Tanay

We have finally cozied into our assigned Branch here in the

 Quezon City Mission.

It was an adventure getting settled in. 





We set off one Sunday, early in our mission and, after 2 1/2 hours

 on the road, made it to our 9:00am Sacrament meeting

at 10:30am. 

Then we went missing for a couple of weeks because of travel and other commitments.  But now finally, after exhausting two sets of missionaries, we've learned to make it there on our own.

In a little over an hour.

Tanay is a small city southeast of Metro-Manila where we live.

Senior missionaries are pretty much centrally located in the small cities in the Metro-Manila area because of the kind of work we're called to do. 

 Our city is Mandaluyong. 

Other missionaries live in Eastwood, Quezon City, and other areas. 

But none of us (except the medical staff, because they need to be close) goes to church where we live.  A general authority decided many years ago, when he was an Area President here, that the people would be better served by the senior missionaries if they were spread out into the smaller, outlying areas.  So every Sunday a bunch of senior missionaries head out north and south from Metro-Manila into small branches where we find our niche. 

As I said, it took us awhile to settle in.  Other wards and branches we've visited have used Taglish in most of their church services.  If we're vigilant, we can put together enough words to make sense of what's going on.  But Tanay is different.  They like to speak Tagalog almost exclusively, although most of them understand and speak English very well.  They even use their Tagalog scriptures.  That really threw me because that's the one place that I could always catch up - because most other places use English scriptures.  So now we rely heavily on the full-time missionaries to translate for us.  And we also rely on our vigilance.  And maybe a little on the Spirit as well.

It also took the members awhile to warm up to us.  This, too, was different from other places we'd visited who all wanted to know if we were going to be assigned to their branches.  It took a very fun and worthwhile Sunday afternoon activity to break the ice with them. 

We had, at first, thought that there was never going to be a way for us to be very involved with the branch, being so far away from where we live.  And that's what we'd been told by others, also.  But one Sunday, we said to the branch president that we'd be happy to do anything he thought would be helpful for his branch. 

So the very next Sunday, we were startled and pleased to find that they

 had arranged visits to a number of their less active members.

We spent over 3 hours traveling in tricycles from home to home. 

 What a great experience! 

Relief Society President and Elders Quorum President.

Whoever would have put "Elder Bell"  and "tall" in the same sentence?

He never straightened up the whole trip.

View from back seat of a Tricycle shows the 3 major modes of travel in the area.

 And at the end, we asked, "Again, next week?"  Everyone said, yes, and so we, foolishly, assumed yes.  But what they meant was, "yes, every three weeks."  Darn.  And, so, the Adventure continues.