January 9, 2015 - Senior Couples trip to Corregidor Island

Pictures from our trip to Corregidor Island.  This island is at the mouth of Manila Bay and is in the shape of a tadpole.  It was the place of two battles during WWII.  At the beginning of WWII the Americans and the Philippines occupied the island.  Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Japanese attacked Corregidor and took possession of the island and also Batan and the Batan Death March began.  Then in 1944 (I think) the Americans came and took back the island.  The ruins and guns associated with these battles are still there.  It was a most interesting and sobering experience to see these sights.  War is terrible.

Pictures taken from the boat as we left Olongapo a motored to the island.

The Coast Guard Station where they train.

Elder and Sister Woodruff and Elder and Sister Lund as we leave from the dock in Olongapo.

Our crew.  We placed our lives in their hands (haha). The water was really choppy.  It was quite a ride.  The ride back was even more scary, but you all know me and water.

The outriggers on the boat was a bamboo pole.

Elder Weber

The island in the distance

It was a cloudy day which was nice because it was cooler.

The dock at the island.

Debris in the water that washes there from Manila.  

The island has a network of tunnels.  In one of the tunnels was a 1000 bed hospital.  During the battle when the Japanese were bombing there were as many as 1500 men in the hospital. You can read on line about the battle. Pictures of the tunnels are next.

This is a diagram of the tunnel system.  We walked down the main tunnel from the end where the yellow dot is to the opposite end.

Elder Weber with Elder and Sister Woodruff at the entrance of the tunnel.

At several of the ancillary tunnels they had dioramas depicting historic events.  They were quite interesting but it was dark and there were a lot of people and I couldn't get close enough to get good pictures.  This is the best one. 

The next pictures are of some of the guns that are still on the island.

This gun was huge. 

Bullet holes in the armor of one of the guns.

The next pictures are of the memorials and some scenery

General Douglas Mc Carthur statue 

Perpetual flame

Looking back at Manila

Plumaria Tree

We saw several monkeys

The Lighthouse on the island

This plant had many different colors on the flower

These pictures are of the bombed out barracks and buildings that are left standing on the island

We finished up our trip at Subic Bay where we had dinner at a Texas Bar-B-Q restaurant.  We had a very enjoyable time together.

Sunset on Subic Bay

At the Texax Bar-B-Q

December 27, 2014, the last Saturday for baptisms this year.  We had about 200 baptisms to get to reach this year's goal of 1650 baptisms at the beginning of November.  I don't know yet if the mission reached the goal.  Saturday we went to three baptisms in our Zone.  There was suppose to be one more but when we arrived at the Branch chapel, no one was there.  Don't know what happened.  These are pictures that we took.

Elder Thacker from Highland UT and Elder Escosio in the Pindangan Branch.  All of these children are over the age of 9 so they count as convert baptisms.

Most of the members who attend the baptisms and who attend church for that matter are young people.  Most of these young people come to church without any support from parents.  Pretty amazing I think.

I finally got in a picture. Usually I am the one taking the picture.

Baptism in Branch 1

Elder Dumanjug on the right and Elder Van Wey an elder from India on the left in the San Clemente Branch.