Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Mission Tour, Subic, and Mother's Day

We wish all of our mothers a Happy Mother's Day! Sister Whiting was spoiled by notes and posts from all of her children. In addition, many of her "Mission Children" sent notes and texts wishing her a Happy Mother's Day. She loves being their "Mission Mom"

We have had a great week in the mission. It started out with a pizza party last Monday with the Tarlac Zone. It was their reward for again meeting their Standard of Excellence, which is two baptisms per companionship per month. This is the second SOE pizza party we have been able to attend since coming to the mission. Way to go Tarlac Zone!

We were privileged to have Elder and Sister Allen D. Haynie of the Seventy tour our mission. His assignment is counselor in the Philippine Area Presidency. They arrived at the mission home Tuesday evening and we were invited to share dinner with them. After dinner, about 30 new members and investigators arrived by jeepney and were privileged to hear the Haynie's speak.

While the Clark's and the Haynie's held a Zone Conference on the other side of the mission on Wednesday, we buckled down and worked in the office. Thursday was our turn for Zone Conference. Beginning at about 8 a.m. Elder Haynie interviewed some missionaries, greeted each missionary individually, and then we settled in to be taught by them and the Clark's. We had a wonderful lunch, then spent the afternoon again being taught. The day ended with a wonderful question and answer period where the missionaries brought their own inspired questions for Elder Haynie. We know his answers were inspired because of his response to a question posed by an elder whose family is having a great trial right now. Elder Haynie answered as if he knew everything about the elder--which he did not. It was amazing to see how perfect the answer was for the situation.

Saturday we finally celebrated our anniversary. We left early in the morning for Subic Bay in our casual clothes--that felt strange. We were met by the Wrights, residents of the area who acted as our tour guides for the day. They were recommended to us by the Olongapo Mission Office when Elder Whiting contacted them for information on the area. The Wrights are service missionaries having served six years so far in the mission. They own a nice little farm and have a beautiful home. They were the perfect hosts as they took us to a Sea World type aquarium and other places of interest. We watched dolphin and wild animal shows and did a totally bizarre thing. We went to the "fish spa" where we put our feet in a tank and had what were called Doctor Fish come eat the dead skin off of our feet. It was the weirdest pedicure we've ever had, and most likely we will not repeat it. When they were sucking on our feet, it tickled and felt like pins and needles all at the same time. Just bizarre. But all in all, we had a wonderful day and have made some great new friends.

Yesterday started Transfer Week; and we picked up two departing missionaries and took them to the mission home. Today we taught the Departing Missionary Self Reliance workshop, and the rest of the week will be just busy.

We leave you with some thoughts from the mission tour: From President Clark--We are children of Heavenly Parents who love us perfectly and have never made any parenting mistakes with us. Trust them.
From Elder Haynie--Happiness and peace are not mutually exclusive. It is not either/or; you can and should have both. The scriptures do not say that men ought to be somewhat moderately happy in this life. The scriptures say men are that they might have joy. Trust in the timing of the Lord's answers to your questions; trust yourself that you can make good decisions. Remember, as is says in D&C 8--"I will tell you in your MIND and in your HEART." And D&C 121--"Let VIRTUE garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, then shall they CONFIDENCE wax strong in the presence of God."

Mahal Kita
Elder and Sister Whiting