Anniversaries and Temple Anecdotes

April 13, 2011

Dear Ones,

We celebrated forty-six years of eternal marriage today by going back for a session at the temple tonight. We served in the baptistry and other parts of the temple then went home at 3pm, had leftover chicken stirfry and rice for our dinner (we both agreed that we did not want to go out for dinner since we had been Saturday night with the other missionaries to Ching Palace, a nice Chinese restaurant and had eaten till we were stuffed with at least 15 different Chinese dishes to sample, and we had hosted the bi-monthly FHE pot luck with oodles of food Monday evening. . .),had a much enjoyed nap, and then went back for the seven o clock session. It was fun to reminisce about our courtship, proposal, engagement and marriage. I was able to assist with the sealing of an older couple and their three older children (23, 19, 18) and it made me so grateful that we began our marriage in the temple so that all our children were born in the covenant The Perez family was so happy that they were finally an eternal family; even though we did not communicate well with words, it was easy to sense their joy.

Our FHE pot luck dinner had the theme “Around the World in 80 Minutes”. I had asked everyone to bring an international dish, either authentic or “adopted” and we ended up with food from Indian, Mexico, France, Hungary, Italy, Germany, the US, Japan, China and the Philippines. I made black traveling bags out of paper and printed small clip art pictures or tourist attractions all over the world and glued them onto the bags as travel stickers as centerpieces for each table. WE had a quiz on the highest, the lowest, the hottest, the coldest, the largest, the smallest, etc, places in the world and shared a few travel stories. I had a sink full of dishes to finish very late and decided to wait until Tuesday morning to do them. Nobody went home hungry.

I have written experiences on two different days, but have never sent them, so I will include them with this. WE love you and pray for you always. Love, Mom and Dad

March 31, 2011

For the past three days a youth group from Leyte has been staying in the Patron House doing two baptismal sessions each day. One of their leaders brought with her a stack of 1500 names of her ancestors whose work she wanted to have done. She told me yesterday that she had several pages more of names that needed to be printed on cards, and that she plans to spend all her time in the next few months doing still more research. She is an amazing person. I would guess she is in her early forties*, is an attractive mother with two children, and is devoted to the Gospel. Her story is like Job of old. A few years ago, her husband moved to the United States for a better job so he could provide for his family. (It is not unusual for one spouse to work overseas while the other stays here with family in the Philippines). He got involved with another woman and had papers drawn up that would permit a divorce from his Filipino wife, but they were not legal here in the Philippines. (Because of the strong influence of the Catholic Church there is a law prohibiting divorce; you can get an annulment but it costs thousands of pesos and takes reams of paperwork so very few get that—couples just are separated.) Somehow the husband succeeded in depriving his wife of her house, and he gives her no support. He arranged for his two children to travel to the United States where they live with him and his new “wife”. This sister, knowing that opportunities for her children would be so much greater in the US, unselfishly agreed that they could go. She has lost everything she valued and loved here, and now finds solace in the Church and her family history work. She plans to live with a widowed sister in Manila after she has completed all the research she can in her home area. She has been living in the church family history center literally. Her joy comes from seeing the temple work done for her family names.* I found out she is in her fifties!

April 6, 2011

With summer vacation here for the students, we are having large groups from the outlying islands and from the Cebu area here to do baptisms. President Byram has reorganized the baptistry coordinating schedule so that each couple is only in the baptistry for a four hour stretch each day since it is hard physical labor and you are on your feet constantly (unless you do it like I do and have the sisters who come to help with the groups do the mopping, the towel handling and the dressing room control; I stay in the chapel with those who are not being baptized—we can’t have the girls and boys out at the font together. I read scriptures, tell stories, sing hymns with the waiting youth and have them tell me about themselves. I do some of the running, but not nearly as much as Larry and not nearly as much as the rest of the sisters on different shifts. I have learned to save my legs and feet by doing it my way.) WE have had choice experiences with these youth. I particularly enjoyed the group from Ilion on Mindanao this week. They also brought over a thousand family names to do. Each group has had at least one person who is the only member of the Church in his/ her family.

Since we are only in the baptistry for four hours each shift we are able to assist in other areas of the temple during our other time. Today, I had a unique experience. I was assigned to help an 84 year old sister in a wheelchair who had come to the temple with her daughter to be sealed to her deceased husband and then have the daughter sealed to them. She did not have a language card pinned on her which meant the sealing would be done in English. But as I talked to her, I was sure she did not speak much English, if any, and so I asked the daughter if her mother would like the sealing done in Cebuano. When she said yes, I notified the coordinator. I helped her dress in white and told her she was “guapa” (beautiful—“ guapo” is the masculine form which is handsome* ) and she smiled. He daughter told me she would like the proxy to be an American since her husband was an American, but the brothers had already asked one of the Filipino temple workers to be the proxy and he was ready and waiting. When the sealer got to the part where the sister was to answer “yes” she would not say anything. Her daughter talked to her for a few minutes and finally she reluctantly said, “oh=oh” which is yes. Afterwards, the daughter told me that her mother thought she was being sealed to the actual man and she did not want to be sealed to a Filipino! She loved her American husband. I wonder if she had had an American proxy if she would have thought he was going to be her husband…. That was the funny part of that story. The sad part is that the daughter is married to an American and lives in Clearfield, Utah with her husband and young son. They have been sending money for her mother over the past several years, but some of her half-brothers and sisters who are not members of the Church kept asking for more and more money; they think all Americans are rich. Her husband finally said, “When I married you I was willing to help with your mother, but we cannot support the whole extended family. You need to tell them we will not send more money.” The daughter notified the family of this decision. Her brothers and sisters emailed her back saying that if she did not send $500 immediately, they were going to wrap her mother up in a rug and put her in a coffin! The daughter was so upset! Her passport had expired, but she called the Philippines Embassy and they gave her special permission to travel to the Philippines to help her mother. She will be here for two months waiting for her passport to process, and that will give her time to try to find someone or some place where her mother can be cared for by trusting individuals. She discovered that the brothers and sisters had not used any of the money for their mother—they had used it for themselves ! Earlier the mother had suffered a stroke and could not walk or talk for some time, but is able to do better now. The daughter had her parents sealed and was sealed to them which is something she has wanted to have done for some time. All’s well that ends well, I guess.