June 27, 2010
Dearest Family,
Sometimes I write for the general readers and do not let you know how very much we love and miss you! When we were so very busy working 14-15 hours a day with little time to even eat, we’d drop into bed, asleep before we had time to be homesick. The temple has slowed down considerably but we still have to be there for patrons who might come. These are the times I think about all of you and miss you the most. Some of the morning sessions have had as few as 8 or 9 people. Twice Daddy and I have served as the witness couple because there were not patrons who could. There are blessings from fewer patrons: I have been able to sit and rest so my legs and feet have not given me the problems this week that they did last week; I have been able to visit with and train some of the Filipino sister ordinance workers; the temple has become a place of order, a haven of peace and quiet. One sister told me she had nine children who are grown, but one of her sons, whose wife died recently, has moved back with his parents with his nine children. They are living in a small two room house with a lean to added on because there was not enough space for the children to spread out on to sleep. They have pieces of foam that are their beds and each morning they roll them up for the day. She admitted it is hard to have that many in such a small space and hard to feed them all. I cannot give her money but I thought I’d try to see where her locker was and slip some money in anonymously. She asked me how old I was, and so I asked her how old she was, and was shocked to find she is 70. She looks about 50. I asked her how she (and all the Filipino women) stay so young looking. She replied, “It is because we are a happy people.” And they are that! There must be something about the moisture in the air and something in the genes however. I think Ponce de Leon missed the mark; he should have looked for the fountain of youth in the Philippines.
This morning we attended the Apas Ward where the relief society lesson and the Sunday School lesson and the three sacrament meeting talks were mostly in English. That was delightful, especially for Daddy. The Sunday School teacher was a beautiful Filipino sister who smiled and was so animated all through her excellent lesson. She had so much participation. Afterwards I complimented her on her lesson and found she was 47 with three children 11,10 and 7; I thought she was a newly returned missionary sister. She has such a strong testimony but her husband is a French non-member who sometimes gives her a hard time about her church activity. She told him that if he prevented her or their three children from attending Church, she would stop loving him. I told her that if she continues to love him he will want to have her with him eternally and some day he will recognize the truthfulness of the Church and the blessings that come through the temple. She and her husband are in the export business. They sell home décor items to businesses like Ralph Lauren and Williams Sonoma! I would like to see what they have. Maybe sometime in the future…. There are so many stories like Grace’s—Filipino Church sisters marrying non-member white men for financial security. Many of the white men I have seen here have much younger Filipino wives???
One thing I did not write about was the brides’ veils several of us made in the days before the dedication. Sister Mortimer wanted some pretty veils that the young girls could wear outside the temple for pictures on their wedding day. For many of them, the temple is the only wedding celebration they have, so Sister Mortimer and Sister Byram bought yards of white tulle, lace, ribbon, pearls and silk flowers for us to create a half dozen veils. One I made had pearls scattered over the veils. I hand sewed them on because I was afraid the hot glue might melt the tulle. That was a fun assignment.
All the baptistry jumpsuits are too big for these small people. WE have hemmed some but the brand new computer Bernina sewing machine in the temple is having problems with the thread breaking every three inches so the Matrons and Laundry people decided to have them sewn by a professional seamstress. They will still be too big through the body, but at least they won’t be 8 to 12 inches too long.
Grocery shopping is an adventure. There are huge sections of bottled water in every grocery store. The produce and meat departments have strong smells with bins of open spices, dried fish and exotic fruits and vegetables. The people seem to love their meat with lots of fat on it. There are some American brands of canned and boxed foods available but you pay more for them than you would in the US. We have found most of the things we wanted—even Crisco shortening (however, the stocking clerks had to look for a long time to find it for us; it was above the raisins, not with the oils.) I looked several times before I found dryer sheets. I have not found any Spray ‘n Wash or anything like it. Most of the women wash by hand. They move things around quite often and when you go expecting to find something in the same place the next week, it has been moved. Usually if a clerk can’t find something he’ll say, “Out of stock, Mum”. They are extremely polite and try to be helpful but they don’t ever want to say they don’t carry an item. Twice when we have been in a grocery store at 6 pm everything and everybody stops while a prayer is recited over the loudspeaking system. When it is finished, all cross themselves and resume their chatter and shopping. I was surprised, but appreciated the reverence shown by these people. The population is heavily Catholic and are steeped in Catholic traditions. Most of the taxis have a cross hanging from the rear view mirror. I asked one driver if he had ever had an accident, and he replied, “No mum, God has blessed me.” They give credit to God for his goodness unashamedly.
How are our pregnant daughters feeling? I look at the babies here and realize how much I am going to miss the new babies, and how much I miss Maryn and William right now. (And all the other grandchildren too!) I am so grateful you are taking time for Grandma and for each other. Families are everything. We love you so much. Mom and Dad
No comments:
Post a Comment