Rainy Days, Fun Food, and Precious People

We are surviving the weather and are loving the people.  So many have such hard lives but they are generally upbeat and willing to share their stories.  I have been collecting these stories and will someday share them.  

For starters, one woman's father died in a serious accident when she was very young, and then her teenage brother committed suicide.  Because of these tragedies, the family was in deep mourning when they were contacted by the missionaries.  They loved what they learned about eternal families and God's plan of happiness and the wonderful gift of forgiveness given by Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  They joined the church and committed to attend regularly.  They walked for two hours each Sunday morning, wearing slippers to keep their Sunday shoes clean, attended the three hours of meetings, then walked the two hours home again.  They faithfully paid tithing and were blessed to have multiple small jobs to feed the family.  They are so strong in their love for Jesus Christ.

That's just one woman's story.  Everyone here seems to have a story of hardship and then blessings because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now for a crazy question.  Does Elder Torrie really look like Church president, Russell M. Nelson?  Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think.

I have been collecting fun first names for girls.  And I have learned that Coleen is also a Filipino name.  Not spelled like my name (Colleen) but pronounced the same.  The name was popularized due to a Filipina actress, Coleen Garcia.  We even regularly see a laundromat named Coleen's Laundry. 

Here are the fun first names:  

• Amor (Love in Spanish)
• Art
• Baby or Babie (often meaning "only one, most loved")
• Hearty (as in "heart", with siblings Love, Valentina and Valentino, all born in February)
• Honeylee
• Jessebel
• Jerusalem
• Love
• Lovely
• Princess
• Queen
• Russel (pronounced roe-sel)
• Sugar 
• Sunshine
• Sweet (with sisters Honey and Sugar)

Now on to the pictures . . . 

There have been many huge dumps of heavy rain in July.  When it pours, it really pours.  And with the rain, there's lots of lightning and booming thunder.  The booms echo across the city and seem to bounce off the high-rise buildings.  This is the first beautiful rainbow we have seen.

Will we find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?  Would be nice for a taxi driver who told us that he and his partner work hard so they can support themselves as well as her 9 siblings. 

It's so interesting that when it rains, the air is still hot.  So unusual for us to feel a hot rain.  It is slightly cooler when the clouds cover the sun though, so we are enjoying somewhat cooler temperatures from time to time.  In fact, this morning, at 6:30, as we were walking to the temple, we said, "Wow, it feels quite nice out!"

(Sorry about the double picture.  Not sure how to get rid of the top one without deleting the bottom one and causing a major problem.)

We are still trying to get a good picture of this 5-way intersection that we regularly manoeuvre through.  No stop lights and no traffic police.  It's so amazing that it actually works, with all the cars, motorcycles, and jeepneys. Jeepneys are a low-cost metal bus with side benches for passengers.  Sometimes passengers hang on to the back of the bus.  There's always room for one more.

Our last hurrah with Elder & Sister Andreasen who have faithfully served in the temple for 1 1/2 years.  We are walking the five minutes to the restaurant close to the temple.

Motorcycles usually carry passengers.  This time, it is carrying a huge cooler with cooking equipment on the side car, all covered with a tarp to protect it from the rain.

We're at La Parisienne (also known as La Vie) for a last supper with the Andreasens.  We will miss them.  Such fun people.

Three stakes put on an After-Easter musical program on a Sunday evening.  The Andreasens are in the back row on the left.  Being in the stake choir is a huge time commitment, which Elder Torrie and I decided not to commit to.  (We are old and tired!) We have sung in a lot of stake choirs through the years.

This group of violinists was amazing.  Some older and some younger.  Look at the intensity of those very young boys.  Below is a short clip of their playing.

Got word that on July 5, a hail storm was soon to hit in its fury at home on the farm near Grassy Lake, Alberta, Canada.  We've seen clouds that look like that here in Cebu, but it rarely hails here.

July is hail storm weather in Alberta, and every year, we pray for protection for our crops.  We also buy hail insurance.  Yes, we trust God to protect us, but we also wisely do all we can ourselves.  This year we were blessed so far, in that the hail was fairly light.  To the south of us, many fields got hammered.

A few stones were fairly big.  We have heard of golf ball-size stones.  That would definitely damage much more than crops. 
I remember one hailstorm when I was very young.  Our dad was working out in the field on an open tractor.  Our mom could see the storm approaching and she had us hold pillows to the big living room window so the hail would not break it.  We prayed for our crops and for our dad.  After the storm ended, he came home with huge welts on his head.  He had crawled under the tractor to get a bit of protection.  We were so thankful he was okay.  And our window was okay too.  We prayed a very sincere thank-you prayer that day.

Crowds of people at Ayala mall on a Friday night.  There must be a lot of people with money to spend.  So sad to see the discrepancy between those with money and those without.

I was so shocked to see these heavy sweaters for sale.  I asked a young shopper why they would ever want such heavy clothes in this hot climate.  He told me that in the mountains it can get quite cold.

I think Filipino idea of cold is very different from my idea.  I left all my warm clothes at home and have so far not needed them.

We were so surprised to see ski jackets for sale here.  But then again, I remember on our Kenya Nairobi Mission, seeing people in hot Nairobi wearing toques and gloves on a cooler day there.  I guess you get used to the heat and when it's cooler, you need protection from the "cold."

Guyabano is a spiky tropical fruit.  Its flesh apparently tastes like a mixture of strawberry and pineapple.  I need to try it.

Rambutan is another tropical fruit with soft hairs on the outside and its inside is white, tasting like lychee.  So many different fruits here in the Philippines.

I bought some of these mangosteens to try.  When you can gently press the sides, they are ripe.  If they are hard, they are overripe and you need to throw them away.  I bought a couple and kept one too long and it was hard as a rock and I threw it away.  The other, I cut (see below).

It was hard to cut through the outer shell of the mangosteen.  Inside there was a white fruit.  It was okay, but nothing to write home about.  I like dragonfruit better.

Every Thursday evening, we invite all the temple workers living in the building to a sing-along.  Sometimes there are few and sometimes there are many.  Then just a few treats at the end.  We keep it to an hour because we all have to get up early Friday morning.

There are many miagos bushes (also called green aralia) on the grounds of the temple compound.  They are an evergreen that can grow up to 10 feet tall, but the gardeners keep them to about 3 feet.  They blossom with greeny-white flowers.

The golden Angel Moroni on top of the Cebu Temple shines brightly against the dark storm clouds.  Moroni was an ancient prophet in Book of Mormon times in the Americas. 

Church president at the time, Gordon B. Hinckley, explained in the October 1997 General Conference, that “The figure of Moroni, atop many of our temples, is a constant reminder of the vision of John the Revelator: ‘And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people’ ” Revelation 14:6 (“Look to the Future,” Ensign, November 1997, p.67).

Here's a mother and her daughter climbing onto a motorcycle taxi.  Children from a very young age learn how to hang on to a motorcycle.  Motorcycle drivers bring helmets for their passengers, but sometimes, as in this case, the passengers provide their own helmets.  When they use taxi drivers' helmets, they often cover their heads with a towel before putting on the helmet.

Cars, motorcycles and jeepneys all share the road.  Jeepneys were repurposed from WWII military jeeps.  They provide a cheap and colorful way to transport many people.

Another Thursday evening.  Another sing-along.  Fun times with fun people.  You can see Elder Torrie in the very back in the middle.  He's the tall (he's tall here anyway) gray-haired man who many people say looks like President Russell M. Nelson (our church president from 2018 to 2025).

Everyone is trying to get into the picture.  For my information:  Sister Kapa, Sister Preciosa, Brother Tambolera, Sister Ottonelli, Sister Montera, Sister Arcayan, Brother Verdeflor, Sister A in front.

LeRon and I have been training Brother and Sister Cespon to be temple workers.  Love these two.  Sister Cespon was one of many who said Elder Torrie looks like President Nelson.  Can you see the resemblance?  Look at the picture below.  Hmn . . . yes, I can see it.  

Here's President Russell M. Nelson at a younger age than he was when he passed away in 2025 at the age of 101.  We got to know his lovely great-granddaughter who served with us on our mission to Sweden 2020-2021.
Let me know if you think Elder Torrie looks like President Nelson!  Elder Torrie says that he hopes he acts and lives like President Nelson anyway.

We went to a dinner at the temple president's home and were served milkfish, complete with eyes.  Milkfish is the unofficial national fish of the Philippines.  It's also called bangus.  It's a living fossil because it is the sole survivor of an ancient family of fish.

Sister Ong, our temple president's wife, cooked 10 milkfish and cut them up into 60 pieces to feed the crowd.  Sometimes you got a head and sometimes a tail and sometimes you got an in between, all served in a soup with vegetables.  I found it hard to eat because there were so many bones.  As a child, I had a great fear (and still do) of swallowing fish bones and having them pierce my organs and I imagined that I would probably die.  

The weeks are going by quickly.  Sometimes days go slowly, but weeks definitely fly by.  We are loving the people here.  They are generally very kind, giving, and faithful people.  They appreciate what God has given them and love to help others.  They share whatever small things they have with others.  A good lesson for us all.