Our Remarkable Missionaries

Our missionaries are remarkable. Two weeks ago we were doing our once-every-six-week's mission tour and the last place we visited was our North Zambales zone, which is way up north in our mission. After church on Sunday, we were heading to pick up some of our missionaries to take them to a baptism. Unfortunately on our way to their apartment, a motorcycle hit the driver side door of our car. Fortunately, the two passengers on the motorcycle were not seriously injured, which was a huge blessing because they were not wearing helmets. But here's the truly remarkable part of the story ... 

Our missionaries lived within walking distance of the accident so we called them right away to join us at the police station, which happened to be located at the intersection where the accident occurred. They arrived within minutes and I was never so glad to see missionaries in my life. As we juggled calls with our area office and the insurance company and worked things out with the officer in charge, our missionaries did what missionaries do ... they introduced themselves to everyone at the station, shared a message from the Book of Mormon with two of the officers, gave away a total of eight Books of Mormon, and gave the prayer that the president of the Philippines had asked all uniformed officers to hold at 3pm that particular Sunday in an effort to bring an end to Covid. As we were leaving the police station the officers wanted a picture of all of us. Missionaries are, well, I don't even have words. How do you go from an accident to a picture with the police officers, complete with Filipino finger hearts? Missionaries, that's how. I adore them. 

Here's Sister Paule sharing a message from the Book of Mormon with one of the officers.

And here's Sister Bagaforo sharing a message from the Book of Mormon with another officer.

And here's Sister Paule offering the prayer. At one point she prayed by name for each officer in the room. 

The world of Covid has presented other interesting opportunities for us. A good number of our missionaries live within our mission boundaries, meaning this is where they grew up and where their families still live. These missionaries started as temporarily assigned missionaries because they couldn't travel to their original missions in the Philippines due to Covid. Most of them have now been permanently assigned to our mission, which is wonderful. One of these missionaries has a sister who was getting married and she asked for special permission to attend her sister's wedding. 

Some backstory here ... several years ago when our oldest son Jared married his wife Eden in Salt Lake City, our middle son Brandon was serving his mission in Salt Lake. His mission leaders gave permission for him to attend his brother's wedding and this was a tender and sweet experience for us as a family. How could we say anything other than an enthusiastic yes to our missionary? So I was Sister Rivera's companion for the day and I drove her to her sister's wedding. I'm not sure there has ever been a maid of honor at a wedding, wearing a long dress, with a missionary tag on. These two sisters are particularly close and our Sister Rivera was the one who walked her sister down the aisle. It was a lovely day and Sister Rivera didn't miss a beat as a missionary. Did I already mention that I adore our missionaries?

A few weeks after the wedding, I was able to reconnect with the bride at a baptism we attended. She's the tiniest one in the picture below. 

Another benefit of having missionaries who live in our mission is that we sometimes get to meet their families when we visit their home wards. One Sunday we were able to meet the family of our remarkable Sister Paule.

We've learned that our favorite way to spend our preparation day is to hike with our missionaries. I'm always (not exaggerating) the slowest hiker but I'm ok with that. We recently hiked a mountain called Stonehill, located about 30 minutes north of us in the seaside town of San Antonio. We had a spectacular view of the ocean, called either the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea, depending on your political perspective. 

Here is God's reminder from our hike that yes, He loves us.

On our way home from the hike, our missionaries introduced us to a local Korean restaurant that serves samgyeopsal (sam-gip-sal) or Korean lettuce wraps. The meat is cooked at the table on a small hotplate and it comes with a selection of small side dishes that can double as toppings for the lettuce wraps. The kimchi is seriously spicy and it is all seriously delicious. 

A few weeks later we had a unique experience at the same restaurant. One of our assistants, Elder Santiago, is from Cebu and his mother was baptized a few months ago. One of the missionaries who taught Sister Santiago lives in our mission and we had lunch with him at this restaurant. It was such a delight for us and for our assistant to meet this young man, Elder Lambino, who recently returned from his mission. 

We had the privilege in April of having a mission conference with Elder and Sister Wakolo. Elder Wakolo serves as the president of the Philippines Area for our church and his responsibilities include the 23 missions in the Philippines. We met over Zoom for four days and gathered in various groups, including an individual meeting with me and President Colton, mission leader councils with our young missionary leaders, a sisters' meeting with Sister Wakolo, a social media and technology council, and daily all-missionary conferences. Mission conferences like this are spiritually uplifting, insightful and motivating experiences. We love and appreciate Elder and Sister Wakolo.

We continue to say hello and goodbye to missionaries. In April we welcomed five temporarily assigned missionaries. 

And said goodbye to six of our beloved missionaries.

In June we welcomed five permanently assigned and two temporarily assigned missionaries.

And we said goodbye to seven more of our beloved missionaries. For me personally this departure was particularly tender because I said goodbye to the last of my three young trainers, Sister Leduna, a sister who served as our finance secretary for many months when we first arrived. We met her over a year ago when we were on a Zoom finance call before we arrived here in Olongapo. She said at the end of the call "We love you already" and I was so touched by these sweet words. Little did I know then that this beautiful theme carries throughout our mission and all we've had to do is keep it going.

The night before our missionaries depart we gather for a dinner and a special family home evening, where our missionaries share their musical talents and the departing missionaries have a chance to share their testimonies.

Living in the Philippines, we do get to enjoy many of the perks of living in the tropics, including coconuts ...

And a wide variety of bananas, including these tiny little ones ...

And I'm pretty sure we ate the cousin of these chickens for lunch one Sunday. A kind and generous family invited us to join them for lunch with our missionaries and we met these survivors in their yard. 

We love living in the Philippines but we do live in the tropics and it's hot.

No, back up and look again, not at the actual temperature but at the "feels like" temperature. It's hot. But the sunsets are still spectacular and there's no place else I'd rather be.

I'll end with this beautiful and tender picture. Two of our sisters are teaching an extended family in this lovely setting that is so uniquely Filipino. Did I mention that our missionaries are remarkable and that I adore them?!