This week my parents prepared for the largest group yet to leave the mission (leaving 8/7). There were 20 leaving, but two of them requested 30 day extensions and mom and dad were more than elated to keep them a bit longer. They get to spend a couple of days with this group giving final interviews, eating together and helping them make plans for their future. A favorite topic is dating and Temple marriage – they all light up when this topic is mentioned.
Their first group of new missionaries come in the same day the outgoing leave – 8/7. The new group includes 18 missionaries as well, but 5 are delayed because of visa issues, and they are praying to get them to the Philippines as soon as possible!
They also drove to Abulug to call Dad's first counselor. Then they drove to Aparri for another zone conference. Their next cluster of zone conferences will be in six weeks.
They are excited for two senior sisters to come on the 9th of August - Sister Cox and Sister Snyder (sp?) who are actual bloodsisters. The sisters have been called as office missionaries and desperately needed! They are very much looking forward to meeting them and working with them!
My Mom is enjoying being able to help the missionaries with their medical issues - some of them are serious and some are not. She receives new texts every day with issues. After being able to help one specific missionary she said, "The look on this young man’s face was something I will never forget. He was just SO grateful! He was thankful that he was going to be able to finally feel better. His medical issues had been seriously hurting him since before we arrived. This missionary told me he was embarrassed to approach me with his concerns, but now he talks with confidence and wants me to meet all his investigators. Times like that are really rewarding. I'm glad that I get to be in instrument in the Lord’s hands to help. I have at least 10 cases right now where things are pretty intense or on going and the rest are mostly colds and stomach pains. Of course, whatever I cannot figure out, I can always refer to our Area Medical Advisor for advice.” (Additionally... despite a constant mantra to drink, drink, drink, one missionary recently had to go to the hospital due to intense dehydration!)
In reference to traveling and conducting zone conferences, my mom said, "Our zone conferences are so much fun! We love being with these kids! Their zest for the work and for life is contagious! We are trying to figure out a way that we can stay in the more remote areas longer. Right now time is a big issue, but for me personally, the hotels are an issue… It is like camping – I can only take so much and then I need to clean up.”
In response to a question from my sister Lacey about how the mission really is, my mom said,
"We wake up and are excited and ready to go. We ask ourselves, what is the adventure going to be today? Are there hard things? Yeah! Just like in everyone's lives, there are hard things. They may come in bigger numbers and more often here haha, but we just take them on and we know that the Lord is helping us, and we will figure it out somehow! There is a great confidence that comes in serving this way."
My Dad responded with,
"I agree with mom, it has been more delightsome than I thought, but it's hard because there are so many things to do. I think back in my life - it's been like opening a dealership - there are so many questions that you don't know the answer to, like 'Where are we going to put this?' 'How are we going to do that?', 'How is this going to work?'. It's also like jumping into a stake presidency and not knowing how everything works and trying to figure it out. It's like those two things, only much much more. The nice thing is that you can just focus on it. You don't have to think about other things. It's full-time, you never stop until you go to bed! You can focus on it because it's all you have to think about and so it's all good. We are just learning. It's so much fun when you figure something out and have it under control and then you can move onto the next thing. It has been enjoyable, but hard."
They are also getting ready for transfers. My mom said, "Mark has been sequestered in his office for most of the day trying to receive the revelation that needs to come on who needs to go where and who needs to be with who. It's been a great experience to watch him do that. He says I can come in at any time while he is doing it, so I'll go in for a while and we will talk, and then I leave him and the Lord to figure it out."
My mom celebrated her 29th birthday this week. She told my dad she didn't want any gifts and she didn't want to go out to dinner. She just wanted to do two things - look at their calendar and plan things out because everything keeps changing, and go explore a grocery store together that they hadn't seen yet! The simple joys of missionary life, I guess!
My mom also said this, "I just wanted to share a quick little tender mercy. The day before yesterday I was thinking about the fire incident of last week, and I thought... 'Maybe it wasn't quite as miraculous as I thought. Maybe if somebody would have seen the fire.... maybe it didn't really come as close to me as I thought’. Just minutes after I had those thoughts, I heard from a good friend (who's spouse is a doctor) and she said, 'My husband wants to say something to you!', he said, 'I have seen people who have come into my office from such an experience. Their faces were disfigured, their eyelids were gone… I've seen terrible things. It truly is a miracle that you came out of that without any harm.' So.... was that a coincidence that I received this doctor’s message right after my doubting thoughts? Of course not! It was the Lord telling me - 'You really were blessed. Don't make it less than it was."
- Sadie
Captions below, as always, were written by Sister Peterson.
Brother Guilliarmo on the left is Dad's newly called 1st counselor and Stew Nelson is his executive secretary.
On one of our drives through Cagayan. We love our time on the road. We often don't have a cell phone connection because we are so remote, so we just get to talk.
Every little town has a portal like this one to welcome you. This one is for Aparri.
Cagayan cluster zone conference. Oh how we love our missionaries! The AC did not work and we were sweating like pigs for the whole 9 hours, but we LOVED it! We felt so energized! How can that be? Only because it is the Lord's work and our missionaries are phenomenal!
18 of our missionaries are headed home this coming week and now that I found tortillas, I really want to make them a Costa Vida meal for their final meal here. Finding all the ingredients have been hard. Tomatillos do not exist here, but I read on-line that green tomatoes can be substituted and guess what - green tomatoes are everywhere here. They do not have jalapenos either... where is the mexican food isle at the grocery store??? I did stumble upon a jar of bottled jalapenos that were not pickled - phew! I also found what I would call a sorry, wilted, tiny bunch of cilantro, and got way discouraged, but then today I found some bigger bunches and although about half was not fit to be used, I picked out all the yuck and was able to get what I needed. I have not seen a lime anywhere, but today some randomly showed up - labeled "green lemons". This may work out after all.....The last thing I need are green chilis - wish me luck.
The Bantay Chapel is the first LDS Chapel built in Laoag back in 1982. It has 85 stair steps from the parking lot to the front door and, of course, a beautiful view from the top.
This cute little girl liked dad’s similar haircut.
A role play with one of our elders - this is the church where the AC was not working - hot hot hot
Aparri Zone Conference lunch - Masarap! Can't you just tell by their faces how terrific these Elders and Sisters are?!
We prefer to sit with the missionaries and talk, but this caterer had it set up this way...
The missionaries from this area who are going home this week.
Bantay Church from the parking lot.
The view from the Bantay Church front door.
All the missionaries texted me for my birthday - so fun!
Elders riding a Jeepney back to their apartments
Another tender mercey; The night before the Aparri ZC we received a call that the nurse who was administering the shots would not be able to come and they could not find anyone else. What? I had a cooler full of flu shots and no one to give them! I started to gear up to give them myself - yikes... However, it just so happened that Brother Liberato's sister was visiting from Manilla and she was a nurse - hmmm, what are the chances of that? - 100%!!! She and her husband were not members, but had been "investigators for 3 years" haha.