The Time is Far Spent; Singing at Shaw Center Mall

Sun 12/28/2014 

The Time is Far Spent

Maligayang Pasko!  (Tagalog lesson:  Maligayang means “joyful, happy;”  Pasko means “Christmas.”)

I'll admit, I had an intense Christmas! On Monday, we went on a chase to get and then and watch "The Go-Getter" with the whole zone and then get to know the zone better. You should watch the video, too. On Tuesday, we got up early to practice the Nativity scene at Buendia Chapel before the Christmas party. When the party started, we played a bunch of games and then we got a special surprise appearance of President Ostler as Santa Claus. I'll admit I'm proud of him! How many mission presidents have the guts to be Santa Claus?

The Nativity was very spiritual. I was lucky to the pianist for all of the songs, and to be with some remarkable singers! It was just awesome. 

The shepherds

Angels getting ready to sing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"

I so wanted to be the "star" of the nativity, but I handed it over to Elder Amante, who handled it so well.

After that, we practiced with the Mandaluyong zone for their performance in Shaw Center Mall. We thought it would take a minute, but it turned into 3 hours, so we couldn't work. 

But it was alllll worth it! On Tuesday, we had two sets of songs between 11 and 1, and brought joy to people who came into the mall. They liked us so much in the first set they gave us free McDonalds! Then after the second set, we were told they wanted us there the whole day, blowing our plans for exchanges and such out of the water. We sang, and then invited people to have a free DVD (Joy to the World) delivered to their door. I'm sure we looked like salespeople to some. We ran out of songs for a while, so I had to improvise piano stuff hooked up to speakers even outside the mall.  

This picture is of two sisters in my past district and my white elephant gift which is Jerry from Tom and Jerry (I think).

All the Americans in my batch.  Sadly, the time is far spent for the sisters!  This is their last transfer.

The whole batch coming in.

Elder Diamse is also leaving.  I have tremendous respect for him.  He is one of my true leaders in the mission.

It was suppppper cold, so I bought and wore a jacket for the first time in my mission.

All-n-all, it was a fantastic week. I could write on, but I'm out of time. 

Elder Thurber