The Best of Times - The Worst of Times

The mission is great.  In our first two days in the office, we hosted a group of management students and delivered food, water and hygiene kits to people still affected by the flood waters from two weeks ago.  One of the TV stations donated the food and covered the event.  The church donated the hygiene kits, and LDS charities donated the water.  We left at 6:15 am and returned home at 8 pm. Long day.  We are so thankful for our driver.  Scary roads.  We had to go the long way since the main roads were still flooded.

We are jumping back into public affairs just like it hasn't been forever ago.  The first day, I skimmed through the training guide and got up to speed.  The people in the area office are great. It's quite an operation.  Like a business office,   The area presidency is here, area legal counsel, real estate and construction, medical, travel, perpetual education, the wheelchair people and LDS charities.  I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

Also the MTC for the Philippines is here.  We had intake day on Friday.  We saw some elders and sisters coming in before we left Friday morning for the flood zone.  We have security and drivers and a huge staff of local people working very hard.

Living in Manila is hard.  It's dirty and congested with people and traffic.  We need our drivers!  Our apt is filthy, the air we breath is filthy, the water is undrinkable, and the trash on the street is disgusting.  I have decided we need an initiative called "a million trash cans for Manila."

Today we had time to clean our apt.  We took down all the curtains and washed them, took apart all four window air conditioners, and washed them, replacing the filters.  We borrowed a vacuum. Bought and used a ton of cleaning products.  All our dishes have to be rinsed in a bleach solution.  We also had the building maintenance people come to clean the grease trap under the kitchen sink.  No, I don't know what that is, but the place smells a lot better.

We have a mall across the street from our building.  Not so easy to cross the street but doable.  The mall has a grocery store, a hardware store and a beauty salon.  We finally bought the right kind of electrical converter today.  I blew up my hair dryer the first morning. Bought a new one today.

We still don't have internet in the apt.  Don't know when I can post this.  We miss you all, but are glad to be here.