In May, I traveled to Davao City, Philippines, for an assignment to write about the Davao Philippines Temple dedication.
The travel took a long time. First I flew from Salt Lake City to Seoul, South Korea, for 13 hours. Then I had a four-hour layover, then flew several hours from Seoul to Manila, Philippines. Then I had to stay overnight at a hotel in Manila (which was technically an airport hotel but still took a bus ride then a long walk to get to), then in the morning I did the long walk and bus ride back to the right terminal to then fly from Manila to Davao, which is on the southern island.
First leg of travel selfie.
Part of my walk across a bridge to the hotel in Manila.
One of the airport waiting areas.
Elevator selfie on the second day of travel.
Oh, and the Area offices have a rule that if white people from the Church visit the southern island, they need a security guard. By the time I landed I was quite tired and happy to see my guy. He made me too afraid to leave the hotel in Davao, but he did take me to the mall across the street to look around. Mostly I wrote in the hotel room before our Church News photographer arrived with his wife and I didn't feel so lonely.
Here's the view from the hotel window in Davao.
Scenes from the car ride to the temple grounds on Saturday.
The Philippines is 15 hours ahead of Utah, so while it was Sunday, May 3 for me, it was Saturday for my family and coworkers. I think this was my morning on Sunday but Saturday afternoon for JB when we did a call.
In the elevator on the way to the temple on Sunday.
Photographer Jeff snapped some photos of me on the temple grounds. It was SO very hot and sunny.
Some of my pictures from the temple grounds.
The Filipino people are so kind, thoughtful, funny, nice and spiritual. The gospel is growing very quickly there; it's the fourth-biggest country in regards to Church membership.
Here are all the stories I did from the Philippines:
And here are some pictures of the food I ate. I actually really liked it all. Lots of seafood and unique vegetables. The dessert was called Halo-Halo literally "Mix Mix."
Meanwhile, back home, they ate delicious chicken and sent me this picture!
Sunday night I started my long journey back, from Davao to Manila, then overnight at the hotel (but traveling with the photographer and his wife, we just took a taxi and it was much faster). Then Manila to Seoul, then Seoul to Salt Lake City, landing Monday afternoon SLC time though my body felt like it was Tuesday and I had missed sleep somewhere.
These are orchids at the Seoul (Incheon) airport. It was beautiful and clean, and I kept secretly hoping I would see a K-Drama or K-Pop star.
