March 15th - April 14th

I can't believe as of tomorrow the first 8 months of my mission are over, the months are starting to fall off the calendar. We are really moving on the mapping of the Philippines, we have 76% done, 60% sent to Salt Lake and are sending completed maps approximately 2-3 per week. I have always felt a need to have all the mapping completed by the time Sister Clark goes home in July. Our last mapping appointment is June 11th, I think we will make it.

I have talked with my mission president about what I will do when Sister Clark goes home and the mapping is completed, no decision at this time, just waiting for the Lord to make his plan for me known.

My son, Scott, grandson Taylor and Mark Willden, missionary buddy of Scott's, were here all last week and what a week! They arrived at the Manila airport at 11:00 pm on Saturday, April 2nd.

One of the PAO (Philippines Area Office), employees, Annie Espin, that is in the department where I am, offered to get someone to guide them through the airport arrival procedure, if they don't have anyone it can take as long as 1-2 hours. Annie also made arrangements for a van, and driver to take me to the airport to meet them and drive them to my apartment. Of course, Annie and her husband came along, which was great, they were a lot of help while we waited at the airport for the arrival.

I saw Scott first and what a wonderful sight, my first thought was, I can actually touch him and Taylor, well hug & kiss is what we did. We arrived at my apartment about 1:00 am. I had two blown up mattresses and a old worn out futon for them to sleep on, I knew they wouldn't be comfortable so I had made arrangements for them to stay at the McAllister's home starting Monday night, as the McAllisters were out of town until Sunday night. Brother McAllister is the church attorney here in the Philippines and has the sweetest wife, Janice. They were so wonderful to the guys, they felt like they were staying in a 5 star hotel.

The first thing Scott gave me when we got to the apartment was all the letters and pictures the grandkids had sent me, I am going to hang them up on my wall, but I am not done touching, rereading and looking at them yet.

Just let me say before I launch into our week, I did all the driving except for Friday evening and Saturday, no accidents, not even close, getting stopped by the police, well I'll let you know about those times.

Sunday:

We were up and out of the apartment by 8:00 am on our way to La Mesa Branch, about an hour drive, where we attended church. I really wanted Taylor to experience our chapel, plastic chairs to sit on, nine fans in the chapel, all the windows open, roosters crowing, dogs barking, birds singing, etc. He thought is was great as I do.

Since it was fast Sunday, Scott, Taylor, Mark and I bore our testimonies, that will be a wonderful memory as I sit in church each Sunday. We left immediately after sacrament meeting to go to Buendia Chapel in Makati.

Scott wanted to visit the Buendia Chapel, which is the first chapel built in the Philippines and one he served in for 6 months. His memories were of baptisms, talks he gave, etc. We weren't able to attend a meeting there but did walk the halls and take pictures in the chapel and of the baptismal font, nothing had changed in 26 years.

I had invited Maricel and Ed Argana and their family to dinner. Maricel was a young teenage girl who was an interpeter for Scott while he served in the Ligao area. You might remember, I was mapping and she came up to me and said she knew an Elder Burwell, it was Scott, and then found that her husband works in the department I serve in at the PAO. We have become fast friends and their children call me "Lola", grandma in Tagalog. They brought another family with them that I know, so we had an apartment full of people, it was great, we ate, visited, laughed a lot and made plans to meet again later in the week.

Monday:

I wanted to show them where I grocery shopped and especially wanted Taylor to experience a grocery store here, as it turned out, it was an experience for Scott and Mark too, they hadn't been in a grocery store much when they were on their missions here. They had a houseboy who did all the shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry, how would that be? Frankly, I don't know if I will ever get real comfortable grocery shopping here, I always experience some anxiety when I enter the store.

You all probably know the singer Justin Beiber, I didn't, but as we were in the mall and shopping everyone was calling Taylor, Justin Beiber. The whole week, every place we went it was the same thing, girls flocked around and even boys called him Justin. At first it was fun for Taylor, then it got boring and ended up being rather annoying.

I drove them to the PAO to meet everyone and have lunch at the cafeteria. Everyone had heard so much about them that they were excited to meet my family. When I took them to one office, as we walked in one of the employees said, "Here comes Sister Burwell's geneology".

Taylor wasn't sure about the food, but he did fine some things he liked, some he could tolerate and a lot he didn't like or wouldn't try, at any rate he didn't starve.

Here in the Philippines they have what they call "no drive days", I think I have explained before how it works. My no drive day is Mondays, so we could only be on the rode, before 7:00am, from 10:00am - 3:00pm and after 7:00 pm. Well we stayed to long at the PAO and didn't leave until about 4:00pm, I have riden with others when they didn't obey the times and no problems, but no luck for me, I got pulled over. The first thing they want is your drivers license and we have been told many times "do not give your drivers license to the police here", so I refused, they insisted, I refused, they insisted...so I told them I would call my attorney, I called Sister McAllister, she suggested I ask for their supervisors name and tell them I was going to talk to him. Let me just say,the traffic police here really have no authority, that could be because traffic laws are only "suggestions". I was very lucky the traffic cop said I could go, looked at my name tag and said, "Please pray for me".

Mark and Taylor were the city map guys directing me as we went places. I was told the map I bought was the best available here but Mark decided he was going to buy me a GPS, the map, well let's just say the map left a lot to be desired in finding where we needed to go. So Mark bought a GSP, got it all set up.

Scott wanted to walk around Guadalaupe, an area he served in, so we got a taxi to take us there. One of the things Taylor wanted to do while he was here was play basketball with some filipinos. Scott saw some filipino teenagers playing in an alley as were going around a corner so he yelled STOP! The taxi driver stopped, we paid him and all bailed out right there, I had no clue what was happening, but knew I better keep up. We crossed the street to where the basketball game was going on, Scott asked if he and Mark could play, but the kids refused to let them, but were willing for Taylor to play with them. He play for about an hour and held his own with them, I don't know how he did it, because even though it was evening it was still hot and Taylor wasn't used to the heat, but you couldn't tell, if he wasn't so tall and blonde you'd have thought he lived there, of course they called him Justin.

Tuesday:

We had tickets to go Corrigador Island so I was out the door of my apartment by 6:15 am, caught a taxi and went to McAllister to pickup the guys, I had the taxi wait. Sister McAllister had fixed breakfast, pancakes and bacon, it was yummy. We took a taxi because it was easier and cheaper then buying gas and paying for parking.

We had to be at the dock by 7:00 am and board the ferry by 8:00 am. The ferry ride was close to 1 1/2 hours. We saw great World War II historical sites, our fee included a very nice buffet lunch at the best hotel on the island, in fact it is the only one. It was very nice, food good and a beautiful view. Then we saw more historical sites, it was my second visit but still enjoyable, Scott and Mark had been there 26 years ago, they rode in bankas (paddle boats) back then and there were several improvements and additions in the things to see.

We got back to the dock about 3:00 pm and finally found a taxi to take us back to the apartment. I know we did something else, I just can't remember what.

Wednesday:

This was to be our temple morning. Mark set the GPS up in the car for me, so I could find my way to McAllister to pick them up and go to the temple, Taylor was going to do baptism for the dead and Scott and Mark were hoping to be witnesses or even do some baptizing.

I was on my way when Scott called and said they could catch a ride with McAllister's driver and I could go straight to the temple. Let me just say, I am electronically challenged and I tried to follow the GPS, dropped it several times because I couldn't get it to stick to the dashboard, of course it is suppose to stick to the windshield, who would guess? I became lost, two hours later I was still lost. The guys had no way to contact me, I hadn't borrowed a phone for Scott yet. I was running out of gas, so I decided to call the PAO office and ask one of our drivers, Ralphie, to give me directions. As I was talking on the phone to Ralphie and driving, I got pulled over by a traffic policeman, could the day get any worse! Ralphie said to let him talk to the policeman, when they were done talking the policeman told me he would get his motorcycle and lead me to where I wanted to go. I carefully followed him for quite a ways then he pulled over and said that was as far as his jurisdiction went and proceeded to give me directions to another street, he told me he was a christian and he would not give me a ticket. I am amazed at what wearing a missionary badge does for good.

To make a long story shorter, I was lost for another hour but I did finally find the temple. In my mind Scott, Taylor and Mark were in the temple doing baptisms and I was touring Metro Manila with my new GPS which I finally just turned off. The first thing Scott said to me when he saw me was, we are taking that GPS back to the store, but after I explained about dropping it, etc it was decided if I treated it right it would be a help to me.

While I was lost, the guys went in the foyer of the temple and then visited outside with several missionaries from the MTC. We went back in to see about doing baptisms and was told it would just be a couple of minutes, but that can be 20 minutes, 2 hours, etc here, so decided that just being in the foyer and visiting with the missionaries was a good experience.

We dropped by the Quezon City Mission home, my mission so I could introduce Scott, Taylor and Mark to my mission president, President DeLaMare, so proud of all of them. Scott knows someone who worked with President DeLaMare in Salt Lake and had sent via Scott a gift to give the DeLaMares.

We made it a short visit, we were to meet Maricel/ Ed and their family, Earl 16, Adam 12, Erika 10 and Abish 6 and go to the Taal volcano. It is a dead volcano that has a lake inside it with two other volcano, one dead and one live. It was beautiful and amazing to know we were standing in a volcano. It was pretty windy and they had kites for sell, so Mark, Scott and Taylor each bought a kite and helped the kids fly them, it was fun. Maricel had made a picnic lunch for us. It was kind of chilly, so we just made sandwiches, etc., out of the back of their van, it worked great.

The live volcano began erupting inside a couple of days ago, so they have evacuated the people living by it and the park where we were. I drove home in the dark, my first time here, because I am not good at night driving, but we made it safe and sound.

Thursday:

Finally after Mark being so patient, we went to Las Pinas an area he served in. Mark had been in contact with one of his baptisms family member and she offered to meet ride with us and show us around Las Pinas to find some other people Mark knew. Her name was Miles. I can't remember all the details but at some point Mark realized that Miles was not the sister he thought she was, he showed Miles some pictures he had brought with him and found that the sister he knew had died but we were already committed to taking her with us. It was a interesting day. Miles had her own agenda, we went to her cousins home under the pretense that the apartment Mark lived in was right near by, it wasn't and then we went to her sisters home under the pretense that the apartment was right across the street, it wasn't. Of course landmarks, etc have changed so much Mark had a hard time recognizing much. Miles had a good heart, she took us to lunch at Jolly Bees, like our McDonalds, bought us mangos and bananas and some pandasol bread. She just about talked our ears off .

After we dropped Miles off, we went to the Manila Mission Office, it is the same one Scott and Mark served in, they were like a couple of young boys in a candy store, it was fun for me to watch and listen. The office senior couple gave us free reign to look around and go in all the rooms, etc. Scott and Mark said he was just the same, same paneling, same counter they ate at in the kitchen, etc. What a moment for them!

We invited Eva and Jovan Adriano and their family to the apartment for dinner. Scott taught Eva the discussions when she was 16, but her parents would not let her be baptized, when she was 18 she was baptized, married in the temple and has four children, Garen 21, Valerie 18, Kevin 16 and Sharleen 6. It was a tender moment for both of them and we had a great visit, Scott learned about her life, she is a counselor in the stake primary presidency.

Her husband thought Scott had a goatee, he does in the picture on facebook, so Jovan had grown one so Scott would feel comfortable. Jovan is a great guy and has taken on the task of keeping me safe. Jovan and Eva call me Mom and Jovan says he is my favorite son, I didn't tell him that for most of Douglas' life he has believed he is my favorite.

Friday:

We met Eva/Jovan at Calamba and they took us to Pagsanjan Falls. Mark and Scott visited there as missionaries and wanted to relive some of the fun with Taylor.

The boats are those long skinny ones that only hold two people and two guides one on each end of the boat. I told Scott I was going to sit in the car and take a nap but he insisted I go, so go I did, it was a good ONE time experience for me.

Mark and Taylor in one boat and Scott and me in another boat. We floated up the river, over rapids, the walls of the river were like being in a Indiana Jones movie, lots of jungle, echoes, etc. The guides really work hard rowing and getting the boat up and over swallow spots in the rapids, they were amazing and interesting to watch as they did their jobs. When it came time to go under the falls, we switched to a sitting on a raft with helmets on our heads. Mark didn't wear a helmut and was told if he went under the falls without a helmut, he would come out balded. he decided to take a chance and was happy to still feel hair on his head when we came out from under the falls. Scott and Taylor were the very first ones sitting on the front of the raft, when we stopped under the falls them and Mark jumped off the raft into the water to fool around, I justed wanted everyone to get back on the raft and get out from under the falls. Of course we were soaked to the skin, shoes and all, at the end we were provided an opportunity to change clothes and given a towel and had a shower available.

I loved the floating down up and down the river, but I for sure was ready for a nap when we were done. Eva/Jovan took us to Jovan's brother house and fixed lunch for us, it was the first time I had been in a filipino's home, it was small, nice and homey. Eva insisted I take a nap and I didn't argue, so she took me to an open air nipa hut that was about 20 feet off the ground. There was a CR (comfort room, ie bathroom) as we entered and then up some narrow bamboo steps to the bedroom with a veranda. They gave me some pillows and the mattress was comfortable. Just as I was falling asleep Sharleen came up, she laid down beside me for a couple of minutes, then danced for me, asked if I talked Talalgo, when I said no, she run off to find something else to do and I slept for about an hour. Scott, Taylor and Mark went with Jovan to look around and shop.

We traveled to Siniloan where I had a mapping appointment. It was fun for me to have Scott, Taylor and Mark see the biggest part of what I do here on my mission. The mapping usually takes up to 2 hours to complete, this one took about 1 1/2 hours.

Then we went to San Pablo and spent the night in a hotel called "City Inn". We wouldn't recommend you stay there. First we were the only customers, which was our first sign that all might not be well, second we had to climb a spiral staircase to the second floor, they opened all four doors to let us choose which rooms we wanted to stay in. The guys were mannerly and let me decide first, after looking at all of four of them, I choose what I thought was the coziest and stepped in to check out the bathroom to see one of those gekos trying to climb the wall. Mark said I jumped out of the bathroom with the agility of a 16 year old, I chose another room.

The place really offered just the bare minimum, there were showers but no hot water. No one got much rest, Taylor said scratched all night. Most of the hotels Sister Clark and I stay in when we travel are at least a step above this one, they do have glasses available in the bathroom. We always take bottled water to drink and brush our teeth. There was a pretty nice TV in the room Mark was in, so guess he and Scott watched it for a bit during the night.

Saturday:

We went to Cecilia Bermundo's home, Scott tracked her and family out while serving in the Ligao area, Mother, Father and two daughters. Cecilia got a job as an English professor at a college in San Pablo, so they all moved to San Pablo. Cecilia married in the temple and has three children, VJ 12 (she was at a competition so didn't meet her), CJ, a son 11 and Valerie 10. Cecilia's mother was there, what a sweet lady, only 64 but very frail looking. Her husband died two years ago and her other daughter, Christine died last October of Luekemia. It was such a tender, sweet greeting for Scott, Cecilia and her Mother and very emotional.

Filipino people are so grateful to the missionaries who bring them the gospel, everyone you talk to wants to reconnect with the missionaries who taught them, just to say thank you. We visited for about an hour and then had to leave, but fortunate for me I will be seeing Cecilia and her family as often as possible, they come to the temple frequently and my office is just across the street.

Scott drove back to Manila and we went looking for a chapel in Marikina where Mark served. We followed the GPS and went through some very poor parts of Manila, finally finding the chapel. I was so glad for Mark but the only person there was a bishop getting ready to leave the parking lot, however visiting with him, Mark found his father was the bishop when Mark was serving at that chapel. He was able to walk around inside the church building, there had been some severe damage to the building during a typhoon, it is near the river, so there were some changes, but Mark said it looked pretty as he remembered it.

We visited the American cemetery, it was an awesome sight, so well kept and just a feeling of reverence. The young missionaries are always taken to the cemetery, the mission president speaks to them and then they have a testimony meeting, I'm told it is a special time and a good beginning to get the feel of the Philippines for the young missionaries.

I have been fortunate to visit several World War II historical sites here: Corrigador Island, Bay where MacArthur returned in Leyte, Bataan death camp, American cemetery in Manila.

On our way back to the apartment, Scott was driving, he did not see the no left turn sign and turned left, the policeman was right there. Of course he asked for Scott's drivers license, I'm in the back seat repeatingly telling Scott not to give it to him, after some exchanges it was settled that a 300 peso bribe would work, however the smallest peso we had was 500 and of course the policeman did not offer to make change. We were very glad to arrive at the apartment and the guys caught a taxi to the McAllister who served them pizza.

The week was extremely busy, at one point on Saturday one of the guys said they didn't want to hurt my feelings but they were ready to go home, I told them I was ready for them to leave, they had worn me to a frazzle.

Sunday:

Brother McAllister took the guys to the PAO to meet Eva/Jovan who took them to the airport. Jovan works at the airport. I drove over to the PAO for a last short visit and to say goodbye.

I asked Taylor how he felt about his visit and he said it was good but he really had wanted to drive in the Philippines, so I handed him the car keys and said let's go, He drove and I rode with him down the end of the street, he turned around come back and parked, now he can say he drove in the Philippines.

It was hard to say goodbye, couldn't stop hugging, but they finally got into the car and headed down the street. I started to follow them for a ways and go back to my apartment, but the thought crossed by mind, "there goes my family, I need to be with family, not alone in my apartment," so I turned around and went to the mission home and watched conference and had lunch with the other senior missionaries.

It was just the right thing to do and I felt the love of the missionaries and the understanding of having family leave, we have all been through it. Conference was especially touching to me, my heart and mind were open and receptive to the counsel given. The Lord always knows the exact setting that uplifts us and helps us.