The first noteworthy thing of the week was our handover of donation at the facility for elderly women called “Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly”. We handed this project over to Sister Bjorkman, who can’t really travel much because her husband works here in the legal department. She stays plenty busy working on projects that we and the Larsens give her to work on. This facility is run by an energetic Catholic nun, Sister Sandra. They asked for a CCTV system to help them watch over the 80 ladies who live there. You would think, from the name of the place, that it might be a bit abysmal. Nothing is further from the truth! They ladies all seem happy, the workers are pleasant, it is very clean, with lovely areas for dining and gathering. You would think this project would have been a slam dunk, but it actually took a fair amount of convincing to get it approved. I guess we have never before donated a CCTV security system. Anyway, it was a grand celebration of old people! Elder and Sister Parada (service missionaries) who found the project in the first place, got their Stake R.S. to come and do some cultural dances, the Senior Citizens from the barangay did some dances, and even the residents in their wheelchairs did a song with hand motions. Then Lennie played some songs for them, including “You’ll Never Walk Alone” which I sang to and invited them all to sing (surprising how many of them knew this song), and some Christmas hymns. It was a long program, but very fun.

This was after a long day for us. It started out at 7 am- we practiced our choir numbers for the devotional with the area presidency. This was an amazing devotional, actually. The spirit was very strong as the area presidency shared their experiences from general conference. Elder Choi was a speaker in this conference, so he certainly had some insights to share. They also shared some special experiences they had while attending their leadership sessions. And I never knew that the 8th floor of the Joseph Smith Building was dedicated to be a temple during the SLC temple renovation. The leaders have their special meetings there. Elder Bangerter said there was a special emphasis placed on keeping the sabbath day holy- taking it to a whole new level. After the devotional, we had to rush off to Manila School Division- our first ever meeting with them. We also took Sister Bjorkman with us, since we would be ending up at the Little Sisters turnover. After meeting with the school division (they have some interesting needs that we look forward to exploring further), we headed in to Tondo to meet with another foundation. They are sponsored by the San Miguel Corporation, which is huge here. They have their center in the old Purple School building. It’s amazing to see the transformation of that place. They are still getting it ready, but they will have many different foundations using space there, including Project PEARLS and Upskills Foundation. It is good to see this building put to good use. This was a good meeting, except for the new dent in our new car- we got way to up close and personal with the gate!

Easy hike? Whose Standards?

On Saturday morning, I woke up around 5 and checked the weather forecast. Sunshine? Not much rain?? Time for a hike!! So last minute, I roused Elder Huff from his dreamland and suggested we go to the nearby mountains and do a hike I had read about. He first thought I was nuts, then agreed to it. (Isn’t that nice of him?). I had read that this was a hike with great views, a chance to see the Wawa Dam afterwards and even get in the nice river there. Perfect combo! The hike was listed as “easy”. Well….easy by rock climbing standards, maybe. It was hands down the hardest hike we have ever encountered!!! You have to sign your life away in the barangay, pay some environmental fees, then get a guide. Check, check, check. We walked through a mountain barangay then began our ascent. At first, it wasn’t too bad- walking through banana forests. But the trail was very rocky- with fairly large rocks to climb in and around. After almost an hour we reached an area that is the Filipino version of the cafes in the Swiss Alps. A bamboo food stand- but we were able to buy some fresh, cold water and some cooked bananas! Then we headed out again and it was very apparent that the trail was really getting gnarly. Huge boulders to navigate, with the need to hoist yourself up and over constantly. After 30 minutes or so of this, I asked our guide how long it would take to reach the summit. When he said it would take at least another hour, I threw in the towel! There is no way I could have made it. My legs were already jelly and my fear of heights and climbing over big craggy boulders took over.

My mantra of “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” was wearing thin and I was starting to wonder if we had made a huge mistake. I started to pray that we would make it in one piece and complete our mission! So we bailed. And Lennie didn’t even protest! It was also kind of muddy and slippery to add to the fun. When we did make it back down, we both sighed a huge sigh of relief. Then came the fun part. We changed into our swimming suits and walked up to the Wawa Dam and falls. This was a surprisingly beautiful area. Huge colorful boulders with a churning river running through them, big dam waterfall and lush vegetation. Above the falls, you could pay to have a boat take you up the river a tiny bit and go to the “hidden river”. We shared the boat with two guys who knew where the nicest place to get in the river was and shared some information about yet another waterfall that we went to. It was very refreshing and we pray we didn’t pick up any parasite from the water! To get to the second waterfall, we had to get back into a boat, go a short distance to a different barangay and find our way. Luckily two young men could tell we were confused and walked with us all the way through the campground, through the river and to the falls. One of the young men even held onto me while getting through the rocky river. What a sweet and thoughtful young man. And they were from Tondo, which was extra cool for us. We hiked up above this waterfall and kept following the river up through more small falls. It was magical! So all in all, a great day in nature!!! And glad to be alive and well!