Merry Christmas!

To family and friends,

If you have been following our Facebook and/or watching our Blog - you’ll know we have been very busy, since we have gotten here in the Philippines. With everything else we have had an earthquake in South Central Philippines and the super typhoon (worst ever in all of the century) in East & South Central Philippines. Both were major disasters, with thousands of deaths and... even more loss with major damage to properties. We have luckily missed both of these disasters so far, both were on other islands in the Filipino chain of the country, but our responding and attempting to help have occupied a great deal of our work time. The body counts continue to increase on the typhoon nearly every day, there were entire smaller islands wiped clean of both people and all of the structures. Life in these areas is somewhat returning to normal, or what they say is normal, but it will take many years before what we call normal to be restored. It was several weeks before even the public airport in Tacloban could handle any civil (public) traffic and begin to assists with transporting the wounded in bringing them to safer situations and brining in outside health assistance. We (in our Public Affairs office) work individually with NGO’s, local and federal politicians, business leaders, and whomever will help to further the cause of helping, no matter what they religious background, if they are willing. In fact, our Church is helping to rebuild the oldest Catholic (over four hundred years old) Church in the region with giving them supplies and some funds, for reconstruction. In short, life is very, very busy but we are loving it! No time in our schedule - to worry about the (over the top) crazy traffic, or the terrible smog each day, and water pollution or the other 15 million people who live here with us in Manila. May the Lord bless, protect, help and support you in all your righteous endeavors. And may the next few years be good for you, as this coming to the Philippines, has been for us!

With Love on this special Christmas Day!
 

Mike

Learning to add pictures.

This is out MTC training group.

Christmas Happenings

Dearest Family and Friends,
 

Another great week in the Philippines… These people celebrate Christmas in a very big way!  Our Public Affairs office is responsible to develop, print, and distribute an Annual LDS Calendar for “Opinion Leaders” throughout the Country. This year’s theme is the “Family Proclamation” with the text directly from its message and some nice family pictures supporting those messages for each month. We published about a thousand of them and are likewise tasked to ship and give them to all of the Multi-Stake Public Affairs Directors, Other Staff departments within the Area Office, Missionary Training Center, and Temple – as well as give them ourselves to National political and press leaders - here in Manila. This has occupied most of our time for this past week.

 

Plus, to cheer-up the people of Tacloban (the area where the Typhoon hit the hardest), our offices have planned and organized a public concert, with one of the members of the Church of some national notoriety – a young woman - soloist. These free concerts on two evenings each needed concert tickets (5,000) and free food kit tickets (10,000). So in addition to everything else, we have been in the ticket layout, printing, cutting, and counting business in all of our spare time. Lastly for the children of this same hardest-hit area, we have been collecting toys for their Christmas gifts. Many of the Saints here have given very generously - especially those from our Ex-Pat Ward. They are so far from their other family members and somewhat understand a bit what it is like to be away from other family members during this special season. 

Busy as always, we have another senior missionary couple coming this next week to join us in the Public Affairs office. They are from Lehi, Utah and have recently retired - much the same as Mother and I. We understand he was a Federal Government employee nearly all of his work career, so they should understand the many challenges of working with government officers. One of the Salt Lake (Church) audit committee - who were recently here in the Philippines on their annual church audits, was from the same Ward in Utah as this new couple. We are also to understand they were the “life of the church party” at every church event and social. This will well-suit them as they serve here, since we host a lot of events for various opinion leaders from media, government, interfaith, and business. And seem to go from one event to the next each week.

We understand we are about the travel outside Manila with Public Affairs training near the end of the month. We have not gotten to travel much farther then the greater Manila region since we have been here and traveling to see other parts of these beautiful islands is quite exciting. The other couple, Haidi (our Director), and we are going to train Multi-Stake Public Affairs Directors in Cebu, a beautiful city in mid-southern Philippines. Should be fun and challenging at the same time.
 

Other than the Temple Christmas Lighting dinner hosted for nearly a hundred people, calendars, and other Christmas tokens, ongoing Open House Displays, Singing for the Area Office Devotional/Christmas Party, life here is about normal. The pace is fast and there is never a dull moment, and we are beginning to adjust to our life as missionaries for the Church.  

Oh I almost forgot we sang and gave Christmas messages at the Christmas Zone Conference for the younger missionaries this past week as well. It is so nice to look into their bright eyes and see the excitement of their lives as they faithfully serve the Savior, at their own time and expense here in circumstances many of them would not otherwise have seen in all of their lives. No hot water, no air conditioned apartments, no washer/dryer to wash their clothes, no transportation other than jeepneys, tri-cycles, or over-crowded busses, and they do all of this with cheerful hearts and glad attitudes. It’s a miracles in a world so concerned about itself that these wonderful young people are all about everyone else…the message of the Savior, His Birth, His Life, His Message, and Gift to each of us if we but receive it!
 

As we celebrate Christmas the materialness of so many people leads one to wonder if His Birth is understood and the Great gift of His Life given for each of us is understood. May we each remember the “Reason for the Season” is the Savior – Jesus Christ and His love freely given if we but will receive it.
 

May the Lord bless, protect, comfort, cheer, and be with each of you as you enjoy the Christmas Holidays.
 

With Love, Elder and Sister Morello

Quick Update in the Midst of All the Busy-ness

This is the long absence of e-mail update from the Philippines.  We have been busy, but that seems to be the pace of missionary life here in the Public Affairs Office.  A week ago ,we held our Family Values Awards Dinner and the leading fast-food chain, Jollibee, who also does a great deal of family support promotion, was this year’s recipient.  Although very large and becoming worldwide, the business is still family-run.  The founder and his family are very much involved in the daily running of their interest. They attended and received the award.   They also live a very family-oriented lifestyle for themselves.  In addition to the family members and many of their franchise partners, we had opinion leaders from government, interfaith and business who join us in giving the award.  We held this year’s event at a very nice Hotel (Ballroom) nearby called Shangri-La EDSA.  The dinner meal was wonderful and the musical (strings group) who played for the inter and postludes were perfect to set the tone for this very nice evening and sociality and greeting.   The company mascot, a large red bee -  joined us for the actual awarding and many stayed to have their photos taken with the “bee.”   President Neilson, our Area President, spoke on the meaning and importance of families in the earthly and eternal senses. One of the Senators from the national government spoke also, and she talked of how family and family relationships are so important to the culture of this great land.  All in all – we had a wonderful evening.

Last night we held the annual Temple Christmas Lighting Dinner and Grounds Lighting event.  Our host audience was from the same variety of opinion leaders as Family Values.  There were about eighty  or so attendees and again President Neilson spoke about the real gift of the season, found inside the box of the Savior's birth.  Often lost in Santa Claus, Christmas shopping and gifts we may forget that the “Reason for the Season is Jesus Christ, Our Savior.”  It is in his life, atonement and resurrection that all of us have the opportunity of eternal life and salvation.  The meal again was wonderful, and everyone enjoyed musical numbers, speaking, and sociality one with another. The topping was the countdown to the temple grounds lighting. It was perfect.  Most of our guest lingered on the temple grounds enjoying the spirit of the setting and new Christmas lights for some time after the official proceedings were concluded.

In addition to these two events we have attending luncheons with the President of the Philippines, fruits baskets for birthdays of Senators, flowers for other interfaith opinion leaders, invitations to each of these events, and a whole host of activities filling nearly every day full and beyond. 

The work is good and very rewarding.  Our Director has a vision for the work, and she is very hard at work accomplishing the effort of bringing the Church into the public view throughout the country.  She has family both here in Manila and in Cebu (in Southern Philippines) and meets the challenges of a busy career, mother and homemaking without missing a beat.  She’s a very hard act to keep pace with among the many and varied activities we are involved in.

For the American Thanksgiving Day celebration some of the Senior Missionary Couples  gathered last Saturday evening here at the Area Offices for a catered turkey and fixings dinner and fun.  We sang thanksgiving songs, heard words of reminders of the gifts of gratitude, ate, and played board games. We enjoyed one another's company and mutual support.  Something about being so far away from home and our American culture leaves one wanting the support of others from the same background.   There are about twenty Senior Missionary couples in our Mission, and we gather every other Monday night (on most months) for Family Home Evening and birthday celebrations.  On the weeks when we have birthdays to celebrate we each bring a snack to share.  Over the past few months, we have also potlucked dinner, especially for those few who have hours of travel to return home to their area of labor after we have completed our gatherings.         

One of the Couples from the Providences, about an hour and a half away, has been helping to build small homes for families in need.  They have successfully built about fifteen homes during their eighteen-month mission. They have been here from Canada.  Their mission is coming to a close and they leave in a couple of weeks, just before Christmas.

The two other senior couples who were in the Area Public Affairs Office when we arrived have now both returned home to Utah.  One with an emergency situation with a grown son with cancer and the other after their completion of their eighteen months of service. Both of them were wonderful and filling their shoes has been very, very challenging.  Now Sister Morello and I are the only senior couple in the Area Public Affairs Office (with the Director) for a few weeks before another senior couple is coming either yet this month (in December) or in early January.

Well this should serve as a general update. Further details may follow as time permits.  Our love, support, and prayers go out to each and everyone as we collectively celebrate the birth and life of the Savior Jesus Christ in the next few weeks and season.  May the Lord bless each and every one of you.