Our Amazing Missionaries

We serve with remarkable missionaries. And when they depart we say wholeheartedly to them, "Well done!" In January and February we said goodbye to two sets of missionaries who have served with us for their entire missions. They have been our zone leaders, our sister training leaders, our assistants, our office sisters, and our trainers. They have carried significant responsibility. We love them, we trust them, we cherish them, and we miss them. It's a unique experience to serve with such outstanding young people for an extended period of time and we will be forever grateful for this opportunity.

January departures

February departures

On the very same day that our experienced missionaries depart, we welcome new missionaries to our mission, and they are enthusiastic, energetic and ready to work. They arrive by van from the MTC in Manila and are greeted by their new trainers on the sidewalk just outside our local chapel. We immediately welcome them with a heartfelt and emotional "Called to Serve" and then their trainers help unload their luggage from the vans. Next we take our traditional pictures in front of our Philippines Olongapo Mission sign and our welcome banner. And then it's time for interviews with President Colton and orientation with me, their trainers and our office missionaries. We take a break for lunch and then after all of this is done, we send them on their way to their new areas. It's a full day and we hope they know that "we love them already."  

Here are pictures from our January arrival day.

And here are pictures from our February arrival day.

A transfer cycle is six weeks and once during each transfer cycle we host an in-person Mission Leadership Council (MLC), where our young missionary leaders from all over the mission gather for a two-hour meeting, followed by lunch. Our MLC is so big now that a picture of our MLC team looks a lot like a zone conference picture. We rely on these young missionary leaders to lead the missionaries in their zones and to provide counsel and guidance for us. Once again, they are remarkable.

We were blessed with perfect timing during our MLC in January with our new senior couple, Elder and Sister Akagi, arriving from Manila right at the end of our meeting. They were able to join us for the last part of our meeting and join us for lunch, a great way for them to meet our missionaries and a great introduction to our mission. After MLC, we drove with the Akagis to the mission home, where we did a short orientation. We are so happy that the Akagis are here.   

One of the blessings of having served during Covid is that we continue to cross paths at stake conferences with missionaries who served their mission or at least part of their mission here in their home mission. We love these returned missionaries and count it a unique privilege that we still get to see them from time to time.

We also love seeing our currently serving missionaries at the stake conferences that we attend throughout our mission. A stake now equals a zone for us and this zone of 24 missionaries at the Balanga stake conference (pictured below) is about half the size of our entire missionary force during Covid. Our Covid low was 53 missionaries. Our current missionary force of 148 is three times the size of our Covid low. We will likely be close to our full complement of 180 missionaries before we leave in July.   

From time to time our missionaries surprise us with an exceptional gift. I was touched by this thoughtful gift drawn by Sister Lamayen.

And, of course, I loved this nativity gift from Sister Pancho.

I can't do a post without sharing our zone conference pictures. I know they are standard pictures for missions around the world but I do not take these pictures for granted, having done so many zone conferences on Zoom calls.

Balanga Zone

Iba Zone

Lubao Zone

Olongapo Zone

Orion Zone

San Antonio Zone

Santa Cruz Zone

Visitors continue to be a welcome highlight for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit in January with Steve's brother Brad and our sister-in-law Melanie. We don't live next door and we are continually grateful for family members who trek around the world to see us. Pictured below are highlights from our visit with Brad and Melanie.

The American Cemetery in Manila

Their welcome banner at the mission home 

Our traditional pictures at the mission office and chapel 

Island hopping in San Antonio

Our samgyupsal lunch in Subic

Our view from Mt Samat

The Subic market

Our stay at Las Casas

Our short hike in the jungle

And, of course, a stop at our favorite view

When Brad and Melanie flew out of Manila, I had the good fortune of having a group of colleagues and friends from Rising Star Outreach visiting Manila on an exploratory outing for potential volunteer work in the Philippines. I had a delightful visit with them and was so grateful that the timing to see them in Manila was perfect. The hugs as I greeted two of my dear friends tell the story. 

And the gingerboy cookies that Sally brought me from our favorite bakery in Wolfeboro, NH were a most welcome surprise.

Our pictures from the American Cemetery highlight the beautiful majesty of this unique memorial.  

We found a terrific samgyupsal restaurant in Manila and had a delightful lunch. I love these women and I'm so grateful the stars aligned for a visit with them. 

I'll conclude with photos of the flowers we see all over our mission that showcase the beauty of God's creations. God most definitely loves His children.