We thought it was about time to get a "Welcome to the Mission" picture.  The office secretary, Sister Dickson, took this for us.  After all, we've been here 11 months.

We've been asked to move into Novaliches Stake and help the members in the 9 Novaliches wards get their membership lists up-to- date and also help with the mapping in the stake, which is at about 8%.  So now we're attending Novaliches Ward.  This is a photo of the Batasan Hills 1st ward council, in Fairview Stake, where we've been working since the end of November.

This is the Novaliches Stake Center where we attend church on Sundays and go to district meeting on Tuesdays.

This is Sarmiento Street which runs behind the church.  One thing we're impressed with is how almost every tree is useful and produces fruit or flowers. This is a mango tree and produces green mangoes. 

We finally got to use the "vulcanizing" service that is along every road.  Our left front tire went flat during district meeting and it turns out that there were two slices in the sidewalls.  Ken looked at them and thought that they weren't caused by a knife but just wear and tear.  It cost us under $15 CAD to get them repaired and the tire put back on the car.

This is our zone as of today, January 23, 2018 (with the addition of the mission assistants and the STLs or Sister Training Leaders).  We are outside the Fairview church.

We saw this Jeepney on the way home from church.  For some reason we thought it might be owned by a member.

Coconuts here are used before they are ripe (brown).  Buko is what you call a green coconut,  They're used to make dessert salads, drinks and ice cream specialties.  The inside of the coconut is shredded to be used in salads and the juice is sold on the street as a refreshing drink. We took this picture just outside of the Elders' apartment,

This is shredded coconut in buko juice.

Most of the time trikes are used to haul goods around, but sometimes you see a pony on the road pulling a loaded card.   I always feel sorry for the animals having to pull such heavy wagons.

We've been working on the Batasan First Ward membership list with many people in the ward.  This is a photo of us with Sister Rimando, our Relief Society President, and Sister Molina, a long-time member of the ward.

This is the Baluyot family with their grandchildren.

The jeepneys we see on the roads are interesting.  Their bumpers and tires are built to take and give a beating.  They have diesel engines and they all have horns which are blown frequently, so they're very noisy.  Every time we are on the road we see hundreds of them.  These are the ones that have caught our attention.

This is a cute one at the mission home.

On New Years Eve, fireworks are ignited at midnight, give or take half an hour.  This is a picture of the people in front of The Redwoods at midnight and photos of the fireworks.

These are pictures from the morning after.  January, 2018.

No, these people are not dead.  They're sleeping,  Debris from the night before litters the street.

New Years Eve was a Sunday and for a special celebration the sister missionaries in our ward all decided to wear stripes.  Luckily Leslie did too and fit in nicely. Left to right: Sister Flores, Sister Botera, Leslie, Sister Batan, Sister Santillas.

Sadly, the nearby Chili's is closing at the end of December.  This is a photo of some of the Senior Couples who have enjoyed eating there and getting take-out from there.

By Friday, Dec. 29 we were back at work looking for people on the ward list and helped by Filemon and Marites Diaz, the ward High Priest Group Leader and his wife.

On December 26, 2017 we met Jel and Brianna Gonzales of Calgary at the Greenhills Mall.  They came to the Philippines to visit his family and brought a package from Luke and Rae for us, in a Corn Flakes box.  It was a great Christmas surprise!