Sunday

So we've had 3 Sundays here now.  In some ways that seems crazy . . . it can't be than long.  In other ways, it seems like we've been here forever.  As I said last week, our ward is a brand new ward.  Last week, we only had a bishop and one counselor.  This week, we began to get staffed.  A new Sunday school president, relief society president, YW president, and primary president were sustained in sacrament meeting.  Russ reported that the elders quorum and high priest quorum were organized in priesthood meeting.   So things were getting underway.

It was fast and testimony meeting which was interesting.  Again, at least half of the testimonies were not in English. . . at least mostly not in English.  It's a little different than sitting through church in Mexico when I didn't speak Spanish.  Every so often, even in a talk/testimony that isn't English, there will randomly be English words.  They do connector words in English all the time.  It's kinda crazy.  Also, since Spain occupied the Philippines for several hundred years, there are Spanish words in their language too.  So, I have this vague unsettling sense that I should be understanding what they are saying . . . but I don't.  It's crazy.

After Sunday school (2nd hour) I was heading down the stairs to go to Relief Society.  Joshua and Ammon met me on the stairs saying they were ready to go home.  I told them that they should hurry back to primary because church wasn't over yet.  They assured me that there had been a closing prayer in primary and they were excused.  I then saw the very harried-looking primary president.  She told me that they were telling the truth.  She had the whole primary (nursery to 11 year olds) with no help.  She taught as much as she could but just ran out of material.  So she dismissed!  Poor thing!

After the meeting block, the bishop asked to meet with Russell and then with me.  Russ was called to be the 1st counsellor in the Sunday school presidency and I was called as the 1st counselor in the primary presidency.  (So I guess it's poor me now!  :-) )  I spoke with the primary president and we divided the duties a bit.  I will come prepared with some singing time (she does NOT do music) and with a lesson.  She will bring a sharing time and a lesson.  Hopefully we will get through it.  :-)  Now I just have to get to the distribution center and get a primary children's songbook.

We also met the missionaries.  They said they don't get many dinner appointments so I think we will plan on feeding them once a week.  It's good to be able to be useful.  It's wonderful to live in an area that is growing so quickly.  The goal is to get 800 more converts and then we can get a stake here on Mactan.  Wow!