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

Random Parades

We've had a pretty good week, busy as usual.  We are grateful for modern technology that keeps us in touch with our loved ones as we serve on the other side of the world from them.

On Monday, Elder Whiting dropped Sister Whiting off very early at te office (6 a.m.!) and he drove again to Muñoz to meet with the landlord and her attorney to get the signatures needed for the senior couple apartment.  Now that that task is done, we will go this coming Tuesday to clean, deliver appliances and prepare the house.  We have been bringing down items that have been in storage from the third floor of our apartment, washing linens, and kitchen utensils, and sorting through things to put in the house.  We will be very glad to be done with this task.  This will be third house we have prepared for an incoming senior couple.  We may have to do one more.  It's been a lot of work but we are so grateful to have these senior missionaries here.  They lift burdens and do a great work in the mission.

If going to Guimba Zone (Muñoz) wasn't enough on Monday, we were asked to take a sister companionship who had been in Tarlac to the eye doctor home to Paniqui (pronounced "panicky", haha) that evening.  Paniqui is only a half hour away, so it wasn't too bad, and we had a good visit with the sisters during our travel.  We didn't quite beat the big storm home, and had to hurry into the house.  We didn't get too we though.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were days with no rain and plenty to do in the office.  Wednesday evening we went to the grocery store because we had no food in the house.  On our way, we passed a protest that made us a little nervous.  It was a group of about 50 people with signs and loudspeakers protesting the new Philippine president's attitude that Marshal Law is something he will not hesititate to use.  We hope he doesn't turn the Philippines into a dictatorship.


Friday, Elder and Sister Pugh came to Tarlac to train us on how do to apartment inspections.  We have been assigned to inspect the missionary apartments in the Tarlac and Mabalacat Zones--a total of 16 houses.  We learned to inspect for safety and cleanliness, as well as check their 72 hour kits and area books.  We started with the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and the sisters who are our neighbors.  These were pretty easy as they are some of our best and most obedient missionaries, so there weren't a lot of issues.  We did replace one smoke detector and some light bulbs.  Sister Pugh then left a spiritual message with them and our neighbor sisters asked us to kneel with them in prayer.  We love the young missionaries! They are so faithful.

We then went to lunch with the Pugh's before they went back to Camiling.  We appreciated them helping us--it was a sacrifice for them to come in from Camiling, which is an hour away, to help train us.  That evening, just as we got home, a huge storm came through and knocked the power out for a half hour, but it seemed much longer than that.  We huddled in the dark around our emergency combination fan and light, stripped down to our underwear trying to stay cool, wondering what to do without the internet.  We are extremely spoiled.  We were very grateful when the power came back on.

As if traffic isn't bad enough in this counry, it is often made even worse by funeral processions and random parades.  Friday, we had to slowly inch past a parade of hundreds of boy and girl scouts. They were really cute in their full uniforms, but doubled the time it took for us to get to the office.  Yesterday it was a trade or technical school of some sort.  This parade not only had hundreds of students walking along, but at least a dozen big floats.  The floats were big flatbed trucks elaborately decorated--many of them with a Harry Potter theme.  This parade was making it's way through the narrow streets of Tarlac as the Barangay Police stopped all traffice to let it pass.  Again, it doubled our travel time to the office and we had to take an alternate route besides.  Yesterday was National Family Day in the Philippines, and the Tarlac wards had gathered at the stake center for their own random parade celebrating the family. After their parade, which we politely declined an invitation to participate in, they spent the day at the church with games and activities and the requisite way-too-loud rock music playing all. day. long.

Today will be a trip to Pisapungan for church--we haven't been in a while.  We bought some cheap rubber shoes in case it rains.  We look forward to seeing our friends and to see how the Church is growing in that little village.

We leave you with this thought as we prepare for General Conference:  "The enemies of your own human 'fortress' are both physical and spiritual...And so I beg of you...to live each day so that you might receive from the fountain of light the nourishment and strength sufficient to every day's need.  Take time to be holy each day of your lives." --Harold B. Lee--

Mahal Kita
Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week

A trike covered in stuffed animals

Selfie with our neighbors, Aira and Richard

Boy and Girl Scout Parade

Funeral Procession

Breaking up concrete by hand

Mall cop checking all cars for bombs "wink wink".  It's pretty much a joke of a search

One of this country's many creepy crawlies

Supper, Shopping, Storms, Stuck, Stake Conference, And Transfers

It has been a busy, busy two weeks, and we let a week slip by without a post, so be prepared; we are going to make it up to you!

On Labor Day, we had the four sisters who live down the street over for dinner.  We do this once a transfer, and it was a good thing, because Sister Gonzaga and Sister Cutar have been transferred to other areas, with Sister Cutar being called as a Sister Training Leader. They are wonderful, obedient missionaries and will do well wherever they are.

Tuesday the 6th, Sister Whiting and Sister Clark took a trip to Angeles to the Capiz Shell Factory, where they purchased and ordered some beautiful Capiz shell items. It was also a lot of fun to watch the workers create these beautiful pieces.

The rest of the week was spent in the office.  Saturday the 10th, we drove the mission truck over to Muñoz to look for a house for the new senior couple. It was a waste of a trip as we were not able to even see any houses.  Turns out the first house we looked out two weeks ago, which we thought we couldn't get, became available with some conditions. The landlady is really being difficult, though.  We went again yesterday thinking she would sign the lease only to be told she wanted her attorney to look at everything. So it was another frustrating day, and Elder Whiting has to go back early tomorrow to meet with her and her attorney.  Hopefully he can get the deal done.  The time draws short and the senior couple will be here soon!

So after the frustrating morning a week ago, we started our drive to Cabanatuan as we were staying overnight there because we were speaking in stake conference the next day.  We left plenty early for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Cabanatuan, intending to check into our hotel and be early for the Saturday evening adult session. Well it ended up being a 4 1/2 hour ordeal as we were stuck in traffic not knowing there was construction on a bridge.  Most of the time we were at a dead standstill--we could have gotten there quicker by walking!  We were an hour late for the evening session.  But we had a good evening as we met Elder and Sister Dansie for dinner, then slept well at the nice Harvest Hotel.

We gave our talks in Stake Conference, picked up a departing missionary, made our way back toward Muñoz and San Jose via a different route which was very beautiful and had very light traffic to pick up another departing missionary.  We delivered them to the mission home, had some dinner and went home to bed.

Monday we taught the career workshop to the 7 departing missionaries--our smallest group yet.  Tuesday, we said goodbye to this wonderful group of missionaries. Wednesday, we welcomed 20 new missionaries.  Because some of them had come from the Provo MTC, and because of a national holiday on Monday, they had to do their immigration processing that morning, so instead of getting to the mission at 10 or 11 a.m. they were delivered to the mission home at 4 p.m.  We did our arrival orientation, which with this size of group took about two hours, had a nice dinner, and the missionaries departed to their accomodations for the night.  We were assigned to get all their luggage to the mission office, which took two trips. With help from the office elders, we accomplished this task by 10:30 p.m.

Thursday was an early arrival at the office for us for transfers, which went quit smooth. The 20 new missionaries got their companions and were sent on their way to areas near and far throughout the mission.  We can't help but say a prayer that they will adjust quickly and not be too overwhelmed by the demands of missionary work and the strange culture. We can tell they are a good group and are going to do great things.

Regarding our trip to Muñoz yesterday, it was not a total waste of a trip as we stayed to the baptism of two 17 year old young men. Elder Whiting was asked to be a witness, which was a special tender mercy for us as we missed our granddaughter, Chloe's baptism that very day back home.  The Lord is mindful of His servants.  We are very blessed.

Last night we went to dinner with President and Sister Clark at a coffeeshop that serves great food.  They told us we had won a cupcake and asked us to pose with "I Love Javalogy" signs for a picture.  We thought it purdent to hold th sings in front of our nametags as we were pretty sure we would end up on their Facebook page.  So we were just four anonymous white people instead of missionaries endorsing a coffee shop.  We had a wonderful evening until it came time to leave.

In the Philippines, all businesses have security guards/doormen/parking attendants. They greet you, open the door for you, and will go out in the street and stop traffic so  you can back out and get onto the highway.  This is a real service in this country of heavy traffic and no rules.  It is difficult to back out into traffic without help.  We usually tip these guards a few pesoes for their help.  The Javalogy security guard (Javalogy is located right on crazy busy MacArthur Highway) was a cute little man who greeted us with a big smile and opened the door for us.  There was a brief power outage during our dinner, and he came in to check the breaker box, which was right by our table.  As we were preparing to leave, Sister Clark noticed a commotion in the street outside. A van was stopped and a man was on his phone frantically talking to someone.  In front of the van was the security guard.  He had been hit by the van as he attempted to stop traffic to let a customer back out.  We didn't see it happen, but he lay there not moving at all for a half hour until the ambulance came and carried him off.  We do not think he survived the accident.  It made us sick.  To top it off, when we finally felt like we could leave, there was Elder Whiting and President Clark out stopping traffic so we could back out.  Scary! Our wonderful evening out ended on a very somber note.

Today we attended Burgos Branch. Our missionaries were the featured speakers in sacrament meeting, and when they were finished, the Branch President called a member up to the stand, handed him his mission call, and the young man opened and read it right there in sacrament meeting!  We had heard that this was commonly done in the Philippines, and it was a treat to get to witness it.

Sister Whiting lead the singing in Relief Society and they sang "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", because after all it is September, and the Christmas season is upon us.  Our new missionaries confirmed that the Manila MTC has already put it's tree up, and the nativities are being built around town. Religion doesn't hide in this country, it is front and center in all phases of life.

The past two weeks we have witnessed several intense lightning storms that remind us of the description of the "great and terrible tempests" in the Book of Mormon at the Savior's death.  We have had much of "exceedingly sharp lightnings", thunder that shakes the rafters, and deluges almost every day.  We never cease to marvel at the intense weather the Philippines gets.

We leave you with the following thoughts:

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ DID come to Joseph Smith.
It's as true today as it was in 1820.
We are so very blessed to have this knowledge.

Mahal Kita and Maligayang Pasco
(see if you can remember what the last part means)

Elder and Sister Whiting

Jeepney of the Week

Dinner with the Sisters L-R: Sister Gonzaga, Sister Cutar, Sister Whiting,
Sister Fosita, Sister Evans, Elder Whiting

Creating beautiful pieces of art at the Capiz Shell Factory in Angeles

Banner Announcing the Guimba District Conference

Program for the Cabanatuan Stake Conference we spoke at.
We were each given our own program with our name on it.

Elder Whiting with the Jollibee in Muñoz on Grandparent's Day.
Sister Whiting was not asked to have her picture taken.
Now we know who looks like a granparent!

Sister Whiting and Elders Apolinario and Smith in the mission truck crammed with luggage

Baptisms of Elders Quinzon and Cox's investigators in Muñoz September 17, 2016

Carabao Caravan

We Heart Javalogy.  L-R: Sister Whiting, Elder Whiting, President Clark, Sister Clark