"Oh, you're with Jesus."

It's been a remarkable month and it's hard to know where to start. So I'll start with a story. We were driving to church last week and we were passing through a checkpoint. The guard who stopped us was standing on the passenger side of the car so I rolled down my window to answer his questions, ready to show him our paperwork. He asked us where we were going. "We're going to church in Olongapo," I replied. He then started to ask his next question, "You're with ...?" as he looked at my missionary name tag. "Oh, you're with Jesus," and he waved us through.    

We've had a remarkable month here in the Philippines Olongapo mission and I feel blessed and grateful to be here.

We recently welcomed 19 new missionaries to our mission, the first new missionaries in the Olongapo mission since February. All Filipino missionaries throughout the Philippines who have completed their virtual MTC and who have been patiently waiting to begin their service as missionaries have been temporarily re-assigned to serve in their home missions. So all of our new missionaries come from within the Olongapo mission, have mission calls to other missions, and will serve with us until further notice. Before our new missionaries arrived, we had dropped to a low of 66 missionaries. We now have 82 amazing missionaries, with more arrivals on the horizon.   

 

We said goodbye to several missionaries last month, most of them having served long past their original departure date. The Covid restrictions are still intense in the Philippines and arranging travel for an outbound missionary requires significant patience and coordination for our office secretary, a remarkably talented young sister missionary. Flights can be cancelled at the last minute and then not available for several weeks. And then the re-booked flight can be cancelled and not available again for several weeks. Covid tests are required, as are medical certificates and travel passes for the departure and arrival cities. And no two arrival cities have the same requirements. And then when a missionary arrives in their hometown, they are usually required to quarantine for 14 days, sometimes in a quarantine facility and sometimes at home, and all of that has to be finalized before the missionary departs. Somehow it all works out and our missionaries who serve longer than usual do so happily and diligently and in the end, it's still tender for them to say goodbye.

  

We've hosted a myriad of training sessions for our missionaries over the past month, including Orientation and Follow-up Training for our new missionaries, and Leadership Training, Train the Trainers Training and Mission Leadership Council for our young missionary leaders. We've jointly participated in District Councils and I've participated in delightful companionship study and teaching appointments with our sister missionaries. Zone Conferences this week will round out our "firsts" and then we'll hit repeat and do this every six weeks for the next three years. Here's our color-coded wall calendar for the next 18 months ...

The highlight of our training last month was our virtual mission tour with Elder and Sister Bangerter. Elder Bangerter is a member of the Philippines Area Presidency for our church and both he and Sister Bangerter virtually spent a week with us, sharing inspiring and insightful messages with us and our missionaries. 

Mixed in with all of this joyful missionary work are other moments of everyday joy, including frequent Facetime calls with our children and our grandsons. A unique highlight this week was the chance to be virtually present when my sister-in-law Carolyn gave our grandson Sterling his story book quilt. Carolyn (best known as BAC, short for Beautiful Aunt Carolyn) has a longstanding and incredible tradition of making a storybook quilt for each of her great nieces and nephews. Each quilt is an original design and is a testament to BAC's creativity, generosity and love. Thank you, BAC. To quote someone we both adore, "You are wonderful!"

We've been in the Philippines for almost two months now and I love being here. I love our mission home ...

and the chapel outside our front door ...

and being able to walk across the small parking lot to our mission office, with our mission vehicles neatly lined up and ready to go.

I love the fruit stand across the street ...

and the spectacular views we happen upon.

I love my new friends at the lovely spa inside Waltermart ...

And I love our three office sisters, who I hold in my heart as my trainers. I have studied and prepared to be a missionary but these three sisters have taught me what it feels like to be a missionary ... joyful and happy!