Mabuhay Deseret

We made the most remarkable discovery tonight. 

Mabuhay Deseret. 

The Humanitarian Couple, Elder and Sister Smith, took the Doctor and his wife, Elder and Sister Boehme, and us to participate in a FHE with the residents of Mabuhay Deseret -- sort of a Filipino version of Ronald McDonald House. 

 This is an amazing place.  From 1986-1989, Doctor William Jackson served as a mission president somewhere here in the Philippines.  He was shocked at the number of children who suffered from what their website calls "terrible disfiguring disabilities".   And so, after his release, he set up Mabuhay Deseret, which is an organization that provides for the medical care that these children need.  Their website says they are the largest surgical charity in the Philippines, performing over 3000 free operations a year.   The children come to this home (and now 11 others like it throughout the Philippines and more around the world), along with a care-giver who remains with them during the procedure and the recovery time, no matter how long that may take.  We met one young man who has been through 3 surgeries and is looking at one more.  He and his father have spent many months in this facility.  And they are provided with a place to stay and 3 meals a day. 

It is run by the most delightful woman.  Her name is Terry Redrino and Doctor Jackson brought her to this home when she was a newlywed and asked her to run it for him.  Her 4 children were born and raised here.  Interestingly, we had unknowingly, met her oldest, recently returned missionary son several weeks ago when he became a PEF participant.  We were struck by his strong work ethic, his determination to succeed and his sweet spirit.   Then we encountered him again last week when we attended a baptism and discovered him conducting the service as the Ward Mission Leader.  So -- like mother, like son.  What a pleasure to be able to meet this remarkable family.   In the picture above, Terry is enthusiastically leading us all in a Filipino folksong about a young man courting a young woman.  The children loved it.  So did the parents/caregivers.   Oh yeah, us too.

Elder and Sister Boehme added to the festive atmosphere as well, when he brought out his guitar and they entertained us with cowboy songs.  They are an equally exceptional pair.  They are the parents of 12 children, who also raised 3 of her deceased sister's children.  And now, here they are singing cowboy songs in Metro-Manila!!  (The young man in the white shirt behind Elder Boehme is Lars Nephi Redrino, Terry's son)

The Smiths are probably the hardest working Senior Missionaries in our mission.  You never see them.  They are on the road almost 24/7.  They sometimes sneak back into town in the dead of night and take off again early the next day.  They have so many exciting projects going on around the country.  They partner with other Humanitarian organizations to do wonderful things in this country.  I don't know what all is involved in their relationship with Mabuhay, but I know that he is the children's favorite source of snacks.  They were very happy to see him coming!
Mabuhay Deseret is supported on donations from individuals and corporations, but their LDS roots are acknowledged in a letter they have from President Hinckley, thanking them for all they do.  We plan to stay close to this group.  We want to be involved with them and be part of what they're doing.  Actually, there is a young boy in our Tanay Branch who could benefit from  a visit here.  We hope that can become a reality. 



You've Had a Birthday ...

Shout Hooray!!

Our friend and office-mate, Jib Esquejo, had a twenty-something birthday this week.  And he was surprised by all the attention.  Well, why would that be?  Jib is beloved by everyone.  So we celebrated most of the day. He discovered balloons all over his desk when he arrived at the office.  No one knows for sure who's responsible for that.  We learned that a tradition on your birthday is that you treat everyone to lunch.  So good-humored Jib took us all out to a wonderful all-you-can-eat Pinoy buffet that had amazing food. Where are the pictures

 of this outing, you ask?  Duh.  Got so involved in partaking of the delicacies, just forgot!  And then we had cake and ice cream in the afternoon.  And in between, people were coming and going all day long wishing him a Happy Birthday.  Everyone loves Jib

Full-Time Missionaries

President De LaMare, president of the Quezon City Mission, is mindful of the needs of the Senior Missionaries in his mission and works to accommodate us.  Specifically, in this instance, I'm talking about the fact that a Senior Mission differs from a Full-time Mission in many ways, but most particularly, it's that full-time missionaries address spiritual needs and senior missionaries are serving people's temporal needs.  Usually.  Not always.  There are many senior missionaries called to proselyting missions where their work is more spiritual.  But in our mission, there isn't a single one of those.  We're here taking care of all things temporal.  Public Affairs,

Office Couple, Security, Humanitarian, Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency, Doctor, Missionary Recovery Center, Employment Resource Center, Perpetual Education Fund, Making sure the Full-time missionary apartments are in good order, and one that I forgot the name of, but they go out and map the boundaries of the branches, districts, wards, and stakes.  Which is not to say that there aren't spiritual aspects to all of these because, after all, this is the Lord's work.  And we try to follow standard missionary practices - scripture study, prayer, companion study, reading the Liahona and all good books.  We had the TV disconnected in our apartment so we weren't tempted to camp out in front of it.  But we still succumb to the temptings of the internet.  We keep away from our beloved novels though, so that compensates - right??  President De LaMare told us when we first got here that he's provided a way for Senior Missionaries to experience a taste of that spiritual mission.  So we are invited to go out with the Full-time Missionaries and share a testimony or add a little to a lesson or in some way, be involved in teaching the Gospel.  It's been wonderful.  We've met delightful people.  We've had great experiences with the missionaries.  We've felt the Spirit.  It's been marvelous.  Eric told us that, as a missionary, he braced himself when he took members out teaching with him because he could never be sure what they were going to say.  Well, that's been the case with these young Elders too.  Even though we've recently spent an intense week living "Preach My Gospel", we blunder into things that they have to come along afterwards and clean up.   They're good humored about it and I don't think we've permanently broken anything.  We attended a baptism on Wednesday and there is another one tonight.  It's hard to do permanent damage to the Truth.  And that's what they are sharing.  And that is what is changing lives in the Philippines. 

Elder Sweat and Elder Nelson are in the top picture.  They are the first Elders to try to teach us how to find Tanay.  When that didn't work, they sent in Elder Baucom and Elder Mag-Usara.  Repetition seems to work with us.  Elders Baucom and Mag-Usara taught Michelle and her young sons.  She will be baptized tonight.  Elders Nelson and Sweat taught Sister Elvie who was baptized on Wednesday. 

 We tried feeding the missionaries like we always did at home, but that doesn't work so well when you're doing you calling all day and want to go out with the Elders in the evening - no time for cooking.  We got one chance to do a P-Day breakfast.   

"Prophetic Promises"

Click on the link below to learn about "PEF"

Perpetual Education Fund - "Prophetic Promises"

This is the work we are involved in here in the Philippines.

We see it as a modern-day miracle and we're thrilled to be a part of it.

So what you learn from the video is that this isn't just a loan program.  It requires effort and commitment on the part of ambitious young people.  It teaches self reliance and helps build families and communities and, most importantly, great church leaders.  With strong leadership, the church can grow even faster in this area than it already is.  This is a Priesthood-based program.  These young people have the support of their bishops, branch presidents, and stake leaders.  This is a somewhat dated video.  It was made in 2004, and so the figures are incorrect.  The Perpetual Education Fund has over 45,000 participants now and is found in over 40 countries.  And it just keeps growing. 

We received a letter from Elder John Carmack, who is the Emeritus General Authority in charge of the Perpetual Education Fund.  Here is a portion of that letter:

We recently celebrated two important anniversaries.  First, the 75th anniversary of the Church Welfare Program, and second the 10^th anniversary of the PEF program.  In President Eyring’s Conference address, he said, “the principles at the foundation of the Church welfare program are for all times and all places. Those principles are spiritual and eternal. “He then shared some principles that have guided him in helping others.

The first principle that he mentioned was the importance of helping others become self reliant.  He said: “all people are happier and feel more self-respect when they can provide for themselves and their family and then reach out to take care of others."  The Perpetual Education Program is one of the most powerful programs in the church at helping our members become self-reliant and achieve the happiness that comes from helping others.  As participants graduate and gain meaningful employment, they will have many more opportunities to help others, including repaying their loans so others can receive the same blessings.

President Eyring closed by thanking those involved in providing service to others.  “For the Master I extend thanks for your work to serve the children of our Heavenly Father. He knows you, and He sees your effort, diligence, and sacrifice. I pray that He will grant you the blessing of seeing the fruit of your labors in the happiness of those you have helped and with whom you have helped for the Lord.”



The Manila Temple

The Manila Temple is right across the street from the Philippines Area Office, where we spend a good deal of our time.  It really is a breathtaking sight as we round the corner in the morning and it suddenly rises above us as we head toward the parking lot of the PAO.  

The Temple was the first built in the Philippines and was dedicated in 1984. Another was dedicated in Cebu a few months ago and a third was

announced last Conference

farther north of here.        

As do so many other temples, this temple has some interesting historic folklore attached to it.  A typhoon approached the day before the groundbreaking ceremony.  But at a mission conference that evening, a missionary prayed for the weather to cooperate - the typhoon changed direction, and the groundbreaking proceeded as planned. 

In the days leading up to the dedication of the temple, there were two typhoons, a volcano erupted, and there was an earthquake in northern Luzon.  The temple was safe.  

In 1989, there was an attempt to overthrow the government and much of the conflict took place near the temple and other church properties in the area.  There was damage to the temple annex, the patron housing facility, and mortar shells exploded on the grounds - some even passing between the spires of the temple.  But the temple, itself, was unharmed, save one single bullet hole at the top of the highest spire. 

So, whether we're heading toward the office early in the morning, or wandering through the area late at night, the Temple is an ever-present reminder that there is a God in Heaven who loves us very much and desires that we return to live with Him. That there is safety in staying close to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.   A reminder that family is everything and that through Holy Temples on the earth, we can be assured of Eternal Life with our families beyond this existence.

Tanay

We have finally cozied into our assigned Branch here in the

 Quezon City Mission.

It was an adventure getting settled in. 





We set off one Sunday, early in our mission and, after 2 1/2 hours

 on the road, made it to our 9:00am Sacrament meeting

at 10:30am. 

Then we went missing for a couple of weeks because of travel and other commitments.  But now finally, after exhausting two sets of missionaries, we've learned to make it there on our own.

In a little over an hour.

Tanay is a small city southeast of Metro-Manila where we live.

Senior missionaries are pretty much centrally located in the small cities in the Metro-Manila area because of the kind of work we're called to do. 

 Our city is Mandaluyong. 

Other missionaries live in Eastwood, Quezon City, and other areas. 

But none of us (except the medical staff, because they need to be close) goes to church where we live.  A general authority decided many years ago, when he was an Area President here, that the people would be better served by the senior missionaries if they were spread out into the smaller, outlying areas.  So every Sunday a bunch of senior missionaries head out north and south from Metro-Manila into small branches where we find our niche. 

As I said, it took us awhile to settle in.  Other wards and branches we've visited have used Taglish in most of their church services.  If we're vigilant, we can put together enough words to make sense of what's going on.  But Tanay is different.  They like to speak Tagalog almost exclusively, although most of them understand and speak English very well.  They even use their Tagalog scriptures.  That really threw me because that's the one place that I could always catch up - because most other places use English scriptures.  So now we rely heavily on the full-time missionaries to translate for us.  And we also rely on our vigilance.  And maybe a little on the Spirit as well.

It also took the members awhile to warm up to us.  This, too, was different from other places we'd visited who all wanted to know if we were going to be assigned to their branches.  It took a very fun and worthwhile Sunday afternoon activity to break the ice with them. 

We had, at first, thought that there was never going to be a way for us to be very involved with the branch, being so far away from where we live.  And that's what we'd been told by others, also.  But one Sunday, we said to the branch president that we'd be happy to do anything he thought would be helpful for his branch. 

So the very next Sunday, we were startled and pleased to find that they

 had arranged visits to a number of their less active members.

We spent over 3 hours traveling in tricycles from home to home. 

 What a great experience! 

Relief Society President and Elders Quorum President.

Whoever would have put "Elder Bell"  and "tall" in the same sentence?

He never straightened up the whole trip.

View from back seat of a Tricycle shows the 3 major modes of travel in the area.

 And at the end, we asked, "Again, next week?"  Everyone said, yes, and so we, foolishly, assumed yes.  But what they meant was, "yes, every three weeks."  Darn.  And, so, the Adventure continues.