August 9 - A Visit to Angeles

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello! I put the subject of this letter as 'A visit to Angeles" but just so you don't get it mixed up with Los Angeles, this one is pronounced ang hel ees.

Kent and I drove to Angeles one rainy day. We had a great meeting with an assistant and the FM group there. Driving back wasn't so bad until we got near Manila. We were on a highway, using Waze, and it took us off and on the highway trying to get around traffic. We were in neighborhoods and drove down streets too narrow for 2 cars to pass. It is impossible to describe the traffic but just imagine yourself in Mario Cart with the most possible number of players and they are shooting bombs, or whatever they shoot, at you. It was the most crazy so far but Kent did great. It took us almost 2 hours to go less than 10 miles. I guess the upside is that we got to see more of the neighborhoods in the city. :) Picture 4 is of the Angeles City sign and picture 5 is of the Angeles city streets.

On the amusing side - Each weekend for a month the mall around us has a theme. This month's theme is rainbows and unicorns (see picture 1). In the center of the mall, they have vendors selling many things related to rainbows and unicorns and they were playing a cake decorating video on the big screen (see picture 3) For instance they sell fancy cotton candy of multiple colors(see the girl in the foerground of the picture of the cake video), Krispy Kreme (yes, the Philippines has Krispy Kreme) has special doughnuts for the theme, someone selling unicorn headbands - you get the idea. On Saturday afternoon they have a show for children. The MC was dressed up in pink and a rainbow long tutu type skirt. Three girls also dressed up and videoke (see picture 2). They even had a volunteer get her hair colored rainbow colors. It was quite entertaining to see what they did but I don't think we'll go again next week.:)

As we work to get technology specialists throughout the Philippines, we find there really are few places with consistent internet connections. I've wondered about us getting the specialists in place before the internet is. I was reading in 1 Nephi 3 about Nephi's reaction when Lehi told him about going back to get the brass plates and a new meaning came into my heart. Nephi states, 

"for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

I feel if we do all we can to prepare, the internet will become available and the people will be ready for all the wonderful media and other things the church has to offer through the internet. What a blessing it can be for all to be gathered in through this technology no matter where we are on earth!

Have a good week.

Love,
The Tuckers