DEO DIVINAGRACIA

Back row: Elders Goss and Bird Front Row: Sister Goss, Haidi, Deo, Sister Bird

Deo, Elders Goss and Bird at Farewell Party

Deo Divinagracia at Farewell Party

                                           E/S Goss, Deo, E/S Bird at FVA Award Dinner

Our dashing and debonair bachelor, Deo Divinagracia, completed his contract work for the Area Public Affairs Depart­ment on March 31, 2012. His contract with public affairs has allowed him to work on projects like the “National Day of Ser­vice,” events associated with the Jubilee Celebration, the Family Values Awards for 2011, and even the launching of the PhilPAD Perspectives newsletter!

Deo was the driving force behind the creation of the Public Affairs 2012 Calendar “Mormon, Pinoy & Proud.” Besides the many hours spent in our office, he managed to sandwich in directing shows and other entertainment events for individu­als, groups, and businesses. We have enjoyed his grace and good humor, and the energetic spark and creative mind he has brought to our office. He has taught us that particular thought and effort must be given to “lunch” and all “eating occasions” in general! All events requiring food were overseen by Deo, but it was his music that gave our events that magic touch. He always knew what people would like the best.

Following the death of Leni Pilobello, he was our only Tagalog speaker in the office and frequently answered the cry for “help...Deo...quick!” from the non-Tagalog speaking senior missionaries, as he would be handed a phone and expected to pick up on a conversation about whatever we were trying to communicate!! He NEVER once acted irritated with our constant interruptions!

I must admit that I am quite the "matchmaker" and Deo had to put up with us finding a possible companion for him everyplace we traveled.....he even agreed that some were possibilities! I was more than happy to remind him of how much time was left if he wanted us to be able to go to the temple with him for his wedding!!! He was such a good sport with my "meddling" ways. Besides, he would be a very good catch for some worthy woman! Okay, another favorite memory about Deo: Few people here actually own their own car...he was no exception. Every once in awhile, he would walk into our work area with this sheepish look on his face, and look at Elder Bird (or Elder Goss) and say, "Dad....."...of course every dad knows exactly what their son wants.....either money or to borrow the car......it was always the car to run an errand!! He is truly like a son to us and we loved teasing him and giving him counsel that he usually didn't ask for! We have grown to love him and will miss him greatly. We are hoping that aside from going back to full-time production work directing shows, organizing events and managing talents, he will also devote some time to finding an eternal companion...after all, we leave in October!!

MANILA JUBILEE EXHIBIT

Manila Stake President and VIP's at Jubilee Exhibit

                  E/S Bird with Stake Leaders, Guests, Volunteers...and some adorable children!!

The Manila Stake hosted the final Jubilee Exhibit, during the Philippines Jubilee Year, beginning March 26, 2012. It was nice to be able to drive just 45 minutes to attend this exhibit and, also, to travel through a part of Manila we had not experienced before. Eleven months ago this area would have frightened me to drive through it, but after living here for a while, I just felt right at home. The exhibit was held on the second floor of the Manila Institute of Religion Building. Once again, the Public Affairs Council was very well prepared. This exhibit is not something you can pull together last minute....it literally takes months of preparation! They had done their homework well and it was reflected in their opening ceremonies. Many VIP's attended, as well as, visited the exhibit during the week. President Andrada, his wife, and other stake leaders were wonderful hosts. The opening ceremonies consisted of M.C's, a Jubilee choir that performed several numbers, remarks by Pres. Andrada and one of his counselors, and the High Councilor over public affairs. A couple from Manila, not of our faith, was also honored for their contribution to strengthening families in the area. Following the opening ceremonies, the ribbon cutting was done by those VIP's attending. The VIP's were also given tokens of appreciation (picture of Christ, framed Proclamation on the Family, or Tabernacle Choir C.D.s) for taking time to attend the event. The Jubilee choir sang as the VIP's walked through the exhibit teaching the history of the Church in this great country. We later learned that hundreds attended on this opening day. We are so happy that we have been here to witness this historic event!

THE PHILIPPINES MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER OPEN HOUSE

Philippines Missionary Training Center

Elder Bird Teaching Area Presidency, Elder Haws Poses with Youth, President and Sister Taylor Greet Visitors, Sister Bird with Sister Taylor, Elder Ardern Sits with Visitor, Missionaries

View of New MTC Outside

Masses Visit the New MTC

View Inside New MTC

March 5-10 was the Open House for the new Philippines Missionary Training Center (MTC). It was a wonderful and exhausting week. Missionaries come here from India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines, speaking 7 different languages. They bring with them an interpreter that is fluent in English and, of course, their own language. This is not a language training center...if one of these missionaries was called to a land where they would need to learn a new language, they would be sent to the MTC in Provo, Utah. Besides having the opportunity to go to the temple, they spend 19 days here learning about missionary work. Most of them have never been away from home before. Everything is taught in English, and these missionaries wear head phones while their translator sits in a very high tech booth and translates from English to the native language. Four languages can be done at one time. It is so amazing to see! They then go out to their respective missions on a Wednesday and the following Saturday, a new batch arrives and it starts all over again. This MTC accommodates 144 missionaries at a time. The old MTC is now being remodeled. It will house the cafeteria, the residences for the MTC President & wife, and MTC nurse and spouse, the Missionary Recovery Center (MRC), and the office for the mission doctor. It is on schedule to be completed the first week of July. Then the entire MTC will be dedicated.

The tours were scheduled to begin Monday morning at 10:00 am. This would be for all of the media people in the metro-Manila area. Randy and I had been assigned to take the Area Presidency (Pres.Teh, Elder Nielson, from Twin Falls, and Elder Ardern, from New Zealand) and their wives through the tour at 9:00 am, because they would be leading all of the tours from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. That was very enjoyable...they are all talented and humble men and women. We invited around 50 from the media. After the tours, they were treated to a very nice luncheon set up in the court-yard of the MTC. Monday evening was the VIP tours, which consisted of government officials, business heads, and community leaders....including the Housing Association Presidents in this area.....there are several, very upscale, gated communities right around the area of the MTC, and we wanted to invite all of them to come and see what was built in their midst! Also, invited Monday night were all of the senior missionaries....including those serving temple missions. Around 250 were invited and 200 came. President and Sister Taylor (George and Debra Taylor from Provo), the MTC President and wife, were the hosts for this evening. They welcomed everyone, and the young full time missionaries took them on the tours. This group was also treated to a beautiful and delicious spread of Filipino dishes and drinks. All of Asia is very well known for knowing how to treat their guests well!

Tuesday- Saturday tours were under the direction of the Quezon City Mission President (yes, our President DeLaMare), because the MTC is located within this mission. What a privilege for us and all of these young missionaries, to have this MTC completed during our service here. It is truly like a 5 star hotel (except no room service!) There is a beautiful, huge laundry room on each floor of the residences. Most of the missionaries have never had access to washers and dryers, and must be taught how to use them. Each residence (4 missionaries) has its own bathroom with all modern conveniences. Sister DeLaMare told us that some of the missionaries had come out of the MTC with cuts on the tops of their heads. She finally asked what had happened and found out that they were trying to bath under the faucet in the bathtub, not knowing that you pull that silver knob up and you have a shower!!! Now they make sure the missionaries are instructed on how to work the shower at the MTC!

The schedule for the rest of the week was the general public during the day and youth from the various stakes in the evening. We helped with the youth tours each night....they were the best! Each night we had from 600 to 900 youth come. It was amazing! Each tour lasted about 30 minutes, ending in the Joseph Smith room to hear Elder Tyler Haws (BYU BB Star whose mission is up in about 3 weeks). This started with the youth watching a video, that the Church made, about Elder Haws choosing to serve a mission. It can be seen on Youtube. Also included was a clip on missionary work by Elder Holland and one by President Monson. At the end of that, Elder Haws spoke to them and bore his testimony. The Filipinos love basketball! It was truly a most inspiring meeting. He is such a good and humble young man.....and SO grateful he chose to serve a mission! Everything went perfect like clock work for the tours until it was over and the youth (and leaders) were all to exit to the right out of the Joseph Smith room with the next huge group waiting in the hall on the left to come in and be seated. Well, instead of exiting, everyone headed to the stand and wanted pictures with Elder Haws and his autograph. Oh, Boy, what a challenge!!! Sister DeLaMare and I just couldn't get them to leave....they were so determined to have a picture with him, but there was no time!! Randy described it perfectly.......have you ever tried to herd a bunch of cats or chickens??? Yup, that was how it was going!! We had to try several things before we found one that worked....he was escorted out of the room before releasing everyone. Then when the next group was seated, we brought him in. The other challenge we had was this: Each stake was assigned a time to bring their youth...4 to 5 stakes each night....so that the numbers would be spread out through the evening. Instead of waiting for their time, all of the stakes came early....every single night and Saturday morning!! I think it is a Filipino thing because of the horrible traffic. No one wanted to miss this opportunity, so they all came early. On Saturday the youth tours went from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm. We were there by 7:30 and the whole activity center (full sized BB court) was full. By 8:30 a line went clear around the front of the MTC with those just waiting to get into the activity center!! How crazy it was! We had 2100 go through the tour that morning! It really was a wonderful experience.

Before I end, I will share one little experience. On Tuesday I was asked to take a woman and her two children (12 and 10) on the tour. She lives in one of the nice housing areas and is from Maryland.....I think they are Methodists. She was so nice. As she read the Purpose Statement on the wall....she said," I cannot believe how many false things I have heard about your church! They are just ridiculous! I am so happy to learn the truth about what you believe and who you worship!" She loved seeing the many beautiful pictures of the Savior and even the pictures of the Fist Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Her 12 yr. old son kept saying, "Mom, I want to come here." "Can I come when I am 19?" The mom told him they would talk about it. I just had to laugh and put my arm around her, as she laughed also! She was so easy to be friends with. I love this church. Every day I feel that feeling from the Holy Ghost that it is true. By the time mortality is over we will be worn out and it will have been so worth it. I am truly grateful to be able to serve the Lord, whether it is here or at home....there is always much to do.

OLONGAPO JUBILEE AND SUBIC BAY

Native Dances of the Philippines Performed at Opening Ceremonies of Jubilee Exhibit

Sister Bird with Youth of Olongapo, Sister Monette at Opening Ceremony, ElderBird with Mayor Gordon of Olongapo

Enjoying the Sites of Subic Bay

On February 26, we returned from Stake Public Affairs Council/Area Seventy training for two days in Iloilo. On the 27th we were on our way to Olongapo, located on this island of Luzon, and about a 3 hour drive northwest of Quezon City. Olongapo was hosting the Jubilee Exhibit, so we arranged to do Stake Public Affairs Council training while we were there. The drive to Olongapo was very beautiful...more flat with some hills and much less jungle like. We saw mile after mile of rice fields and sugar cane fields. We drove through some small towns and villages. Along the way we noticed markers indicating that we were traveling along the route made famous by the American and Filipino soldiers during WWII called the "Bataan Death March". I mentioned the historical significance of this in an earlier blog. When we arrived, we stayed at a beautiful hotel located on Subic Bay. Subic Bay was a major ship-repair, supply, and rest and recreation facility of the United States Navy located in the Philippines. It was the largest U.S. Navy installation in the Pacific and was the largest overseas military installation of the United States Armed Forces after Clark Air Base was closed in 1991. Following its closure in 1992, as a U.S. Naval Base, it was transformed into the Subic Bay Freeport Zone by the Philippine government. Each night we ate in a very nice restaurant where we enjoyed beautiful live piano music. The first night the musician kept playing the most beautiful arrangements of songs that we recognized from the LDS Hymn book. I finally walked over to him and asked him how he knew those songs, and he said that a friend had given him a green hymnbook and he really enjoyed arranging those hymns. He was a very gifted musician.

The Jubilee Exhibit opened on Tuesday morning. It was a beautiful but hot day. The public affairs director, Monette, had prepared quite the program. It consisted of a local high school choir singing the Filipino National Anthem, groups from local schools doing native Filipino dances, music from a zone of LDS missionaries along with their Mission President, and talks by local dignitaries (Mayor, Vice Governor) and remarks from my husband. Randy had a good visit with the mayor after the opening ceremonies and he thanked us for the cleanliness and beauty of our churches and for the service the Church renders to his community. We then left the opening ceremony and attended the ribbon cutting to the exhibit. As we entered the cultural hall, primary children were singing the beautiful Jubilee song called "United". The Spirit was so strong as we entered. As the children got to the chorus of the song, this large group of youth stepped in behind the children and sang with them...it was so very touching. We walked through the exhibit with the minister of tourism and a city councilor. We had a great time and were so glad that we were privileged to be there. In the afternoon, we did training for the PA Councils of Olongapo and the Balanga Stake. We had another beautiful drive back to Quezon City.

INTRAMUROS

Senior Missionaries with Dancers at Barbara's Restaurant

Sis. Bird Dancing, Performing Groups at Barbara's, and Elder Bird Being Sung to for His Birthday

Barbara's Restaurant in Intramuros

For Valentines, our Senior Zone went to a place called Barbara’s Restaurant, which is located within the walls of Intramuros...meaning “the walled city”. We planned to spend time wandering around this historic area, but it was pouring outside, so we quickly ran into the restaurant and spent the evening there.

A little bit of information about Intramuros follows: It is located right near Manila Bay, beside the Pasig River. It was built during the Spanish conquest....started in 1590 and added onto by each new governor until 1872. It covers an area of 160 acres. The wall is 22 feet high and wide enough for a foot path. Originally it had an inner moat just inside the wall and an outer moat around the entire outside. There were a number of gates allowing entrance, and Fort Santiago was built to protect the walled city. It became the center of political, military and religious power during the time the Philippines was a colony of Spain. In 1941 with the Japanese take over, Intramuros managed to be mostly preserved, however, in 1945, as the Americans retook the Philippines, it was completely destroyed. Most of it has been rebuilt now. It is a beautiful, historic place to visit.

Barbara’s is one of the many nice restaurants built with the old Spanish influence. We had a nice buffet dinner and then were entertained by a dance group performing dances from both Spanish and Filipino eras. There was a point where the dancers asked for volunteers to come and try one of the dances...I immediately hid myself...that was the last thing I wanted to do!!! Sure enough, I was volunteered and went up! At least my feet managed to do the steps correctly, and soon I was back in my seat with my husband saying, “Good job!”

Everything else about the evening was lots of fun. Next to our table was the Ambassador to the Philippines from South Africa.....they had a group of 10. One of our senior missionaries, Sister Hardick, grew up in South Africa, so she approached their table and introduced herself. To all of our amazement, one of the diplomats had the same last name as Sister Hardicks maiden name...he treated her and her husband like long lost friends. They exchanged business cards and set up a time to get together again! What a fun experience that was to witness. We have such great friends among the missionaries...that makes all of our activities enjoyable.

TACLOBAN JUBILEE EXHIBIT AND SITES

General Douglas MacArthur's Return to the Philippines at Leyte Landing

National Historical Site

On February 3 we flew to Tacloban City on the island of Leyte. We arrived in a major down pour which lasted until Monday morning. On Saturday we did Public Affairs training. We so love meeting these people...they are truly our "favorite thing" in the Philippines. Sunday we attended church at the Tacloban 1st Ward and especially loved it because it was all in English! I just kept watching these 3 young boys sitting in front of us....ages around 9, 7, and 5 yrs.....they were so so cute. The oldest boy was so attentive to the speakers. The next boy was very attentive, but looked through the hymn book also, and the youngest boy listened, but folded a very nice paper airplane! I just felt that I was looking at the future of the church. Another thing that impressed me so much was the singing. Everyone sings!! From the young to the old, they sang with all their hearts....AND to top it off, we sang Hark All Ye Nations, which is my favorite hymn here. It's hard to sing without shedding a few tears.

After church our driver took us to the General McArthur Monument depicting his return to the Philippines toward the end of WWII. It was beautiful! Because of the week of rain, the ocean water was so brown from being stirred up and many waves were crashing on the beach. I imagined that it could have looked like this, as they came ashore many years ago, because they had just defeated the Japanese in the biggest naval battle of the war, right here in Leyte Gulf. Leyte is also where the first organization of the church in the Philippines was located, due to the American servicemen sharing the gospel. Inspite of the pouring rain, we loved visiting this area and just wandering around.

Monday morning was the Jubilee Exhibit in Tacloban. The rain had stopped. It was a beautiful day and they were well prepared for the exhibit. There was a large audience there with many of their government leaders attending. We had to catch an 11:00 flight back to Manila, so we were unable to hang around very long. We continue to be amazed at the service given by these saints and know that the church is in good hands here.

WAWA DAM AND VILLAGE

Scenes from Wawa Dam

Wash Day at Wawa Dam

The Children of Wawa Village

Interesting and Unique

Garbage City, Bikers having Lunch, Interesting Sign

Since our arrival in the Philippines, we had been told that we must go to the Wawa Village and Dam. January and February are the only two months that you can hope for a break from the scorching heat or the torrential rain, so on January 28 we headed out on the trek along with Elder and Sister Goss. It was a very nice day with only a brief sprinkle of rain. It was such a unique experience!
The road to the village took us first through one of the enormous garbage dumps of Manila....we drove North and East about 30 miles. Now this was eye opening! We passed truck after truck headed back to the city after unloading their load of garbage. All of the garbage was in large plastic bags and was unloaded into large walled areas or into large storage sheds. For blocks and blocks and as far as you could see on the right and left were places stacked to the hilt with bags of garbage. Then the people started dumping out bag after bag and going through it looking for anything valuable or that they could sell....like plastic or tin....yes, recycling!! I couldn't imagine going through someones garbage.....especially when much of it has been there for months in the heat and moisture before it gets gone through.
When we arrived at Wawa Village, we hired a guide named Eduardo to take us on the hike up to the dam. We had never seen such enormous boulders lining the river bed at the bottom of the damn. It was truly beautiful. This was the area where many Japanese soldiers held up that refused to surrender after WWII. Many were found hiding in the caves along this remote area. The villagers along the way had so little of any worldly possessions, but they were just so kind and happy....adorable little children were playing here and there along the trail, some were stripped naked and ready for their bath in the lake. It was wash day, and many were doing their laundry and hanging it to dry all along the way. A funny sight was the line of disposable diapers that were washed and hanging to dry!! Another fun sight was to see a group of guys playing pool. Eduardo told us that it is a money making investment....someone buys a pool table and then charges by the hour to play. We also saw a television set up with video games on an arcade screen...once again to make money.....looked to me like a pretty good investment!!
The Wawa Damn was so beautiful and serene. Many people go to this place for summer retrieves of picnicking and swimming. You could rent rafts made of bamboo poles to float around on...all had a little covered area so that you could stay out of the sun....NO ONE here wants to be in the sun...no wonder they all look so young!
Along the path we met many men of all ages, carrying huge bags of charcoal on their backs headed down to the village where they sell it in the markets....they use it for cooking. Also, we saw some carrying large buckets of coconut milk balanced over their shoulders. We passed a group of "bikers" that actually bike up these paths into the mountains. When we came walking back down, we saw the group ahead of us had stopped for some food (pictured). It was a mixture of rice, green beans, squash and rice milk cooked in banana leaves. They had no utensils, but just scooped it up in their hands and ate it. Right across from them was a large tub full of slugs for sale...yes, those black slimy things!! I do wanted to take a picture, but the vendor was standing right there watching me, and I would have felt like I needed to buy some....that was out of the question!!! Eduardo said people love them....some like them raw and others like them boiled! The bikers were so nice as they saw me stop and stare at the slugs, and they invited us to join them for lunch.....I said, " Thanks, but my stomach feels very full right now"......and it suddenly did!!!