Mom and Dad are doing well!
They are on a pretty good schedule of planning, executing, and repeating in all things, but they look forward to it all. Often we will get to hear from them when they are on a long drive to another area of their mission to do missionary interviews and such. Recently, they held an MLC (missionary leadership conference) and I really liked one of the stories my dad shared with them. When he first started to work at the car dealership in a leadership position, one of the workers made a mistake and he had to call him in to his office and talk to him about it. My dad told the worker that he couldn't make that mistake anymore, because it cost them money. The worker became very upset. He went to his office and started throwing all of his stuff into a box and got in his truck to drive away. My Dad saw what was going on and went out to talk to him. My dad got in the passenger seat of the truck and just sat there! The man said "boss, what are you doing?" To which he replied, "Well, if there's a place you can go where no one needs to improve, then I want to go there too!".
The story ended with a hug and the man worked for my Dad for many more years. He related this story to the missionaries in their training work and how to be a good leader, correcting the wrongs but guiding with love. They always seem super positive about their missionary leaders (and all the missionaries for that matter) and love the times they get to talk with them and hear their concerns and needs.
Recently, they were invited to a Valentine's Party. They ended up driving around the city for almost an hour, because the traffic was insane! They finally realized all the roads were closed and that, in my moms words, "these people take their Valentine's seriously!" I got a good chuckle from that.
In regards to the new missionary changes of being able to call home more often, I was surprised to hear my parents opinion about it. They see the good in it, but it also presents a bit of a challenge for them in their mission. In areas where missions have tablets and easy access to wifi it is a little bit different than what their situation is (being in a third world country). Calling home for Christmas alone took a month of planning and finding homes that were willing to have the missionaries. Despite the careful planning, many of the missionaries were still not able to talk to their families at Christmas! However, they ended the conversation with "We trust in our First Presidency and will figure it out".. what a great reminder to us all that if we trust in the Lord, no matter what changes come our way, we can figure it out and be blessed when we choose to follow and sustain the Prophet.
-Lacey
Enjoy the pictures and captions below from my mom-
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| Outgoing missionaries. What a great group of men and women! They really will be missed! |
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| Serving up some hot pandasal (the quintessential bread roll of the Philippines) |
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| Our new batch (of missionaries)- we are excited about every single one of them! |
The following are new trainees with their trainers-
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| Putting in the new Branch Presidency in the Bangui Branch |
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| We met this cute lady on the street in Bangui. She is not a member, but invited us to her house on the premise that she might have a building we could rent for a meeting house. Turns out it was a miscommunication, however, she did serve us pizza and we made a new friend. Typical of these welcoming people! |
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| Traveling to the Cagayan side of our mission, we met these two on the highway. We always travel with plenty of PB&J to share with our missionaries and so we stopped and made them a sandwich. |
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| Most jeepneys are decked out with lots of bells and whistles and most of them have a religious reference. This one is just a sample.. not sure what the message is.. |
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| Elders from our Gonzaga zone just after interviews |
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| Dinner with our friends the Credos (on the left) and the Guillermos. President Credo is the President of the Ballesteros District and President Guillermo is Dads first counselor. They are great leaders and so SO helpful! We appreciate them very much! |
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| Interviews with these great missionaries in Allacapan! |
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We usually don't have time to go to baptisms, however, this one fell into our lap in Sanchez Mira and we were so blessed to be there! Brother Renaldo (in baptismal white on the right) had a stroke and so his back is not in good shape. They were concerned about him getting into the baptismal font, Dad quickly volunteered to help. The only problem was that they did not have a baptismal jumper to fit him. However, he squeezed into one (major wedgie) and it was sweet to have him participate. The brother in white on the left is a recent convert of 2 weeks and the sisters asked him to do the baptizing- perfect! They also had a recent convert of one week give a talk- brilliant! They had an investigator attend and their goal is to baptize someone every week!
They are on fire! We especially love that all those recent baptisms are priesthood holding men which there seems to be a shortage of in the Philippines, but that is changing in this area! Brother Renaldos wife is not a member yet, however, while Brother Renaldo bore his testimony at the baptism, I watched as tears rolled down their cheeks... she will probably be in white soon. |
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| Our cute missionaries in Pasuquin! Also, Sister Rachel who never passes up a chance to feed our missionaries. She and her husband Gerald have done so much for the Pasuquin Branch! |
