Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Wow! What a Week!

We have had an amazing week. The highlight of course was our mission conference on Tuesday with President Russell M. Nelson, his wife Wendy, and Elder and Sister Shayne Bowen of the Seventy. We were blessed to hear from all of them, and to shake their hands. Our missionaries were so excited and attentive during the conference. President Nelson and the others gave some wonderful counsel and really brought the Spirit with them. We were all smiles long after he had departed. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Along with that great spiritual experience, twice this week we went with the sisters to teach the family across the street. We ended up teaching the mother Mary, and her 10 year old son Richard. We all huddled around the makeshift table, the only light being the makeshift kerosene lantern and the flashlight on the sisters' phone, while the sisters taught about eternal families and the restoration. The Spirit was so strong; Mary felt the Spirit and wants to be baptized. We taught her again on Friday night, and when the sisters checked with them on Saturday, Mary wanted another lesson, so they taught another lesson then. They have a baptism date of March 26th. Today was stake conference, and we got Richard there, but Mary ended up going to visit her 12 year old daughter Aira, who works across town instead. Hopefully next week we will get both Mary and Aira to church. Mary and Christopher (the dad) are not married, so they need to get married so Mary can be baptized. Right now Christopher is not interested. Those were the spiritual highlights of the week, and boy were they ever! This was our first real opportunity to help teach, and we hope to do a lot more.

Wednesday, we made another trip to Manila. We delivered three sisters to Manila, all of them leaving our mission. One, Sister Lenogon, was a visa waiter serving in our mission until she could get her visa to the U.S. Today, she is in the Utah Provo Mission, most likely freezing to death! The other two have health issues. One was released, the other will have knee surgery and hopefully return to the field. Manila traffic is as challenging as ever. At one point it took 45 minute to go two kilometers. But we made it there and back without incident. Thursday, we unexpectedly had to transport a short term missionary to San Fernando, which is halfway to Manila, to take the place of Sister Lenogon. Flexibility is something you learn as a missionary. Whatever is necessary, we do.

Which brings us to today. As we mentioned, it was the Tarlac Stake Conference. We attended the Saturday evening session where President and Sister Clark spoke as well as Elder Perez, an area seventy. But through some miscommunication--which isn't unusual with the language barrier--the Clark's were unaware they were supposed to speak today as well and had made appointments in other parts of the mission. So guess who represented them as speakers in stake conference today? Yup. We threw something together last night and we think it turned out okay. It's kind of a crazy thing, because last September, our first Sunday in the mission, it was also stake conference, and they had us bear our testimony then. Deja Vu!

We leave you with D&C 138:55-56, which President Nelson used to describe the youth of today: "I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen from the beginning to be rulers in the Church of God. Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in His vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men."

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting