We said good-bye to Allison and family who spent the past week getting to know the Philippines a bit. I hope we didn’t exhaust each other too much! As we were sharing life here with them, it made me realize how much we are going to miss being here. I got a bit teary at times, just realizing this. And of course, we now miss all of them as well. We started out our holiday break by going to Cebu for a few days. We really enjoyed our time going to the temple there (it is really such a beautiful temple) with Sister Teichert (her husband was sick). We had a great visit with her after the temple. They will finish their mission about the same time as us. After going to the temple, we walked then took a multi-cab to the Magellan’s Cross and tried to see the Fort in downtown Cebu. For the second year, the Fort was closed! But it was an interesting walk and gave us a different look at Cebu City.

The next day, we headed off to Mactan Island, where we would be staying for two nights with Allison and family. They flew straight from Vietnam to Cebu to begin our trip together. Since we had time, we decided to take a little island hopping adventure. We got started after lunch, so we had to take a boat by ourselves. We were supposed to visit 3 islands, but the boat engine broke down after the second stop and by the time they got it up and running again, it was too late for the last stop. It wasn’t our favorite island hopping experience, for sure. Just okay. But it was a beautiful day and always nice to be on the water. On Sunday, we spent time with the kids, then went to church with the Flores family. We knew it would be our last time to visit Sister Flores (his golden convert) and her family. It was such a great visit! As I said to her, we will see you on the other side!! Since she is 80 years old now, that won’t be that long for her, and hopefully a little longer for us. She has done so much good in Lapu-Lapu. She is a great example for us of serving and dedicating herself to the Lord and others.

On Christmas morning, it was off to the ferry station to go to Bohol. We had no idea what the ferry would be like. It really felt like going to an airport- going through security, showing the tickets, waiting to board, etc. We had seats inside, and it was raining, so we didn’t even really realize we were traveling across the ocean. Not what I expected. After two hours, we arrived, then waited for our HUGE rental van. That was another surprise. We thought we were renting a mini-van, but I guess the guy talked Elder Huff into getting a large van since we had 7 people. It was like driving a bus! And he had trouble finding the break, especially in the dark, which resulted in a scary incident involving a cement wall. Don’t worry, though, we were all fine. The car suffered a bit of damage on a metal bar in front, but all in all, not bad. We stayed in two rooms that each had a bedroom with a separate kitchen area. They had a pool right off of the rooms. Little Brooke decided to NOT wait for everyone else to get into the pool and just headed right out there. I came walking along to get our suitcases and saw two hotel receptionists, fully clothed, in the pool to rescue Brooke! So scary!!! She was showing them that she knows how to swim (as she rolled her arms around in circles). She managed to hop into the pool a few times after that, but she survived and we mostly did.

That same day, we went to the beach in the late afternoon . It was low tide so we could walk out quite a long way. We had Luke out there and he stepped on a sea urchin. He had two big dark purple blotches on his toes, and of course spines. We weren’t sure what to do about it, so I asked some locals on the beach. That resulted in quite the crowd of people who gathered around to help, to poor warm water over his foot and try to get out the spines. It helped a bit, but spines were still in the foot. When we got him back to the apartment, another group of people came down to their apartment to try to work on his foot. The consensus was that he should just wait and see. If no fever or redness, it was probably just fine. We had a doctor lined up, just in case, but he was fine the next day and even hiked on it. We were so relieved! And so grateful for the wonderful, kind people who so willingly helped! So that was our weird Christmas Day! Not the greatest, but in the end, all was well.

The next day in Bohol was much better! It was probably the best day they had on their visit with us. We drove about 45 minutes to a place where we took a short hike to a twin waterfall. Of course, you have to have a guide once you get there (in fact they thought we should have two guides since there were so many of us, but we resisted). The hike was beautiful and the falls were really nice. Most everyone jumped off the rock into the deep pool, and 7 year old Luke just couldn’t get enough of it! Everyone was very, very happy this day, so it was magical. Our last day in Bohol was island hopping with the whole gang. Three seems to be the magic number for places to stop when you island hop. The first was a spot where we could see dolphins swimming around. They didn’t leap up or dance backwards, but we did see quite a few dolphins fins. Next was the snorkeling place. It would have been nice if there hadn’t been SO MANY people and small boats!!! You could hardly move without running into something or someone. The coral was decent and lots of fish, though. The boys were both frustrated because their masks and snorkels weren’t working right, but they were still able to see the magic of underwater life.

The last stop was basically a big sandbar. The kids really enjoyed this- it was like one giant tidepool. Lots of sea stars, hermit crabs and other things to explore. By the time we finished, we just had time to get cleaned up and out of the apartment. Then off to lunch and the ferry port. We didn’t really think that we could have flown out of Bohol back to Manila, which would have saved us so much time and hassle. As it was, we had to wait for about an hour for the ferry to leave, then spend two hours on the ferry, get to our hotel, pack up the next morning, get to the airport. Yes, we did that part wrong. Our bad. But when you are on a mission, you just don’t have a lot of time to research and think things through. Once we were back in Manila, we just spent the day discovering our own neighborhood. It was so fun to watch Brooke run around the light show in our area, making friends along the way, dancing to her heart’s content and being delighted. Kids have a way of helping you appreciate what you have around you.

On Friday, we went to Bonifacio Global City, one of the nicest areas in Manila, to go to the Mind Museum. The kids had another great time here. Afterwards, we went to a famous dumpling restaurant where they could watch them make dumplings and of course, enjoy the dumplings. The chocolate lave dumplings were especially yummy. We went back to their apartment and went swimming in the freezing pool, then had dinner at home. The last day, we took them on the train and into Rizal Park in Manila. They got to see more of the “real” Manila this way. The kids were kind of tired and grumpy and Brooke was running all over the place, making her mommy very tired indeed. So we took a grab ride back home. So that was about it for our weeklong adventure with the grandkids. It felt weird to not be thinking about our missionary work at all. We realize we wouldn’t have gotten much done anyway, with the holidays. But now it’s back to work! We officially got our extension approved, so we will now be here until April 5. 3 months left!!! Hope our stamina holds up! So Happy New Year to all of you, dear family and friends. Life isn’t always easy, is it? We know many of you haven’t had the best of health, or have other problems you are dealing with. We are praying for you and thinking of you and praying you will be sustained and strengthened and made equal to anything you are dealing with.