Thanksgiving Day 2012

This was a beautiful Thanksgiving Day excursion with all of the 

senior missionaries at the United States/Philippine Memorial 

Cemetery from World War II.  Front row is Elder & Sister 

Howell (our Perpetual Education Fund couple), Sister Walker & 

Sister Montegue (Employment Resource Center missionaries), 

Me & President.  Back row, Elder & Sister Douglas, Sister &

Elder Packer, Elder and Sister Wagner, Sister & Elder Gines, 

Elder and Sister Campbell.  President assigned Elder Packer 

to research about the Cemetery and about the war.  He gave 

us a little presentation of what he had studied and learned as we

sat on the steps there at the Cemetery.  It was a 

humbling experience!

Here are the steps without us on them!

Here are our Assistants and Office Elders.  From the left, Elders

Eyre and Navarro (Our Assistant to the President) and Elders

Delos Santos and Brown (our Office Elders).  You can see in the

background some of the beautiful landscape and rows and rows 

of the beautiful white marble crosses.

Here is President and I standing among the rows.  You can see 

how well manicured the grounds are.  It read was phenomenally 

beautiful!  Breathtaking! 

President Peterson and Elder Howell standing by the grave of a

Jewish soldier.  They gave them and Star of David instead of a

cross.

Our Elders out among the rows.  Elder Brown & Elder Eyre are

standing and Elders Navarro and Delos Santos are sitting.  It 

is just a beautiful sight!  

A front view...

Another...

Just some more of the beautiful landscape... See the rows of

crosses in the far background.

These are a few of the many walls with the names of

the soldiers who died during World War II in the Philippines.

They are the names of both American and Philippine soldiers,

but mostly American...

They had these big seals on the floors of the open halls.  They

had one for each of the United States.

Here is a wall showing the names of soldiers with my maiden

name, Allen...

And a wall with many Peterson's...

This was a place of prayer and honoring..."TO THEIR

MEMORY THEIR COUNTRY BRINGS IT'S GRATITUDE

AS FLOWERS FOREVER LIVING"

I had to add this picture of Elder Campbell with his flower... Sister

Douglas, Elder Brown and Sister Campbell are with him in the car

ready to leave... Too cute!!

Here we are back at the mission home ready for our Thanksgiving

Feast! Elder & Sister Gines, Elder and Sister Howell, Elders 

Brown, Delos Santos, Navarro and Eyre, President and me.

Here we have Elder Wagner, Elder & Sister Campbell, Sisters 

Walker and Montegue (can't see them at the other end), Elder &

Sister Douglas, Elder and Sister Packer and Sister Wagner.

Visit with Brother & Sister Jerusalem

This is a picture take with two of our returned missionaries that

just got married in October!  Elder Jerusalem was one of our 

Assistants to the President when we first arrived in the mission.

Sister Parajinog was with our first batch going home after we

got here.  We only had her with us for a few weeks!  Now they

are Brother and Sister Jerusalem!  They were married in the

Cebu Temple! We were so sorry we couldn't attend the wedding,

but so glad we got to see them while we were attending the

Mission Presidents Seminar in Cebu!  They are a beautiful,

faithful couple!

Mission President's Seminar, November 2012

This is one of the beautiful views from the Crimson Resort in Cebu

where we stayed for the Mission President's Seminar. You can see 

the beautiful pool with the ocean in the background.  They have 

a nice beach out there that you can't see in this picture. It was a

beautiful place with wonderful, kind service...and, as usual, 

great food! :-)

This is looking back the other way...from the beach towards the

resort...

These next pictures are taken at a guitar manufacturer...Allegre 

guitars from Cebu.  They are all made by hand!

This is showing different shapes, sizes and woods...

This man is making a Ukulele...

This one is making a guitar...

It looks like they are drying these in the sun...

Just some more parts hanging around...

Some of the finished products...

We are standing in front of a display of guitars...I thought they

were going to get more guitars in the pictures!

The two instruments on top are called Cocolele (sp?).  One 

shows the front view and the other shows the back.  It is like

the ukulele with three coconuts for the body.  I came really close

to buying one of these.  I am kind of sorry I didn't!  They were

really unique and well made!

This is our Area Presidency and their wives and the Executive

Director of the Missionary Department of the Church, Elder Evans

and his wife in front of the Cebu Temple. From the left is Elder 

and Sister Evans, Elder and Sister Nielsen, Elder Teh (his wife 

wasn't able to attend the seminar),and Sister and Elder Ardern.  

We had a big group shot taken in front of the temple and they will

send us a copy later.  It was a beautiful temple inside and out!

 

This is a picture of our "batch" of mission presidents and wives 

that all came to lead different Philippines missions at the same 

time, July 1, 2011, with Elder and Sister Evans.  From the left,  

Presidents and Sisters Martino, Andaya, Stucki, Querido, 

Pangan, Sister and Elder Evans, Presidents and Sisters Peterson 

Schmutz, and Speary.

President and Sister Monahan, our friends from Arizona are one

 of the newly called mission president as of this past July.

Our Sunday visit to Mauban

This is Elders Eyre and Navarro with President.

They are his Assistants.  They are standing in front

of the Mauban Branch Meeting House.

On our way to Mauban...

Stop in Barra on our way home from Marinduque

We stopped and took a tricycle ride to the Barra branch 

meeting house so President could interview this sister standing

next him for baptism.  We have our missionaries with us, also.

Sisters Salon and Basa! It was getting dark by the time he finished

the interview.

The fun part was getting to watch these beautiful children practice

for their Sacrament Meeting Program!  There were so cute!

These were some children outside the church peeking in and 

watching the primary practice.  They were happy to get their

picture taken! :-)

Marinduque Zone Interviews, October 2012

Back to beautiful Marinduque Island to interview and visit 

Our missionaries' apartments there! 

Just a shot of a house on the hill with a lighthouse...as we were

entering the port on Marinduque!

Elders Bayla and Dela Rosa at their apartment in Santa Cruiz,

Marinduque.  I think they are good for each other and they had

a very clean and organize place!  It was nice to see!

Nice and clean kitchen!

This picture is a bit dark, but still a pretty view of the ocean as 

we are driving around the island!

Here we are in Boac, Mariduque with Elders Manzon and

Pesamino.  The have a nice apartment also!

Here is their nice little kitchen!  It is funny, in most of the 

apartments, even when they have cupboard space, they love to

store things on top of refrigerator!  This is a really short one!

Here we are with the Packers and our AP's having an absolutely

delicious meal at this Monserrat restaurant.  However, it wasn't

really a restaurant.  It was more like an outdoor food stand! 

But the food was really gourmet and tasty!  The owner is the

brother in the middle back end.  We had some really good

pastas...a creamy pesto linquini and some other pasta dish.

The next day we came back for lunch before heading to the

boat ride back!  We had pork soft tacos and a small egg & 

sausage pizza.  Yum!  "Masarap!" 

These are in elders in their apartment in Boac, Marinduque, Elders

Alvaro and Saunders.  Elder Alvaro is training Elder Saunders,

who just got here last week! They're happy with there apartment!

These sisters are in Mogpog, Marinduque.  They have a very nice

apartment, but this picture was taken at the chapel there. President

had to take care of business at the chapel...recommend interviews,

etc.  The AP's and I went to see there apartment.  President did

there interviews here in the chapel.  Sister Agustin and Sister 

Marino are new companions.  Sister Agustin just got transfer

there and she loves it!

Here is Sisters Austin and Marino...so happy in there nice, clean

and organized apartment!  It is really nice!

This is a picture of their kitchen!

As we travel around the mission, we notice that many of the areas

have pots that line the streets are alike and unique to the area. On

Marinduque, you will see these pots along the way.  Most of them

have plants, bushes or tress planted in them.  These were 

especially unique with the faces on both sides of the pots!

This is always a good photo opp!

Another good one!

Another good shot of Mary...

This is right next to the port at Mogpog!

Transfer Week...Coming & Going, October 2012

This is our group going home in October!  From the left, Sister

Baladad, Elder Torres, Sister Roque, Me, Sister Gabonada, 

President, Sister Villiasis and Elder De Young.

We had a wonderful Home Evening with them the night before

they were leaving.  They all bore powerful and sweet testimonies!

We always have great hopes for our missionaries who have finished

their missions and gone home.  President has always told them that

the most important thing for them to learn on their mission is the 

reality of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it helps people 

to change and find true happiness in their lives.  

My advice to them was to continue the consistency of prayer,

study and serving others.  If they let go of those good habits, 

they could lose their testimony and their way back to our

Father in Heaven.  I love these missionaries! 

This is our fresh new batch of missionaries!  They are coming so

well prepared...or so it seems!  Anyway, they are always so

excited to get to work!  From the left, front row, Elder Green,

President, Sister Banzali, Me, Elders Discanso and Pioquinto.  

Back row, Elders Malit, Reynolds, Cordova, Geronimo, 

Saunders, Rayos and Aguilar.

  

This is just a shot before going to Transfer Meeting of Elders

Caubalejo and Caling.  Elder Caubalejo is a Zone Leader and

Elder Caling a new trainer!

We are getting ready for breakfast on the morning of Transfer 

Day.  Elder Aguilar was always helping to set the table or clear it

or wash dishes!  He is very kind and service oriented!  We usually 

have a good breakfast of scrambled eggs with melted cheese,

fried rice and pineapple juice. 

This is some of the new batch standing by the Completed Families

Board.  We had a goal of 200 completed families in 2012.  So

far, we have 167 reported completed families. Their pictures are 

placed on the board.  A completed family is a family where all 

the members of that family that can be baptized (8 years old and 

above) are baptized and working together to be sealed as a 

family in the temple.

From the left is Elders Aguilar, Pioquinto, Rayos, Disconso, and

Cordova.