I am writing this week from a cool, spacious hotel room in Manila. We were to leave the mission home on Monday afternoon so the mission home can be remodeled, and had reserved a hotel for the next three weeks, but when the upstairs AC broke in the Mission Home Thursday, we decided to go three days early. Fortunately, the movers came and took our belongings on Tuesday, so we packed our suitcases and evacuated. The temperature yesterday was 97, and with humidity it felt like 107 outside--upstairs in the mission home it must have been 120! We feel sorry for the workers who are going to repaint beginning Monday, but at least they will be motivated to replace the AC now.
We had "new" missionaries come Thursday! The Church has decided to empty the MTC, so we got six Polynesians who were evacuated 11 weeks ago and still cannot return home--Kiribati, American Samoa, Cook Islands, and of course, our dear Sister Javed from Pakistan, who may stay a missionary for years. It was fun to meet them at the office and have a little orientation (they've served in ours or other missions for 3 - 19 months) and they seemed excited to get back into the field. It's probably our last time to receive new missionaries and it was SO wonderful to be with missionaries in person! Their arrival made a small transfer possible, which helped a lot of missionaries get to different places and relieved Stewart greatly. It took four cars delivering for many hours to get it done, but they are all in place. The traffic is getting congested again in spite of no jeeps or buses, and when an empty bus drive by us for first time Stewart exclaimed, "That's a great sign to see a bus again!" Before, we actually hated buses because they drive too fast, hog the road and stop anywhere they want, but now it's a sign that missionaries may be able to go places again. We also had an office staff meeting at the mission home in person instead of by Zoom.
Earlier in the week Stewart finished interviewing the missionaries for the last time and I followed up on their English language study for the last time. When the foreigners were first evacuated, the Filipinos kind of gave up on learning English without their American/Australian/NZ companions and roommates to help them. But we continued to encourage them and the young mission leaders really led by example, and they started studying again and have made great progress. Elder Christofferson's request that every missionary memorize the new Restoration Proclamation really helped the language study and every missionary who did it has improved their English significantly. We are so proud of them!
We continue to pray that visas will be given to Americans to allow them to travel to the Philippines so our replacements will arrive. We are also hoping for local travel to open so two sisters who complete their missions on Tuesday can return home. It's looking bleak for one -- no flights until July 1 -- but hopeful for the other sister IF she can get the myriad of approvals from the local government in time to travel.
I'll miss my walks in the subdivision, but Stewart is so happy to sleep without the barking dog right outside the room and I also love the quiet--no roosters either. We have increased admiration for 93 missionaries who sleep every night with no air con --they are amazing! Like Ammon and his brethren, they are "patient in (their) sufferings, and (they) have suffered . . . privation . . . " and are being blessed with success: a few more baptisms this week.
We have the mission leadership seminar coming up this week (Zoom meeting) and the hair salons open for haircuts today. I'm not saying which I am looking forward to most!
Love,
Mom
Filipinos love to sing and the missionaries often post their music. These four are great missionaries. There is a story behind each one. Left: convert who went through three sets of missionaries, father deceased; Center left: went home for belated confession, returned powerful teacher; Center right: convert, member father died while he was in MTC; Right: convert from poor family, only member in family of 11 children, has become fluent in English which is good because he LOVES to talk!
Dropping off sisters at new apartments
New-ish missionaries!
Baptismal candidate holding smartphone with American missionary who first taught him, and was viewing his baptism
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