Saying Goodbye to Elder Rondilla

Usually President has the APs (Assistant to the President) spend their last several cycles back in the trenches but he decided to keep Elder Rondilla as an AP until the end of his mission. In the past we always plan a special dinner for the AP a few days before he goes to his last area. We let the AP select their favorite meal and then we serve that.
About a week before Elder Rondilla was to go home, I asked him to start thinking about what food he'd like to be served at his farewell dinner. I expected him to say adobo, or some other filipino dish. Instead, he surprised us by asking that I make American-Style Pizza, salad with white sauce (Ranch Dressing) and Blueberry Cheesecake! Is he Americanized or what! After hunting high and low for good cheese, and real cream cheese we were able to pull it off.
There is a funny story behind the salad with white sauce. Last summer a few days after we arrived President set out to interview each missionary. While he was interviewing I visited with the companion. I asked about their families, their health, and their favorite foods among other things. Elder Rondilla confessed to me that when I asked him about his favorite food he thought, what would a sophistacated American woman want to hear from me. And he knew that Americans liked salad. So he answered, "salad." WHen I asked him what kind he said "with white sauce." The funny thing was he had never ever tried salad, let alone with white sauce. So when he came in for training as a zone leader I prepared spaghetti for lunch and made a green salad with white sauce (ranch dressing) especially for him. He later told the other missionaries that it was his fault, because he had requested it and he was sorry it was so terrible! (He didn't like it.) But after eating it on numerous occassions he developed a taste for it.



 A few days later Ed and Winnie Delos Reyes hosted a farewell dinner for him at their restaurant. He was really spoiled by the time he left!