THE NEW YEAR

The New Year, 2012 has arrived!!  Is this the year that the world ends?

  

            We celebrated by doing our work with 71 missionaries in residence—business as usual.  But, on New Year’s Eve, we excused the missionaries from their usual planning and companion study to meet together and watch the movie—“The Other Side of Heaven!”   One missionary said, “I learned so many new principles about missionary work!”

 

            We gave an ice-cream cone to each missionary--they love ice-cream!!  We sent them all to bed before 10:00 p.m.

 

            Now, here’s the news—for several days leading up to New Year’s Eve, we noted the little firework stands set up all over the city side-walks.  Hundreds’ thousands of firework stands!  Remember the population in the Manila area approaches 21 million.   Along White Plains Avenue leading to the Temple, the Area Offices and the MTC, we note rows of these stands crowded right next to each other.  Going to Wyoming to buy cool fireworks is nothing compared to the business of buying fireworks in Manila!  You can buy anything in this world in the world of fireworks!  No laws, no restrictions, no restraints (as far as I know)!

   

            Starting at 10 or 11 on New Year’s Eve, the fire-fun begins!  At 12:00 midnight an enormous canopy of erupting light explodes all over the enormous city.  A high-decibel cadence and cacophony of deafening sound pops and bangs everywhere!  All we had to do is lay in our upper-story bed, open the window shades in our apartment and look out through our large windows to behold the light night-sky surging with continuous burgeoning fireworks--the fire-crackers, the rockets, the geysers, the screaming shooting stars, the unfolding colors one layer on top of another in a sequence of fire-bright-light!

 

These brilliant scenes along with other multitudinous inventions of fire celebration built up to a crescendo of consuming conflagration!  I was recently told that 60% of the injuries in the Philippines come from fireworks!  I hate fireworks!

            Have you been to or seen the Stadium of Fire on the 4^th of July in Provo? To Manila on New Year’s Eve, the Provo’s Stadium of Fire is like lighting a match to a candle compared to starting an enormous raging consuming forest fire.

 

Are we proud of these modern missionaries?  We went outside the next morning, Sunday morning, New Year’s Day, but we came back in.  We couldn’t breathe!   I know some of the missionaries watched them from their upper residence rooms in the new MTC buildings. I asked them if they had seen the fireworks last night.  One answered, “What fireworks?!”

Once again, we love them and we love you! 

The Taylor’s

Dad & Mom

George & Debbie

GT&DT