"Tambay" is a Tagalog word meaning "hang out" or "chill".  We've noticed many people doing this in our time here.  Usually on the side of the road in front of their dwellings or sometimes on the side of the road in other areas.  We took a picture of Ken doing the same thing with a cloth on his head, which is also a common thing to see. We're not sure if it's to soak up the sweat or to protect the top of the head from rays.

This is the real thing.

Here are a couple more pictures of
"towel-heads".

Some of the Seniors gathered at the mission home on P-day  and Ann, who is the cook there, taught us how to make "pancit".  It's a Philippine noodle dish with lots of vegetables and meat. Here's a photo of the students eating the pancit for lunch afterwards. Ann is the one closest to the camera.

This is the actual pancit.

These are some photos of us doing the job we're assigned to here in the mission - updating the membership records and mapping households.  The first is of us at the Fairview Church  working after the Batasan Hills 1st Ward/Fairview Ward blitz with assorted members and missionaries.  The second is of us at the Novaliches Church working with various members and missionaries.

For our Seniors Activity in May we went to the temple.  It's been closed for three months for renovations so it was nice to go again. 

On Monday May 21 we drove to the Carabao Man (his actual name is Bishop Emilio Baculao of the Sapan Palay Ward in San Jose del Monte North Stake).  We call him the Carabao Man because he makes belts and other items out of carabao horn.  He also makes things from wood, like chopsticks, plates, trays, salad servers, canes.  The photo is of Bishop Emilio, his wife, Nenita and their two children.  You'll notice in the second photo Ken is wearing two carabao belts, one above the other.

This is a creation made from bread dough with raisins for eyes.  It's called a bird's nest.

We talked in Sacrament Meeting in Batasan 1st Ward on Sunday May 20.  We took this photo afterwards with two of the missionaries in that ward, Sister Dumdum (pronounced Doomdoom) and Sister Espartero.  Sister Espartero is just new to the mission last week.  Sister Dumdum is standing beside Ken and Sister Espartero is wearing the purple and grey striped dress.  They also spoke in church. The other two sisters are from the ward

Saturday May 12 we attended a wedding and a baptism (of the same people).  Marefel and Dexter Magno have been investigating the church since December and before they could be baptized they needed to be married.  The senior sisters provided the wedding clothes and flowers.  Marefel and Dexter have been together for 12 years and have three children.  The oldest daughter was baptized at the same time but Dexter will baptize the oldest son in a few weeks when he has the priesthood.  The youngest son is not yet 8.

Dexter had a special t-shirt printed just for the occassion.  He said that he can only wear it once - before he's a member of the church. 

After church in San Bartolome Ward Leslie was given this little Mother's Day cake, as were all the mothers there.  Ken also provided some other things: a Philippine flag, Toblerone bar, carrying bag and some earrings.

This shows the way traffic works at intersections.  Towards the end of the video the traffic director, wearing an orange shirt, comes into view.

We bought some masks that people generally wear around traffic, whether directing it or walking through it.  Ken also has some sleeves like the traffic directors wear.  Or maybe they actually have shirts under their shirts.

We have been trying to buy a barong for Ken for about a year.  A barong is a traditional shirt that has embroidery on the front and they are usually quite transparent,  At the distribution center, they carry a barong which is not transparent and when anyone rents clothes at the temple, this is the shirt that is given. It is worn (even in the temple) without a tie.  They were out of stock for several months and they wouldn't put one on hold for us when they came in,  so we finally managed to visit the temple at the same time that they were in stock.

Ken went on a hike with some of the missionaries on May 7.  They climbed Mt. Balagbag.  It's just outside of the Metro area in Bulacan, north of the city San Jose del Monte.


This is Ken with Elder Stephens.  He was one of the first missionaries we worked with in March of 2017 and he helped us a lot with Tagalog.  He had been in the mission only a few months when we first came and  bewails the fact that he will be here until after we have left. He is a zone leader now.

This is Ken with Elder Bryan, the mission electronic guru.  He can make a computer do practically anything and has designed and works on the GPS program in our mission. 

These are some of our favorite missionaries.  Elder Meyer, AP;  Elder Bryan, resident genius; Elder Stephens, ZL;  Elder Harper, ZL

Ken on the "summit" of Mr Balagbag.

President Hughes bought about 70 GPS (global positioning system) units to use in the mission so that the missionaries could get a reading on every household in their areas.These GPS coordinates can also be used on the ward maps on lds.org.  These are the same units used by hikers so they can find their way in the mountains.  Metro Manila isn't in the mountains but a GPS can help find a member's home when there are few street names or house numbers.

We drove Elders Slade and Richards around a far-away subdivision in their area so they could get GPS coordinates.  We saw this sign there and the second picture shows what was right next to the sign.

Zone Conference - April 30, 2018 - Novaliches Zone

We notice a big difference in the public attitude toward religion.  The spirituality here in this culture can be expressed publicly, while at home it cannot.  For example, in Canada, prayer has been stopped in schools, the word "Christmas" cannot be used, and any reference to God or Jesus Christ cannot be expressed because it might offend someone.  These are pictures that we've taken the past few weeks.  Spirituality here is integrated into everyday life and God and His son are not ignored and disregarded.

There was a blitz in Bagong Silangan / Batasan Hills 2nd Ward on Saturday April 28. Ken worked with Elder Castro and Brother Espinoza, the ward mission leader in Bagong Silangan Ward.

While we were at the LTO we saw this sign on one of the doors. 

 Sando? No short pants?  No noon break? Fixers?

We finally got our Philippine drivers licenses.  The ones we've been using for a year now are temporary paper copies so on April 26th we finally went back to the Land Transport Office and had them change it to a card copy.  The LTO is about a two-hour drive so we've been putting it off for a long time.

On April 22 we saw several men wearing Scout uniforms to church.  It turned out that as soon as church ended, they were on their way to Woodbadge training for Boy Scouts of the Philippines,