Grandma the Great: Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

I hope everyone had or will have a wonderful day today. Mother's are honored. President Hinckley said: "You have nothing in this world more precious than your children. When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out...Do not trade your birthright as a mother for some bauble of passing value...The baby you hold in your arms will grow quickly as the sunrise and the sunset of the rushing days." I testify to that one and know the joy of looking at my children and their wives, husbands and their children almost from a rocker.

We are having a great week. We have been visiting sisters' apartments that were supposedly not safe. We found that they were except one, so we have been out there every day trying to fix it up either so they can move or get it fixed. They are wonderful girls -- one from St. George. They sure do want to move. Dad is fixing up the doors. Yesterday it took us 3 hours to drive to their house because of traffic. The Elders used to live there so basically you have to burn it down and start again. JK.

This is Elder Sheffer speaking now -- We asked our new missionary Senior couple, Elder and Sister Barlow from N. Ogden to come with us to Bataan Peninsula where the famous Bataan Death march occurred in 1942. We drove for 3 hours in the Toyota they gave us while our van was being fixed. It was an unexpectdedly nice freeway (toll road) North of Quezon City. We passed markers commemorating the km of the march from the southern tip 120 km (80 miles) where they were put on trains for I think 40 miles. Then walked another 6 km to an infamous concentration camp. 60,000- 80,000 prisoners American and Filipino were marched for 3 days without food or water. They do not know how many died because some escaped into the jungles, therefore the unknown number. I saw a monkey on the side of the road. 15,000 men died or were killed on the march. 5,000 American and 10,000 Filipino. In the Japanese culture at that time you fought to the death - never surrender. If you stumble or surrender you are less than an animal. So the Japanese soldiers practiced their Samari skills by riding a horse and chopping heads off or bayonetted them. The train cars were built to house 30-40 people. They put 100 in each car. Many died from suffocation. On the way back home we saw a huge cross on a mountain. We drove up and had a picnic 1/2 way up at a picnic site. There was trash everywhere (making it so unappetizing) Ironically there was a sign posted"No littering,P1000 fine or jail" We arrived at the top of some steep climbs. It was a huge cement cross (36 stories tall). A memorial to JP Rizal who was shot in the back by Spaniards as a revolutionary in 1896. One side was a memorial to the death march, another to great women. We rode an elevator to the top and in the arms of the cross we walked out and sat in chairs and looked over the country. It was an enjoyable day and one we needed to get out of the conjestion of the city. We have been working 10-12 hour days.

From Sister Sheffer --

So I will put in a few of the pictures of the death march and also some of the streets we drive around on. Enjoy. And truly hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day

This is a Bahay Cubo (house hut). I want to bring one of these home with me.