This past week has been a flurry- not of the fluffy white stuff that we think of when we think of Christmas, but a flurry of Christmas activities. And those Christmas activities just happened to involve a lot of music, which was so refreshing! As you all know, Elder Huff LOVES,LOVES, LOVES playing the piano. His talents were somehow discovered and he became the accompanist for the Area Office Choir, played in church, played a number for our Area Presidency dinner and devotional, played for our missionary caroling at our local Eastwood Mall, and played for just about anything and everything he could and had time for. The Filipinos are very musical as well. As was witnessed from our huge Area Workforce “devotional” (party) the people love to sing and dance. It was especially true this year since they haven’t been able to gather like this for three years (yes, due to COVID). Somehow, mixed in with all this fun, we managed to get a couple of projects off and running, including a long drawn out water project. It’s truly a wonderful time of year. Even though we miss family, we miss our normal traditions, we miss that nice cozy feeling you get , we love being here and experiencing some pretty amazing things. We are surrounded by good people- people who give so much! They work pretty hard for a bunch of old people! Of course, not everyone is old. The employees here work very hard as well. We miss all of you, our dear friends and family! We think of you and pray for those who are especially in need of prayers. May you experience the true joy of the season and find time to reflect on our Savior’s life and mission. I have found peace by doing this and look forward to even more time to ponder .

A Trip to the Mountains

We had the opportunity to travel (8 hours just to get there) to a mountain town called Alfonso Lista to accompany our boss (Jairus Perez) and his family, along with two other missionary couples to a turnover of our donation of equipment for a radio station. This proved to be a long, but enjoyable trip. We were planning to also visit the Banaue rice terraces, but that didn’t happen in the end. Another time, perhaps! We were entertained by the tribal dancers up there, visited their radio station, and enjoyed cooler weather. It’s the first time I can honestly say I was cool since we came here. I even had goosebumps! It’s so beautiful up there and we saw plenty of rice fields along the way. When we went to the school division, there were so many different school leaders there! I had no idea they had planned this! And they were so anxious to get things from us–it felt a bit overwhelming, really. We will have to see what happens. I asked them to get together and really figure out who needs what and get back to us.