Another week in the Philippines

      On Monday we had a Senior Missionaries field trip.  We went to the American Women's Bazaar, which is a charity event put on by American women living in Manila.  They had a lot of nice things and people come from all over the country to attend.  It is usually a 2 hour hour drive, but traffic was terrible and it took us 4 hours.

 

 We also went to the American Cemetery in Manila.  This is where many of the American fallen soldiers from the Pacific areas of World War II are buried.
                       


                     





                                
 They had lots of interesting murals depicting and describing all the major battles of World War II in the Pacific Theater.

 There was row after row of graves.  It was very beautiful but also extremely sad  to think so many thousands and thousands of young men had to die fighting back the Japanese and defending freedom.

 It's been said that America has given more lives to defend the freedom of other nations than any other nation in the history of mankind.



                            
We went to a funeral.  The father of the RS President, who Sister Swift knows very well, died.  He's not a member but some of his children are.  Also a granddaughter is one of Sister Swift's YW.  We marched with them in the funeral procession out to the cemetery.  It took about an hour to get there and went right down a main highway for part of the route, completely halting traffic.  The night before we went to the Funeral Service.   We really are getting to be a part of the community.


         
                      
The graves are all above ground.  Some of the coffins are in cinder block rectangles that are plastered over.  The man who died used to be in the military so they did a gun salute and folded a flag over his coffin.  Also they passed babies over the coffin so  spirits don't get them.   

       
                     
   All the streets in our neighborhood are named after places in Italy.  This one may make you think of a sandwich when you walk by.

      Here's a picture of a  Philippine dog.  There are lots of pet dogs that people have, but also many wander around that we don't think belong to anyone..  This is actually the most common animal we see here.  They tend to be long legged and are very docile, rarely barking at people, just slinking away if you come their way.

 Our branch had a convert baptism on Friday for Sister Renee Rose.

  These are the two Elders that taught her the gospel: Elder Gamban and Salisbury.  Brother Swift went with them when they taught her the final lesson before her baptism.  She is a very kind person, very humble, and has a strong testimony.