This is a youth group from Negrois Island, which is just West of Cebu Island. They live on the west side of the Island, it takes 9 hours for them to come to the temple. They left this morning for a 3hour bus trip to the port, then a 3 1/2 hour barge across the bay and then another 2 1/2 hour bus to home. Where is our dedication



The young man to my right (your left of me) is 17 years old and the two young men on the front row in white are going on Missions in January.

This couple came in July to receive their endowments and to be sealed together. I was his attendant and then escort, Mom was hers, during the endowment. They came in September with friends and he was the friends escort but I was able to officiate the session.


This week 10/21/1010, they came again and brought the YW/YW from the Stake for Baptisms. We were the Co-ordinators for their youths in the Baptistry. He is the YM President. (Click on the pics for a closer view.


Moses and the Pharaoh of Egypt haven’t got too much on us here in the Philippines. I don’t want to scare anyone off but the realities of life are this. Like the Egyptians we have been plagued with one of the 7 plagues. Patron housing group came and cleaned our A/C filters, but they forgot to turn off the A/C when they did this. Since that time we have had an infestation of small flying bugs and ones that jump. I don’t even care to identify them but we have been told they might be dust mites&/ or sand fleas. Neither one of them is appealing to be inflicted with. This has been going on for almost a month now. First we tried to spray with an insect spray but to no avail. Then after complaining to patron housing attendants they came in and sprayed with Raid and then steamed things down. This knocked them down a little but they seemed to be juiced up on something like Red Bull and those that came back were back with a vengeance. Since that time we have tried 3 different sprays and have sprayed just about every other day and still have a few. Here again after we have sprayed they seem to be vengeful and just bomb bard us for a day and then they simmer down to the occasional itch here and there. When we spray we usually follow up with a steam cleaning. We searched far and wide for a steam cleaner and everyone looked at us as if we were out of our minds. We had been in stores that had people steaming clothes in the past and they still looked at us as if we were from another planet. On about our fifth store we were leaving after having been told they didn’t have one, we walked past a lady that was steaming clothes. Wallah! Victory! They are not called steamers or steam cleaners in the Philippines but are “Ed Marks”. Go figure. Anyway we are still fighting the battle against the bugs.

Then the other night, Saturday to be exact, we were visiting with another Missionary Couple from across the hall and the Chief Engineer for the Temple Compound came. He told us that we could not use our purified water until further notice. They were cleaning the tanks and need to clean the lines also so we had to let our water run for a few minutes and they would let us know when to turn it off. When they came back to turn the water off, like Moses and the parting of the Red Sea when it came together and drowned the Egyptians after the children of Israel had gone through on the dry ground. The Engineer did not notice the first time the drains were stopped up when he left the water running (we didn’t either). Eventually there was a water fall, as water fell from the full sinks all over the floor and into the cabinets below. We had to clean up that mess late on a Saturday night. The girl that comes to clean our apartment had just been there earllier in the day and it was looking really good, as it usually does when she finishes. Oh well so much for our lessons on Moses this week, we are studying the Old Testament this year, aren’t we? Just hope we don’t experience the other 5 plagues from Moses.