Arrival in Manila (September 12, 2005)

    We landed at Manila International Airport and went through customs.  At that point, I exchanged some dollars for pesos.  I had no idea what I was doing.  It was a pretty scary feeling, frankly, to be standing around semi-lost in a foreign land.  Our friend Edward said he would be standing by with a sign reading “Elder Royal.”  We were walking outside the terminal with our luggage when I saw a crowd of people and a big “Elder Royal” sign in bright yellow letters.  That was a great sight.  Edward had a big smile on his face and said: “Welcome to the Philippines.”  He drove a pretty small car to pick us up, and we didn’t figure out until we arrived in Angeles City (90 minutes later) that Edward forgot to shut the trunk (oops).  Fortunately, we didn’t lose anything.  I think the reason we didn’t notice that is because of all the crazy traffic.  Edward is a young guy, about 23 years old, married with an 18 month old son.  He is a convert to the Church, served a mission, and married in the temple.  He runs a car transportation business.  Great guy.  We had a fun chat, but as he drove in and out of Manila traffic I just knew we were going to kill someone (or be killed).  On the plane they gave us some blindfolds or eye shields to help us sleep.  We decided to put them on as Edward drove us through traffic.  (Ha.)  Once we got outside Manila, we were taken by the beautiful countryside.  From that point forward, it was a nice, pleasant ride, and we had to keep pinching ourselves to make sure we were not dreaming.  We really had arrived in the Philippines.

This is the autographed sign held up by Edward at the Manila airport.  (We later had it signed by our Angeles friends.)