THE QUEZON QUIBBLER: Do These Missionaries Belong to You?

Dear Family,

This has been an unusual but wonderful mission leader seminar week. We usually travel to a hotel and meet from 8am - 8pm in meetings with the area presidency and the other mission presidents/wives and area staff and take all our meals together. This time we were already in a hotel and we met from 8-12:30 for three days only and we had visits from two apostles as well as a member of the seventy (we’ve never had an apostle although in one of the five past seminars we had a seventy). But this time we hit the jackpot!

Tuesday morning we entered the Zoom meeting and there was President Oaks and Elder Christofferson and Elder Carl B Cook discussing President Oaks’ drive to Duchesne to visit a sacrament meeting (they didn’t know their audio was on). President Oaks spoke for about 15 minutes about teaching missionaries. The first and most important thing to teach, he said, is that Jesus Christ is at the center of everything. We should help missionaries and people come to know Him, follow Him and become like Him. He said there is no problem we cannot fix or overcome without the help of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. He said if they (and we) are truly converted to Jesus Christ —not to the Church — conversion to the Church will follow automatically. After he spoke, he answered questions and participated in a discussion. He left the meeting about 10am and then we continued on.

Wednesday morning Elder Christofferson taught for about 40 minutes, then patiently listened to comments and answered questions. He taught about something President Oaks taught, “Missionaries need help teaching repentance and repenting” and he taught about how joyful and wonderful repentance is and about justification and sanctification and the importance of inviting people to repent. I learned a lot and was impressed with his love and patience—he spent two hours with us, mostly listening, but sometimes talking and commenting. His teaching is filled with hope, as he confirmed what he’s taught before that repentance “takes away the effects of sin in us” and makes us pure and clean.

After Elder Christofferson finished (and left the meeting), Stewart gave a presentation about using smartphones. His assignment was quite difficult as he was assigned to teach with another mission president who used the phones very differently, but he did a fantastic job with his part of the presentation and answered a lot of questions that will be helpful to others (almost all the Philippine missions have smart phones now). And we both bore our departing testimonies, along with the other five in our "batch", a tradition at the last seminar you attend.

Thursday morning began with an hour-long womens’ session for just the sisters and Sister Oaks joined us on Zoom for the entire hour and taught for the first 15 min. She lived in the Philippines for two years with President Oaks in 2002 and knows a lot of the challenges we face and addressed them quite directly. She also taught us to teach constantly about the Savior and told us that even our “unnoticed work is essential” and to “be happy regardless of what is happening around you.” I really liked the Zoom format, listening to apostles and my husband teach, as well as the area presidency and seeing all the other MP and wives.

We walked up one cloudy afternoon to the American Military Cemetery to walk around and found it it closed! Before it was only closed on Christmas and New Years, but evidently added pandemics to that schedule.

I went back to the mission home Monday to get more of our belongings and take care of some needed business and got a hair cut! I had to fill out a detailed health history and the stylist practically wore a hazmat suit, but I feel much better now.

Rainey season started and we experienced torrential downpour as an effect of a typhoon in the south for a couple of hours. It’s been wonderful to have cloud cover and rain to cool things off, and the AC in the hotel is heavenly!

Dad was reading emails one afternoon and burst out laughing—he received (along with other metro-Manila MPs) a photo of two missionaries with the caption “Do these missionaries belong to you?” Evidently a senior couple had clandestinely photographed two of our missionaries walking down a street in Quezon City Mission and thought they were breaking the rules so gave the photo to their MP. Actually, Dennis had dropped them there for a dental appointment (we have to leave our mission to find a good dentist) and they are easily recognizable by their Unicity masks!

We now have three sisters who have finished their missions but cannot leave. They are being patient. And I am praying that Pakistan opens and Sister Javed can return! And praying that the Philippines opens so our replacements can come. The area presidency may call an interim mission president for all the five missions who are expecting American replacements unless the Philippines changes its policy and lets foreigners into the country.

For now, I am keeping my fingers crossed that Duterte doesn’t tighten the lockdown and that it will be eased so more than ten people can meet in a church at one time and we can meet with our missionaries in person, It’s really hard to pray for God’s will to be done in these circumstances where I’m pretty sure MY will is the best option! If not, we will begin visiting every apartment this week so we can talk with them before our last Zoom Zone Conference.

Even though some bishops will not allow people to be baptized in their wards, others are totally supportive. Sister Lao is nearing 30 years old and didn't want anyone to celebrate her birthday. But she ended up having a great birthday with two separate baptisms on her birthday! " . . . we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. "

Thank you for your love and prayers. I thought that by this time of our mission, we would be finishing and it would be easy. However, it's not at all like we expected. As Limhi said, " . . . I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made."

Love,

Mom