What do we do all day and What happens in LDS Temples?

We work every Tuesday through Saturday in the Cebu City Philippines Temple, helping patrons (as young as 11 to who knows how old) who come from Cebu or from distant islands, to do sacred temple work for themselves or for the dead.  Huge groups of people (we call them patrons) arrive very tired, having come, for example, on a 3 or 4-hour boat ride plus a 2-hour or more bus or motorcycle ride, or even a plane flight.  How far they come is measured not in kilometres, but in how many rides it takes to get here.  They are dedicated and faithful and are so happy to be in the temple.  The beauty of the temple is definitely heaven to those who come from such humble circumstances.

Some have asked for more information about temples and what we do there.  Our temples are sacred, not secret.  The church is very open about what happens in temples.  The official church website (<churchofjesuschrist.org> or  <lds.org> or the old <mormon.org>) has much information about temples.  

Following are some short videos or articles you may find enlightening:

Tour a temple: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUYF1TX5RxM>

Temple Marriage:  <https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2018-12-1200-what-is-a-temple-wedding-like?lang=eng>

Temple endowment:  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd8tVXN9y6Q&t=6s>

Baptisms for the dead:  <https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/article/baptisms-for-the-dead?lang=eng>

Temple clothing:  <https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2020-01-0100-sacred-temple-clothing?lang=eng>

Basic information about temples: <https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/temples?lang=eng>

Pictures of the interior of the Cebu City Temple:  <https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/cebu-city-philippines-temple/photographs/>.   This website is not an official church website but is maintained by friends of the church, and so far I have found it to be factual and informative, so I feel it can be trusted.  Pictures are taken inside a temple before it is dedicated.  After dedication, photos are only allowed on the beautiful grounds.

FYI:  You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The Cebu City Temple compound is well-lit at night.  It's a safe and secure place, day or night, with high walls and gates and guards.  The compound also houses the temple president's residence, the mission president's residence, a huge patron housing facility with dorm-type rooms for patrons who come and go, and apartments for full-time temple workers and temple missionaries.  This is where we live.  Of our three missions, this is the nicest and biggest apartment.  I used to think our Kenya Nairobi Mission apartment was the best with its two bathrooms and three bedrooms, but this one is bigger still (but with only one bathroom and one bedroom).  Our Sweden Stockholm Mission apartment was teeny-tiny, but we made it homey.

The temple compound also houses two meetinghouses where 5 wards meet each Sunday.  I'm afraid I find our Sunday meetings a tad tedious with mostly Cebuano spoken, interspersed with English words.  When I don't understand what is being said, I can only feel the spirit for a while and then my brain shuts off.  I catch words here and there, especially in prayers, such as "salamat" (su-law'-mit) meaning thank you, or Hejsukristo (hey-zu-kreest-o) meaning, of course, Jesus Christ, which all prayers end in the name of.  A sister who lives across the hall from us has promised to start teaching me Cebuano soon.  I wonder if my old brain can comprehend.

The compound is humming Tuesday through Friday nights, with activities for families, such as basketball, pickle ball, ping pong, and badminton.  Many families come here to attend the temple and enjoy the beauty and safety of the temple compound.  Little children too young to attend the temple first learn to love the temple by coming with their families and enjoying the peace here as they play together.  They stay in patron housing and eat in the cafeteria.  We don't eat there; so far we've not found Filipino cuisine to our taste.

Outside the temple compound, life is a little more like real life to the average Filipino.  The average monthly income in the Philippines is about 18,400 pesos, equivalent to about 400 Canadian dollars.  Many of our patrons make a lot less than that.  They work hard so that they can come to the temple for a few days once a month or once every other month. Travel, lodging, and food are expensive on a small income.  Some work all day just so they can feed their families that night.  Many Filipinos have immigrated to our area in Alberta, Canada to give their children more opportunities.  We in the west should be so grateful for what we have.

I have never been tall in my life.  But look at me here!  Sometimes I feel like a giant!  These lovely sisters came from far to spend a day in the temple.  This will be their last time in Cebu City Temple, as a temple will be dedicated in May in Bacolod, which is close to where they live.  Even though the Philippines is small, area-wise, the church has 4 operating temples and will soon have 6, and in the coming years will have 14.  The faithful Filipinos will have easier access to a temple.

This lovely sister went to the temple for the first time today and she loved it.  I love the flower in her hair.

So she picked a flower for me and put it in my very thin hair.  You can see how tall I am.  And I am short.

We go for a walk sometimes in the evenings.  Here we are by our lovely Cebu Temple.  By the way, Cebu is pronounced "see-boo'" with the accent on the last syllable, not "say'-boo" as many people say.  Tonight it's about 80 F (I still prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius) with a slight breeze blowing.  It's actually very lovely out.  I used to say that 70 F (or 20 C) was my perfect temperature, but after a hot day, I think 80 F is quite lovely.

Love this flower!  Wish my hair wasn't so thin so it would stay in my hair.  Oh well.  I am aging so my hair is aging!  I'm proud of this photo.  So beautiful.

I work with this sister in the temple.  She is close to 80 and has worked in the temple for 10 years, serving daily.  She was excited to learn I am a Canadian.  She said that she finds Canadians so kind and friendly, and I hope I can live up to it.  Her daughter and family live in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.  One year she went to visit them and it was around -3 C, which is not super cold, but as she walked off the plane, she thought she would freeze to death.  A stranger wrapped a warm blanket around her and told her to keep it.  She has loved Canadians ever since.

This picture should have been in the previous post.  We had a perfect view of the fireworks from our apartment in the temple compound.  The fireworks ended the week-long celebration of Sinulog. 

The fireworks were Sunday night, and we were told that on Monday, everyone would be sleeping off their celebration.  We made the mistake of going to the huge Ayala shopping center and no, people were not sleeping, they were shopping.  It was packed.  It took nearly two hours to find a taxi to take us home that evening and people said we were lucky to have found a taxi at all.  Next time . . . we won't go shopping the day after a big celebration.

How often do you see a scripture on a bag of rice?  I would have expected it in Kenya, but had not expected it in Philippines, even though it's a Christian country.  In Kenya, Christian logos are everywhere on matatus (similar to the Filipino jeepney) and buses and buildings and billboards.  One thing I appreciated about Kenya was that when people saw our name tags (with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on it), they would stop and talk with us.  "I believe in Jesus" they would say.  And we would say, "Let us tell you more about Him."  We gave away pass-along cards every day.  (Pass-along cards have information about our church).  Here in Cebu, we have given out only 4 pass-along cards (not counting one to every taxi driver), and we've been here for almost a month.  It's a very different mission from our mission to Kenya.

View out our living room window on a sunny day.  Palm trees and lawn.  Not sure what kind of grass it is; it looks a bit different from grass back home.  Grass is a cool-weather crop, so I'm not sure how this grass stays green in such hot weather.  Does anyone know?

 

From our apartment looking toward the two chapels and the high rise buildings of Cebu City.

Just as we get to know people, we find they are leaving.  With two new temples being dedicated in May, many temple workers are returning to their home towns.  We've had such fun with the Hermasoras.  Yes, their name sounds a bit Hispanic.  Many names here sound Hispanic because Philippines was under Spanish rule for 300 years.  In fact, a Spanish explorer gave the islands the name of Las Islas Filipinas to honor King Philip of Spain.

Every Sunday night, temple workers and temple missionaries who live in the same building as we do, have a potluck supper and then a Family Home Evening lesson.  LeRon and I gave the lesson last week about the joy of music.  For half an hour, we sang and sang.  So fun!  LeRon has also started teaching piano lessons to students who are very eager to learn.

Here's the three "foreign" temple missionary couples:  The Andreasens, the Torries, and the Stirlands.  The Andreasens are from the Death Valley area of California and the Stirlands are from Idaho (and from all over the world, as they lived in various places, including Qatar and Holland).  Sister Wendy Stirland grew up in Welling, Alberta, Canada!  Yeah for more Canadians!!  And . . . she is a cousin to my cousin's wife, Susan Grant.  Small world.

Sister Premacio is determined to help me say her name properly:  pree-mah-shoe or is it pree-mah-show.  Can't remember.  Fun lady.  She can't understand why I find Cebuano names so hard.  After all, she speaks English plus Cebuano plus who knows how many other dialects.  We love working with the Filipino people.