December 21 we had a Christmas Zone Conference which was catered and they served a roasted pig (head still attached).

Elder Luke Romeril (from Mountain View) was there,  We emailed a picture of him to Deb later and it turns out that she taught both him and his father in school.

The conference included a talent show and games, and a program.

We went to church on Christmas Eve and took these two pictures as we were coming out of church about noon. We're not used to such beautiful weather at Christmas.

Later in the afternoon we were invited to Mausisa's house...

... and Baul's house.Sister Baul's birthday is also on Christmas Eve.

The Bauls also knew Anthony and Vangie Bautista before they moved to Canada.  Anthony and Brother Baul served as counselors in the same bishopric.

Because we'd been out late on Christmas Eve, we decided we'd sleep in on Christmas Day.  However, we got a phone call at 6:10 so we Skyped with Ken's family from Cardston then opened presents and got on with the day.  We went out to lunch with the Sisters at 2 and took these pictures of the mall which was extremely crowded.  I don't think they make a big deal of Christmas Day because everything seemed to proceed as normal around us. 

December 17 we had a zone activity.  It was a boodle fight.  A boodle fight is where you make a long strip of food in the middle of the table and the participants sit at the table and eat the food with their hands  Our zone did that.  These are pictures of the zone missionaries preparing the food.

 There was beef and pork and fish.  Various vegetables were cooked with each of these meats, like potatoes, eggplant, peppers, beans, and carrots. Each meat is cooked in a stew-like dish.  Rice is placed on a plastic tablecloth, then the meat dishes are put on top of the rice.  The eaters sit around the table and dig into whatever is in front of them.

On December 15, 2017  we met Mary Rose and Jeffrey Paculaba in Baliwag and took them out to dinner.  Their two-year old daughter, MJ, was also there.  She is the Relief Society President in San Ildefonso Branch and he is in the Branch Presidency.  We arranged with her to donate some money to various branch members anonymously.

On December 16, 2037 we visited Sister Sheila Matammu in Valenzuela which is one city in the metro Manila area.  We met Sisters Villagen and Tanuvasa who took us to her home.  She is the sister of a lady who lives in Silverado Ward and is married to a Canadian.  When the Schindlers (the family in Silverado Ward) found out we were coming here they were excited for us to meet Sheila, who is Donna Schindler's sister.  We found out that the Schindlers told Sheila that we were coming almost a year ago.  So we're glad we finally visited her.  Sisters Villagen and Tanuvasa are STL's (Sister Training Leaders).  There are four sets in the mission and they are like the ZL's for the Sisters in the mission.

Luke and Rae's son was blessed on December 10. 2017 in Magrath, Alberta.  Luke arranged with his bishop to broadcast the blessing to us so we got up at 1:30 a.m. to watch. He was given the name James Owen Rodgers.  We listened to the complete Sacrament Meeting after the blessing because the talks were really good.   They were also in English.

People riding on vehicles is a common occurrence here.  This is a compilation of photos from the last few weeks.

We thought this license plate was rather clever.  The President of the Phillipines is Duterte.  It is pronounced "doo-ter-tay".  Thirty is pronounced "ter-tay".  Thus Du + 30 = Duterte.

It's always a pleasure to attend the temple.  This was on Dec 9, 2017.

These are the same Nativity pieces that they have in Cardston and in Calgary.  The only difference is the green grass underneath.

On Dec.1 we finally had our Thanksgiving dinner which was postponed because of illness.  All the senior couples met at the mission home and each provided part of the dinner.  Also there was Franz, a friend of  the Dicksons, visiting from New Jersey.

In this country a lot of high end communities and buildings have fences and gates around them.  All the churches have gates with a huge padlock. The front doors are also gated and locked.The ground floor windows all have bars.  These pictures were taken at the Fairview church and the Lagro church in Quezon City.

These are our homes in Baliwag. They had locks on both the driveway gate and the walk-in gate.

This is our church in San Ildefonso showing the bars in front of the front door.

  

Sister Sabio from Don Antonio ward gave us a couple of patola.  They are from the squash family but are shaped like cucumbers or zucchini.  They can be dried and used like a sponge - in bathing or in washing dishes. The picture shows the two we received and also a dried one which she gave us.  Notice the penny in the center which indicates size.

We  peeled the patola and added it to chicken soup made with Misua noodles, as directed by Sister Sabio.  (She also gave us the noodles.)   It made great soup!