Our Miraculous Mission Tour

What a delight to meet all 69 of our missionaries in person! We spent last week doing a mission tour, visiting all of our missionaries in the areas where they serve. Everywhere we went we felt the love of these amazing young people. Their love is a powerful force and I am convinced that 1 Timothy 4:12 is true for these remarkable young missionaries ... "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

We had delightful and inspiring encounters as we traveled and met with our missionaries. As we were leaving one apartment, the sisters said goodbye to us with the classic Filipino "finger heart," a heartwarming gesture that is brand new to me.

One remarkable sister gave us a hand-drawn picture of the two of us.

Missionaries offered us food ... sometimes we ate with them and sometimes they made food for us to take with us. 

Everywhere we went we were met with overwhelming love and we could feel the power of our missionaries' testimonies, their love of the gospel and their dedication to this great work. Our missionaries wholeheartedly exemplify this scripture: "And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace." (D&C 88:125)

Our mission tour was nothing short of a miracle. When mission leaders all over the world first arrive in their missions, doing a mission tour is a standard mission activity. For those of us who have arrived here in the Philippines during Covid, a mission tour is uncertain and unpredictable and somewhat risky and we acknowledge God's hand in making this miracle possible. 

In five days of travel, we passed through too many Covid checkpoints to count, at least 60, maybe more. Some checkpoints were unmanned and we drove straight through without stopping. Some were manned and we were waved right through without stopping. Some were manned and we had to stop and explain who we are ... we'd say missionaries and answer their question about where we'd come from (not heaven, just Subic) and where we were going, all the time pointing to our missionary name tags, which seem to be magic ... and then we were waved through. There were only a very few checkpoints, thankfully, where we had to stop and show our travel papers. We are APOR (Authorized Persons Outside of Residence) and we have proper documentation but still a checkpoint is a checkpoint and I had to channel my inner Obi Wan Kenobi ("these aren't the droids you're looking for"). It is nothing short of a miracle that we navigated all of this without getting turned back and we feel blessed and grateful that we were able to spend time in person with all 22 of our sisters and all 47 of our elders. 

In addition to navigating the Covid checkpoints, it's another miracle that we found any of the apartments. Not once did any of the apartment addresses work in Googlemaps (I actually think Google has some work to do to make their system compatible with the addresses here). So we learned to ask our missionaries ahead of time for a landmark, either a church or a business or a school, that was close to their apartment. Then we'd call when we were close and the missionaries would either direct us to their apartment over the phone or they'd walk to meet us on the road and we'd follow them back to their apartment. A few met us at the local chapel if it was close to their apartment. I think the missionaries admired our bravado in attempting a mission tour. They have been significantly confined to their apartments for over six months now and they were just as happy to see us as we were to see them. 

Our mission is about 120 miles top to bottom and covers four provinces, all of Bataan and Zambales (where we live) and a little bit of Pampanga and Pangasinan. Googlemaps tells me it's supposed to be just over a five hour drive from end to end. Experience now tells me, between the traffic and the checkpoints, that this drive takes at least eight hours or more. Our mission home is in the middle of our mission, which makes travel to either end more convenient. 

Our mission has mountains on one side and ocean on the other and we encountered beautiful vistas everywhere we went.

As we traveled our mission, we drove through many small towns along the highway.

The popularity of fast food has taken me by surprise here. After first being introduced to Jolibee's fast food by our young office sisters, we quickly discovered in our travels that Jolibee's is as popular as the ubiquitous McDonald's. Jolibee's yumburgers are about as good as McDonald's hamburgers (👎) but their spicy chicken and fries are great. 

We've driven down many narrow, unpaved, hard to find and often beautiful roads and this kind of driving is now quite familiar to us.

It was always a joy to find one of our chapels. Our mission covers six stakes and one district, which will become a stake in November, and our chapels are plentiful in this mission.

It was a marvelous week. We love our missionaries and we admire their courage and dedication to missionary work despite the extreme challenges of Covid. It's a privilege to be here serving with them.

Our office sisters, who sent baked goods and other supplies with us to give to the missionaries, continue to amaze us with their good hearts and their joie de vivre. They are a joy to work with.