Church in Manila, part 3

Pasay 2nd Ward

Since our new house is not only in a different ward, but a different stake, we had to make yet another first entrance to a ward.

The first major difference was that this ward started at 1 pm, whereas our other wards had been at 9 am and 11 am. Afternoon traffic in Manila is much worse than the morning traffic. We left at 12:30, even though the church was only a few miles away on the map. After three U-turns (since there are no left turns) we started looking for our street. Unfortunately, Sunday markets were in full swing and blocking entrance to several streets. None of the streets were labeled anyway, so we just started trying streets in the vicinity.

After passing some landmarks we could tell we were getting close, but the street we were on led directly through the middle of a major market. We were surrounded by jeepneys and swarms of people. There was also a rather large truck trying to turn around. We wound up sitting in essentially the same place for about 25 minutes waiting to get through the market. We finally found the church at 1:45.

We caught the last 15 minutes o the primary program, which was quite endearing/entertaining. The first musical number we saw was two five-year olds singing a duet. They were okay musically, but each kept trying to put the microphone directly in from of themselves. The full primary ended singing “I am a Child of God” in Tagalog, which was nice.

Differences from previous wards:

- More Tagalog – 90% of the discussion in classes was in Tagalog. Much more concentration needed.

- Bigger building. Our old ward was crammed into a very small building on very small streets. This was a 2-story building with plenty of room. They also have an organ (first one we have seen here).

- Reverence. For our second week, we arrived 10 minutes early and entered a very quiet chapel. We thought the meeting had already started, but it had not. People were just reverent. How novel.