THE QUEZON QUIBBLER: Opposition in All Things

Dear Family,

This has been a week of ups and downs.

Ups: Four great zone conferences -- we love being with the missionaries at these meetings. There are two or (on one day) three zones together and the missionaries are so reverent and attentive every time. They arrive early and come prepared (Stewart gives them an assignment) and they LOVE listening to and learning from him. The mission leaders all teach a 20-min "workshop" (Assistants, ZL's and STL's) and the missionaries are very attentive to their peers as they teach. I teach also, something doctrinal, and I feel sorry for the first zone conference, because I definitely relax and improve throughout the week. I got extra help from Sam (how to refine my presentation) and Fenton (fun game to teach principles) and Stewart is always helpful in the feedback he gives me. Before his closing remarks, Dad has the missionaries who return home at the end of this transfer all share their brief testimonies, and it's powerful to see the changes in them and their deep conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Dad had a surprise call from the MTC President in Manila on Monday asking if we could provide companions for about 40 missionaries on Wednesday so they could have a real missionaries experience contacting people. Usually Manila Mission and Quezon City Mission are the missions who provide this, but evidently they weren't available and the MTC is overflowing with missionaries right now. (There are many more "foreigners" being assigned to missions here, so there have never been so many missionaries at the MTC.) I counseled "NO!" but Dad said, "Of course!" and met the buses at the chapel in our mission closest to the MTC and participated in the short meeting before. The MTC counselor called Dad and thanked him, saying, "This was the best exchange experience our missionaries have EVER had!" (I thought, "Oh no, they'll ask us again!")

Sure enough, they immediately called again and brought 35 missionaries to San Jose Del Monte --over an hour in traffic -- for exchanges with other missionaries. It was definitely an UP for the missionaries who are about to leave the MTC for their fields of service, and our missionaries saw little miracles --one missionary was paired with another elder who'd been his friend in elementary school -- and Dad's assistant watched an American who who'd studied Tagalog for only five weeks invite him to go aside and pray together for confidence, then go and greet a group of moms and teach a Lesson One in Tagalog on his own!

Almost all the missionaries are teaching and baptizing and working hard. It's exciting to see them inviting people to make commitments and seeing them keep them. The smiles on their faces when their investigators actually come to sacrament meeting is priceless! Even the newest batch of trainees --only here for three weeks--are mostly loosing their deer-in-the-headlights look. They are mostly foreigners and this is a tough place to live if you come from the provinces in the Philippines, or anywhere in American, Polynesia, New Zealand or Australia.

Downs: Dad got a surprising call from the Area President chastising him for speaking to a charity that helps Filipinos rise from poverty to set up their own businesses. I was so surprised because I thought that's the kind of thing the Church wanted us to do! He also told us not to buy the building we were planning to buy for a mission office and donate to the Church. Hopefully we won't get sent home before Christmas as the Merkleys bought non-refundable tickets for Christmastime!

Missionaries who don't "lock their hearts" when they come on their missions. Filipinos have a culture of looking for their eternal companion on their mission, and it's hard for some of them to change this culture. And some foreign missionaries just like to flirt more than teach. It's frustrating but they are repenting and doing better. And Stewart is so good at not condemning them but helping them.

Moral of Ups and Downs: Repent. When we're not happy, we need to repent and get back on the path. It's so easy, and yet sometimes it's so hard. I love what Dad taught today in our sacrament meeting: Christ already suffered in advance to pay for the offenses people give us and those we give. He already paid for our sins and weaknesses and mistakes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is what will make us happy -- faith in a Jesus Christ and repentance is the key.

When we are happy - when things are going well -- don't forget the Savior. Don't forget that all we have comes from a loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son, who is the giver of all good gifts. I hope I can remember and implement this!

Love,

Mom

Visit from RM from Australia, Sister Va'atuitui

How happy we are at the end of zone conference!

Elders posing while waiting for sisters from their zone to join them for zone photo --Asians LOVE their photos taken!

Baptism with two great sisters. The one from Fiji wondered the first week why she ever came on a mission. Now she knows: teach repentance and baptize converts.