The view was beautiful and refreshing. Someone had constructed a tower of sticks onto which several of the ladies climbed to get a better view. Some Filipinos had trucked soft drinks and coconuts, watermelon, and bottled water, all to sell to the tourists.

Gail’s handler apparently was experienced, but Owen’s handler said this was his first trip. He told us he was 19 years old and apparently had never been very far from the villages around there. He spoke fairly good English. He was interested that we were religious missionaries. He said he knew an important religious person . . . the archbishop. He asked if we prayed each day and said he did. He said his boss paid him P50 ($1.25) and that he would only make one trip that day. He got a generous tip.
Back across the lake, up the hill in a Jeepney, onto the bus for a ride to lunch. Along the way we stopped at a hotel just to see the view of Taal from across this side of the lake. We had lunch at a place called “Sonja’s.” Fairly nice food, almost American. She had a large flower garden, so the sister missionaries all enjoyed a stroll along her blossomed paths.

The bus took the long way home, down, around Taal Lake, and up the other side of Laguna Lake. That put us on the east side of Manila in the hills. This took several hours longer, but was an interesting drive. However, the CRs (“comfort rooms”) were too many hours between. We went through the small village where we first were assigned to attend a branch – Tanay [ta-NIGH]. It was dark, so we didn’t really notice anything familiar. Down the mountain, back into Manila, and on to Quezon City and the Temple. We got home about 9:00 p.m.