Bittersweet . . . Transfers . . .

This past week we had transfers again. (Have 6 weeks already passed?) On Tuesday we said good-bye to 11 missionaries. This time our 'trainer' Elder Williams departed the mission to return home to New Zealand. We will miss him. He was a great trainer!!!

As I was taking this picture of our departing missionaries' luggage, Elder Howard told me you had to have a person in the picture . . . so he jumped right in . . .
As all of the other missionaries loaded the van to leave, Elder Landingin stood at the top of the drive way to wave good-bye. We sent him to the van to join his fellow departing missionaries. I think he wanted to stay a little longer!
On Thursday, we had 10 new Elders and 1 Sister arrive.
It is always fun to welcome these new missionaries!
After a busy day, I walked into the AP's office and this is what I found . . . relaxing after a week of transfers!

Things we Take for Granted . . .

The mission home has been in a remodeling stage for the past couple of weeks. This also included our apartment being painted a few weeks ago and us living in a hotel for a week. Today we had a crew here cleaning the mission home and also the mission office. While one of the workers was cleaning in the office, he asked where we were from. I told him Salt Lake City. His eyes got big and he asked, "Have you been the temple there?". I told him yes, that in fact we had been married in the Salt Lake Temple. (We are asked this question each time we are asked where we are from.) I explained to him that there are now 4 temples in the Salt Lake area and that our ward is the new Draper Temple district. After a few more questions about the temple, he asked if I had ever heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in person. I again told him that I had, but at the time I couldn't remember when the last time was. I also told him that our home teacher is a member of the choir. I told him about several people in our stake who had been in the choir. Then I told him that my dad's cousin had been a member of the choir for 20 years. He was so excited to hear this. He told me that some day he wants to go to that temple and see the choir. So what is the point of this story? I realized how much I take for granted back home. We have a beautiful temple downtown that people around the world make a special stop in Salt Lake to see. They try to make their trip so that they can also see the Tabernacle Choir preform. How many times do we take the time to go to see the Spoken Word on a Sunday morning with the choir? Or try to get into a General Conference Session? How often do you go to Temple Square with your family to feel the spirit there? How often do you take your family to the visitor centers and teach them about our Savior Jesus Christ and his life? How often do we take the opportunity to attend the temple?

It really hit home today as this young returned missionary from the Philippines was so excited to meet someone who had been to the Salt Lake Temple and had seen the choir preform. Now I admit that it took me a very long time to go to the Spoken Word on a Sunday morning. A few years ago, I was working a convention in downtown Salt Lake that was over the 24th of July. I could have gone home on Saturday evening to spend Sunday with my family, but I knew that I would have wash and cleaning to do at home. Instead, I stayed at the hotel and got up early and walked to the Conference Center for the broadcast. After, I walked over to the Joseph Smith building for Sacrament meeting. As I sat waiting, everyone stood and in walked President Hinckley and President Faust. I was in their home ward! I am thankful that I took that opportunity to hear the choir and I got the bonus of attending church with the Prophet.

The Conference Center

Last summer, our grand- kids were visiting and we took them to Temple Square for Family Home Evening. Our kids always enjoyed a visit to temple square and the grand-kids do too.

They loved looking at the Christus in the visitor center.There was a cut-away model of the temple so that they could see what it looks like inside.

They had their picture taken by a display telling about the Prophet Joseph Smith.And a picture by a picture of our latter day, Prophet Thomas S Monson.
Most of all, we enjoyed spending time with them talking about the gospel and visiting Temple Square! (They were getting tired when this picture was taken . . can you tell??)

So my point today is don't take things for granted. . . enjoy those things that you live close to and share them with those you love . . . .

Mission Address

I had a friend ask for our address here in the Philippines . . . so here it is:

Elder & Sister Jewkes
Philippines Angeles Mission
1827 Gumain Street, Redwood Villas
Clarkfield, Pampanga 2009
Philippines

We would love to hear from any of you out there . . . our email addresses are:
wjewkes@hotmail.com
conniejewkes@yahoo.com

Change . . .

We are making changes in our lives each day. I received a newsletter in the office a few days ago that talked about changing our thoughts. It talked about how we need to learn to face our problems and then try to find the best way to overcome them.

We read in Luke 1:37 "For with God nothing shall be impossible". Our Heavenly Father knows each one of us personally. He has a plan for each of us. And He won't give us more than we can handle. We need to ask for His help. Do you remember the picture of Christ knocking on a door. There is no door knob. He can only enter if He is invited in. That is what we need to do - invite Him into our lives. He can help us to change those things in our life that we want to change.

Elder James E. Faust said, "Each new day that dawns can be a new day for us to begin to change. We can change our environment. We can change our lives by substituting new habits for old. We can mold our character and future by purer thoughts and nobler actions. As someone once put it, 'the possibility of change is always there, with its hidden promise of peace, happiness and a better live.'"

We made a big change in our lives as we made the choice to serve a mission. It meant changing our address, leaving family and friends behind, especially our grand children. It hasn't been easy, in fact, there have been times that it has been really hard. But when those hard times come, it is nice to know that there is someone who has not handed me more than I can handle. It also meant we would learn to love people of a different country, culture and language. It also meant that we would learn to laugh at each other, to show kindness to each other, to listen to the frustrations and to fall in love all over again.

Change? Yes.

Our children have all made some sort of a change over the past couple of months. Andrea is working more at the kids Charter School. She will have all three kids in the same school next fall - a big change for all of them. Patti has taken up residence in her own apartment in Atlanta. She has moved all of her belongings across the country to make a home of her own. Michael has a new job and is taking on the responsibility of taking care of our home while we are away. With the new YSA stakes in Salt Lake, he has changed wards and is meeting new people there. He even has had to buy a new fridge on his own. Charlie has moved to a new job in Southern California. He left his new home in the hands of friends and is making a new life and new friends in California.

We each need to Think Differently, Do Differently and Feel Differently. as our life changes each day. Change is good . . . look for the positive in all that you do.

Adobo, the Filipino Way . . . .

I have been wanting to make some Adobo for several weeks, but have been hesitant since elder Jewkes isn't fond of Asian food. But today I decided it was time to try. Elder Alcibor, one of the APs, has been my teacher . . .

It is said that all Filipinos have their own recipes that are all very different but are all called by the same name. For example: Adobo is Adobo as long as soy sauce and vinegar or calamansi are the main seasonings. All other ingredients are optional and variable. There are no measuring system. Add in as much or as little as you want of an ingredient as long as it turns out the right texture and is delicious! Another senior couple sister gave me this recipe:

Adobo

Ingredients:

Garlic Onion Potato Vinegar/ Calamansi juice (2 Tbsp)

Soy Sauce Oil Surgar (2 Tblsp) Pork / Chicken (sliced)

Directions:

1 Sauté garlic, onion & potato in oil

2 Add Pork/ Chicken until tender

3 Add vinegar / Calamansi juice, soy sauce & sugar.. wait.. until cooked (Calamansi is a small citrus fruit that looks like a lime, but doesn't taste like one)

Browning the onions, garlic and meat

Simmering after adding the soy, vinegar and sugarThe fresh pineapple I cut up to go with the Adobo - yummy and sweet!

The finished product

And Elder Jewkes eating his dinner . . .He asked if I was going to make it again . . .
my answer "Yes!" I thought it was great!!

Now you see why I needed some guidance in making this recipe? Elder Alcibor told me that I passed and for my first time it was really good. Yeah!!

June 1 - The Rainy Season . . . .

On June 1st I asked our security guard, Jose, when the rainy season would start. He said, "June . . . it is June 1st, it starts today." And it did. It rained hard later that afternoon. It was beautiful in the morning. The rain came down in sheets, then it stopped. We have had some rain everyday so far this month. Today (June 8th) it was about 80 degrees . . . that is cool and seemed really nice! As we were driving to Tarlac and LaPaz last Saturday we saw some of the results of the recent rain as well as the rain that we had during the Typhoon a couple of weeks ago. It was beautiful and green. Last time we drove to Tarlac, it was getting really dry and brown. The water is now covering the rice fields.

Here are some picture of the rice fields we saw as we drove home.
These are taken through the windows in the car as we were driving . . .

There was a man standing out in the middle of the water, but I couldn't get a good picture in the car . . . maybe next time.

Another nice thing about the rain, it has brought out new flowers.
These are the zinnias in the front yard across the street.

They remind me of my garden at home . . .

I hope Mike is taking good care of my yard! *smile*

Catch up . . .

Remember the old cliche "Time flies when you are having fun" . . . . well, we have been having fun and keeping busy. We are in the midst of preparing for a batch of 13 missionaries to depart the mission and 12 new missionaries to arrive next week! This is always an exciting time . . . sad to see some leave and exciting to meet new ones. And we took a little time for us on Saturday . . .

On Saturday, June 4th, we attended a baptism in LaPaz about 1 1/2 hours away. Since it is close to Tarlac, we met up with our friends and fellow senior couple, the Bowcutts, for lunch. We met at the mall and went to KFC.

Here is Elder & Sister Bowcutt

Lunch tasted really good and very American even though they serve rice with the chicken. We requested no rice but potatoes and gravy instead and coleslaw. Yum!!

After lunch we headed to LaPaz for the baptism. Here is a picture of the church and another looking from the front door towards the street. The sun was bright so you can't see th roof too well.

The baptism was scheduled for 3pm. We arrived a few minutes before, but the man had not arrived. The missionaries told us that he lived quite a ways away from the church and had to come by tricycle (a motorcycle with a side car). We visited with the missionaries and some of the ward members while we waited almost an hour for him to get there. But it was worth it! Brother Gagar is a very humble 58 year old man. His wife is a member of 5 years and he presently has a son serving in the Davao Mission. Saturday he took those steps into the water to be baptized into the church and start his eternal progression back to our Father in Heaven. In a small way, he brought back memories of my dad who was not active while I was growing up. But thanks to a wonderful Bishop, who called him to be a ward clerk, dad’s activity changed and he returned to the Temple when my sister went on her mission some 30 years ago. He worked in the Baptistery in the Jordan River Temple at the time of his death 6½ years ago. I treasure those memories and now Brother Gagar’s family can have similar memories as their husband and father joins the church and becomes active. He seems to have a good branch family to support him.

As we were leaving the church, these boys were playing and climbing on the wall. they all turned when they saw that I had my camera out.Then just down the street we ran into more kids playing . . . the kids here are really special (see my last post).We had a wonderful day visiting friends and watching a man's life change for better.