Christmas in the Philippines

Christmas Season in the Philippines actually started back in September when they started putting up decorations and playing Christmas music in the Mall.  We have listened to Christmas music for four months now.  There are some lights up around the city.  Below is a picture of one of the lights with the words "Maligayang Pasko," Merry Christmas in Tagalog:

We were able to purchase a wood carved Nativity Set from a Filipino wood carver.  It is unique because it has an animal that is found in the Philippines, a carabao.  It is a cross between a cow and a water buffalo.  We have seen them out in the countryside.  The set also has the wise men bringing gifts of mangos, bananas, and a sack of rice, very typical foods here.  The stable is carved to look like the bamboo huts that can be found around the Philippines.  I love the coconut tree.

 



 



On Christmas Eve we invited the missionaries in our district to come over to our apartment for dinner.  We made our traditional waffles and ham dinner.  We then had the missionaries share some of their family Christmas traditions with us.  We had four American missionaries and four Filipinos.  The Filipino missionaries told us about a special feast they have after midnight on Christmas Eve.  It is called "Noche Buena."  Very few Filiinos include Santa Claus in their celebration.  We shared more of the Jenson Family traditions by reading, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Cajun Night Before Christmas."  We then read the real Christmas story from the scriptures.  We enjoyed being able to share our Christmas Eve with these fine young men.  (See below)

 

 

We were even able to have Christmas music and a  fire via you-tube on the internet.  Our air conditioner was also running, no freezing temps in this part of the world.

 

 

We missed being with our family, but we really enjoyed being able to Skype with them and actually see them.  It was especially nice to see our grandchildren and watch them open some presents.  It gave us a chance to share some of Christmas with them from far, far away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 





 





A Description of What We Do

Our mission here in the Philippines is to help young members of our church prepare for their future. We teach a class called "Planning For Success." This class helps them make plans for their future by having them create a work plan, an education plan, and a financial plan. We just started teaching this class to some potential students. After they take the class they can apply for a Perpetual Education Fund loan from the church. The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) has been established to provide worthy young adults of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the support and resources necessary to improve their lives through education and better employment to better serve their family, the Church, and their community. We help them with the application process as well.


Getting ready to teach

We also keep track of the students who are in our assigned area. We try to contact them each month by texting them or sending them messages on Facebook. We had never really sent texts very much until we came to the Philippines. Now we text every day. That is one of the preferred methods of communication here. We also learned recently that most of our students are on Facebook and use it regularly. So we are now contacting them via Facebook and have more than 200 Filipino Facebook friends. One other way that we contact them is meeting with them individually. Every Sunday we go to church at different meetinghouses and meet with PEF participants. Some of them are current students and others have graduated. We get to ask them about school or their jobs and we encourage them in any way we can. It is the most fun part of our assignment! We have now met personally with over 100 participants.

Anna and one of our participants

 

Another part of our assignment is to train PEF Specialists.  These Specialists are called to work with students who live in their Wards (Individual Congregations) and Stakes (Groups of Wards).   We train them on how to teach the "Planning for Success" class and how to help students with their loans.  We also meet with leaders in the Wards and Stakes to help them get Specialists called and to update them on how the PEF participants in their Wards or Stakes are doing.

 

We have met so many wonderful people here.  They are always happy to meet us and we shake hands with every one of them.  We love meeting the little children in the congregations.  They seem to think that it is a great honor to shake our hands.  And we love it!

 

To close our blog today I am including a beautiful sunset picture taken from our apartment looking out on Manila Bay.  We have just recently been able to see the sun actually sink into the water.  It was too cloudy when we first got here, and now that the rainy season is over we are delighted by the sunsets.

 



                                                                                         Breathtaking!





The American Cemetery

The Entrance

We visited the American Cemetery here in Manila about two weeks ago. It is on a hill just south of Makati. The grounds are very well kept and there are 17,000 crosses representing the Americans and Filipinos who gave their lives defending our freedoms during World War II in the Philippines. Their names are inscribed on the walls of the monument. There are also historical descriptions of the American involvement during the war in the Philippines. Here are a few pictures:



Supply Routes Description

The Crosses