Wednesday we welcomed 18 new missionaries from all over the world. We did our new missionary orientation for the last time. It's a strange feeling to be doing these tasks that have become part of our lives for the last time. At the same time, we look forward to coming home and seeing our loved ones. We have learned and experienced so much, and have met some of the finest people on the planet during our mission. We will definately miss them.
Friday and Saturday were very special days for us. Sister Bonnie Oscarson, General Young Women's President, and Sister Jean Bingham, General Primary First Counselor made a visit to the sisters who live in the stakes and districts of the Angeles Mission. They came for a day and a half of visits, training, teaching, and devotionals. The mission office became the reception/break area, so we were blessed to greet them one on one when they arrived. They were accompanied by their spouses and by Elder and Sister Alan D. Haynie of the Seventy. They were all so gracious and loving; just regular, genuine people. They were so easy to talk to, without a hint of self-importance about them. Before they came to the office, they had stopped and visited members in their homes. What an unforgettable experience for them and for the members.
Sister Oscarson and Sister Bingham taught a seminary class Friday evening to young people from two of the Tarlac wards. What a treat for those young people, and even though they may not have understood every word spoken, just to be there was something they will always remember and treasure.
Saturday, they arrived bright and early for more training in various focus groups. While they did their training, we turned the mission office over to their spouses and Elder Haynie so they could do some preparation of their own. Elder Haynie was using Sister Whiting's desk and when he saw the family picture she keeps there, he asked all about our children. Soon he was showing Sister Whiting pictures of his children, and it was just like they were old friends talking and laughing. Sister Haynie is as unpretentious as they come as well.
Between the morning and afternoon training sessions (these general auxiliary presidencies work very hard!) they had lunch and a rest period in the mission office. In the afternoon, they held a general leadership training meeting, which was packed with sisters, took another short break in the mission office, and ended the day with a devotional for sisters age 8 and up, which was even more packed. Every room in the stake center was full of sisters young and old; and what they couldn't understand through language, they experienced through the Spirit. Such a great day.
After the meeting, it took Sister Oscarson and Sister Bingham several minutes to make their way through the throngs of sisters from the chapel to the mission office, graciously posing for pictures as they went. Their spouses went out to help escort them through the crowds, but soon they were posing for pictures as well! Sister Whiting and Sister Clark were on the steps of the mission office just watching the spectacle, and before they knew it they were posing for pictures too! Sisters Oscarson and Bingham finally made it into the mission office, and it turned out that Sister Clark and Sister Whiting's photo session was a sort of diversion that allowed our guests to depart for some much needed rest at their hotel.
This was an event these Filipino sisters will always cherish. Many of them came as families and made a day of it; the husbands dressed in their Sunday best tending the children outside. Others came as wards and branches in rented jeepneys and buses traveling many hours to attend. All of them were so thrilled to be there--it will be a highlight of their lives.
We leave you with these words from Sisters Oscarson and Bingham from the September 2016 General Women's Meeting:
"Fervant charity, meaning 'wholehearted', is demonstrated by forgetting the mistakes and stumblings of another rather than harboring grudges or reminding ourselves and others of imperfections in the past." --Jean B. Bingham--
"Sisters, I don't believe that conditions are going to improve going forward. If current trends are an indcation, we need to be prepared for the storms that lie ahead. It would be easy to throw our hands up in despair, but as covenant people we never need despair. As Elder Gary E. Stevenson has said, 'Heavenly Father's generous compensation for living in perilous times is that we also live in the fulness of times.'" --Bonnie L. Oscarson--
Tandaan mo, mahal kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting
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| Jeepney of the Week |
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| Lunch with the Pugh's at the Chinese Restaraunt last week. |
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| Saying Goodbye to Elder Navadya Silva as he prepares to return home to Sri Lanka. He served in the office, and will be a great strength to the Church in Sri Lanka |
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| Our Salt Lake guests arrive! |
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| Elder and Sister Whiting with Sister and Brother Oscarson |
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| Lunch between training sessions. Clockwise from bottom: President Clark, Sister Clark, Sister Oscarson, Brother Oscarson, Sister Haynie, Elder Haynie, Sister Bingham, Brother Bingham, Sister Whiting, Elder Whiting |
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| Elder and Sister Haynie and Sister and President Clark |
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| Sister Oscarson greeting the throngs of sisters. She is in the plaid jacket with her back toward the camera |
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| A day never to be forgotten! |
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| Brother Oscarson had his photo op as well! |
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| Balancing her wares on her head. And she was walking very fast! |
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| Street cleaners in Manila. A Dangerous job. |
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| Peddler selling foam mattresses; what most people sleep on. |
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| Sugar cane harvest is in full swing. This truck is headed toward the processing plant located near the Mission Home. |
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| A typical "family car". |
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