Good morning Brothers & Sisters. It’s wonderful to be with you here this morning. I’m assuming you all speak English which is the only language I speak and was the language required in the Philippine Quezon City Mission. My Filipino RS friends said to me “Sister, how long have you served in this mission? 14 months. “Oh my heavens and you don’t know how to speak Tagalog yet? As they spoke to me in English!! (Comedians!) Elder Ferney and I served as office Specialist in the Mission Office for the past 18 months.
This morning I would like to share the large plates or the secular history of the area in our mission and Elder Ferney will share the small plates, or the spiritual history of our experiences there.
There are 108 million people living in the Philippines. It consists of 7,000 islands, depending on whether it is low tide or high tide. The total land mass is about the size of the state of Arizona. There are two temples in operation, one that just had a groundbreaking ceremony and two more on deck = six Temples in all!
After training in the MTC for two weeks, we learned that we would be VISA delayed. So we moved into an apartment on Temple square and did some training in the Family History Center for the month of December. Our family came to visit and we all got to enjoy Christmas together on Temple Square.
After arriving in Quezon City we immediately went into culture shock. The temperature was consistently around 95 degrees and above the whole time we were there with the humidity usually around 85%. There are no words to describe the TRAFFIC. Young Missionaries are not allowed to drive in the Philippines because of the unbelievable amount of traffic and the chaotic combination of jeepneys, trikeys, motorcycles, large trucks, bicycles, and sometimes carabao (water buffalos) on the streets. There are little-to-no traffic signs or street signs to be found and no traffic rules are in-forced. A seven mile drive can take as long as four hours depending on the time of day. We felt fortunate to have only gotten our side mirrors torn off twice. And believe it or not, duct tape held it on for an entire year! To lower the amount of traffic they have a coding system. If the last # of your license plate starts with a certain #, you cannot drive on a particular day each week. So we traded cars and carpooled on a regular basis.
The Quezon City Mission is split into two parts. The Area Mission which consists of about 20 Senior couples and 5 single sisters. The Area includes:
Temple Missionaries
Welfare - wheelchair distribution program - travel to islands
Medical - facility for the MTC missionaries
Family History
Dental
Self Reliance - promoting & implementing
We realize the Self-Reliance program that the Church provides is invaluable. It is the ONLY thing that is ever going to help people rise from poverty to a better quality of life. We had the chance to work with Elder and Sister Gabrielsen, also from Idaho, as they implemented the Self-Reliance classes throughout three different missions.
The Church has provisions for every condition or circumstance that sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father can find themselves in. Truly a blessing for all!
Public Affairs - Photographing & Publishing news articles for the Liahona & other Church news publications, instrumental in the “Light the World” initiative - Giving machines which were located in Manila for the 1st time.
Addiction Recovery
In our mission, there are five couples which are MLS (mission leader support) and President & Sister Koster.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to visit us last January (groundbreaking of the Urdandeta Temple & mission tour) and told us the Church needs 10,000 more Senior Couples!
Our Mission assignment as Office Specialists was the perfect fit for us! We LOVED working with the young missionaries!! On weekdays we worked in the office with two of the AP’s, and two office Elders which took care of the finances and the apartments. I worked on 3 different transfers at a time, taking care of travel itineraries, collecting ECC forms and photos for the exiting visas. The STL’s helped make packets for every new member, usually around a 120 a month. (Because that is how many baptisms we had)!
We did orientations for the new arriving missionaries and taught education workshops for the departing missionaries. My responsibility was to take care of all the correspondence from the President to the missionaries, the parents and their Priesthood leaders. We gave Language exams and set up Language exchanges ranging from 15 to 60 missionaries with the MTC. Everyday we were VERY busy!! It was lots of fun.
Elder Ferney was in charge of collecting and recording the BCR’s. Baptism Confirmation Records. He took care of the mail & packages for 180 missionaries and made weekly trips to the Postoffice. ( He liked the challenge of driving and called it a new contact sport). He had many occasions to assist the Elders teach. Several times after transfers, we drove the missionaries down to the island of Mindoro loading the mission van onto a huge ferry for a 3 hour trip across the South China Sea and then drove 7 hours further dropping them off at different areas, then south to San Jose to pick up missionaries transferring them back to the city. He also served as Executive Secretary to President Koster and conducted interviews.
Every six weeks during PAUWI, (transfers) we held a 3 day workshop where we taught the value of a good education. We introduced the pathway program, discussed scholarships and taught self-reliant skills to help the missionaries prepare for their return home. We also had the privilege of attending a temple session before they departed. The Missionaries LOVE the temple.
On weekends, we were asked to serve as MLS missionaries in the Teresa Branch, about a one hour drive up in the mountains. In addition, a few months later, we were also asked to help with a small group of refugees in an area called Ondoy who wanted to attend Sacrament meeting in Teresa, but who could not afford the jeepney or trikey fare to travel the 30 minute distance to the Teresa chapel. Elder Ferney will share more about that area in his talk.
The members of the Teresa Ward were an inspiration to us! They are faithful, dedicated members who amidst poverty and difficult circumstances, love the Lord, and we love them!
I would like to share with you what happened in one of our Sacrament Meetings. A young 10 yr. old boy whom had just been baptized about three weeks prior, stood up to bare his testimony. He is the only member in his family. About a year ago his mother fell in a man-hole and broke several bones in her legs. She has a rod and pins in her legs that poke out and have never healed. We don’t know much about his father, only that he was never around. On the day JR was baptized, the Sister Missionaries asked us to attend. JR was on his own with his younger sister that he was taking care of. The baptism was performed and that little Filipino boy was filled with joy! He beamed from head to toe. We gave him and his little sister a ride home afterwards. . . quite a distance from the chapel. In the Philippines, it’s dark by 6:00 pm all year round, so it was very dark as we drove up a little muddy road to his house back in a wooded area where there were no lights at all. We couldn’t make it all the way because the rain had made the road so rutted & slippery. Under his umbrella, Brother Peralta, also riding with us in the back seat, offered to walk the two children down the last narrow passage to their home, which had no electricity or running water. When he returned to the car, he mentioned their poor living conditions they had. We then dropped Bro. Peralta off a few miles away and headed home in the pouring rain. After that night we noticed JR at every church function. He was the 1st one there and the last one to leave. We wondered how he got to and from his house so far away.
Now, back to the Sacrament Meeting. JR began to share his testimony and express his love of the gospel and his gratitude for being baptized, and then he stopped. He started to cry, so hard he could not talk. For the 1st time, the congregation was dead silent. It literally broke my heart. Finally after several minutes, he was able to get some words out (in Tagalog) then took his seat. I do not know what he said but I felt his love for the Savior and our Savior’s love for him.
After the meeting, Sister Hernandez turned around to see my eyes filled with tears. She told me that JR wants to live in the church house so he can feel loved and be taken care of. Several times they had found him there all by himself. Members provided him with food and clothing. As I started to cry, she said “Don’t worry Sister, we will take care of him. It will be alright”. I choose to believe her because JR is a very special 10 yr. old and the members of the Teresa Branch are very good people.
Shortly after, Teresa became a ward and Morong became the 106th Stake. They held a wonderful cultural celebration and a member of the Teresa Bishopric brother Barredo’s became the new Stake President. He is doing an outstanding job and he and his wife have become a dear friends to us.
We got word last November that our mission will be split this July. Because our Mission is a “Parent, a Giving and a Receiving” Mission, it meant that we were in charge of training the new office couple for the Antipolo Mission and also of purchasing all the office supplies. The island of Mindoro will no longer be included in the QC Mission and three zones from the QC North Mission will be coming into our mission. Pretty exciting but tons of preparation and records to be transferred (which I felt was why the Lord sent us there).
Elder Bednar teaches that: we more fully come to know the Lord as we serve him and labor in His kingdom. As we do so, He generously blesses us with heavenly help, spiritual gifts, and increased capacity. His spirit is with us as we work in His vineyard.
We come to know the Savior as we do our best to go where He wants us to go, as we strive to say what He wants us to say, and as we become what He wants us to become. As we acknowledge our total dependence upon Him, He enlarges our capacity to serve ever more effectively.
We come to know the Lord as we are filled with His love.
I would like to share some thoughts that I wrote down about young Missionaries & those we served with. They are WONDERFUL!! They come in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities. They study, pray, serve, and teach. They endure sometimes unpleasant circumstances, and work long hours. They eat different foreign food and live in meager, humble housing but appear neat and clean at all times. They bouy one another up and learn to communicate with their companions in a foreign language. They adjust and adapt to different cultures and climates. They strive to be obedient and qualify themselves for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. They may suffer with home sickness or other hardships, but they have the desire to serve their mission, honor their covenants, and invite others to come unto Christ. They are young ambassadors of the Lord who LIFT, ENCOURAGE, INSPIRE and BLESS. We love them. We never heard one complaint! It was a joy to serve with them and we felt it a privilege to be associated with each one!
I bear testimony that this is the Lord’s church. He is at the head. I became aware of His tender mercies daily as we worked to assist and support the missionaries. Our hearts were enlarged as we taught and accompanied the Teresa ward members, including families to the Temple. I’m so grateful for the opportunity we had to be missionaries. Truly, we were the beneficiaries as we received heavenly help to carry out our assignments.
