We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, friends, or just by yourselves. We all have so, very much to be grateful for. When I think of all the suffering here, as well as other places around the world, it makes us wonder how we are all so fortunate. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the Morrisons, who are president and chairman of the board of Mabuhay Deseret Foundation. We were so fortunate to be included- great food and wonderful company. Most of the Filipinos there hadn’t ever had Thanksgiving food before. They were happy to observe us and learn of the “game changer” of putting cranberry relish on turkey! And pumpkin pie! Which I made, but with my weird oven, one of the pies had a nice, brown top. I didn’t even think it was possible to “burn” pumpkin pie! They ate both pies, so I guess it was okay. Here are some pictures of our Thanks giving:

Northern Samar:

The very next day, we got up nice and early to catch a 6:30 am flight to Catarman, in Northern Samar. This isn’t normally our area, but we are doing three HUGE literacy projects with three different school divisions down this way. Catarman and Northern Samar had terrible flooding just last week, with houses having around 5 feet of water! I can’t even imagine this. We were warned that we should bring food with us, just in case they didn’t have access to food here. It’s actually good we did bring some peanut butter and a few other things. Most of the restaurants here were closed when we arrived. Since the literacy materials hadn’t arrived yet, and since we didn’t have much to do down here until Sunday or Monday, President Corsino, who is a counselor in the Stake Presidency and a school teacher, suggested we go over to Biri Island. What a great idea that turned out to be!!! It’s my new favorite place here in the Philippines. It was so lush, so peaceful, so simple and so beautiful!

We didn’t have a place reserved, but asked at the tourist info center and they suggested a place that turned out to be perfect. We really had it to ourselves! So we had personalized care from our hosts, who also cooked our meals, asking what we wanted. The choices were somewhat limited, but we had grilled tuna (whole fish) two nights and it was delicious. The place was set on a huge lot with lots of grass and was right in front of a coconut grove and thatched roof houses. We were given a guide who turned out to be perfect for us and rode around with him on the back of his motorcycle. He took us to see the amazing rock formations, on a hike with a lookout that was called “Little Batanes” which is another area that has been on my bucket list. Sprawling green hills, cliffs and ocean all around.

But maybe the highlight for us, other than walking through the ocean to see the rock formations, was the snorkeling. One of the snorkel spots was right across the street from our hotel and the other was in a very unlikely spot, but the coral gardens were some of the best we have seen anywhere. It was close to town and we just took a 1 minute boat ride to the other side of the bay to the snorkel spot. We were amazed. It’s too bad it was rainy. I can only imagine what it would have been like with sunrays coming through. It was still magical, though! In fact, the two days there were magical. And restful. After our morning and early afternoon of touring around with our guide, we came back to our hotel and sat out on the veranda READING! Can you imagine?? Can’t remember the last time we did that. The temperature was perfect for sitting out and relaxing. A slight breeze…reminded us of Hawaii. We really needed this before our big week of craziness. Now we are back in Catarman and missing our magical island of Biri.