Our temple trip definitely met some obstacles along the way, but we did it, all 35 of us! And I think we learned a lot about ourselves and each other throughout the process, and I'm so glad Eric was able to put together this seemingly impossible adventure.
It was a spiritual & humbling experience. And fun too - thanks to good company.
These top 2 photos were taken by Del Benson. Missing from the top pic: Del obviously, Gloria & Liz. (Also, Kim & Wandalyn Wally who, unfortunately, couldn't make it to P.I. because their passports never arrived, despite being expedited/over-nighted. That was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip since their family was sealed, but I know they'll have another opportunity.)
Mark & Elias Magabo. (sealed to their mother/wife who was sick and passed away while they were taking the discussions)
Ice Skating at the Mall of Asia. They even had snow falling from the ceiling!
Mall of Asia
Tagaytay Volcano
All of us crammed into a small jeepney for about 6 hours total. (No A/C, just windows and "Would you Rather?")
Streets of Manila
Zip lines in Tagaytay!
And, finally, our celebrity sighting. David Archuleta & David Cook had a concert @ the Mall of Asia on Sat, but that's not when we saw them (we were at the mall on Fri.) David Cook was on our flight back to Tokyo, and we actually spotted David Archuleta at the temple! Apparently, he just popped into a youth group's baptism session and caused a little bit of a frenzy with kids and even temple workers requesting his autograph. We saw him as he was leaving the temple to get into a van with tinted windows. We didn't get any autographs or pictures...Diane Esplin and I just ran up to his van right as the sliding door was closing so we just waved, and he waved back.
I can't take credit for this photo, but it was taken just a few minutes before we saw him.
