Today is Monday November 5th and for us it is going to be Thanksgiving.  We have one of our couples going home this next week and so we where going to have a Farewell dinner for them.  So we are doing it Thanksgiving style.  I don't know how the Filipinos' will enjoy it, but it sounds good to us from the states.  It won't be the same as home.  There are so many food items that you can't get here.  I thought that I would make my 7-up jello salad.  We couldn't find lemon jello anywhere.  I could only find large marshmallows and  only in one store.  I decided that as hard as it is that I could cut them up smaller.  When I tried to open them they were all sticky and the bag is stuck to them.  I guess that is why they don't have a lot of things.  I told Bob that I would just forget about the salad, when one of the missionaries went shopping in a different area.  Her family lives there, and they found my jello.  So now I had everything but the whipping cream.  They do not have that here.  And I have purchased a few different things that might work.  It is hard to make anything that we made at home.   I am making rolls and have made a couple of small batches trying to learn how the oven works.  I hard black tops on the first and called one of my neighbors for help with my oven.  Another test trial last night.  They came out OK but they are so different from at home.  They are not as good.  (eggs, milk, sugar, salt)  are so different from ours.  The whites of the eggs are like water,  and the yolk goes flat and breaks. As we have said the milk is really different.  It is hard to make anything.  I took 4 rolls over to the neighbors last night and ask them if they thought that they would be OK.  So I have rolls to make today.  We have the one couple leaving but we had two new couples come last week.  And they said that there will be three more couples coming by the end of December.  That will be good.  They depend so much on us senior missionaries in the temple.  And we get pretty tired some days.  We will be glad for more help.  One of the sisters that came three weeks ago has been sick since she came.  She told us yesterday that she has lost weight and hasn't really felt good since she came.  She has bad legs and we are on our feet most of the day.  About the only time we sit is when we are on a session.  It is a real adjustment.                                                
They are putting the Christmas lights on the trees around the temple this week.  The people here say that the decorations here are the best in the city.  I don't know what they would think about our temple square at Christmas.  I wish that they could see that.  They love Christmas and as we have said that it starts here in September.  We have heard the music since we came.  And that was our prelude music in church this week.  Our temple is small but we love our temple here.  They spirit is so strong there.  Saturdays are so busy.  We had three buses sitting out front all day.  Families coming from the provinces and they stay all day.  We have kids running around in the annex and on the grounds.  Teens doing baptisms and then out on the grounds trying to kill time waiting for their families.  They do a couple of session and they take turns taking care of the children.  It is some sight.  People a sleep on the couches in the lobby.  It takes them hours to get here.  They are a very faithful people.  The gospel has made a big difference in their lives.                                              
We have a little store across the street that we go to for things and the church has made a tunnel under the street for us, but sometimes we don't want to climb all the stairs.  So we try to cross the street with all the cars coming at us.  You have to put up your hands and try to get them to stop for you.  But some of them will not.  We say a prayer for help in going and another when we get back.  We are so thankful that we make it.  We are enjoying it here.  And I am so glad that we have each other.  I could not do this without Bob.  We don't get to see each other that much in the temple and we are so happy when we are able to have lunch together once in a while.  (Our Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches)  We eat so much bread that we are afraid that we will get fat.  We still can not eat much of their food. But maybe we will learn.  They eat so much fish and rice..