Wow! Long Time No Talk To.

Can't believe it's been so long since we posted any thing on here.Our last couple months have just been a whirlwind. With the splitting of the mission into the Cavite mission and the Manila Mission we have had to make a concerted effort to prepare for the expected expansion of both missions as the complement of missionaries will expand to about 200 in each mission where now there is just 200 total. July 2 for example the Manila mission received 31 new missionaries and only 18 went home. Cavite was spared for President Tye's first transfer but both missions will get a bunch more next transfer. As apartment coordinators Sis Gwilliam and I had to help find, approve, contract and furnish 8 new apartments.Finding is the biggest challenge because it's hard to find apartments that are big enough and meet the minimum standards required for the missionaries. Then oftentimes the owners are not willing to accept our contract conditions. So we often have to find 4or 5 to actually get one. We really concentrated our our efforts in the Manila Mission because there were no apartments that could hold 4 missionaries that didn't have 4,whereas out it Cavite there are quite a few that only had 2 that could accomodate 4. Also once the split happened andwe went to Palawan the is no senior couple left in Manila to look after the apartments.We really are praying for one to be assigned here but realize there is a huge need for senior couples all over the world. WE SURE NEED ALL YOU SENIOR COUPLES TO COME AND SERVE!!!!! This has truly been a wonderful experience and we see the Lord's hand everyday in this work even in helping find missionary apartments.We have really witnessed some miracles happen! Elder and Sister West moved into our place from Palawan on June 24t to help and we moved into the mission home for a few weeks.We enjoyed the chance to get to know Pres.and Sis. Stucki better although we were all so busy we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them. They are wonderful faithful people and we are so blessed to have them leading our mission. We really miss  the Paddocks, Pugsleys and Wests. They are now all in the Cavite mission so we won't see them much any more. We will also miss all the missionaries that are now in the Cavite mission. Mostly though  we miss all the wonderful people in the Punta and Carissa branches. We truly made some wonderful, eternal friends there and so appreciate all the kindness and love they showed us. Congratulations to MyAnn Armonia and Jessa Contada who received their mission calls just before we left; Cagayen de Oro and Hong Kong! We love all of you so much! We also congratulate Jobert and Ina and Jun and Manilynn on their temple weddings that we were blessed to be able to attend before we came to Palawan! We wish all of you the very best and hope to see you again someday.                                                                                                  On July 15 we finally arrived here in Palawan. We finished up everything we needed to do in Manila the week before so flew over here Monday morning. The Burt's met us at the airport, toured around Puerto Princessa, took us grocery shopping and then brought us down to Narra. We are grateful for all their help and look forward to serving here with them. They are a lot of fun. Who ever thought I would meet a cousin in the Philippines! Narra is a town of about twenty thousand with about 400 church members of whom about 125 are active. We've already visited some and  a couple of YSA girls we invited to come back to church came on Sunday. Narra is a beautiful place. Lots's of mountains and trees and beautiful farmland with lots of gravel and muddy roads so it feels more like home except for the heat. Because of all the the irrigated rice fields and other vegetation it is really humid here. The people are very friendly and I'm sure we'll learn to love them just like we love the people in Cavite.