A Momentous Month

I cannot share with you the half of what transpired to make this such a momentous month. I chose the word "momentous" because things that happened in February have had and will have an impactful bearing on my future for years to come.

Of the "less than half" of what I can and will share with you I will do so as I normally do, in pictures and a few experiences this past month.

Food (maybe not so momentous, but it is never a bad place to begin with in a blog)

As you know, food is an essential part of Bruce and Laurie's day, along with the rest of the world. I will start our blog with a very simple picture of sharing a change in our lives, buying a bunch of bananas. We don't buy the less expensive bananas because we don't go regularly to the market, we buy these either at S&R or at Robinson's Market. It is still about $5.00 for this bunch of bananas, so for an American, it is not out of the ordinary to pay this price for bananas.

The thought never entered my mind that I would ever purchase a bunch of bananas such as this. We now purchase a bunch like this every few weeks. We normally buy a bunch when they are pretty green and a few days later I cut them up into three sections and we freeze them. We use them in our "fruit" shakes ( it also includes strawberries, a little yogurt, water, protein powder, spinach or arugula, possibly grapes, and sometimes even a blueberry or two). These shakes also contain pineapple from a pineapple we buy about the same time as the bunch of bananas. We cut up the pineapple and freeze it also. Laurie and I normally have one of our fruit shakes a few times a week. We have been doing this for about 4 months now and I like this kind of tradition. I am not sure how this will go when we are back in the US.

In staying with the very interesting subject of, "what's new in the Randall's diet?", I could not go without trying a couple of other items here in the Philippines. I tried a can of "corned chicken" a few weeks ago (without getting a picture of the can - soooo sad....) and I tried a can of "corned tuna" this past month.

I will not need to try either of those "corned" items again, but I do know that I could sustain life on either product for decades, if it comes to it. As I may have mentioned before, corned beef and spam seem to be a big deal here. There is a ton of it for sale in all stores.

This past Sunday I decided to go with some oven-roasted vegetables. The new food item I had not yet done any cooking with in this picture is the "young corn cuts". (two out of the three items I am highlighting are canned food items....) I "am certain" that I liked these young corn cuts just a little more than Laurie did. We won't be using this canned vegetable item again anytime soon in something I cook. I would be happy to have some in a nice salad though :).

[Insert - a nice segue from food to Laurie]

Laurie's birthday 

Yes, Laurie's birthday (Feb 23) was a week and a half ago. Laurie is one who loves to extend her birthday festivities to anywhere from days to weeks (Laurie proof-reads my blog, so if this made it past her, you can know she is in agreement with my statement). Frankly, she deserves as much admiration she can get from me. She is an awesome friend, wife, missionary companion, mother, sister, daughter, etc. She is my food soul-mate too!

Banana Cake - There is a nice young Brother who works over in the annex building in the temple. His wife makes some wonderful banana bread (more commonly called banana cake here in the Philippines). If you remember anything about the Philippine culture from reading either Laurie's emails, or my blog, you will know that the person who is having a birthday buys food for everyone else.  We decided to buy 15 banana bread cakes and Laurie sliced them up and shared most of them down in the lunch room with the temple service workers on Shift 3 and 4. These cakes are just delicious. As you can see in the following picture, there are chocolate chips in them. We asked Sister Ferrer to leave out the nuts. Neither Laurie nor I like walnuts in breads, cakes, pies, or brownie's. (for those of you who have made us any of the items I just referred to, we will have smiled and ate "most" all of them, and given you a hearty "thank you" afterwards. That is just good manners! 

Of course, just in case all the loaves of bread may not have made it out to the tables to share, the two of us could be found feeding our face later that night with a little chocolate smeared on our cheeks. You could almost hear the chant, "Bruce, Bruce, Bruce" (for those of you who get this movie reference, you have my deepest admiration :))

I wasn't sure if I should put Laurie's picture first or the banana cake first :). After reviewing my poor attempt at a photo bomb in this picture (Sister Cangas is doing a much better job bombing this photo behind me) I decided to put this picture of Laurie's birthday apple crumb pie after the banana cake. The pie was sooo tasty. It came from across the street at the Purple Oven bakery. We don't often go there, but we do splurge once a month or once every 6 weeks, or.....

Laurie has made so many great friends while here on this mission. She gets along with everyone. She was referred to often this past week as miraculous, beautiful, happy, full of life, fun, and, my favorite, "drop-dead gorgeous!" I may have been the one that said that last one, that is why it is my favorite.

Come to the Temple

This following picture is of a group of youth coming to the temple to perform baptisms and confirmation of the Holy Ghost for their ancestors. Heavenly Father provides everyone who has ever lived on the earth the opportunity to return to His Kingdom.

The older person on the right is Bishop Llora. He also works in the Laundry area of the temple. I just had to get a picture of these youth helping someone who could not help themselves. They were a fun group of youth to have that night.

Temple Presidency

In the following picture, we get to see the Bondoc's and the Martinez. They are the two couples in the Temple Presidency here in Manila. They spend most of their time living in the Temple apartments even though they both live within an hour or about 90 minutes away, on a good day. Traffic is such an issue here where we are in Manila.

The four of them were standing outside against the rail to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Olpin, from Nephi, Utah. They just finished their 18 months and flew home last Saturday, March 1.  We will miss the Olpins a lot. They were one of the anchor's here for us.

President and Sister Bondoc were in the last Temple Presidency so they will have been here for 6 years. What a commitment to serving others. They are such good and humble people.

LtoR: Sister Bondoc, Sister Martinez, Pres. Martinez, and Pres. Bondoc

One last Experience

I was sitting in the recording office when a Saturday worker was checking his locker key back in. He noticed my name tag and said, "are you related to an Elder Randall who was in the Philippines previously?" I didn't think much of it as usual, since the norm is to mistake me for Elder Renlund and Elder Rasband (I know, it is a natural mistake.....) because my last name starts with an "R" and it could sound like "R.....".

I responded to the young man that, "yes, we had a son serve up in the Laoag mission in 2006 and 2007." He said to us. I have been trying to connect up with your son to thank him. I was 12 years old when he taught me and my family the gospel of Jesus Christ. I now live in Manila, I am married and we just welcomed a little child into our family. I am an active member of my Ward and I come here to serve in the temple." Laurie and I were floored. It just hadn't occurred to us that we would find someone here in Manila that knew our son Jason while he served her about 18 years ago. We just had to take a picture of him and the two of us. His name is Frank Royal Burgus. 

You don't need to remember Frank's name but we do, that is why we put it in here. I also use this as a portion of my personal journal :).

Final Thoughts

Putting the fun and frolic aside, Laurie and I spent a lot of time contemplating our past, present, and future. We have much to be grateful for, and there are a lot of things changing in our lives. Overall, I am grateful for a Savior in whom I trust and in whom I can go for peace, comfort and relief. I am grateful to have an understanding of an eternal plan in place of who I want to be and what I want to become.

Pride is always something I wrestle with. I would think by now, I would have a pretty good handle on how to keep pride from seeping in my thoughts, words, and actions. 

A good scriptural reference to help me hopefully push aside my pride comes as the Lord chastens me. 

Proverbs 3:11-13. these verses come soon after: Trust in the Lord and lean not to thine own understanding....

11 My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:

12 For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

I strive to be happy and to "get understanding". I fully realize that the Lord loves me and he chastens me so that I can improve. I do sometimes get weary of the correction and I am hopeful that less correction will come. We are all human, so I keep trying, knowing that I have within me, as do we all, the divine nature of loving Heavenly Parents, and a Brother/Savior/Redeemer who paid the price for me.