Saturday, October 28 we went out into the community looking for members who are on the ward list.  We were helped by Nina Balgos (in the overalls).  We were also joined by Sisters Morris and Cole who arrived in the Philippines on October 18 and are still suffering from jet lag/time zone sleeping problems. This photo includes Sister Cole.

This is Sister Morris.

Two weeks ago we went to FHE at the home of the Baluyot family.  Last Thursday she was killed in a traffic accident along with a YW member from her ward who she was transporting and another YW was put in the hospital from the accident.  There were five people killed and 10 hospitalized in the accident.  She was the RS president in her ward and Brother Baluyot is on the high council.
Their son, Jimson, in the blue shirt is in the bishopric of our ward.  The whole stake has been fairly paralyzed because of the accident.

On October 25 we had another bowling Seniors' Activity in the same bowling facility as last March.  That grin comes from Elder Rodgers edging out Elder Bremner for best score!

Ken rode in the local transportation last week.  He was working with Elders Morris and Munk. They were far away from the church and so hired a trike to take them back to the church where Leslie was waiting.

Ken had a "right place at the right time" experience on the 18th of October.  We have two big malls close to us.  Ken was returning from one of them when he saw Elder Brown and his companion outside of the other mall.   He's an elder we knew in San Ildefonso and at one point in time it was our job to let him know that his father had died the night before.  He and his companion were supposed to be meeting the Zone Leaders for transfers at the transportation hub of SM mall when Ken found them and they figured out they needed to be at the other mall.  So Elder Rodgers phoned the Zone Leaders, found out where they needed to be and helped them get there.  A lot of things in this experience remind us of Elder Rasband's talk in October conference.  This is a photo of Elder Brown.

This a sign from the women's c.r (comfort room) in the distribution center.  In case you were wondering about whether you should stand on a toilet, here are some instructions.

Just in case you aren't stressing about Christmas yet, here is a reminder.  Also we sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" in church yesterday for an intermediate hymn.

This is from our mission conference on Sept 15, 2017.  We finally got the picture.  It took a long time because it was taken by a professional photographer and had to be passed from the other mission to ours. The gentleman in the center is Neil L. Anderson, one of the Twelve Apostles.

We hate to go on and on about traffic but this is a photo taken from outside our apartment of a local intersection.  You will notice that there is no traffic light or traffic sign on any corner.  If you study the photo for a minute you'll notice that the traffic comes from two directions and then drivers can go in one of five directions, all without benefit of any guidance by signs or lights.

We went to FHE and supper on October 16 at the home of Jimmy Baluyot who we met at the blitz several days earlier.  He is a High Councillor in our stake and Ludivina is the Relief Society President in her ward of Bagong Silangan.  Their son, Jimson, is a counsellor in our bishopric.  Because it was Thanksgiving they cooked a turkey for us.  (We had rice also - that goes without saying.) . Afterwards for an activity we sang Karaoke with their big screen TV.  Ken sang Fernando, by Abba.  If the words hadn't been there on the screen we wouldn't have known... (never mind)

We need to explain the term blitz as it is used in our mission.  It's a new activity.  The first one was on September 23.  It is when all the missionaries in a zone work in one or two wards for a few hours.  The missionaries from that ward draw up a list of less-actives who need to be found (to find out if they still live in the ward) and the lists are divided up so that each missionary has a few people to find.  Members also take part in a blitz and in the two we have been involved with, the bishops, counsellors, Stake President and his counsellors, Mission President, ward mission leaders and assorted other members helped.  Each missionary is assigned to one or more members and spends from about 10 am till 3 pm working in the area.  He keeps a list of all the contacts he makes besides the people he is looking for and also hands out pass-along card, printed invitations to church the next day  and pamphlets. After the blitz the mission president treats everybody to a pizza and chicken lunch back at the church.  The missionaries who are assigned to the ward  are responsible to later follow up on the contacts that have been made.  In the first blitz (September 23), 215 contacts were made so that gives the elders hours of work and many possible investigators.  The photo shows all those who were involved in the Don Antonio ward and Mapayapa ward blitz.

This is a photo of the latest blitz, on October 14.  It involved more members than the earlier one and shows everyone involved in the Batasan Hills 2 ward and Bagong Silangan ward blitz.

This photo was taken the same day and shows the member with whom Elder Rodgers worked.  He is President Velasco, a counsellor in the stake presidency.  The woman is a nonmember they met while they were looking for her inactive brother.  She turned 62 that day and Elder Rodgers confessed that he was also that age.

This is a group of people at the church later having the promised pizza and chicken lunch.  The young boy is the son of one of the bishops and he worked with his dad and a missionary.  He was very organized and had Books of Mormon and pamphlets and invitations to church and pass-along cards ready to hand out.

These are Elders Tobias, Ronda and Carino.

On October 10&11, 2017 Elder Shayne Bowen and Sister Bowen met with our mission, half of the mission each day.  This is a photo of our zone which met with him on the 11th.  He is a Seventy and is President of the Philippine Area.  He's wearing the long-sleeved shirt and glasses.  President Hughes is beside him.  Elder Bowen interviewed about 15 missionaries and toured several missionary apartments afterwards.  Not ours - because we live far away from the meeting place.

We had a zone activity on October 9.  We went to Eco Park, an ecological preserve on a watershed area behind a big dam.  There's a butterfly haven and bird preserve and orchidarium (that's a new word).

The zone leaders asked us all to bring a food representative of our country so we thought about poutine and decided the fries would be soggy by the time they were eaten so we made Nanaimo bars and they were a big hit.  One of our zone leaders decided that he'd come to visit us in Canada since we had such great squares! (He's the one in the "O" - Elder Meyer; his companion is the one in the pink t-shirt at the top by the "A" - Elder Uhler from Virginia.)

Here are some other photos from the activity.

You'll notice that we all have matching hats that say "Fairview Family".  That's the name of our zone - Fairview.

This is Elder Tobias.  He was in the same district as us in Baliwag for six months and now he's in the same zone with us again.  He's a good friend and has helped us with home teaching and finding.

On October 7 and 8 we watched conference.  They show it here a week after the event.  On our way home on Saturday we stopped at McDonalds to buy some lunch and these three boys were begging. We gave them some crackers that we carry in our car for such occasions.  We took their picture because of the Canada shirt but we also thought it was very clever of them to be begging from cars that were lined up to buy fast food.

We had a ward party on September 30, 2017.  It was the culminating activity for Family Discovery Week.  We played several games and the interesting thing is that the teams were made up from quorums/groups.  For instance, one team was RS sisters, another was YM, another was High Priests, another was Primary children. There was also a program which was organized the same way.  This is the Primary children's dance:

This is the dance by the High Priests' group.  You'll notice that Ken is there also.  The gentleman on the  right in the white shirt is Bishop Barnades.  Most of the other High Priests are former bishops.

There was a Sister Pangilinan there who was baptized in l967.  She's  one of the original members of the church and has been a member for for over 50 years. She's 85 years old, born in 1932.   On April 28, 1961 the church received official permission to send missionaries to this country.

This is us at the same party.