June 2024

Our aircon was leaking water and not cooling well. Facilities management sent a man to clean and service it and now it’s a lot better. We look back to when we served in Guatemala and had no air con, only a fan, and think how blessed we are!

We had Elder Ragrag in our mission who got permission to fly home to Cebu, Philippines to be sealed with his family. What a special time for him and his family!

Prices here are usually a lot cheaper than in the States, but if you buy products brought over from the US, it’s way expensive. We know cereal was about $4 a box when we left the US and honey was about $16 a quart. Cereal can be $15 a box and honey $36 a quart here. We’ve decided we can do without both from the US, but the Filipino honey and cereal are affordable so we use those.

We had departures and arriving missionaries. Sister Taylor from Idaho is a sweetheart who takes others under her wing.

Senior conference at the Albrecht's mission home. Lunch was by Benny, he's an amazing cook.

Senior and service missionaries

Olongapo zone conference

Lunch, mmm good!

Scripture chase, Alan kept score and I watched who stood first.

Our tech sisters.

Sister Tambolero had a birthday and we had a party at Sister Allred's apt.

Alan did his usual toilet, sink, and bidet fixes this month and we had a lot of missionaries going home at the last minute for health and other issues.

May 2024

May 1, we drove the Nufers to Manila to go to the temple for our 44th wedding anniversary.

They had a bunch of people staying at the temple housing. These children are eating at the cafeteria  and had a tour of the temple grounds and area offices.

May 2 we met Sister Dacuno, Cleo, and Sisters Negosa and Carfielo. It was a great day!

An RM from our mission took a few pictures of Alan and I for our anniversary. I like this one!

Alan fixing the lighting on the stairs of the AP's apartment we just moved them into.

The Nufers took us to a beach in San Antonio to snorkel for an hour. We got warm banana bread and mango smoothies on our way home. Oh what treats!

We had to take bikes down to the Elders in Mariveles, the very southern tip of our mission. One didn't work, so the next day we went down again with a different bike. We stopped by the memorial of the Bataan Death march from WWII.

The pool at our hotel in Lucap, where we got a boat to take us to the 100 islands.

Mermaid by the sea restaurant that evening. It was good, but pretty expensive.

Playing garbage with some seniors before bedtime.

A picture before we get on our boat for 100 Islands the next morning.

A picture of some of the islands. They said there are 126, they just rounded off the number to 100.

A picture from our villa that evening.

Swimming and snorkeling

We zip lined from one island to another!

Fun times !

Alan's turn.

A picture from a balcony of our villa.

Group picture: Lauritzens, us, sister Allred, Lana, Sister Baul, Duane, Akagis, Larsens, Elder Baul.

Sister Allred and I kayaking. We really got a workout on the ocean waves and currents.

Back to shore before we paddle to the bat cave. We had 4 canoes sink-Laritzens, Nufers, Akagis, and Larsens. If there had been a man in ours, it would've sunk also.

We hiked up to the Christus.

Just below the Christus.

Bosting between islands.

Cliff diving in a bat cave.

Getting ready to helmet dive.

Going down!

Our group under water.

We touched these huge clams, they were soft mossy feeling and shut when we touched them.

Lunch before we pack up and leave the island villa. Marisol, our caterer and cook. Fresh parrot fish, crabs, and fruit.

As we boated back to the mainland it started raining cats and dogs and rained all the way home on our 6 hour drive.