Life is Good! We have a Mall!

We've been watching a "mall" going up in Ilagan, a town about a half hour from here. Our hope was that it would be done sometime before July 2013, when we go back home. It seemed like they were progressing at a snail's pace and there was no hope of it opening for months to come. Then one Saturday we heard that it had actually opened. We dropped everything and ran up to see for ourselves. Only about 6 stores are open at this point but one is a wonderful, spacious, clean grocery store. President said he didn't know if he'd ever seen me that happy. Truly I had the urge to do cartwheels up and down the aisles. (I had a dress on and remembered that I hadn't done a carthwheel for over 20 years and so I restrained myself.)

It's funny. Other than food, there is nothing I need from a mall, but just knowing that we have one made me feel like the humanity here had just become civilized! At our recent Mission President's seminar I realized that we were the only mission in the Philippines without a mall. So now, I think I can make it through the next 2.5 years.

We met the zone leaders from Ilagan and enjoyed lunch at a restaurant that serves unlimited rice. I'm sure they will change their policy when they see how much rice our missionaries can eat!