Post-Covid Missionary Work

One of the many benefits of missionaries serving in their home missions is that we now have the privilege of attending their weddings. We recently attended a wedding ceremony for one of our former office sisters, whose home is just north of us. The ceremony and setting were lovely and we had the added benefit of visiting with other former missionaries who also attended the wedding. This is such a treat for us.      

One of the traditional Filipino foods that is served at weddings and other festive events is lechon. A whole pig is slowly roasted over an open fire and then served as the whole pig. Lechon has become one of my favorite Filipino foods.

We continue to enjoy the privilege of visits from former missionaries who live outside our mission. We recently enjoyed visits from two of our former elders.

We've had a huge influx of missionaries over the past two transfers, with 10 missionaries arriving in July and 18 arriving in September. We currently have 110 missionaries, over double the number of missionaries from our Covid low of 53. As far as we can see with upcoming transfers, we will continue to onboard big numbers of missionaries, with about a third of the missionaries in each transfer coming from outside the Philippines. During the height of Covid, most of our companionships were covering two areas, sometimes three. Now we can assign a companionship to just one area, with sometimes two companionships serving in a single ward or branch.  

We also had the privilege of welcoming our new nurse, Sister Stones, in August. She has been a delightful addition to our mission and she has happily stepped in to help with apartment inspections and other office work, as well as all things medical. We are thrilled that she is here. 

Because of the growth in our number of missionaries, we've been able to increase the number of our zones. Prior to Covid and prior to our arrival, there were seven zones in our mission, with approximately 26 missionaries in each zone. Because we've had significantly fewer missionaries during Covid, the number of zones in our mission decreased to three. Thankfully the prior mission leaders worked this all out before our arrival. During our recent transfer in July, we began the process of building back to seven zones. We split our Pampanga-Bataan zone into two zones, the Lubao and Bataan zones, for a total of four zones (pictured below). Since then, we've split our Central Zambales zone into two zones, the Olongapo and San Antonio zones, and we've split the Bataan zone into the Orion and Balanga zones. After our next transfer in October, we'll split our North Zambales zone into the Santa Cruz and Iba zones and we'll be back to seven zones. This all feels miraculous to us.  

North Zambales Zone

Central Zambales Zone

Bataan Zone

Lubao Zone

Another change that we've made as we've moved out of Covid is meeting in-person for our Mission Leadership Councils (MLC). We do a hybrid approach and alternate between virtual and in-person MLCs every two weeks. For our in-person MLCs at the mission home, we train on missionary topics and discuss mission business for two hours, followed by lunch. With the increase in the number of our zones, our MLC has also grown and we'll likely need to meet at the stake center moving forward. 

Another post-Covid change for us has been our transition from apartment visits and virtual interviews to in-person interviews. When we first arrived in our mission, we had about 25 apartments and we would visit and spend time with each companionship at their apartment once each transfer. We loved doing this! With 40+ apartments now in a post-Covid world, we couldn't keep this up. In addition, President Colton wanted to start doing in-person interviews instead of virtual interviews. So once a transfer we now meet each district at a chapel convenient for them and President Colton conducts interviews and I participate in district training. It's still a great way to spend time with and get to know our missionaries and doing this is a highlight for us.  

Another post-Covid development is the increase in the number of speaking invitations that we receive. In addition to bi-annual stake conferences, we are also invited to speak at youth and YSA conferences, as well as mini-MTCs. Pictured below is the Orion stake mini-MTC, with our missionaries from the Orion zone. I've retold the story from my last blogpost about our hike and what the path of success actually looks like many times now. 

We've said goodbye to very few missionaries over the last few transfers and this trend will continue for the next two transfers. Because we did not receive very many missionaries during the height of Covid, we are in this unique window of time when we are now saying goodbye to those very few missionaries at the end of their missions.

Steve had a classmate during his years in graduate school who is from the Philippines. We spent a delightful evening with him and his wife at one of our favorite restaurants here in our mission, Playa Papagayo, where they make a terrific mango salsa. We appreciated that the Villanuevas drove from Manila to see us, since we are mostly restricted to staying within our mission boundaries.  

We continue to appreciate our beautiful surroundings in this corner of the globe we are privileged to call home for three years. Here's a typical view looking out a window from one of our chapels ...

Here's a magnificent view of a rainbow over the chapel next door to the mission home ...

And here's a glorious sunset just over the hill in front of the mission home ...

Let me conclude with the same tribute that has now been made countless times over the past few weeks to someone who is not my monarch but who somehow has earned the respect of the entire world, including me. I was one among the 5.1 billion people (63% of the world's population!) who watched her funeral services. She leaves behind an extraordinary legacy and an unparalleled example of duty and service and loyalty. She was the epitome of grace and elegance and steadfastness and I am grateful to have benefitted from her example for my entire life.

Queen Elizabeth II