Reminiscing 2012

We are loving it!Really!!

 One of the greatest and most memorable years we have ever spent just ended.  Several experiences stand out as defining for us. Here are a few.

 

We have learned and seen how living the gospel of Jesus Christ changes peoples hearts, minds and even physical appearance.  One of our focuses has been to rescue families and leaders who were not enjoying the blessings of the gospel.  Most of these individuals we have worked with have been hardened by the world with some bitterness toward someone in the church. They have let the spirit and power of the atonement slip through their fingers and have held fast to what was left; grudges and bitterness.  In many cases the softness the gospel brings into a person's life was replaced with worldly vices and thinking. They could remember the gospel was still true, but they found that God would not strike them dead if they stopped coming to church, so they got comfortable and slipped into their old life style. You could see a reluctant edge in their eyes and hear it in their voice. We could hear them thinking, "if we invite these people back, they are just going to ask us to come back to church and we am ok with how things are going in our life."  They had forgotten. Brother and Sister G. for example  They had been baptized as early pioneers in the church and had become leaders early on. They worked hard as their testimonies grew, sacrificing family time and recreation for service in the Lord's kingdom. After years of service they were eventually released with little thanks and with a few unresolved conflicts.  At first they just took a vacation from church activity, then soon, going back to their old life became very easy. After fifteen years there with old friends and vices it was a distant memory.  We learned the power of inspired questions asked in love, consistency, offering apologies and persistence. They both have callings now and are getting ready to return to the temple. They have remembered the strength,power and truth they had left behind.

I had the blessing of working with two missionaries this year who wanted to return home because they felt that a mission was not what they wanted.  Forty years ago I was experiencing the same feelings.  What am I doing here? I remember a call home I made from the mission president's office to inform my parents I was coming home, and to arrange to return to the States.  But instead I had a spiritual experience while on the phone with my mother.  I was allowed to physically feel the pain that I put into my mother's heart when I told her that I was coming home.  There was an immediate change in my desire to serve and thanks to my mother and God I stayed on my mission. My life changed for an eternity!  This experience is even more meaningful since my mom passed away this year. What a gift she gave me that I was able to pass on to two struggling missionaries. Using that experience and the power of having served a mission, I was able to encourage both missionaries to stay and now one is a zone leader and the other a district leader and both are loving their missions and their lives will be changed forever because of my mother.

Always on some jungle path

This year as we taught the gospel to less active members, we asked them to remember what the gospel and church had meant to them in the past.  The stone around their heart began to break and a spirit of love began to replace the spirit of pride. Tears replaced the glares. We knew that for those who had made covenants with God and were not keeping them, the time had come for them to return.  We have learned how merciful and loving God is even to those who have forgotten him.  We have seen members return after years of not tasting the fruits of the spirit, and as they returned it was such a  great joy to see other members put their arms around these brothers and sisters and welcome them back.

We are all God's children and all have the same access at the table of the Lord and can feast with each other as we all feel His love. Because the focus throughout the Philippines Area, and in our mission in particular, has changed from proselyting to rescuing, all the missionaries are working to find those who have left the fold.  In Amlan Branch alone, the attendance has gone from an average of 60 when we first arrived to last week there were 120 in attendance. 

What a difference a year can make. Sometimes we sit in church before the meeting starts and watch the members arrive and remember how we have listened to these wonderful saints talk of why they stopped coming to church and stopped reading their scriptures. In their homes we prayed with them and taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have been there as the spirit has filled their hearts.  We will miss these wonderful saints. We have been working in another branch just north of us, it is Tanjay (tanhi). It is the hub of the district. At the beginning of the year there were two missionaries and mid-year  two more were put there.  At the beginning of this year there were about 80 in attendance. Now there are

Amlan branch Elders Quorum shaking it up

about 140-160 attending.  The record is 174. Members are returning to church and to the temple. Many other branches are similar.

One of the powerful changes we have seen in this mission this year is the higher level of spirituality of the missionaries during.  When we arrived there was a culture that had developed of disobedience. I believe we have addressed that in a previous blog. The mission president has done such a marvelous job in rooting out the old rebellious culture and replacing it with a culture that makes  missionaries want to be obedient, be sanctified and work hard. We are witnesses to the fruit of obedience to God's commands, faith and hard work. The Cebu mission is consistently ranked 1st in many categories of all the missions in the Philippines particularly in returning less active members.

A sleeping baby on the shoulder is pretty heavenly.  Cassandra T.

Last item, one of the greatest things that we love so much about being here is the happy nature of the people.  If you smile at any Filipino they will smile back at you with the most beautiful smile you can imagine.  Even if their house is full of mud and there is no food for them to eat they will smile.  The large city just to the south of us, Dumaguete, has a large number of foreigners living there.  In almost all cases, when we pass a foreigner on the street and look and smile at him, there is no response at all.  It is like we just we passed a mannequin. We are in love the the Filipino people who are warm, loving, resilient, happy in the face of trials, family oriented, with fathers and grandfathers taking care of little ones, and the list goes on. There is a part of heaven we feel in the hearts of these people that is easily manifest by their happy countenance.

One of the most powerful lessons we have learned is that we worship a God of miracles and we are in constant awe of how we works in the lives of so many people including our own.  We have seen that nothing is too great for the Lord.  He is in control and this life on earth is a perfect place for us to come and experience exactly what we need to progress and return to Him.  We have come to love our Savior Jesus Christ in ways we thought not possible. Our lives will never be the same.

Family transportation- Can you find all 7?  two brothers, one with two kids in front of him, the other with one in his far arm and his wife and daughter behind him.  Who needs a suburban? Who needs hands on the handle bars?

We have loved the year 2012. We have experienced heartache and joy.  We have missed our family greatly, but technology is amazing, and they have been great at staying connected and supporting us. And they have thrived with out us. We are changed--a miracle in itself for a couple of old people who were pretty much fully cooked--or so we thought. A year that we will always remember as one of our very best!