Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Ardern, November 2012

This is the Marinduque Zone.  Front row, Sisters Montegue and

Walker, Elder and Sister Douglas, Elder & Sister Ardern, Me,

 President, Sister and Elder Packer and. Back row, Elders 

Pesamino, Guyer (ZL), Alvaro, Bayla, Saunders, Manson, 

Orro (ZL) and Dela Rosa, Sisters Agustin and Marino.

This is the Lopez Zone. Front row, Sisters Montegue and Walker,

Elder and Sister Douglas, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, President,

Sister and Elder Packer.  Back row Elders Lucila, Lacson, 

Lahom, Collado, Knight, Sasagi, Boyd, Sembrano, Illustrisimo,

Bandoy, Rivera, Pratt, Dait and Pioquinto.

This is the Lucena Zone.  Front row, Elders Kartchner, Malit, 

Eldridge, Hurst, and Capulac.  Middle row, Sisters Montegue 

and Walker, Elder and Sister Douglas, Elder and Sister Ardern, 

Me, President, Sister and Elder Packer. Back row, Sisters Basa, 

Salon, Taobure, Calla and Donato, Elders Nance Figuracion, 

Cabacungan, Sister Pruden, Elders Tolentino, Rosario, Naeata, 

Lalo, Geronimo, Abad and De Leon.

A few sisters sneaked in a picture with Elder and Sister Ardern.

From the left Sisters Marino, Donato, Calla, Elder Ardern, Sister

Basa, Sister Ardern, Sisters Taobure, Agustin, Pruden and Salon.

Elder Pesamino and Elder Sasagi having lunch together...Happy

faces!  They must have enjoyed it! :-)

Here is the Batangas Zone.  Front row, Elder and Sister Packer, 

Sisters Padua and Ramos, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, 

President, Sister and Elder Wagner.  Back row, Elders Cook, 

Ignacio, Silvosa, Howes, Polatis, Salisbury, Mac Millen, Adams, 

Oliva, Viloria, Ano Os and Yost.

Here is the Mindoro Zone.  Front Row, Elder & Sister Packer,

Elder and Sister Campbell, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, 

President, Sisters Francis and Buduan.  Back row, Elders 

Maiz, Revillo, Shepherd, Mendoza, Butler, Perez, Seggay,

Garnica, Ocuaman, Cordova, Calisaan and Najorda.

Here is the Lipa Zone.  Front row Elders Natividad, Abendanio, 

Tagulao and Navarro. Middle row, Elder and Sister Packer,

Elder and Sister Wagner, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, President,

Sisters Nabus and Lamosa. Back row, Sisters Harris and Hadley,

Elder Diaz, Sister Cayanan, Elder Guba, Sister Segaysay, Elders,

Spezia, Nerza, Smith, Cello, Nimenzo, Merriam, Bayubay, Ayap,

Meniano and Waga.

This is the San Pablo Zone.  Front row, Sisters Asuncion, Pitman,

Elder and Sister Gines, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, President,

Sister and Elder Packer, Sister Walker and Montegue. Back row,

Elders Kleinlein, Sollano, Sister Banzali, Elder Brown, Sister 

Carmichael, Sister Umiten, Elders Caling and Leavitt, Sister 

Folau, Elders Reynolds, Delos Santos, Alinsoot, Eyre (AP), 

Navarro (AP), Nalesoni, Tamale, Minguel and Torculas. 

Here is the Cabuyao Zone.  Front row, Elders Inlayo and Trapsi, 

Sister and Elder Wagner, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, President,

Sister and Elder Packer.  Back row, Sisters Begontes, Pajarin, 

Macariola and Pacampara, Elders Bandiola, Green, Basco, Glenn,

Morgan, Johnson, Burton, Brewer, Galutera, Pascua, Kauvaka,

and Hansen.

This is the Santa Cruz Zone.  Front row, Sisters Huni and Yorro, 

Elder and Sister Gines, Elder and Sister Ardern, Me, President,

Sister and Elder Packer.  Back row, Elders Lalangan, Pascua,

Mayola, Pablico, Thompson, Rosario, Caubalejo, Pascua, 

Biala and Rivera.

Here is the Siniloan Zone.  Front row, Sisters Narciso and Maka, 

Elder and Sister Gines, Elder & Sister Ardern, Me, President, 

Sister and Elder Packer.  Back row, Sisters Meti and Snow,

Elders Edvalson, Ah Wong, Clark, Libutti, Jones and Aguilar.

Maranduque District Conference, November 2012

Just some of the saints in the Marinduqe District wanting to take a

picture with me...They love taking pictures! :-)

This is a little meeting we had with the Boac area Elders at the 

Boac Hotel Restaurant with the Area Seventy that was presiding 

the District Conference, Elder Valdez.  From the left, President, 

me, Elder Alvaro, Elder Vadlez (out front), Elder Saunders, Sister 

and President Merdegia (President's 1st Counselor).

Dinner that night with the Merdegias and Elder Valdez.

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.