor but are such wonderful people. 

The traffic here in the Philippines is unbelievable.  As our mission president says, lines for lanes, stop signs, speed limits, pedestrian crosswalks are all suggestions.  Nobody has to follow them.  And nobody does.  It's every man for himself!  For example you could be turning right and a tricycle would zoom past you on the right at the same time.  The picture shows a red vehicle nosing out into the traffic. He wants to turn left so the accepted practice is to edge your way out until you are so much in the way that the traffic will stop and let you through.  Notice the tricycle which is also doing the same thing.

      This is outside our home, a quiet street.  Manila traffic is even worse.

We've been through the Provo MTC, on planes to the Philippines, and we are living now in Baliwag which is about two hours north of our mission headquarters.  We are assigned to the San Ildefonso branch which is another hour's drive north of our house.

This is our house and our car.  Both thankfully air conditioned because of the 80%+ humidity and the 30C+temperatures.

     Entrance to housing area, Camella Promonenza, with assorted tricycles.  People buy mopeds and then if they want to carry passengers, they add a side car.  Then they are prepared to take paying passengers, just like a taxi.

          Snow at the Provo temple.  Feb 26, 2017.

This is a photo of the Provo MTC's snow cleaning equipment.  Highly motivated!