January - Cool and Quick

Hello Everyone, I have been quite surprised with how cool some of the days and nights have been in January. Most of the days have been in the high to mid 80's, with a few low 90's, but we did see one or two days with a high of 78 or 79. The lows have not been lower than 73 or 74 on average though. There were two days that were just great. The humidity was low and it felt like Laurie and I just wanted to be outside and walk around, which we did.

For some reason, I felt like January just flew right by. I think it was because we had such a busy month and we didn't think it would be that busy after Christmas, but it was. We have been grateful for that.

We welcomed two new couples here as temple missionaries. Elder and Sister Jensen came in the middle of January. They are from North Ogden, Utah. They have only lived there 5 years so I couldn't pester them about our relatives who live/lived there. At the end of the month, Elder and Sister Browning, from Anna, Texas arrived. They are great couples to have with us and we will enjoy serving with them.

(This post may be a little short on writing and long on pics, I am tired today.)

This first picture is of us meeting Elder Nelson and his companion in the recording office at the temple. We served with his sister when we were missionaries in Montreal, Canada on our first mission. She told her brother to look us up if he ever made it to the Manila Temple, and he did. He serves outside of Quezon City, but occasionally gets to come to the temple.

 LtoR: Elder's Randall, Mellona, Nelson, and Sister Randall

Laurie wanted me to take a picture of her with her Dutch ancestors, so I did. There are some similarities with Laurie's Dutch Ancestors and the people of the Philippines. On average, their height isn't quite as tall as Americans, but they are a beautiful people. 

Guess who is who?

This is a picture of the two of us getting out on a Monday night (our preparation day) and enjoying a walk around the temple.

Nice walk around the temple by Laurie and I on Preparation Day

This past Saturday, at 10 AM, February 2, our grandson Montgomery Randall, (Matty and Angelique's oldest son) was baptized. We were able to wake up at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning to watch most of the program. It was so nice to be there, even just to see him make that important decision happen in his life. We are pleased with his decision.

Just a quick note about the next picture. Laurie and I have a few vices we can share with others. Most of our vices we just keep to ourselves :). One vice is that every night we get home from the temple, we have a Melona Bar. It is a popsicle that is quite tasty. It cools us down while we sit on our loveseat (we have no couch - it won't fit) and take our shoes off.

Well, one day while we are picking up another couple of boxes of Melona Bars, we look over in the ice cream freezer area and see images of corn husks on an ice cream package. What? We thought, we just have to try this. So, purchased a package that had five of these ice cream corn husks in them, individually wrapped I might add. Surprisingly enough, we thought they weren't that bad. The outer layer, that looks like a corn husk, is the sugar cone that surrounds the corn-flavored ice cream that is also coated with an outer layer of chocolate. Unbelievable! We don't think we will purchase it again, but we might..... (By the way, the big green piece of fruit this is sitting in front of is a suha pomelo.)

We had to take a trip to TayTay where one of Manila's famous clothing markets exists. There are hundreds to thousands of small stalls where people sell clothes. Most of them are not super high quality and run around $2.00 to $10.00. Our friend who works in the office with us, Katt, met us there to help us figure it out. She is the non-white person on the left. She is a great friend.

LtoR: small boy selling bags, Sister Jensen, Katt, Sister Olpin, Sales Lady?, Sister Randall

One last picture. On the way up the stairs to the temple, I saw how beautiful this flower looked and just had to stop and take a picture of it. Just focus on the flower and not the rocks or anything else. Amongst the rocks of life the flower blooms. I am sure there has to be some sort of metaphor there, but you figure it out :).

Well, let me leave you with an experience I had in the temple this past week. As I believe I have stated now, at least once, since I have been assigned as a Volunteer Assistant Temple Recorder, I have not be on the schedule for sealing families together forever. I am often referred to as the Emergency Sealer. There were a lot of emergencies this past week. With many of the sealers being either sick or out of town, coupled with a couple of very busy days, I was called on multiple days and multiple times to help out. I normally love these emergencies but it does mean the recording office suddenly has one less person to handle the rest of their work. All are in agreement though that sealing families together eternally takes priority and the recording office does what it has to do.

One of the blessings of the emergency sealing on Saturday was that I was able to do another licensed marriage. The groom was from Hawaii and the bride was from the Philippines. I found out about an hour prior to performing the marriage that I was going to be the sealer assigned to perform that eternal marriage covenant. I excused myself a little early from the recording office and took a few moments of time alone in one of the sealing rooms to get myself put together. It was a sweet experience for me to participate in their marriage and their desire to make an eternal covenant with Heavenly Father. I enjoyed the fruits of the Spirit and learned a bit more of the kindness Heavenly Father has for all His children, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Take good care of yourselves in this short month of February. I will leave you with this verse of scripture from the New Testament that seemed fitting in this month of January to liken unto myself:

Romans 8:16-18

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.