Last Mission Thoughts

The ride is over, the time is gone, and as We look forward to seeing our loved ones back home, We hate to think of leaving our new family here. The love we found and enjoyed this last 18 months is only found in the Mission field. A very pure, unconditional, and open feeling of love that radiates from the people with pure, unconditional faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, children of God, we look different, but "all are alike unto Christ."

Somehow all the problems, difficulties, differences, they all seem to disappear as the time to depart approaches, and all the fun, all the tears, all the faith-promoting and heart-wrenching experiences come to the forefront of our minds. We can only hope our friends here will remember us, as we remember them. "When one door closes, another opens", but still, its hard to go. In a word, unforgettable.

The Trip Home

The airport in Taipai was so different, it was beautiful ! They had a room with Orchids you could relax in. A green room with plants and massage chairs. It was very clean.

Airport in Manila, waiting with other missionaries. And waiting and waiting and waiting...

Boracay by the Beach

In Boracay it was a different kind of beautiful. Beautiful flowers along with an interesting pig head. It is a great vacation spot for all of Asia.

Beautiful Baguio

We went to Baguio, which looks like Flagstaff, high in the mountains. We stayed a beautiful lodge. Ate wonderful food ! It was chilly at night, something we had not felt for a long time.

Going Away Parties

Sister Aquino decided there should be a BIG going away party for us, with lots of our favorite food. Everyone should come and take part and do some kind of entertainment. She always said that was the Filipino style, so no matter how much work it was for her she always made sure that every dinner was wonderful and it always was.

People at the party.

More people at the party.

Same people at the Party. After we ate most everyone did a little entertaining, a form of saying goodby to us.

Couples - The Jones, Snows and Us.

All of the grilling was done by the Catalogo's.

Ruth and Eddie getting a bite.

Sister Kimberlin's favorite, large shrimp.

As always , plenty of good food. The Aquino's are wonderful cooks.

Branch Going Away Party

Elder Kimberlin with the Pres. Lambino, Sister Vista, Sister Lambino. These are a few of the pictures we took at the Branch going away party. It was happy and sad all at once. We thought maybe we could say goodby gracefully but every one followed us to the parking lot. It really did become like we belonged there. We loved those people so much, and they had so much love to give us back.

Always, at any good Branch party , intertainment ! Lots of dancing and singing.

And games for everyone, every age.

Elder Kimberlin with the members.

Sisters in Zion singing our last song together.

Sister Fernandez , she is the happy one, and our biggest supporter, with her Mom and Husband.

Bro. Neal, Jerome and his fiance. Plenty of food at the party !




Mission Home the last day.....

Elder Din, Elder Ruiz, Elder Kimberlin, Sister Kimberlin, Elder Perez, Elder Atacador

Last day at the mission home. Sister Aquino, Me and Ruth , Sister Hernandez. This is early in the afternoon before all the tears started. We took no pictures of that event, but it will be in our hearts forever.

People We Worked With In Town

The lady in the pink is Merlyn, it was her Happy Birthday so Sister Aquino and I took her a hat and a cake. Merlyn helped so much with our electric bills for the missionary apartments. At first I thought maybe she didn't like us so much because we could not understand each other over the phone and she would be impatient with me, but we turned out to be friends.

These are the guards at the bank. The man on the left saved our lives one day. We were with the new couple the Jones, helping them get their accounts set up and we left the blue binder (with all the money in it) behind. I thought we had it because we had a blue binder, but it turns out it was Sister Jones' and the money binder was left at the bank, for hours. This guard saw what had happened and when we walked up he had a big smile on his face. He had put it in his drawer for me. This is truly amazing because he is so poor and his little girl has cancer and they were just starting the treatments. So next time we went we took brownies, brownies make every thing better.

Across from the bank is the Reflexology Spa and for $8 you could sit in a recliner and get you feet soaked and worked on for 30 min. We became really good friends with these young ladies.

Doesn't Elder Kimberlin look so happy !

These are some of the bank people we got to know. Andy is the guy on the left with his hands in his pockets, he always helped us, not just with the money but with where to go eat and important info like that. We cannot say enough about how wonderful the people were to us everywhere we did our mission bussiness. We miss them.

The New Suits

Guard at the grocery store, there are guards at every entrance to every store, always with a big gun.

The Tailor and his wife, very nice people. They work in the small shop, about 14x14 feet.

Getting all the info. We picked out beautiful cashmere material, it never wrinkles, and looks beautiful.

The tailor was able to guess the waist size without measuring. Elder Kimberlin had two suits made, each one costs about $80

Winding down in November

These pictures go with the turkey at the bottom. Sorry....

Elder Ko during a break.

Treats at zone conference. Do you see the excitment on their faces ?

This picture does not show her beauty. Her face looked like a beautiful porcelin doll would look, flawless.

Elder Ko came to visit with his beautiful wife, they are Korean. They were both funny and a joy to be with. He is the one in the orange tie and she on his right. Elder Ko said we need more couples !

This is a trip to Mt. Samant. It is a big cross with an elevator to the top, it was beautiful. We all brought food and had a lunch together. Its at the location of the last great battle for Bataan in WWll.

We are so happy for Jerome Factura he finally found his true love.

She seemed to be crying a bit, she must have been so happy

We had a wedding. James Fernandez and his bride Jackie

We cook a turkey dinner at the mission home, many had not tasted turkey. They said they liked it but I don't think they liked it as much as we did !