Nope. That's not us arriving in Manila.It's us leaving Salt Lake City,
14 hours into what eventually became a 43 hour saga!
(note the pink little fluffs on the baggage -
Elder Bell whined the whole way here about those sissy fluffs -
but they made it easy to spot our luggage.
And who would steal a bag with a sissy fluff on it?)
Speaking of whining - allow me a moment to do just that.
Here's our travel schedule:
Arise 5:00 am, Friday, February 4, 2011
Travel to MTC and catch bus to Church Office Building in SLC
Attend training meeting until 4:30 pm
Travel to airport and catch 8:00pm flight to San Francisco
No sleep
Solve luggage problems (probably related to pink fluffs)
Write emails, blog and jump on 15 hour flight to Hong Kong.
No sleep
Take pics, wander aimlessly, catch flight to Manila
No sleep
Time is now noon on Sunday, February 6, 2011
Lost a day
No sleep
Met at airport by Jib Esquejo
(you'll learn more about him later)
And wisked away to a Sacrament Meeting
At last deposited at the Holiday Inn - Quezon City
and allowed to sleep.
After 43 hours.
Old people whine alot.
But we must tell you about the Sacrament Meeting and
our introduction to the Filipino People!
Family is important to Filipinos and they teach their children well!
The Sacrament meeting was a Testimony Meeting and
many children bore their testimonies.
They all began very formally --
"Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters..."
and then, in Tagalog, bore strong, sincere testimonies.
No, we didn't learn Tagalog in our 2 weeks in the MTC.
But, apparently, the Spirit understands it.
And he told us what they said.
And we certainly understood
"Heavenly Father"
and
"Jesus Christ"
and
"Family"
The Spirit has born witness to these youngsters
and they are bold in proclaiming their beliefs!
No wonder the Philippines is such a choice land.
This is a country where God and Family are paramount
and it's evident.
We are going to love living here.
The people are beautiful.
Everyone - men, women, children,
old and young - all beautiful.
We're excited to call this place home for the next two years.
Look at the positive side. You did not miss any of your flights. None of you flights crashed. You did not lose your luggage and hopefully you did not have to pay any over weight fees. You arrived safely in the Philippines and someone did meet you. You did not have to spend your first night in the Philippines on a park bench or on couches in someone's front room. And of course you got to share the great spirit of a testimony meeting on your first day there. We had to wait one day but we did get to sleep before we went. Glad you finally got your inter-net. Now you can Skype all night.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Too whiny. I made it sound like we weren't thoroughly enjoying the adventure and WE WERE! No more whining.
ReplyDelete