Elder and Sister Whiting in the Philippines: Baby It's Cold Outside

A shout out to Marilynn Holland, Sister Whiting's sister for the theme of this week's post. As we see pictures and read about the good old fashioned winter back home, we want to tell you that we are having a cold spell as well. When we went for our walk this morning, we saw children shivering as they donned sweatshirts and hats. We even felt the nip in the air. After all, it was all the way down into the upper 60's. We don't mean to rub it in! We are going to freeze when we get home!

We are down to single digits in the number of weeks we have left in the mission. Each week seems to go by so quickly. We are trying to enjoy each moment we have left as full time missionaries. We often shake our heads and ask ourselves, "where has the time gone"?

Tuesday, Elder Whiting spent the day at the mission home at Mission Leadership Council, doing a year end reconciliation of the zone working funds with the zone leaders and sister training leaders. Thursday, we took a trip to Manila to retrieve a missionary who had been at the Missionary Recovery Center for treatment. We left very early in the morning and avoided a lot of the bad traffic. When we arrived, we met Boycee, the manager of the MRC. He told us his conversion story, when as a teenager, strung out on marijuana and alcohol, a bold missionary invited him to join his family in the lesson he was teaching. He was baptized a year later, served a mission, married in the temple, and was serving as stake president when Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf called him to be a mission president. Four months later, before he could serve, his wife died. He told us of the many times he has felt the presence of his wife in his life. He told of "talking" to her often. One time he got an impression from her where she told him to quit calling her, because she was busy and time is short in this last dispensation. As we left, he turned to the elder and told him to work hard and talk to everyone. Before we left, Elder Peel of the MRC made us a delicious omlet for breakfast, and we were back to the mission office by noon.

On Friday, we got word from Manila that the Philippines Area is going to implement the Church's My Plan program to assist returning missionaries' adjustment to post mission life. The Area will sponsor a day and an half seminar in Manila for all departing missionaries beginning with the March departures. This has altered their departure date, and Sister Whiting spent the rest of Friday and most of Saturday rearranging travel plans for March. This plan will replace the departure workshop we have been teaching and alter the mission's departure routine. But it will be of great value to missionaries returning home and by bringing them all together, it will provide consistency in teaching the concepts. So a week from tomorrow we will teach our workshop for the last time. We have loved teaching this class but know that My Plan is inspired and will be of great worth.

Friday afternoon, Elder and Sister Spung came to town to convert their U.S. Driver's license to a Philippine license so they can continue to drive in the country. They learned first hand about Filipino red tape. Because of a slight discrepancy between Elder Spung's name on his passport and his Utah driver's license, they refused to give him a Philippine driver's license. That's bad news because it is essential that he be able to drive. They called Sister Whiting, who in turn called Church Legal. After researching the issue, Legal told Elder Spung to apply for a student driver's license rather than a conversion, because he only needed a passport for that. Believe it or not, the same people who would not give him a regular license gave him a student license! His only restriction is that he has to always have a licensed driver with him--Sister Spung! They were there six hours and stood in six different lines, twice! Elder Spung said afterward that he will never ever complain about the lines at the DMV again. To celebrate, we all went out to dinner and had a good laugh.

Today we attended Burgos Branch, which is growing and developing. The saints are excited to study the Doctrine and Covenants, and they love the fact that we are studying the life of President Hinckley. He is one of their favorites as he dedicated the Philippines for the preaching of the gospel, dedicated the first chapel, and the first temple.

We leave you with these thoughts from President Ezra Taft Benson: "The Book of Mormon is the 'keystone' of our religion, and the Doctrine and Covenants is the capstone, with continuing latter-day revelation. The Lord has placed His stamp of approval on both the keystone and the capstone." (conference report, April 1987)

We testify that the keystone and the capstone teach us about the Savior, who is the cornerstone of the gospel.

Mahal Kita,
Elder and Sister Whiting