Sunday was a very pleasant day which started with attending Fast and Testimony Meeting and the rest of the church meeting block.

We attended the Makati Third Ward. The Stake President was in attendance along with the 2nd counselor in the Area Presidency, Elder E. Rex Gerratt. There were a lot of people there and for a reason — the Stake President changed the bishopric. Elder Gerratt was a mission president in Manila from 1996 to 1999. He may have come just about when my mom and dad left Manila at the end of their mission.

There was no organ in the building, only a piano. The lady playing the piano was very accomplished at the piano and her prelude and postlude music was delightful variations on hymns that she just sat and played.

The benches were all wooden. The building was older. The Chapel was air conditioned in about 1990. The rest of the building was air conditioned (class rooms only, hallways, restrooms, and other non-essential areas are not air conditioned) in 1998. The benches were quite uncomfortable.

There were about 180 people in attendance, about 70% Filipino. Most of the meeting was in English but a couple of folks bore their testimony in Tagalog. The children’s testimonies were different than in the US — they all started with “I am a child of God….”. Perhaps something they are taught in Primary?

The last person to bear her testimony was a woman who’s husband died in the near past. She talked about how the Lord has helped her through this experience, such as the first time she had to go shopping for food after his death. It sounded like he had cancer or something that caused a lingering death. She said that before he died she would work very hard at her church callings and around the house hoping to gain favor with the Lord — maybe he would see her hard work and prolong the life of her husband. She talked about how she has come to grips with the situation and finaly decided that the Lord knows best. When she was able to make that adjustment, a feeling of peace came into her life. She said that the loss of her husband is still very hard, but she will be with him again and for eternity. It was a very touching testimony (it made me cry!) and a good end to the meeting.

One other interesting thing was that there was a Single Adult Conference on Friday and Saturday. One young lady (it’s very hard to tell how old these Filipinos are!) bore her testimony and in the middle of it apologized to her Laurel Advisor for “something I did to you.” Tom chuckled and said that I would be surprised at what is said during some of the Testimony Meetings, particularly wives chastising their wayward husbands.

Sunday School started late and ended even later. An American taught the lesson — he’s the Sunday School President and said the normal teacher, along with two others, had texted him on his phone that morning that they weren’t going to be there so he was filling in. The lesson was on D&C 95 and the building of the Kirtland Temple. He did a great job for having to do this literally on the spur of the moment.

Priesthood meeting also went over by about 10 minutes. They are trying to implement priesthood committees here kind of like we did in the Colorado Springs North Stake. So today was committee meetings. Each of the committees (missionary work, temporal and family welfare, and temple and family history) were to set one goal of work to be done in the next year. Tom and I were assigned on an ad hoc basis to attend the temporal and family welfare committee. The Filipino assigned as the committee chairman was somewhat at a loss as to what to do. It was good to be there and to suggest a few things. They settled on a goal of helping each family put together a 48 hour emergency kit and the first milestone was for a couple of people to work with the Relief Society to come up with a list of what should be in such a kit.

There were about 10 BYU students in attendance for their first Sunday in Manila. They’re on an internship working with charitable organizations in Manila and particularly with the street children. Of course, they’re all idealistic and pumped up — they arrived Friday night and start working with the couple of agencies they’re assigned to on Monday.

Traffic going to church was almost non-existant. Coming back was a little more hectic, but still very light. It took us 15 minutes to get to the church building that took us almost an hour to get in the area of the building last Friday when we went to the temlple.

After the meeting I visited with a couple of people who did indeed remember mom and dad and talked about the time that they were here in Manila. That was a lot of fun as well as gratifying to know that they were still remembered. The rest of the day was spent around the hotel (as well as a couple of hours debugging an Excel spreadsheet doing time calculations for Tom). The second week here has begun.