October Blest

Much is happening in the mission right now. We are completing our October Blest initiative with an impressive increase in baptisms, in spite of two typhoons.  We will carry that momentum on through our November Quest as our missionaries continue to find and baptize in ever increasing numbers.

Some of  the events of the past two weeks included a second typhoon bringing torrential rain to Northern Luzon--almost all of our mission.  Since then, there has been no rain.  We have heat and humidity instead.  We've helped with an emergency transfer, escorted Elder and Sister Spung to their new home in Muñoz, tracked down missionaries who needed to sign visa documents, prepared and executed transfer week, and participated in Sunday services in Burgos and Dapdap.

On October 22nd, Sister Whiting and Sister Clark were privileged to attend a Tarlac Stake Relief Society activity entitled "Relief Society's Got Talent" patterned after the "America's Got Talent" show. Each ward and branch presented a traditional Filipino dance complete with costumes. We loved watching the sisters perform their cultural dances. Sister Whiting ended up being a last minute "judge" whose only duty was to tell what she liked about each act. It was such a fun afternoon!

Transfer week is always busy.  We spend all day Monday teaching the departing missionary workshop. We show 14 video clips and cover 14 topics.  Elder Whiting introduces the day by reminding them that each one of us is important to Christ, and He has time for the one. Elder Whiting has done the math and when the Savior greeted the 2,500 or so Nephites in America after his death and resurrection, even if he took just 10 seconds for each person, he still spent 8+ hours with them. He tells them that in 40 years he and President Clark will be dead so who will be the new mission presidents, stake presidents, bishops and wives?  They will. He then tells them that "manna from Heaven" has stopped.  Their missionary support card no longer works and it's time to become self reliant not only temporally but spiritually so they can, to quote Elder Robert D. Hales: "get ourselves on higher ground so we can lift others in need"

We try to prepare them to assume their places back in the "real world".  We call them by their first names--it really weirds them out! We remind them that there is a lot of life to live after a mission.  We tell them if they don't remember anything we say all day, remember this: PAY YOUR TITHING! THE LORD DOES NOT NEED YOUR MONEY BUT YOU NEED THE LORD'S BLESSINGS.  We love these Elders and Sisters and cherish this time with them.  The vast majority of them we will never see again in this lifetime.

Tuesday, they get the "essential ordinance" (read temple marriage) workshop from President and Sister Clark , luncheon and testimony meeting and goodbyes.  The tears always flow that day.

 Wednesday, we get a whole new batch of missionaries from the MTC.  We spend the day orienting them to the mission.  Elder Whiting teaches them how to use their support card and Sister Whiting teaches them how to fill out a Baptism and Confirmation Record.   Also on Wednesday we send an email to the parents of the new missionaries letting them know their missionary has arrived safely.  One parent in the United States misunderstood the email and thought something was wrong.  We get a call at 3:18 am Thursdy morning, waking us out of a sound sleep, from this freaked out parent.  We calmed her down, assured her all was well, but that ended our night's sleep.  Thursday was a looong day!

Thursday is transfer day.  The new missionaries and their trainers are paired up, receive further training, then leave for their areas.  Meanwhile, other transferring missionaries meet their new companions at the mission office and go to their new areas.  The mission office is a busy place with all of the comings and goings. Friday and Saturday are letter writing,  update the mission information, and catch up days.

42 years ago Elder Whiting departed for his first mission.  He tells missionaries the very best thing about these 42 years is that the gospel is still true! Heavenly Father and Jesus did come to Joseph Smith!  It's as true today as it was in 1820, and in 1973.  We know this to be true.  This is why we are here in the Philippines in 2016.

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the week:  Ken Ken

It's rice harvesting time in the Philippines.  The best place to dry rice--on the road!
It makes it difficult to get around sometimes!

Happy Halloween!  

Sister Whiting and her friend Heather Jean Arcansalan's
funny faced selfie!

Some of the cultural dances and the beautiful costumes

Sister Whiting's reward for being a judge!

Some of the Catholic and Iglesia ni Cristo churches in the Philippines

We saw this outside a small church.  We are not sure of it's function.
It reminded us of the Rameumpton with a trap door!

Sisters Conference and Typhoon Karen

Our first Typhoon of the season is winding down.  Typhoon Karen laid a direct hit on our mission, plowing right through the middle of it.  The missionaries in the coastal areas were evacuated inland and we have been on lockdown.  But all are well and safe, and it's back to work tomorrow.

It's been a great week in the mission.  On Monday, we had a sisters conference with all the sister missionaries.  A good friend of Sister Clark's, Jan Saumweber and her husband Les came for a visit. Years ago, Les was diagnosed with a debilitating disease that left him unable to work, so Jan became the breadwinner in the family.  She works for Walmart and was traveling home from India and since she was in the neighborhood, stopped for a visit.  She was the keynote speaker at the conference, the theme of which was "Believe to Achieve". In addition to hearing from her, we also heard from President and Sister Clark, had lunch, workshops, and a fashion show.  Sister Whiting, Sister Dansie, and Sister Pugh did a role play that was so convincing the young sisters thought it was real.  Sister Whiting got on the microphone after lunch and told Sisters Dansie and Pugh to go backstage and set up for the fashion show. While backstage, there was a microphone left on and Sisters Dansie and Pugh started gossiping about Sister Whiting, making fun of her dress, saying things like "someone said that when she was relief society president she was so bossy everyone quit coming to relief society", and "we do all the work and she takes all the credit."  It was so convincing that the sisters thought it was real and they were visibly upset and wondered why Sister Clark didn't put a stop to it.  Sister Whiting acted shocked as well, and soon Sisters Dansie and Pugh feigned that they didn't know the microphone was on and hoped that "nobody heard them".  They peeked out to see all of the shocked faces.  Then Sister Whiting joined them on the stage and we had a wonderful discussion on how we can't let this happen to us in the mission because we will lose the Spirit and will not progress.  By the way,  Sisters Whiting, Dansie, and Pugh really love each other and get along well!

Thursday, we welcomed Elder and Sister Spung to the mission.  The Clark's were in Baler, so we welcomed them, oriented them, and showed them around.  They were in culture shock and we just smiled as they exclaimed about everything they saw for the first time that we are now used to.  That evening, we had a welcome dinner at the mission home with all of the senior couples.  It was wonderful to have such a crowd, unlike a year ago when it was just us and the Clarks.  We like it!

Friday we were supposed to escort the Spung's to Munoz to their house, but with the pending typhoon it was decided they should stay at the mission home until Monday. President Clark didn't want to make them feel abandoned by sending them two hours away in an unfamiliar setting where they know no one, in the middle of a typhoon.  We will escort them up there tomorrow. Yesterday we monitored the typhoon, took the Spungs to dinner, dropped them off at the mission home and got home as it started raining.

The power went off for about three hours in the middle of the night, it got a little warm, but we feel blessed that that was the extent of the power outage.  We have been in "lockdown" today and all church meetings were cancelled. It's been nice to have a down Sabbath day, but it's back to work tomorrow!

We leave you with this story from Elder Brett Nattress' conference talk:

"Each morning my mother read the Book of Mormon to us during breakfast. During this time, my older brother Dave and I would sit quietly but irreverently. To be completely honest, we weren't listening. We were reading the print on the cereal boxes. Finally one morning, I decided to square up with my mother. I exclaimed, 'Mom, why are you doing this to us? Why are you reading the Book of Mormon every morning? I then made a statement that I am embarrased to admit to. In fact, I can't believe I actually said it. I told her, 'Mom, I am not listening!' Her loving response was a defining moment in my life. She said, 'Son, I was in a meeting where President Marion G. Romney taught about the blessings of scripture reading. During this meeting, I received a promise that if I would read the Book of Mormon to my children every day, I would not lose them.'  She then looked me straight in the eyes and, with absolute determination said, 'And I will not lose you.'"

Keep reading the Book of Mormon to you children!

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week --"Keep Calm and let Buddy Handle it"

Angeles Mission Sisters Conference

Angeles Mission Sisters Conference Luncheon

Sister Pugh and Sister Whiting

Tracking Typhoon Karen on Saturday. The blue line goes right through the middle of the mission.

On "lockdown" during Typhoon Karen.  It was lighter than forecast!

October Conference and Octoberblest

We've let two weeks slip by without a post, so be prepared for a little bit of overload ...

These two weeks have been very busy ones for us, but busy is good!  Two weeks ago, we made our way back into the mountains to visit the Saints in Pisapungan.  It had been a long time since we had been there and all of the rain had made the dirt road in to Pisapungan barely passable.  But we rode in the branch president's pickup truck, and he is a very capable driver so we made it in and out without incident. It almost felt like a trip out to Trout Creek back home, except instead of quakies, pine trees and scrub oak, we were surrounded by green jungle. Elder Whiting had bought a pair of rubber dress shoes to wear in  case we had to go through mud or water.  They did the trick, even if they made his feet sweat like crazy. As we got ready to leave, the villagers threw a large lizard (Komodo Dragon?) in the back of the truck where Elder Whiting was riding.  It thrashed around but had its mouth and feet bound by wire so it couldn't bite or claw.  It was going to be someone's dinner.

These past two weeks found us in Munoz twice working on the house for the senior couple who arrive next week.  With the help of Elder and Sister Dansie, we have the place ready to go.  One day, we had a fridge, stove, washer, and queen bed delivered--all of which came strapped to the top of two trikes.  They had driven two hours from the store and charged just 300 pesos for delivery--about $6.38.  We gave them 100 pesos for their lunch then went to work setting up the appliances and bed.  The hardest part was assembling the cheaply made bedframe because nothing fit right.

Other events in the past two weeks were a trip to Manila to transfer a sick missionary and her companion to the Missionary Recovery Center (MRC), a late night/early morning trip to the local hospital with another sick sister missionary, several apartment inspections, a trip to Angeles to install a water filter system in an apartment and drop off orientation books for binding, and other miscellaneous duties.  We have had lots of late nights and early mornings, and haven't been on a regular schedule for a while.  On top of that, we attempted to watch conference live with mixed results.  We appreciated some down time today.

Speaking of conference, yesterday and today was General Conference in the Philippines.  We enjoyed meeting with the Saints as we watched the sessions on the big screen in the stake center.  Imagine the thrill we had when we saw some of the Saints from Pisapungan and Dapdap. That is a very long way to travel. It was a huge sacrifice of time and money for them to attend.

One reason for our trip to Angeles was to celebrate Elder Whiting's birthday on Thursday--since we had a Munoz workday planned on Friday, his actual birthday.  We went to an upscale mall, wandered around, had dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, and dessert at--wait for it--Coldstone Creamery!  Who knew they were in the Philippines?!  On Friday, Elder Whiting's mission phone lit up with happy birthday texts from most of the young elders and sisters, (over 60 texts!) and yesterday, Sister Clark brought an ice cream cake to the office for him. He was very appreciative of all of the attention.

Several weeks ago, President Clark challenged our missionaries to step up their proselyting efforts, to make the month of October, "blessed". So we hope to be October Blest, then continue into next month with November Quest.  (One of our tired zone leaders hopes that the theme in December will be December Rest.  But that's not likely!)

We leave you with some of our favorite thoughts from General Conference:
From Elder Stevenson: "The Savior's name, or some form of it, is found in every 1.7 verses in the Book of Mormon." (Another Testament of Jesus Christ)  And from President Nelson:  of all the things Father Lehi could have said, he said ..."men are that they might have JOY!"

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week

The road into Pisapungang.  It's blurry because Sister Whiting
 was being bounced around and couldn't hold the camera steady.

Elder Whiting and his rubber shoes in Pisapungan

Someone's dinner!

The appliance delivery!

Happy 63rd Birthday Elder Whiting

General Conference Sunday with thousands of dragonflies in the air.
Check out the one in the top right corner of the picture, then try to zoom in to see more.

Full parking lot on General Conference Sunday

We pass this man every day. He sells cigarettes one at a time to people, complete with a light!

Not all traffic is trikes and jeepneys!

We've let two very busy weeks slip by without a post, so get ready for a little bit of overload. ...

Two weeks ago, we ventured back into the mountains to visit the Saints in Pisapungan.  We haven't been there for quite a while, and with all of the rain, the road had deteriorated quite a bit.  We rode in and out in the branch president's truck, barely making it.  It was a good thing he is a skilled driver.  Elder Whiting had purchased some rubber dress shoes for the occassion in case we had to go through mud or water.  They did the trick, even if they made his feet sweat like crazy. As we were leaving, the villagers threw a big lizard (Komodo Dragon?) into the bed of the truck where Elder Whiting was riding. It thrashed around quite a bit--fortunately they had wired its mouth shut and tied up is feet.  It was going to be someone's supper.

We spent two days in Mu

Happy Conference, Octoberblest

We let another week slip by without a post, so this post might be a little overload.  We have had a very busy two weeks, so here goes ...

Two weeks ago we ventured into the mountains again to visit the Saints in Pisapungan.  We hadn't been there in a few months, and with all of the rain since the last time we were there, the road was barely passable--and that was after a service project the day before by 50 priesthood brethren to work on the road so people could get in and out.  We rode in the Burgos branch president's pickup truck, and thank heavens he is a skilled driver.  We made it in and out without incident.  Elder Whiting had bought a pair of dress shoes made of rubber for the trip, not wanting to ruin his good shoes in the event we had to walk through water or mud.  They did the trick, even if they made his feet sweat like crazy.  As we got ready to leave, the villagers brought a huge lizard (Komodo Dragon?), and threw it into the bed of the truck where Elder Whiting was riding. It thrashed around quite a bit, but the had wired its mouth shut and tied up its legs--it was going to be someone's supper.

We spent a couple of days these past two weeks on the house in Mu