As I began building a blog in anticipation of Jordan's departure for the MissionTraining Center in Provo, UT on September 28, 2011, it occurred to me that I should post details of our 2005 trip to the Philippines to pick up Brad from his two year mission there. We were gone for eight days - not quite enough time to do all we wanted - but it was awesome. I have to say that we had every intention of spending just a few days touring the mission, with other days devoted to sightseeing. However, once we got started, all we cared about was spending time with the wonderful people there. The sights we thought we wanted to see so badly would always be there. The people would not. Our once in a lifetime opportunity was to meet the people of the Philippines who so loved and cared for our son while he served as Elder Royal as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We chose wisely - spending every available moment with the people. That made it extra special. In the short few days we had there with Brad, we established and forged friendships that continue today, over six years later. We look forward to expanding our ever increasing circle of Filipino friends as Jordan now leaves to serve in the Philippines Angeles Mission, right where his brother Brad served. So, the Philippines Angeles Mission will actually get a Royal sequel: Elder Royal, II (The Walk of Faith). Maralea and I have talked for years about returning to the Philippines since our 2005 visit. Now, it looks like we will have our chance. We are already looking forward to our September 2013 visit. (We will be there. Bank on it!)
So, I will follow with a little jaunt back in time, leaping in quantum fashion to September 2005, posting the emails I sent home daily to our family reporting on each day's activities.
 |
| Brad (third from right) with his MTC group in Provo, UT, fall 2003, prior to departing for the Philippines |
 |
| Brad (third row from bottom, middle) sang with the MTC choir at the General Conference Priesthood Session, October 2003. I was there watching him from the balcony, but never got to see him because his bus left before I could get outside to make eye contact and wave. It was pretty cool to see this picture of him in the November 2003 Ensign (a nice consolation). |
 |
| Brad with Pres. & Sis. Brimhall just after his arrival in the Philippines in November 2003. We laughed at how much weight Brad put on while binging on MTC food for nine weeks (obvious in his enlarged face). We received a call from Dale Hunt from our ward after Brad's arrival, who related that Pres. Brimhall called him personally to say hello when he first sat down with Brad after learning from Brad that Dale (a friend of Pres. Brimhall) lived in our ward. That was a very comforting phone call for us! |
 |
| One of my favorite pics - Brad getting all nosey |
 |
| Brad with Joji Deleon in San Isidro. The Deleons are our neighbors. They visited Brad during a trip to the Philippines in 2004. |
 |
| Love this picture of Brad tracting with Elder Peteru in San Isidro |
 |
| My favorite picture of Brad's mission!! Here with Elder Peteru. So beautiful. |
 |
| Brad standing in a rice field. Better to stand there than play football among the rice patties, where Brad and his buddies were introduced to Filipino leeches. (Only did that once.) |
 |
| Brad actually thought he was growing because he found that he was, remarkably, taller than some of the people there. But, he was sadly mistaken. (Note the shotgun under the left arm of this security officer. We saw a lot of silver shotguns while we were there in 2005.) |
No comments:
Post a Comment