PREPARATION DAY AT TAGAYTAY AND THE PEOPLE'S PARK!!!

Our Zone Leaders planned a day away for the residents of the "Celestial Compound"; Elder and Sister Peterson, Sisters Torres and Deluyan, and Elders Langer and Hart. I packed a picnic lunch and off we went, all six of us in our car. I drove, with the two Sisters in front with me and the three Elders in the back seat. Yes, we were a bit squished, but we were on our way to have a great day and we were all excited. It was very warm in Naic when we left and I wondered why our Sisters and Elder Hart were dressed more warmly than the other three of us, I soon found out. As we drove through Tagaytay City and started up the mountain to The Peoples Park, it started to mist, the further up we went the more mist and then fog and wind. When we reached the top and parked near the markets, we were seemingly all alone, except for the market keepers. When we opened the car door we were hit with a blast of cold wet air, Elder Peterson and I decided to stay in the car until the weather cleared, we hoped within an hour. Our young, adventuresome Elders and Sisters ventured out to the markets, in spite of the cold and wet and thus began our delightfully fun day.

I joined Sister Deluyan, Sister Torres and Elder Hart, as they shopped for bright T-shirts - they picked some very nice ones.

Elder Hart, Sister Torres, Elder Langer and Sister Deluyan agreed to let me take their picture, in spite of the "not so nice" weather. Elder Langer was especially cold, but truly weathered the storm so I could commit this day to memory.

From left to right, heading up the hill to catch the jeepney are Elder Peterson, Sister Peterson, Sister Torres and Sister Deluyan. Sister Deluyan is happy, happy, happy, she comes from Bagio and it is very cold there, guess she is used to it.

Catching Up

My goodness, where does the time go. I have a lot of catching up to do, but will make it short. Our daughter will be helping me stay current with the blog from now on. I certainly do appreciate your patience during my time of “adjustment”.

Christmas came and went, without much fanfare on our part. We had many children come to the gate of our triplex and sing Christmas Carols to us, for which we get to give them a piece or two of candy. We also kept hearing noise, like gunshots, in the middle of the night, a bit unsettling for foreigners. We found out later that here in the Philippines people start celebrating in October and part of their celebration are fireworks, just the noisy kind, until New Year’s Eve. We had our Zone Elders and Sisters here for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas morning breakfast of strawberry shortcake. We have amazing Elders and Sisters, their parent’s are, and should be very proud of them. We are happy to have them in our home away from home.

New Year’s Eve brought our Elders and Sisters back for a relaxing evening of games, movie (Kung Fu Panda – approved by our Mission President) and then the fireworks. It is difficult to explain how loud and long the fireworks displays go on, all over the Philippines. The displays started in every neighborhood of Naic about 9:30pm and were still going on, here and there, the next morning. From 11:30pm until 12:30am, the noise and displays were constant, loud and colorful. We made s’mores during all of this, yummy and messy. Some of our Elders and Sisters had never had them.

Back to work for all of us. There were over 250 baptisms in our Mission the month of December and already over 100 for the month of January, in our Zone alone. Elder Peterson and I are way behind in our work to teach them the importance of fellowshipping, but we are running to catch up. Retention is over 80% without our efforts, we hope we can make that even better.

We had a slight set back a week or so ago, Elder Peterson felt we needed to check out the medical facilities here in the Philippines, so we did. We started out here in Naic, in our local private hospital. The preliminary work and diagnosis was done here and then we were transferred to a very large, state of the art hospital in Global City. Elder Peterson’s gall bladder was removed on a Friday and he was released the following Sunday. He is still recovering, but getting his strength back slowly. We certainly hope we are done with that now, we are most anxious to get back to our missionary work.

TTFN, E and S Peterson

Nearly Two Weeks

Dear Family and Friends,
We spent a wonderful weekend with Erika, Lara and several Grandchildren. We toured the Carl Block Exhibit again and enjoyed it even more the second time. Chelsea and Katie had also gotten us tickets for the BYU Music Christmas Concert, and that was wonderful as well. We spent our evenings at Eric and Rissa's home, and what a wonderful, loving, peaceful home it is. Well Monday morning came way to soon, but it was time to be on our way. Erika and Lara got us to the airport in plenty of time for our flight, the "see you in two years" was heart wrenching, but we all survived it. One day later we arrived in the Philippines. AHH, the Philippines. We were met at the airport by our Mission President, President Howard, the Office Elders, Elder Lee and Elder Bingham, and Elder and Sister Smith, the Senior Missionary couple, who made Naic the Mission District to be envied. We are very grateful to them for the excellent work they did here. They touched many lives and will always be remembered by the people they so unselfishly served.
We had one very nice day with the Smith's, while they talked to us about the area in which we would be serving, Naic. Then it was time to venture out to Market Market, a Mall in Makati City, to experience a true Philippine treat, a Halo Halo. This treat begins with a bed of crushed ice with sweet cream poured over it, then a square of flan, several round red gelatin balls, several cubes of green gelatin, a few sweetened beans and kernels of corn, a few mango pieces, some unsweetened coconut shreds and I think a couple of slices of banana, then topped off with some kind of blue ice cream. It is very colorful, to say the least, you know I really can't tell you how it tasted, but the texture was rather OK. That evening President and Sister Howard took the Office Couple, Elder and Sister Morgan, Elder and Sister Smith and DuWayne and I to dinner at a very nice Italian Restaurant. We had an enjoyable time as "farewell" was said to the Smiths and "welcome" extended to the Petersons. The next day, I think, we had the once in a lifetime experience of getting a Philippine driver's license. That experience has been recorded in my journal and will, hopefully, only be read when I am dead. When we returned to the Mission Home, alive but still in shock, we were met by the Morgans, another Senior Couple assigned to another District in our Mission. They were assigned to orient us to the area so that we would be able to find the Mission Office, the Temple and etc. We have much to learn and many trips to learn it, patience needs to become our friend, and quickly.
It is now Saturday and with the help of the Office Elders, the Sister Teaching Assistants and the Morgans, we are on our way to our new home, Naic, Cavite Province, Philippines. It was more than a two hour drive and a very, very interesting one at that. I now need to begin my day but will do another post Christmas Day, when we only have a few things scheduled, such as a baptism or two. Love to all and TTFN, Elder and Sister Peterson

From the MTC to Naic Philippines

Dear Family and Friends,
The day finally arrived, the day we were to leave our home for our mission. It was 7:00 a.m., the morning of the 24th of November 2010, when our friend, Darrold Hanna, came by to load our luggage into his car to take us to the airport in Phoenix, AZ. Darrold and Frankie bought our car, so we drove it to their house, left the car and then Frankie drove us on to the airport. Saying good-bye to our home and our dear friends was easily one of the most difficult things I have done in a very, very long time.
We left 80+ degree weather in AZ and landed in SLC to 16 degree weather and lots of snow. Our friends Midge and Peggy were there to collect us and take us to their home, where we would stay until we entered the MTC in Provo, UT on the 29th of November 2010. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our daughter, Lynnette, and seven of our ten grandchildren. Our gatherings were all held in Eric and Larissa's home and what a warm, comfortable home it is. Thanksgiving dinner was all homemade by our grandchildren, all of them exceptional cooks. Our eldest grandson, Bryson, seemed to take the lead and get the dinner prepared and served hot and on time - nice work to all involved.
Katie had gotten us all tickets to see the Carl Bloch exhibit on Saturday, which we all enjoyed tremendously. Sunday brought more snow, causing Lynnette to delay her departure back to Colorado Springs, CO until Monday. Some of us attended church with Bryson and Kami in the morning and then some of us went with Eric and Larissa to their ward in the afternoon. More good-byes Sunday night.
Monday morning, 29 November 2010, our friend Peggy drove us to the MTC, where we were met by an amazing group of young adults, our grandchildren. They had come to deliver our luggage and escort us to our room at the MTC. We did not need to say good-bye to them, as we would be spending the next weekend with them, prior to flying to Manila Philippines the following Monday.
Our stay at the MTC was so exhausting but so invigorating at the same time. We met so many dedicated Senior Couples, all of us eager to get into our missions and begin teaching and sharing the Gospel. We had long days of learning, listening, role playing and etc. The last three days of our stay we would end our Preach My Gospel lessons, have dinner and then go to two more hours of language tutoring with our wonderful tutor, Jacob. Friday night finally arrived, our classes were over, more good-byes to our Senior Couple friends, bearing our testimonies to the other language couples and then to the front desk to be collected by our daughters, Erika and Lara, and two of our granddaughters, Chelsea and Katie.
Stay tuned for another post soon. Right now we are waiting for our Zone Leaders to join us for a planning session prior to their District Meeting tomorrow morning. TTFN and Love to all, Sister Peterson

Counting Down

We have had quite a week starting with a wonderful FHE Pot Luck.  We always have fun and this time we enjoyed good food, good jokes, much love and laughter with our dear friends.  I was gifted a stuffed monkey with the top cut off to expose the "monkey brains"and DuWayne became the proud owner of sandals made from rope and steel belted tires.  This was just some of the fun our friends are having with our going to the Philippines.  Saturday DuWayne's brother Gary and his wife, Joyce came to visit and a very nice visit we had, never long enough.  Sunday we spoke in church and besides many friends, my sisters Karen, Ellen, MaryAnne, her husband Duane, my niece Jeri, DuWayne's brother Gary and his wife Joyce were all in attendance.  It is wonderful to have family support and we love them all.  Our talks were  well received, followed by many well wishes.  Our Elders sang a duet that touched everyone, especially DuWayne, who had a difficult time recovering to give his talk.  We bid one and all an "until we meet again"and left our meetinghouse for the last time for two years.  Our family joined us for one last dinner and relaxing visit before another "until we meet again".  Just days of packing and last minute list items, then we are on our way.  DuWayne is very excited, I am just not sure yet about how I feel, we just know we are embarking on a wonderful adventure for the Lord and He will be with us every step of the way.  TTFN, G&GP

Only 12 days 'til Departure

Hi Family and Friends,  This week has been an increase in "no steps forward and several steps backward", but we are confident that we will soon be reversing things.  I had a wonderful break today with my friends, we spent 2 1/2 hours chatting, laughing and more laughing.  A few of us get together at least once a month and have breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, or even combine it all with a movie.  Sometimes we don't do anything except just be together and laugh until we hurt, in a good way.  I will miss all of them terribly but we will Skype, occasionally, on our "P-day".  Even though it won't be the same as being there in person, it will be something we can do to stay in touch and watch each other grow "old, fat and happier".  Our weather has cooled off a bit here in Arizona, so the transition to the heat and humidity in the Philippines will be more extreme than we thought.  This weekend is our last Stake Conference for two years, here at home in Arizona.  The weekend of the 21st we will be speaking in our Sacrament Meeting and I will be speaking in YW and Primary also that day.  Busy times right now and challenges galore, but we are on track and trying to move forward.  TTFN from DuMay

We're on our way!

Finally!!! This is my first post, can you tell? We are down to the last two weeks before embarking on our first mission. Now that I know what I am doing, sort of, I will post frequently so you can keep track of us. TTFN ya'll