Finally, Rice and Ulam



Dear Family,

This week has had some discouraging moments for me, as the lockdown was extended to April 30 and is getting stricter all the time.  Each baranguay (town) can implement its own rules.  Some missionaries can only have one person from their household leave once-a-week and then only for four hours.  Some now have a noon-5am curfew and no going out on Sunday--they are assigned M-W-F to leave in the morning or T-H-S.  Grocery stores often have long lines and their hours are shorter.  S&R (our Costco) was completely closed for Easter week. The area presidency advised us to keep the quarantine, so we could not take the sacrament to sisters today.  Many people don't have money to buy food.

Despite these restrictions, there are good things happening in the mission:

The smartphones are such a blessing.  The missionaries were able to listen to conference Sunday and Monday, and can re-listen all the time.  They are still reaching out to members, teaching and even finding new people to teach.  The mission now has a goal to have 150 baptisms on May 9.  They will be held at different locations, but having a date helps us all to look forward with faith.

Only 245 deaths in Philippines which is not bad for 105 million people.  Most people don't actually live to be very old here, but the virus doesn’t seem to be very bad here. Something I love about the Filipino culture is how respectful they are to older people.  When I went to the pharmacy there was a long line of people waiting in the heat to get in.  The guard at the door looked at me and said, "Over 60?"  I was happy to be so old because he let me right in and I was done in five minutes instead of two hours.

Missionaries are remarkably healthy!  Your prayers are working.  And the missionaries don't want to go to the doctor and they can't eat street food, so that solves a lot of problems.  Still, it's miraculous!  The worst problems this week were our asthma missionary and another missionary with a bad headache whose bishop (next-door) kept taking his blood pressure and telling him it was too high.  Fortunately I've gotten lots of help from Dr Merkley and our AMA and all sicknesses have resolved.  The weirdest one was an anxious missionary whose palms and the soles of his feet are "dripping like a tap!"  Chris Merkley recommended an antiperspirant with aluminum chloride in it and with an official letter and prescription from AMA doctor, we got it through the army barricade to him.  (The best medicine for him was actually Stewart having two obedient missionaries move into the apartment with him and his free-spirit companion.)

Power Scrub help from returned-senior missionaries - every six months the missionaries deep clean their apartments and we inspect them and give them a rating -- the zone with the highest scores gets lunch.  It's a two-full-day process for five senior couples to reach all the missionaries, so we schedule it for Easter weekend when the traffic is slower.  Since we cannot actually visit the apartments now, but the missionaries have lots of time to clean, Stewart had the brilliant idea to enlist the help of the senior couples who returned home to inspect the apartments virtually through Messenger Chat.  The seniors loved it, and the inspections were all completed in two mornings.  The only problem was that everyone got a high rating, so now we have to figure out how to get lunch delivered to 26 apartments!. 

First Zoom Mission Meeting was our MLC which was postponed from March 20.  It's a lot smaller -- only 16 people -- but it worked surprisingly well and the Spirit was strong, even through the computer.  Our Filipino leaders have really stepped up and and doing very well in their callings.  In the past, we‘ve served S&R pizza at MLC because it's mostly Americans in the MLC and it's fast.  But one Filipino zone leader always complained about not having rice for lunch.  After the meeting he sent a photo of his lunch with the caption, "Finally, rice and ulam for MLC lunch!"

JESUS CHRIST OVERCAME THE WORLD! - No matter what happens, there is always the knowledge that Jesus Christ lived, performed an Atonement for us, died, and was resurrected.  No matter bad things get here, they would be much worse without Him.  We would never, ever get out of lockdown, and it would be a lot stricter and harder than this one--worse than we can even imagine.  Now, because of His merits, mercy and grace, it will be better than we can imagine and we can become free forever.  The hope that comes because of Him gives us the desire to repent and forgive and choose to be happy.  

Thank you for your prayers and fasting this week.  We are hopeful about the future and pray that the leaders of governments will let people work and that economies will be restored so people can eat.  

Love,

Mom

Photos

MLC meeting on computer - STL companionship singing opening song

Power scrub-missionaries in apartments

Video of great missionary from Sri Lanka -- he had to learn English AND Tagalog! Saturday is “English day” during the lockdown and they send videos in English.