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| Jordan with his MTC district, October 2011 |
Neither of us slept very good Monday night. Maralea and I had a 5:30 am wake up call, but
were up way before that. We just could
not sleep. There was too much concern
about getting to Tarlac on time, getting packed and ready for our scheduled
8:00 am pick up. But, despite our bad
night’s sleep (Maralea complained again about all the noise from other guests,
but I did not recall any of that, so I must have slept better than I
thought.) Our drivers Kimmy and Mark
were due to arrive at 8:00 am, and we were ready like champs. I had all our baggage at the front area,
ready for a quick pick up and getaway.
The only thing missing at 8:00 am was our drivers. When they did not arrive by 8:30 am, we
started calling and texting, to no avail. (By the way, we brought Jordan's old phone and have no idea how to use it, so texting . . . even answering a call . . . was an adventure.) Maralea and I began searching for alternatives to get to Tarlac. We confirmed that we could get a taxi in a
pinch, but the guy said it was a minimum two hour one way trip. (A freeway has been extended from Angeles
City north, which goes right by Tarlac, and we understood the trip was closer
to 30 minutes.) This got us into an
ever so slight panic. We needed to get
to the mission home on time and were ready to hire a cab (even if the guy had no idea what he was talking about). Kimmy called about five minutes later to
advise that they were about 10 minutes away.
That was very welcomed news and it was a great relief to see Kimmy’s
ever smiling face. He told me 8:00 am
last night, which I thought was kind of early, but I figured he just wanted to
make sure they got us to the mission home on time. (I actually think he was planning on 9:00 am
all the time. Ha. I guess I'm not used to Filipino time.) When I asked Kimmy if I misunderstood him
about the 8:00 am pickup, he said, “No” and then looked at his watch,
smiled and said: “It’s 8:59 am.”
(It was actually 9:10 am, but perhaps his watch was slow. Ha.)
(Kimmy is a great guy and we loved spending time with him.
He brought a different driver, Lionel, who served in the Angeles Mission
from September 2005-07. In fact, Lionel
would have entered the mission home the day after we arrived to pick up Brad in September 2007.)
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| This is a generic picture of the Tarlac main street post typhoon. There is still work to do. |
The anticipation of our reunion with Jordan grew the
closer we got to Tarlac. The effects of
the typhoon also became more apparent.
As you drive into Tarlac, there is what was clearly once an incredibly
beautiful row of large old trees along both sides of the divided four lane main
street that formed a canopy over the entire roadway. What was once a proud landmark of Tarlac now
looks much different. There were downed
branches and uprooted trees everywhere.
A lot of work had already been done to clear the area of damage in the
prior 10 days. However, there is still
clearly much work to do. In the
residential area of the mission home, there are downed power poles and
trees. Yet, the mission home (newly
constructed) looked relatively undamaged.
While it was without electricity, the home is also equipped with an
emergency generator that kept everything up and running (so we were to later
learn). As it turned out, we were not
late at all, but were 90 minutes early.
(Yes Kimmy, you were right, I should have just trusted you all the
way.) We walked up to the mission home
front door with Kimmy, who knocked on the door.
I thought that Jordan might answer the door after seeing us arrive, but
it was Sister Martino, who advised that the missionaries were involved in some
post mission training with Pres. Martino.
We did not want to go inside and interrupt anything, but Sister Martino
insisted. So, we walked into the living
room where we sat down rather sheepishly and conspicuously. All of the elders turned and looked at us . .
. except Jordan. He just kind of looked
away and acted like we weren’t there.
The Tarlac Reunion
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| Mother & Missionary reunited |
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| We were all smiles when we walked into the mission home |
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| Pres. & Sis. Martino delivered Jordan to us. So grateful for the great care they took of Jordan while he served as Elder Royal in the Philippines Angeles Mission |
One more time (with Dad in the picture - ha)
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| Our reunion with Sister Lopez, who served both our missionary sons in the Philippines! |
It was an amazing thing for us to be with Jordan
again. What a journey it was to get
here! The mission home moved from
Angeles City to Tarlac last year, so this was our first visit to Tarlac. However, we did recognize the mission home furniture
from our last visit (very unique). Also,
Sister Lopez, who has served as a mission cook for about 15 years, introduced
herself to me in the kitchen as I went back for seconds. (I admit it, I gorged - it was so
good!). Sister Lopez said: “Do you remember
me? I’m Sister Lopez, I washed your
other Elder Royal’s clothes. We met when
you were here before.” I did
remember her. In fact, Sister Lopez was
the first local member we met from Brad’s mission when we surprised him at his
apartment and he introduced us to her while providing a tour of where he had
been living for the preceding six months.
(Brad, Sister Lopez said that she was very sad not to get to
see you during your visit with Whitney and Beckham in January. (She was busy cooking/working at the mission
home.) She wanted us to tell you
hello. So kumasta and ingat
from Sister Lopez.)
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| Maralea and Sandy Bell having lunch in the mission home |
We sat with other parents and family visiting (the Bells and Johnsons) during the testimony
meeting and final words of counsel provided by President and Sister
Martino. It was really great to be there
as Jordan stood and shared his last testimony as Elder Royal with his fellow
missionaries. After getting a few
pictures, we all raced to our vehicles to get to the Manila Temple by the 5:00
pm session. Jordan rode with his mission
buddies, and we traveled separately with our group. We got a few pictures outside the temple
after our arrival. As we prepared for
the session, we learned that there was a problem with Jordan’s passport. It would not be available for us to pick up
before we were scheduled to leave Manila for a visit to another island for a
few days. That created a bit of anxiety,
but we got it all cleared up for Jordan to travel. (He had his NV DL and BYU ID, which was good
enough for domestic travel. Who knew?)
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| Loved going to the Manila Temple with Jordan |
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| Manila temple is beautiful at night |
The temple in Manila
is amazing. We attended with Jordan’s
entire mission “batch.” I had a
mission to deliver a package to Elder Watkins, from Alpine, UT.
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| Here with Jordan and his trainer, Junjun Declaro, at the Manila Temple (Very grateful to Junjun for being a fantastic trainer to Jordan!)
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| Mission Training Center (Quezon City), just across the street from the temple. Somewhere in there was Elder Watkins, who has a package waiting for him at the mission office |
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