The Mission Home

We stayed at the Mission Home for three days while we were getting settled. It is beautiful and President and Sister Malit were very gracious. They live there with five of their seven children. Their oldest is going to college in Manila and one of their children is deceased.
We had to do a lot of things like choosing our apartment, having pants made for Abe, getting a cell phone, buying a lot of items we would need for our apartment, etc . It took much longer than you would think but I think a lot of it was that it took so long to get around in the town. The streets are very narrow and there is a lot of traffic. We were so glad the missionaries were with us or we probably would not have been able to make it back at all.
The night we arrived was transfer time for all of the missionaries so when we got back to the Mission Home we were able to meet all of the missionaries. They had a dinner prepared for all of us and then we had a Meeting to say goodbye to the ones that would be leaving our area. The President's assistants and leaders took charge of the whole meeting. What awesome young men they are. President Malit believes in deligating and the young missionaries run everything and they do a super job of teaching and motivating. The outgoing missionaries had a chance to bare their testimonies.
The next day we all drove to the Tacloban Airport to meet the incoming missionaries. We went to McArthur Park for a short visit and for the missionaries to receive their new companions and their new assignments. The missionaries told a brief history of McArthur Park. During World War II, McArthur and his troops were forced to retreat from Tacloban bay by the Japanese but he turned, as he was leaving, and said, "I will return." Which he did, this time with two hundred battleships. We tried to imagine 200 battleships in that bay. There is a monument to them right there by the oceanside.
We went to the Mission Home and had another meal. The food was delicious. I have never tasted Philippine food except for the food our children prepared for us just before we left. Almost every meal here has rice as one of the main entries, except breakfast. We then had a Zone Meeting and all of the new incoming missionaries bore their testimonies.