A Rags to Riches Story

Recently, we were privileged to interview an Area Seventy and former Mission Leader.  Some of these interviews that we get to do are so inspiring.

Here is a summary of Julio Gaviola’s story and interview.

As a young man, after graduating from high school, he came from the provinces to Manila to find work at age 17. Coming to the city to find work, since there is little opportunity in the rural areas of the Philippines, is very common.

He arrived in Manila with no money. He stayed with an older brother who introduced him to a member of the Church. His family were staunch Catholics. During high school, he had considered studying to be a priest. After being introduced to the missionary, he had no intention of joining the Church and since he had been on a high school debate team, he was loaded for bear when he met with the missionaries. 

After several lessons with the missionaries, his heart was touched by the spirit and eventually he joined the Church over the objections of his family. After his baptism, he continued to work saving money for college. Eventually, he decided to serve a mission. On his mission he learned to work hard, stay focused, and had a successful missionary experience. 

Near the end of his mission, while serving in a small city named Dagupan, a small city about five hours north of Manila, he was appointed as the group leader to a small congregation of humble Filipino members. As his mission was ending, his mission president asked him to extend his mission for two or three months and work with the Dagupan group helping it continue to grow so it could become a branch of the Church when the first district in this are was organized. He never hesitated and extended his mission. 

A few days after the Dagupan group was made a branch when the first district was organized, he received a telegram from the mission president asking him to immediately come to the mission home in Manila – about a five hour bus drive. After he arrived at the mission home, the mission president invited him into his office and told him that the day before his mother had passed away. He was devastated because he was very close to his mother.

You can imagine what his thoughts he might have been knowing that if he hadn’t extended his mission for several months at his mission president’s request, he would have been home with his mother during the last months of her life. 

After digesting this news, he went home for the funeral. After spending a few weeks with his father, he decided to return to Manila because there was absolutely no work or future in the area where his parents lived.

After returning to Manila, he stayed with a mission friend’s family and immediately started looking for work. He had no formal work experience, but that didn’t stop him from going door to door looking for work. After seeing an advertisement in a local newspaper, he applied for a job at an electronics manufacturing company.  After scheduling an interview, he met with several engineers. One of the engineers held up a small transistor and asked him if he knew what it was. He admitted to them that he had no idea what this small transistor was. They held up several other electronic components and of course he didn’t know what these were either. 

After a few more minutes of discussion, the engineers stood up shaking their heads and started leave the room indicating that the interview was over. However, not to be deterred he boldly he told them that even though he didn’t know what the parts they had showed him were, he explained that he had just returned from being a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the last two plus years where he learned to work hard, study, how to stay focused, and to do things he never thought he could do. One of the things that likely impressed the engineers was his English skills. During the time he served his mission, the gospel was taught in English vs. Tagalog and since he had many American missionary companions, his English skills were excellent.

Because of his boldness and his unwavering commitment to succeed, he told these engineers that if they would hire him he promised them they would never regret their decision because he would outwork, out study, and be their most committed and dedicated employee. Impressed with the tenacity of this young man, they look at each other and then told him they would give him a 90-day trial employment period. 

To make a long story short, after the 90-day trial, his job was made permanent and true to his word he worked harder than anybody else and within a year, he was supervising other employees. Over the next two decades he became an operational manager of one of the divisions of the company that had over 600 employees. He became the right-hand man to the head of the division. A number of years later, his boss told him that he was leaving to start his own company. He asked if he join him. He did and he was successful at this position as well. 

While his work life responsibilities expanded, his ecclesiastical service grew as well. He served in various branch and ward positions, was called as a Bishop, a stake president’s counselor, and eventually a stake president. After his service as stake president, he applied for a key position in the Church’s distribution center for the Philippines Area which also served other Asian countries as well. 

This new job was a high-profile position and he achieved success here as well. After a few years in this new role, he was called to be a mission leader. After serving as a mission leader for three years, he returned to church employment and was called to be an Area Seventy.

During his service as an Area Seventy, he implemented some “out of the box” thinking programs such as purchasing (with his own money) chickens, goats, and pigs in partnership with local members who would raise these animals and share the first offspring with him. He would then give these “shared” animal’s off spring with other members in the area thereby perpetuating this program. He also started a program of self-reliance where member families would grow their own vegetable gardens to help feed themselves and sell their surplus at local markets. These gardens became the envy in the neighborhoods where the member of the Church lived. These types of programs were able to raise entire church communities out of the cycle of poverty.

The thing that impressed me most about this interview was that a penniless young man from a rural provinces was lifted out of poverty because he joined the Church and served unquestionably whenever and wherever he was asked.

While it’s true that there are inspiring stories we hear or read of individuals that start with pennies and become successful and wealthy. However, the thing I’ve come to realize is that the Church does this at scale and the amazing thing is that this story is not an isolated instance…it happens all of the time.

The ability to enable an individual to rise above their poverty and become monetarily and spiritually self-sufficient is one thing, but because those who commit, embrace, and live the gospel enables the Church to do this at “scale” enabling entire communities to break the poverty cycle in the Philippines over time. 

We get to see this every day because we are involved in the “Mp Plan” program where Filipino missionaries come to the For Strength of Youth Campus at Tanay, a city about two hours east of Quezon City to spend three days planning their post mission life and setting goals. These missionaries are the future of the Church in the Philippines. After the “My Plan” experience these Filipino missionaries return home with skills, experience, confidence, and a commitment to serve the Lord. This attitude of these faithful return missionaries over the next few decades will see them marry, become parents, serve, and because of their focus on becoming their best self, a focus on becoming self-reliant, and become financially stable as their lives are transformed. It is one of the miracles of the gospel that blesses the Philippines and other nations as well. 

As we conclude our interview, this now white-haired servant of the Lord is now retired and serves as a temple ordinance worker in the Manila Temple three days a week. The spirit during our interview was as strong as I have ever felt it in any of the interviews we have done, and we’ve had some great and inspirational interviews.

As Marcia and I talked after the interview, we marvel at the faithfulness of the Filipino people and especially these members and leaders we have the privilege to interview. 

Critics can rail against the Church, but what we see on a daily basis is the fruits of a good tree. There is no doubt (absolutely zero doubt) in my mind of the truthfulness of the gospel and doctrine of Christ and what it does for people who follow its gospel precepts incorporating these precepts into their lives. 

After interviews like this one, my heart swells within my bosom grateful for the opportunity to do what are called to do. 

Flashback

When I was a kid, we often had Spam sandwiches in our sack lunch for school. Here in the Philippines, Spam is still a thing and often a part of the daily diet.

Breakfast in the Rizal Province at Tanay FSY Campus – Spam, eggs, and of course, plenty of white rice.

We often travel and have to stay locally because there are no hotels. Here is Marcia standing next to our car in front of our AirBnb. Yes, they have AirBnb rentals in the Philippines. We have learned that pictures on the AirBnb website are often much better than the place we reserved actually turned out to be. Also, we had another family staying with us….meet Lizzy (see the picture below). She had two other family members staying with us.

Lizzy keeping a watch at the AirBnb

A typical road side restaurant run by local Filipinos.

What I continue to learn about the Philippines and its people…..

On a recent trip back to Quezon City from the provinces, we hit traffic as we got closer to the city. The picture below is three lanes of traffic each way and the black car (below) just deciding to make a u-turn on a moments notice that held up traffic in both directions.

No one follows traffic rules

Stop Signs

There are very few stop signs at intersections in the Philippines. Since there are no stop signs, this basically means that the fastest car into an intersection gets through faster. I’ve been involved in a total gridlock situation because cars from all four streets entered the intersection at once which results in basically a free for all and massive gridlock that takes a while to work its way out.

Marcia refuses to drive here.

Spiritual Thought: Whether you accept the gospel as truth, it makes little difference. Truth is truth and will always be truth. It’s you that is at a disadvantage.

Scripture of the Day: Mosiah 4:9 “…. if you believe all these things, see that ye do them.”

Another Mission Leader Interviewed

One of the highlights of our calling is to interview soon to be released and mission leaders that have already been released and having them share insights and experiences they had during their service as mission leaders in the Philippines. 

To review, mission leaders (formerly referred to as mission presidents), served for three years. They are generally a couple in the forties or fifties, and rarely some are even in their sixties, if they are called from outside of the Philippines. However, Filipino couples that serve as mission leaders are often in their late thirties or early forties and still have children in their home. Leadership opportunities come at a much younger age for Filipinos than for those from North America or other countries. A mission leader is a demanding calling and is a full time 24/7/365 responsibility for three exhausting years. 

Each of these mission leader interviews, have unique and interesting stories and experiences. I would like to share a few stories of the Burton’s who will be released and return home at the end of July of 2024. 

President and Sister Burton, Cabanatuan Mission, 2021-2024

President Burton was a career U.S. Naval Officer. In the exploratory interview with Apostle Rasband, many of the questions he was asked were focused on his naval experience. Interestingly, his experience in church leadership was not extensive. In fact, as the interview ended, he asked Elder Rasband if he was concerned that he had never served in significant leadership positions such as in a stake presidency. The reply was priceless, at least for me. Elder Rasband told him that he had not served in a stake presidency either and then said, “Does that answer your question?”

While the Burton’s were stationed in Louisiana, they served in a Vietnamese branch.  There was a lot of discussion in this exploratory interview about his experiences in the Vietnamese branch. Both of them shared with Elder Rasband how much they enjoyed working with the Vietnamese people. 

After the interview finished, as with all exploratory interviews of this nature, couples are told that they may never hear from anyone about a mission call and if they do, they will not initially know where they will be called to serve. When they did receive their mission call letter in late November 2020, they were informed that they would be called as mission leaders and that their area of service assignment would be made in March of 2021. Based on how the initial interview had gone, President Burton thought that they may be assigned to serve in Vietnam.

Much to their surprise, when their assignment came, they were called to serve in the Philippines Cabanatuan Mission. The Cabanatuan Mission office is a four-to-five-hour drive northeast of Manila and is considered a provincial mission – meaning it is a rural area where most of the population are farmers and fishermen. 

The Philippines Mission Map – twenty three missions with three more missions to be added in July 2024. The red arrow point to the light purple shaded area of the Cabanatuan Mission

When they arrived in the mission, the U.S. was largely coming out of the pandemic, but that wasn’t the case in the Philippines. After arriving in Manila, they were quarantined for ten days in a hotel and then quarantined another four days after arriving in Cabanatuan. Each province had their own criteria on quarantines. Almost universally all provinces were generally very restrictive on travel between cities and definitely between provinces.

In March of 2020, all foreign missionaries had been sent home throughout the world leaving only Filipino missionaries serving in the Philippines and they weren’t allowed to leave their apartments because of the pandemic restrictions on in-person contact.

In situations like the pandemic, there often are silver linings that emerge from these types of difficult situations. One notable blessing during the pandemic for Filipinos, who by culture and disposition, are shy and reserved, and because of this shyness don’t often get as many leadership responsibilities as their foreign companions. When serving as companions with a foreigner, mostly Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, or Aussies, they often take a back seat because of their shyness letting their companions take the lead. However, when all the foreigners left the country, that changed and these Filipino missionaries were asked to step up and lead out – which they did. There are scads of stories of how well the Filipinos rose to the occasion. 

Another blessing was that since few people were working, the breadwinner had to remain home quarantined along with their families.  Interesting, after teaching moved from face-to-face meetings to online meetings, baptisms continued with one significant difference, more families were being baptized vs. individual members of a family because the breadwinner of the family was home and could be taught (albeit online) together with his family. 

Because of the pandemic, it was especially for a new mission leader arriving because their predecessor had already left the country. The Burton’s walked into their mission office knowing absolutely nothing. Traditionally, the existing mission leaders helps with a transition but in this case, it was baptism by fire because as new mission leaders that don’t speak the language, with no existing staff in the office they have all left when the pandemic hit, the Burton’s had to rely on two young nineteen and twenty-year-old Filipino Assistants to the President to help them figure things out. The good thing, from a new mission leader’s perspective, is that the total number of missionaries had dropped from 160 to 50, after the foreigners were sent home, so from a quantitative standpoint, the number of missionaries was much more manageable.

Now, visualize this….you are new to the country, you are responsible for the safety and care of 50 missionaries, you don’t know the language (and there are three dialects spoken in your mission), you don’t know where to shop for food or medicine, you haven’t and can’t meet the missionaries in person, and you have to figure out how to be a mission leader while everything else is going on.   This is where their experience in the Navy, having moved frequently and being familiar with new environments came in handy.

President and Sister Burton shared an insightful comment in our oral history interview that it was a miracle that the work of the Lord managed to continue to move forward under these circumstances. They both shared their belief that the First Presidency was inspired to start the transition of incorporating technology into missions around the world prior to the onset of the pandemic. Having technological platforms in place as the pandemic spread around the world allowed online teaching and church meetings broadcast to be able to be used months before the pandemic hit. Without this, it would have been difficult for missions like the Cabanatuan Mission to function as well as they did. 

One of the things the Burton’s started to do after the Covid restrictions began to be lifted was to go out with the missionaries on teaching appointments and on service projects in the community. They also visited families the missionaries had been teaching. They also taught their missionaries by example working shoulder to shoulder on service projects with families that were being taught. They truly walked the walk and talked the talk leading by example.

When asked about some of the challenges Filipinos face when they were considering joining the Church, they shared that the marriage situation in the Philippines was a huge issue. As mentioned in prior blog posts, there is no divorce in the Philippines. The Philippines is one of the only countries in the world to have a no divorce policy. When either a man or woman in a marriage decided the marriage wasn’t working, they would simply leave and often start a new family without getting married.

Also, in poorer rural areas, getting a marriage license is relatively expensive when taken into the context of the income of the people that earn only a few thousand Filipino pesos a month. For example, a marriage license is P10,000 or about $172 U.S. I think I paid $25 for our marriage license (I checked online, and a marriage license is now $81 in Oakland, CA where our marriage license was issued). It’s crazy to think that a marriage license in the Philippines is more than double of what is costs in the U.S., especially where a week’s income often barely covers the cost of a marriage license. This often resulted in people not formally getting married and just set up a houshold.

The inability to get a divorce and the cost of getting married in the Philippines often leads to unintended consequences. This often turns out to be a mess when a humble, sincere person accepts the gospel but isn’t married but has a family or sometimes two families. The accommodation made in this situation is that if a person has been with a partner for more than five years and can get married, they do. If they are meeting all of their family obligations, this is deemed acceptable, and they are allowed to be baptized and join the Church. 

 Contacting

I’ve heard of a lot of different contacting methods used in missions around the world but the one the Burton’s shared with me was one that I hadn’t heard about. This contacting strategies used in Cabanatuan Mission was to use the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ in finding people to teach. Since Christ our Savior is mentioned an average of 1.7 times on each page of the 500+ pages of the Book of Mormon, the missionaries when meeting and talking to people they would explain, “Every page of this book testifies of the Savior and teaches of Jesus Christ.  Will you open the Book of Mormon and just start reading?” 

The people would open the Book of Mormon and begin reading.  When a reference to Christ was noted, the missionaries would talk about that scripture.  After this short interchange, people would start to give the book back and the missionaries would say, “This is our gift to you.  Will you read about Jesus Christ every day?” The people would agree to do this and if the people were willing, the missionaries would get their contact information. If not, the missionaries would thank them for their time and leave. In many cases they were able to begin teaching these people about what they read about Christ in the Book of Mormon. When speaking of Christ, this resonated the Filipino people because of their deep and abiding faith and belief in Christ.

At the conclusion of this oral history interview, and in other mission leader interviews, I have seen how the hand of the Lord guides these mission leaders and have observed how they leverages their unique talents and abilities in situations that require not only insight but special managerial skills and inspiration to deal with uncertain situations on the fly and to do this 24/7 for three years.

In President and Sister’s Burton’s case, their Navy background of having to move to a new location or country frequently and often on a moments notice, dealing with uncertainty, and being able to think clearly under pressure was a blessing not only to the missionaries that they were entrusted to watch over, but to the local leadership as well. The Burton’s went out of their way to make special efforts to train local leaders as the mission grew by laying the foundation for the ability for the church leadership to support the growth now and in the future.

What I continue to learn about the Philippines…..

A few months after we arrived in the Philippines and after a day’s work in the field, we would drive home. At a busy intersection on our way home, we frequently were approached by young girls who sell local white flowers that were carefully strung together into a neckless-like string of flowers which most people hang on their rear view mirror. When the light turned red and cars had to stop, they would approach stopped cars hoping to sell their flowers. We have mentioned them in another blog post.

These girls are part of a family that apparently makes a living at this intersection. Most of the time we see these girls around five or six o’clock but this one evening it was 8:45 pm and to our surprise, one of these young ladies was out working the intersection at this late hour. 

Jasmine – Age 11

My heart breaks to think that for at least the next four or five years most days (after school) and evenings, Jasmine and her friend Joy and their brothers will be out working by selling their flower to support their family. As we drove away and I looked in my rear view mirror, seeing her hurry out of traffic waiting for the light to turn red again. As we made the turn at this intersection for home, I couldn’t but think of our grandchildren that are Jasmine’s age and the difference in opportunities our grandchildren will have that Jasmine and her siblings will not have.

Scriptural Thought:

1 Nephi 20:10: “For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

Thought of the Day: In coming days it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost. President Russell M. Nelson

True Faithfulness

I have shared in other blog posts about the new temple in Urdaneta. There was an open house where the local community, governmental and barangay officials, and non-member friends can tour the temple before its the temple is dedicated. These open house tours last for 3-4 weeks then the temple is closed and cleaned thoroughly before it is dedicated. The Urdaneta temple was dedicated by Elder Dallin H. Oaks the first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church on April 28, 2024. Elder Oaks served as the Area President while an Apostle from 2002-2004. Elder Oaks is 92 years old. It amazes me, since I’ve travel a number of times internationally over the years and know what a toll being on an international flight for 15-18 ours, what a toll this type of travel takes on a body that a person of this age is willing to make this type of trip.

Brother Gutierrez was one of the first people to be baptized a member of the in the Dagupan (a city near the Urdaneta Temple) in the early 1960s. The Church was officially recognized in 1961 by the Philippines government. It took years for the recognition of the Church to work its way through the bureaucracy, perhaps because the largest religious denomination in the Philippines is the Catholic Church. Whatever the reason, official recognition happened in April of 1961 and missionaries arrived on June 1, 1961.

Brother Gutierrez was taught by missionaries and baptized bringing most of his family with him. Since then generations of his family have participated as members of the Church. When Brother Gutierrez learned of the Urdaneta Temple Open House, he wanted to attend. However, since he was 93-years old and in poor health and is bedridden, his family weren’t initially supportive of his going to the open house. However, he insisted that a way be figured out so he could attend. Eventually, his children agreed that because of his faithfulness over the years and his burning desire to go to the open house, they began to work on coordinating a trip to the temple open house which was about an hour away. However, since he was bedridden, this wasn’t going to be an easy task. After a lot of coordination with the temple, a van was rented, a stretcher procured, and over forty of his immediate family invited to all attend the open house together.

After the van arrived at the Urdaneta Temple, family members loaded Brother Gutierrez on to a stretcher and carried him on an entire temple open house tour. Since the elevator wasn’t designed for a stretcher, he had to be carried up flights of stairs in the temple and into each room. The sight of an elderly gentleman being carried through the temple on a stretcher touched a lot of hearts.

The picture below was taken after an oral history interview capturing significant events, recollections, and insights of this pioneer Filipino saint recorded at this home. In future years, as the history of the Church in the Philippines is condensed into book similar to the Saints books the most recent version of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, this type of information will be as valuable as the journal kept by the pioneers that were driven from their homes in Nauvoo, IL walking fifteen hundred miles across the great plain in the U.S. in 1846-47 to the Salt Lake Valley.

Brother Gutierrez, granddaughter, son-in-law, wife, our manager MeGa Gapiz, and a grandson and granddaughter-in-law in the Brother Gutierrez’s bedroom in their home.

Not Worth to Be in the Same Room

I’ve commented several times about the faithfulness of the Filipino saints. This faith seems to be most pronounced with some of the early pioneer Filipino saints who were amount the first to accept the gospel in the Philippines back in the early 1960s.

While this story may seem like an anomaly, I can assure you it isn’t. We have been privileged to be a part of numerous interviews where different but similar stories have been shared. One such story related to the temple is as follows:

In interviewing a mission leader in a mission in Northern Luzon, the mission leader (mission leaders are responsible for temple recommend interviews for people that live in a district vs. a stake where the stake presidents do temple recommend interviews), was interviewing a couple that were planning on attending the Manila Temple. They lived a long way from the Manila Temple. They were rice farmers and live hand-to-mouth and had very little money for non-farm related expenses. They had ten children and had save for a long time to put aside enough money to pay for transportation to go to the temple and be sealed to their children. As the mission president interviewed the couple he found out how many children they had. He interviewed each of the children as well.

As he concluded the interview, he noted that he had only interviewed eight of the children. He asked the parents where the other two children were. Almost embarrassingly the father said that they didn’t have enough money to take all of their children to the temple to be sealed as an eternal family unit. In future discussions, the mission president learned several interesting facts. One, the journey to the temple would begin at 1:00 am. The family would walk for a half an hour to the road and be picked up by an oxen pulled wagon and taken to a place where they would be able to catch a trike ride to the bus station. They would purchase bus fare which totaled P20 for each ticket (this is ~$0.36 US). From the time they left home until they arrived at the Manila Temple it was a twelve-hour trip.

The mission president shared that he could imagine the strain it would be for these parents to decide which two children they would not take with them to go to the temple to be seal with the rest of the family. Now here is the kicker to this story. These faithful Filipino parents would make this trip as a couple every three months to attend the temple staying three days at the temple doing multiple temple endowment sessions and proxy sealings. They stayed at no cost at the patron housing at the temple site before returning home. Keep in mind that this ritual was related 4-5 times a year. When I hear stories like this, I hang my head in embarrassment when I fail to attend our local Sacramento Temple more frequently when faith people like this sacrifice so much to participate in the blessings of the temple. It is at times like this when we hear similar stories that we don’t feel worthy to be in the same room with these faithful Filipino saints.

Four Apostles Visit the Philippines

There are only twelve apostles in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and four have visited the Philippines in the last fifteen months. In the area where we have lived for the last eleven years after moving from the San Francisco Bay Area, only one apostle has visited during the time. This gives you some perspective how the Philippines is viewed by the leadership of the Church. The most recent visit was Elder Gary A. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve was in the Philippines for ten days. We were fortunate to attend two events where he and his wife were in attendance and spoke in each of these gatherings.

Sister Stevenson Speaks in a Devotional

The Storm’s with Elder and Sister Stevenson

One of the events we attended that were held to coincide with the Stevenson’s visit was a Filipino Cultural Presentation. For those of you that have been to the Oahu, Hawaii and made the trip to Laie and attended the Polynesian Cultural Center presentation of the different cultures in the South Pacific in dance and song, this was a similar type of event but focused on the multiple cultures that exist throughout the Philippines. It was a ninety minutes event and my view – specular, keeping in mind that these are young men and women ages 14 to 17 years of age and not professional performers. Here are a just three clips from the 90-minute presentation:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxMbGB4biriz1BGmCqhaqlXFFBCPDCAHXj?si=0HkR8U_V-6SHS2mr

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx6yBjwT0URBViXsG2wY7jUYe8F000cLPG?si=i_92msBpAEhhYWEv

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxM1TC5nrZq5mCy4s_inCkkpJ4qav3VBxX?si=yr5_VxvOuYi_6Nid

As mentioned, the youth that performed these dances only practice a couple of times a month before the performance….the Filipino people are natural performers.

Things I continue to learn about the Philippines….

There are no trash container/cans put out at the curb (there are no curbs per se in Philippines neighborhoods). Trash bags are stacked everyday and picked up in an open truck and stacked as high as it can be stacked. Note the electrical and cable grid above.

I’ve seen trash stacked twice as high as this truck is stacked.

Thought of the Day:

Faith is the power to act. Obedience is the price. Love is the motive. Christ is the reason

Scriptural Thought:

Alma 11:43. “The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form.”

Scope and Uniqueness of Missionary Work

At church recently, I made an interesting observation. 

In Sacrament meeting, a recently returned missionary from Monrovia, Liberia in Africa, was one of the speakers giving a phenomenal talk. Then in Priesthood meeting, there were two young men who were brothers in the class. Their father works for a US-based company and are an American family currently living in the Philippines. One of the brothers just returned from his mission in Mexico and the other had just received his missionary call to serve in Madagascar off the southeast coast of southern Africa. 

After the priesthood meeting, I was chatting with a visitor in the class from Australia who is in the Philippines on business and mentioned that he had served his mission in the South Africa Cape Town mission. I told him that as a young man I had served my mission is South Africa. At that time, when I was in South Africa, there was only one mission on the African continent which was the South African mission based in Johannesburg. There are now four missions in South Africa and forty missions throughout Africa.  

Earlier this week, we were assigned to mentor the Call’s, a senior couple from South Carolina, that had just arrived to begin their Member Leader Support (MLS) missionary service in the Quezon City Mission. With their arrival, there are now 29 senior couples and two senior sister missionaries serving in the Metro Manila area and nearly three times that number in the rest of the Philippines serving in MLS, humanitarian, medical, dental, mental health, family history, legal, admin support, and of course Marcia and I serving in gathering Filipino church history. 

Standing in front of the marker that summaries the history of the Buendia Chapel which was the first chapel in the Philippines that was dedicated in 1966. We are with the Call’s and members of the Makati 4th Ward.

Buendia Chapel in Makati in the Mid 1970s.

The picture above was taken in 1975. If the above picture had been taken in 1966, the tall building behind the chapel wasn’t there because Makati, which is now one of the financial center cities in the Philippines, was just a cow pasture and the chapel was the only large building the area.

This is a picture of Makati in 2024. The chapel is in the middle of all of these buildings.

Personal Reflection on Missionaries

After retuning home from church, I reflected on the nearly hundred thousand currently serving missionaries, both young men and woman and senior couples serving around the world and the miracle of the missionary program – and in my opinion, it is truly a miracle. In our own family, four of our children and three grandchildren have served missions. I have seen the benefits this type of service has on the person not to mention others they have touched in their missionary service. I’m just glad to be where we are now and to be a small part of the Lord’s work in this part of the world….although with record high temperature – schools have been closed more than a week – and humidity Marcia is thankful to have air conditioning – some missionaries don’t have this convenience.

One of the unique parts of our work in compiling the stories and the history of the Lord’s work in the Philippines, is that occasionally we get to record oral history interviews with current and former missionaries that served decades earlier. Recently, we had the opportunity to interview Elder Lyle Brownell. He served in the Philippines in the 1970’s and had returned to the Philippines to attend the Urdaneta Temple open house that was dedicated on April 28, 2024 by Elder Dallin Oaks of the First Presidency.  I am really impressed that Elder Oaks who is now in his ninety second year made the brutal trip from the U.S. to the Philippines. He was assigned this temple dedication because he served as the Area President to the Philippines Area 2002-2004. There are ten more temples that have been announced that will eventually be opened in the Philippines.

Missionary Returns to the Philippines Nearly Fifty Years Later

Elder Brownell served in the Philippines from 1975-1977. He currently lives in Washington state. After graduating from college, he returned to live in the Seattle area. He was one of six children and most of them live in the area so deciding where to live wasn’t a difficult decision. With a degree in engineering after several years in this field, he went into partnership with a friend starting a HVAC business. 

A few years ago, he sold his interest in his HVAC business to his partner and retired. Coming back to the Philippines was always one of his dreams and with the third temple opening in an area where he served more than 25% of his mission, he decided to return for the Urdaneta Temple open house and to see if he could locate some of the people he had taught and baptized.

When I learned that he was returning to the Philippines, I arranged for him to come to our office in Quezon City, and talk about his experiences in opening new areas for missionary work as a young missionary. In our oral history interview, he shared some interesting insights and experiences of one of the small cities he opened for missionary work.

For context and to be able to appreciate some of his stories and experiences, you must picture a young man of nineteen years of age in a foreign country sent to an area of the Philippines that had never seen missionaries before. There were no church buildings, few members – the members that did live in the area had moved to the area to work on the Clark U.S. military base or work for companies that provided services to the military. The base was ten or fifteen miles away from Urdaneta where he was assigned as a missionary in the mid-1970s. 

As a young missionary, he was responsible to find a home or building to rent for church services as well as to where they would live. Also, keep in mind, that living conditions in the rural areas of the Philippines at this time was third world type of conditions for young missionaries. 

The First Meetinghouse in Urdaneta that Elder Brownell searched out and rented. The missionaries lived on the top floor and the church meetings were on the main floor.

As they began their missionary work, they had a fair amount of success because the Philippines is a Christian nation and believe in God and Christ. Elder Brownell at the age of nineteen just turning twenty was asked by the mission president to be the Urdaneta group leader. A group is a small band of members organized to meet together before the organization of a branch of the Church. For all practical purpose, Elder Brownell became the equivalent to a Catholic Priest or protestant minister for the Church in the area. 

One of the first families they introduced the Church to had just had their first child. They were poor and lived with their parents. Their parents weren’t too happy with their decision on joining this new and unfamiliar church run by these young green-behind-the-ears American missionaries. Nevertheless, the couple had a spiritual experience and acted on that feeling and joined the Church. A few months later, their child got sick. These new members called Elder Brownell and his companion and asked them to give a blessing to their sick child. 

This was one of the first times Elder Brownell had used his priesthood to give a blessing for the healing of the sick. The child did not improve and a few days later died. Devastated the young couple called Elder Brownell and his companion to help with the funeral services. In the Philippines, funerals are a big deal. It is customary to provide a wake complete with food and the hiring of professional wailer to weep and cry during the wake. None of this was financially possible for this young couple. 

However, since this couple asked the missionaries to help the family plan the funeral, Elder Brownell, never hesitated and was there for the family. Before he went to visit the family to make arrangements for the funeral, he called the mission president to get some advice on how to proceed. The mission president was based in Manila a four-hour drive from Urdaneta. After listening to Elder Brownell’s situation, the mission president told Elder Brownell and his companion to do what they felt inspired to do within a few parameters of church procedure. As Elder Brownell was sharing this story, I thought about how the mission president with empathy for the situation taught these young missionaries a valuable lesson…rely on the Lord and the Holy Ghost and if you do this with sincere intent, you will be given guidance as needed. And if not, valuable lessons will be learned. I thought was instructive that the mission president didn’t try to solve the problem but taught these missionaries how to solve problems in the future. 

Back to this story. The young couple’s family was pressuring the young couple to have a wake complete with food and funeral inviting friends and family something this young couple didn’t have the means to afford. They were about to go into debt to have a wake and funeral that the family wanted. When Elder Brownell met with the young couple, he took charge. Keep in mind that this is twenty-year-old young man with no relevant experience in these types of matters. He offered the meetinghouse at no cost (most churches charged to use their building), offered to organize the entire funeral service, arranged for the few Relief Society sisters in their small congregation to provide some food – not a banquet but a simple meal, all at no expense to this couple. 

Also, Elder Brownell arranged for a small wood casket painted white for the baby. After the funeral services at a Church’s rented meetinghouse, a short graveside service was held and after the dedication of the gravesite, the family left the small white casket to be buried and returned to their home. After everyone had left, Elder Brownell saw that the grave that had been dug by the cemetery workers was too small for the casket. Without a lot of fuss or leaving it for the cemetery workers to figure this out, he and his companion found the shovels and enlarged the grave themselves so the casket would fit and could be buried. All of this was done and unknown to the family. 

As I listened to this experience, now an older and a wiser man, Elder Brownell shared how this experience was one of many dominos that shaped his life during and after his mission. He went on to share how quickly the Church grew in the Urdaneta area. Nearly every weekend, this missionary companionship had to rent Jeepney’s or a bus to transport people from Urdaneta to the ocean beach where people they had been teaching were baptized in the ocean. 

He served in this area for six months and from a handful of saints that formed the first group of members grew into a fast-growing branch in Urdaneta. During his time in Urdaneta he organized church services, called people to leadership roles, taught seminary, Sunday school, priesthood classes, collected tithing and fast offerings, and started the relief society and primary programs and did all this well before his twenty first birthday.

As he continued to teach families, many of the people they were teaching began to accept the gospel and request baptism. The only place that was available for people to be baptized was off of a beach at the South China Sea, a drive of fifteen miles from the chapel. Every weekend, the missionaries rented buses and Jeepney’s to get people to the beach.

Rented buses that were used to transport people to the beach for baptisms

Friends and family watch from rocks on the beach as their friends are baptized

Below a father, mother, and son’s short walk back to the beach after being baptized in the South China Sea with missionaries with two witnesses.

Elder Brownell discusses the importance of the ordinance of baptism

From the time Elder Burnell served in the Urdaneta area, today there are three stakes in the Urdaneta area, the mission has been divided multiple times, and now the third temple in the Philippines is opening.

I can only imagine how satisfying and meaningful it must have been when he returned with his wife to the area where he served nearly fifty years ago and to see the fruits of his labors.

Things I continue to learn about the Philippines…..

Dogs are still on the menu in parts of the Philippines.

Although animal rights groups successfully lobbied the Philippines government to end eating of dog meats in 1998 and subsequently to enforce this anti-dog meat legislation, some in the Filipino culture still consider dog meat a part of traditional food Philippines’ cuisine. This attitude is more common in rural provinces than in metro areas and is slowly disappearing as the older generation passes on.

Thought of the day:

Always live your life as if someone is watching you.

Scriptural thought:

Matthew 7:8: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

New Temple in the Philippines

The Manila Temple opened in 1984, the Cebu Temple opened in 2010, and now the Urdaneta Temple will open in May of 2024. Temples that are under construction or have been announced total ten more…with more likely to come. 

We had an opportunity to visit and attend the Urdaneta Temple, a three-hour drive northeast of Manila, and attend the open house – an event where the public gets to visit and tour the temple prior to its dedication. The reason for our visit to Urdaneta was to record an oral history of Sister Fe Corazon Basconcillo Johnson who was the youngest child of the first family in Urdaneta when the first group of saints were organized in 1975.  

The line for the Urdaneta Temple Open House

The missionary that was the Urdaneta Group Leader when the group was initially formed was Elder Lyle Brownell. He currently lives in the Seattle, WA area and returned to visit Sister Johnson and her husband Greg who lives near the Urdaneta Temple as well as to visit others that he knew on his mission and to attend the temple’s open house. We had a chance to interview him documenting some of the truly incredible experiences he had while serving his mission in the 1970s. 

Sister Johnson – a Filipino Pioneer

As mentioned, Sister Johnson is from a family of ten children.  Her grandfather was part of the Bataan Death March in WW II and was one of the survivors.  She joined the church in 1969 in Dagupan, a small community near Urdaneta, Philippines.  Her parents and six of her other siblings joined the Church at different times in the 1970s. 

As is customary in the Philippines, education is important to many Filipino families and larger families have to take turns going to college because of the expense.  In her case, her older sisters went to college while she worked to help support the family. When her turn came, off to college she went and received her degree in Social Work.  

Graduating at twenty-six years old, she planned on entering the work force as a Social Worker but failed the certification exam by a single point. This failure was the tipping point of the first of many dominos that began to fall culminating in her serving a mission changing the trajectory of her life. 

An interesting side note, she was called to serve in the Philippine Mission (now the Manila Mission) from September 1982 to April 1984. Her mission president was Garth Andrus, a former member of our ward congregation and personal friend in Orinda, CA where we raised our family. I am always amazed at how small the Church community can be at times.

After her mission, she was referred to a family that worked at the Clark Airbase – a US military base. She accepted a position of being a nanny for a military family that shortly was transferred to Japan. She went with the family and within a few months met her future husband Greg Johnson a Naval Officer at a church meeting. Six months after their first date, they were married in the Salt Lake City Temple. The next several decades they were transferred around the world with the Navy. After her husband retired, they have split their time between Urdaneta in the Philippines and the states. 

In 2010, President Thomas S. Monson announced a temple to be built in Urdaneta.  Prior to her husband’s retirement, each annual trip back to the Philippines, Sister Johnson would look for a home in the Urdaneta area but each location that seem to fit the bill always seem to end up not right and they would not purchase for various reasons.  Eventually, the Johnson’s finally decided to buy property close to Sister Johnson’s childhood home.  After purchasing several lots, they began to build a home and later learned that the Urdaneta Temple would be built across the highway from their newly built home.

The Johnson’s Home in Urdaneta

View of the Urdaneta Temple from the third floor of the Johnson’s home.

After retiring from the Navy, the Johnson’s were called to serve in the Urdaneta Mission in 2022 in the middle of the pandemic. They were assigned to manage housing for the missionaries which was a challenge because they had to terminate leases when all of the foreign missionaries were sent home during the pandemic and then find new apartments when the missionaries began returning. Sister Johnson’s language skills and the fact that her husband was a contracting officer for the navy helped in the negotiation of nearly a hundred leases for missionary apartments. 

They were released from their Urdaneta mission over a year ago and have been asked to serve a six-month mission in Urdaneta to assist with the transition for the new mission leaders arriving in July 2024.  After their July 2024 mission, her husband plans on serving yet another mission at the US Naval Academy helping young LDS cadets as they leave and return from full-time missions. Interesting, the Navy supports LDS cadet’s missionary service because when they return they are more mature, more focused, have more language skills, and all have additional leadership skills. 

As we ended our oral history with Sister Johnson, she reflected on failing her social work certification exam and believes that if she had passed this exam she would not have served a mission, met her husband, and never have lived the life she has – a life filled with travels around the world, a great family, and with so many opportunities to serve her Lord and Savior.

Holy Week in the Philippines 2024

Holy Week in the Philippines is a big deal. It is arguably as popular, and some would say, more popular than Christmas in many respects. One year ago, on the first day of Holy Week – a Wednesday, we arrived in the Philippines.

When we arrived, Quezon City seemed to be deserted. When I say deserted, what I mean is that the streets and roads had only light traffic and there were only a handful of Filipinos on the streets. Our mentors (another senior missionary couple who are serving a humanitarian mission) shuttled us around to buy food to stock our apartment, show us where our office was, and how to begin to navigate daily life in the Philippines. 

I commented to our mentors that I’d read about the traffic in Manila and quipped as we drove around that the traffic didn’t seem bad at all. They smiled and said wait until next week when people return from their Holy Week holiday from visiting family or their holiday. On Tuesday morning, we drove to our office for the first time – our mentors were right. Traffic was crazy. 

Anticipating that little would be going on at our office, we decided to see a bit more of the Philippines that we haven’t yet visited or seen. We do travel but many of the places we visit are areas to collection documents or record oral histories of early pioneer Filipino saints where local Filipinos live. These areas are generally not in the most scenic parts of the country but in traditional Barangays that make up most of the Philippines. This is like visiting Fresno (CA), Idaho Falls (ID), Mesa (AZ), Austin (TX), Peoria (IL), or perhaps Columbus (OH)…nice places but not always the most scenic areas that adequately shows off the many majestic places in the United States. 

As we shared, over Christmas we when we went to Palawan, an island with gorgeous mountains, coastal communities, and white sand beaches. For Holy week this year, we opted to go to a more touristy island of Boracay. For a few days (Wed to Mon) we morphed into tourists and even stayed at a coastal resort.

About Boracay

Located roughly 300 km from Manila, Boracay is a tropical bone-shaped island located at the northwest corner of Panay Island, part of the Visayas island group in central Philippines. It is a little over 4 miles from the north end of the island to the south end with the narrowest spot being about six tenths of mile and a total land area of 2,550 acres. There a miles of white sand beaches clear 

All in all, our stay was a break from our routine. I’ve concluded, like most things in life, our mission has been long days of monotonous day-to-day routine activities punctuated with incredible spiritual highs and unexpected events creating a tapestry of memories that will remain with us for the rest of our lives. Our trip to Boracay is different from what we normally experience and has been enjoyable because we get to see some of the natural wonders of the Philippines….since there are over 7,200 islands in the Philippines archipelago, there is plenty to see. The map below with the red arrow provides some context to where Boracay is located – which is the small brown island at the tip of the arrow.

A Pictorial Summary of our Holy Week Away

On the way to the island of Boracay from the airport.

Checking into the place where we stayed during our Boracay stay.

The resort where we are staying had a private white sand beach. This is me on one of my early morning walks

Beach weather conditions

The view from where I was sitting and reading.

Apparently, the reason the weather was so pleasant here is because of the wind patterns.

Marcia walk the white sand private beach with very few people in sight.

Marcia always wanted to be a star….now she had found one.

Marcia contemplating taking a dip in the ocean.

More beach scenery.

The public beaches in the heart of Boracay has a lot more visitors

We took a trike to Puka Beach at the north most part of the island of Boracay. This is where the locals go to the beach. There were families all about. Here is a sand castle that someone built….pretty amazing. You may or may not be able to see that the sand is brown vs. white at this beach but still spectacular.

It’s Those Name Badges Again

We try and always wear our name badges when we are out and about. During our visit to Puka Beach, we were walking through a Barangay on a local street on our way to the beach (you can see the the buildings in the background of the picture below) where the local Filipinos live when a Filipino approached us after noticing our name tags that identifies us with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He told us that he was a member. He works on Boracay but his family lives on another island far away. He gets to visit his family two times a year – a week for each visit. Many Filipino work away for their home. In fact, the largest export the Philippines has are workers that go to other countries to work and send their money back home in the Philippines.

Joseph Robles a safety office for a construction company building a hotel near Puka Beach. He is a member of the Church living locally and was on duty as we walked through the Barangay.

This is the construction site that Joseph overseas safety issues.

Trike driver with cross hanging in his trike.

It is not unusual to have bumper stickers, Jeepney’s with boldly painted messages about God on the side, or back of their vehicle, and to have Grab (the Uber of the Philippines) driver’s have statutes in their car. Most Filipinos are believers and are dedicated and faithful to their faith of choice.

What a Blessing

As we continue to serve the Lord in this part of the world, we continue to be amazed at the faithfulness of the Filipino people, the beauty of the country, and are grateful for the experiences we are having. We are looking forward to the second half of our service here and what we will learn, experience, and life-long friends we will make.

What we continue to learn about the Philippines: The largest and most expensive pearl in the world was found in the Philippines! It was found in Palawan (where we spent the Christmas holiday), weighing a staggering 75 pounds and valued at an astonishing $100 million. Spoiler – we didn’t find it.

Thought of the Day: “Greatness is not intelligence. Greatness comes from character. Character isn’t formed out of smart people. It’s formed out of people who suffered.”

Scripture Thought: Alma 37:36-37: “Cry unto God for all thy support…let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord.”

Learning from an Apostle

We had the privilege of attending a devotional with Elder Neil L. Andersen, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord, recently.

A very brief biography (I always like to read bio’s of Church leaders to see the path they followed) of Elder Anderson. Born in Logan, UT but raised near Pocatello, ID. Served his mission in France returned to BYU and graduated with a degree in Economics, got his MBA at Harvard, and spent his professional career working in a health care system in Tampa, FL. Called as General Authority in 1993 and an Apostle in 2005.

The devotional we attended was specifically of the employees of the Area Office and the senior missionary couples – that’ ‘s us – Wahoo! He held other devotionals during this stay in the Philippines.

The meeting opened with both Elder and Sister Anderson speaking together. Sister Anderson shared her thoughts about the humbleness and sweet spirit of the Filipino people, something I totally understand and agree with having experienced it ourselves.

The Area Office Choir Performs

Some highlights of the Devotional

There were a number of interesting stories that Elder Andersen shared. in the interest of brevity, I will mention only one. 

Abe Aberjo, who worked in the Philippines Area Office in the travel department, shared how President Oaks, who was at the time (2002 -2004) the Philippines Area President, asked him to make preparations for him to go to Zamboanga in Mindanao to release a stake president who had done a phenomenal job with no missionaries or other help during his term as a stake president. Yet, even with this handicap, this stake grew at a phenomenal rate of growth by a number of metrics. At that time, and is still this way today, foreigners were discouraged from entering Mindanao because of radical Muslim groups in the country would often kidnapped foreigners, especially Americans, for ransom. Abe recommended that President Oaks reconsider not going to this part of the Philippines in Mindanao, but Elder Oaks insisted. 

As preparations were made for President Oaks’ trip to Zamboanga (a remote part of Mindanao), planning this trip was going to be a monumental task because it would be difficult to ensure President Oaks’ safety. Coincidentally, the same week that President Oaks was going to make the trip, the US Naval Fleet Commander was visiting the area. In preparation for the Commander’s visit, the military had made a thorough search of the area to ensure that it was safe for the Naval Commander’s visit. Abe felt that he didn’t think it wasn’t a coincidence that the Naval Commander’s visit coincided with Elder Oaks’ visit to the same area and that thousands of hours of security man hours were spend to secure the area for a safe visit of the Navy Commander’s visit that coincided with President Oaks’ visit. The Lord does often moves chess pieces around the board to plan for things that happen far in advance that serve his purposes and prepares the way for the work to move forward – often totally unnoticed. He believed this was one such instance. 

The Importance of Temples

Elder Anderson talked about the importance of temples in the Philippines. To emphasis his point, he provided an object lesson by turning off all of the lights in the room we were sitting.  After the lights were turned off and the room mostly dark, he talked about how temples provide light and knowledge to people in a country. To demonstrate this point, he turned on one set of lights in the front of the room and likened the light from this one set of lights to the opening of the Manila Temple in 1984. These light laminated only a small part of the room. He shared the temples provide light not only to the people that attend the temple but to the people in the country where the temple is located. 

The last temple to be opened in the Philippines was the Cebu Temple that was opened in 2010. As he talked about the opening of the Cebu Temple, he asked for another set of lights in the back of the room to be turned on. Now there were two sets of lights illuminating the room. More light, but nearly not enough. 

Another set of lights about one third of the distance from the front of the room were turned on representing the Urdaneta Temple which is three hours northwest of Manila and will open in May of this year. More light. But not nearly enough to light the entire room.

The next temple to open will be the Alabang Temple which is two-hours south of Manila will open in 2025. More light but not nearly enough. The Davao Temple will open in 2026, more lights were turned on but again not nearly enough.

As he talked about each of the remaining temples that will be opened (a total of thirteen) in the future, more light will come to the country with the opening of each temple. As he talked about each temple opening more and more lights were turned on to represent each of the remaining temples that will open in the Philippines in the next five to seven years. He also commented that there will likely be more temples in the future. 

Elder Andersen then emphasized that as more and more temples are opened, as lights were turned on, there is more and more light and knowledge that will enlighten members of the Church as well as the people of the Philippines. With additional light, members become stronger and more faithful because they are able to attend temples that are located near where they live vs. having to travel great distances and at a great expense to attend a temple. There will be generations of future missionaries that will benefit from the increase in the number of temples because as more and more couples culminate their dating with a temple marriage which creates strong families. These families will continue to bless the Philippine culture and country and enhance the faith of members of the Church which will continue to fuel the growth of the Church in the Philippines. He sees a bright future for the Philippines.  

As he closed his comments with his testimony, the wording of how he phrased his testimony, I found interesting…..he said that he had a deep and abiding testimony and a sure and certain witness of the realty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that it is as real as the truthfulness of the gospel.  You can decide for yourself what he meant as a sure and certain witness.

As I listened to his testimony and the specific wording, my thoughts flashed back to November of 1968. I was in the mission home in Salt Lake City preparing to depart to South Africa to begin my mission service. Elder Kimball, an Apostle at the time, had given a talk to the missionaries. After his talk, he was shaking hands with the missionaries. I made my way to him and when it was my turn to shake his hand, which was a big deal from a small-time guy from South Dakota to be shaking hands with an Apostle of Christ. 

As he grabbed my and shook it (keeping in mind that he was barely 5’6″ tall, I asked him a question that I had had on my mind for some time. I asked, “Do you think President McKay (the then Prophet of the Church) has ever seen and talked with Christ?”  He grabbed me and put his mouth next to his ear and said, “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

That interaction had a profound impact on me. I have often thought when thinking about the mission of Apostles in Christ’s time and being the same today which was and is to bear a personal witness of the Savior and if they don’t have this personal witness or experience, how can they be truly bear the reality of their testimony.

Elder Anderson’s phrasing in his testimony that he had a sure and certain witness of the realty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and that it is as real as the truthfulness of the gospel implies to me that he has a personal relationship with our Savior as he travels the world witnessing of Christ’s reality. 

Members Meeting and Shaking Hands with an Apostle

Goodbye to Ol’ Friends

After eighteen months of looking into young missionaries mouths, filling thousands of cavities, extracting teeth, implanting teeth, and teaching dental hygiene to those that had no clue that this was something that they needed to do, Elder Rampton and his wife Marie head back home to Eastern Oregon.

The amazing thing is that this retired couple are eighty years old and have for the last eighteen months worked six days a week, ten to twelve hours a day, day in and day out to prepare thousands of young missionaries to enter the mission field with a mouth full of cavity-free teeth that, if taken care of from now on, should last them for decades. It is not uncommon for an adult Filipino to have not teeth.

Many young Filipinos at this age have already lost a large number of their permanent teeth because their diet is very starchy and loaded with sugar. Filipinos have an extraordinarily high incident of diabetis and a side effect of poor dental heath.

One of the biggest hurtles the four dentist in the dental clinic have to deal with is the terror that these young Filipinos have of a dentist because if they’ve been to one, and if not, they’ve heard stories, that going to a dentist means suffering pain….why? Because most don’t use Novocain – it is just drill or pull teeth with no pain relief. Once they have been to the MTC dental clinic, their fear slowly goes away. As Sister Rampton has shared, the amazed young missionaries that look into the mirror and see their new teeth for the first time is priceless. Many have refused to smile because they were embarrassed but now they smile all of the time.

The Rampton’s and the Storm’s after a farewell dinner at our apartment – the Filipino flag is in the background!

Dinner on top of Manila

As mentioned before, two to three times a month six groups of senior couples (6-8 in a group) go out to dinner. This particular evening a group of us went to the Souel Sky Restaurant that turns 360 degrees in an hour providing a unique view of the Manila, Quezon City, and Makati skyline. I took this picture as the sun was setting as the view pivoted toward Makati and the Manila temple – located where the red arrow points. Quite a specular site. In the picture below, the red arrow points to the Manila temple.

The Manila Temple at Sunset

Things I continue to learn about the Philippines….

In many ways, I long for the days of yesteryear. I pumped gas at a service station in high school in 100 degree heat and when it was 10 degrees below zero. Gas station attendants are the norm here. I’ve never seen a self-service gas station here. There may be some but I haven’t seen them.

You get a fill up, tires and oil checked, and windows washed, if you want – all delivered with a smile and a cheerful attitude.

Spiritual Thought: Faith is not about everything turning out OK but being OK no matter how things turn out.

Scripture of the Day: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord” (2 Tim. 1:7–8).

The Tabernacle Choir in the Philippines 

I love listening to The Tabernacle Choir. Since I grew up in a small town in South Dakota, I wasn’t exposed to The Tabernacle Choir and knew very little about them. The first time I started to gain an appreciation of the Choir was on my mission to South Africa. The saints there had a great respect for the Choir which rubbed off on me and that I’ve held ever since. 

Nearly every time that I am in the Utah, I try and attend the Spoken Word or any other events the Choir participates in such as the annual Christmas Program held at the Conference Center near Temple Square. Also, when the Choir has been on tour I’ve attended their performances outside of Utah several times over the years. These touring performances were unique and always full of energy, special songs, and with unique aspects in these performances. 

When I first learned of The Tabernacle Choir visit to the Philippines as a part of their World Tour, my first thought was that I would not try and secure tickets and take away from a Filipino saint’s opportunity to see the choir in person. A few weeks before the Choir’s arrival in the Philippines I was asked if I wanted tickets. Again, I declined using the same logic as I had initially had…better to allow Filipino saints attend than us. When I again asked and told that there were four tickets available, I paused. Who could I invite to join us in attending one of the four Choir’s performances? 

I have a first cousin that I met later in life. One of the first times I visited with her, I learned that she had lived in the Philippines for twenty years. After we learned of our call to the Philippines, I called her and told her of our senior mission call. She was excited to hear that we would be living in the Philippines for a couple of years. 

She shared with me that her three children were born in the Philippines and that her eldest son currently lives in the Manila area. To make a long story short, we eventually were able to meet and have lunch with him on New Year’s Day 2024. We hit it off…you never know how a first-time meeting will go with relatives you’ve never met before. In this case, the lunch went well.

Since I managed to snag four Choir tickets a few days before the concert, I decided to invite my second cousin and his significant other. I was looking forward to sharing an inspiring evening of music with my cousin and left it at that. However, I was totally unprepared for what we experienced. Words fail me as I try and describe the evening…but I’ll try.

More than 39,000 people gathered at some 200 watch parties throughout Luzon in the north, the central Visayas and Mindanao in the south — the three main island groups of the more than 7,100 islands that comprise the Philippines. The watch parties were in Church meetinghouses, movie theaters, town halls and public squares.

In Manila, two of the four performances were held at the Mall of Asia Arena also known as the MoA Arena It is an indoor arena within the SM Mall of Asia complex, in Bay City, Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It has a seating capacity of 15,000 for sporting events, and a full house capacity of 20,000 and was officially opened on May 21, 2012. For the Choir’s performances, the arena was configured to seat slightly less than 9,000 people. 

We were fortunate to get four seats 12 rows back on the center floor which is a perfect place to sit in a venue like this. As I said, I was expecting a pleasant evening of music and as the Choir began their performance, I was noticeably taken back. Yes, the music was outstanding for a choral stand point but the manner in which the program was crafted integrating two Filipino masters of ceremonies and after the 323 choir members and 60-plus orchestra members sang several songs of faith the crowd burst into rancorous applause as Lea Salonga, a world famous recording artist, actress, Tony Award recipient, honored as a Disney Legend, and numerous other award walked on stage to the microphone and began to sing – and sing she could. 

From this point of the performance continued to pick up more and more momentum and with heightened emotions as several Filipino songs were performed in English and several faith-based Filipino songs were sung in Tagalog the audience was visibly moved.  There were a Jewish and African songs sung in each of these country’s native language. At the beginning of the evening, the MC’s shared that this is the first performance in another country by the Choir where they dressed in a traditional native dress – in the Philippines this is called the Barong – the formal attire – see below. If you ever see the President of the Philippines addressing their Congress or meeting with world leaders, he will be wearing a Barong .  

The male Choir members are all dress in a Barong – the formal wear in the Philippines.

The female Choir members were dressed in a traditional dress in light royal blue.

Two thirds of the way through the performance, a group of 50 youth ran down the isles to the stage and performed a melody of songs centered around the Savior with a choreographed dance routine and in a stage acting sequence that added to the sacred nature of the song that were being performed.

The Choir continued to show their versatility and range with a number of sacred songs and spirted songs from America. As I said, it is hard for me to put into words the emotion and feeling that existed in the arena as these Filipino saints from all over the Philippines participated in the once in a lifetime event for them. As the concert drew to a close, the audience were asked to take out their cell phone and turn on the flashlight feature as the choir performed. With a thunder of applause, as the final song ended and Mack Walberg, the conductor walked off of the stage and after an extended round of applause returned to the stage for the finale which was one of the Choir’s signature songs – the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Quite an evening.

Now my description is just words…what can’t be put into words on a page is the emotion that myself and I’m sure nearly everyone felt during the concert. Even when I watched a YouTube video of the concert a few days later, it doesn’t even come close to capturing a fraction of the feeling in being there in person. It was something totally unexpected and I doubt these Filipinos will ever in their lifetimes match this type of experience. 

A Filipino family that we brought to the Tabernacle Choir concert with our senior couple friends. The family couldn’t have attended the concert because they had no way to get to the performance. We live about a 90-minute drive to the concert.

Post concert gathering where the Tabernacle Choir members mingled with the Filipino attendees.

Here are a few links if you would like to watch the performance in its entirety which I’m sure none of you will.

Here is a short news article (2:30) that doesn’t capture 1/1000th of the energy or spirit of the concert.

A night that I will long remember.

Spiritual Thought: Bible  = Basic, Instructions, Before, Leaving, Earth.

Scripture of the day: D&C 6:36: Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not. 

Sometimes an Ol’ Friend Surprises You

As I have shared before, years ago Marcia and I were called to be serve in the Oakland 9^thBranch (later to become the Oakland 9^th Ward) where we served for six years. Initially, I was assigned as the executive secretary to a young newly married branch president. During this calling I met a Filipino – Joe Aliling. Joe and I became good friends over the years that we served there. He was the epitome of the most faithful of Latter-Day Saints. 

Although I knew that he was Filipino, I never took the time to ask him to share the story on how he ended up in the San Francisco Bay Area after spending most of his life in the Philippines. After we relocated to El Dorado Hills east of Sacramento, we only talked occasionally. When we arrived in  the Philippines, after a few months I reached out to Joe and asked him more about his life’s journey. As he shared his life story, I was blown away to learn how unique and amazing his story is. I will only give you a brief summary, hitting the highlights of rather unexpected life.

Joe was born in a remote city south of Manila. He was always a bright student and received a scholarship to the most elite university in the Philippines – the University of the Philippines. Since he exceled in math, this led him to major in electrical engineering. At the time, he was a Catholic and he had a vision of the type of wife he wanted and that she would teach his kids to be God fearing Filipinos. 

Eventually, he met his wife, a student at UP, through a friend.  Although she wanted to become a medical doctor, her godfather suggested getting a doctorate degree on the preventive side of medicine vs. the treatment side. She would go on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate degree in nutrition. During this time, she served on several high-level committees. On one of these committees, her  committee chair gave her a Book of Mormon. 

After graduating, Joe went to work for Pepsi and shortly was promote to be a manager in charge of their transition from analog to the digital world in some of their manufacturing processes. John Scully (Pepsi’s CEO was recruited by Steve Jobs to be the CEO Apple with his famous challenge “do you want to be known for selling sugar water or changing the world”) initiated a management training program which Joe was recruited to join as a rising star. Pepsi paid for him to get an MBA. While he was busy getting an MBA and burning the candle at both ends because he was still working, the missionaries knocked on their door. Although it took nearly a year before Joe could find the time to meet with the missionaries, his wife had the missionaries over weekly for dinner. Eventually, the Aliling’s were baptized into the Church. 

Through a series of events (too long to discuss here) he was recruited to teach at UP and became a tenured professor as well as a management consultant to the Philippines government. Joe established himself as a key player in government circles establishing relationships that later would prove to be vital to enhance relations between the Church and the Philippines government. 

Interestingly, a member of our Orinda Ward in Moraga, California, where we lived for over thirty years, was a high-level person who worked in the San Francisco Office of the FBI. After this person, Garth Andrus, retired was called to be one of the early mission presidents in Manila. As often happens, rumors started that these young men in white shirts and ties from America were really CIA agents and spies. This rumor was enhanced by the fact that the Manila mission president was former FBI. This rumor created some barriers for missionaries to be able to get visas and there were limits on the number of missionaries allowed in the country at one time. 

Because some of Joe’s classmates at UP were now in important government positions and a few of his friends were working in the immigration department. Because of these contacts and working with Elder Hinckley, an apostle at the time (he was on a first name basis with most of the General Authorities), Joe arranged for a group of government officials (some of his friends) to visit the Mission Training Center in Provo to allow these government officials to see what was being taught. During their visit what they saw were young men learning the Filipino culture, singing Filipino songs, and learning to speak Tagalog. Based on this and further discussions, many of the immigration barriers for missionaries to enter the Philippines faded away. 

Another antidote Joe shared with me as we prepared to record his oral history, was about how his background and education allowed him to travel all over Asia on a government passport (referred to as a “Red Passport” – the passport was literally red) at no cost as a part of his consulting role for the government. On one such trip, he had picked up the LDS Seminary Curriculum for the upcoming year on his way to the airport. He had a flight to Davao and his thought was to review all of this educational material on the flight to and from Davao. 

Sitting next to him happen to be the Secretary of Education for the Philippines. A discussion ensued which eventually ended up in a group of officials in the Department of Education for the Philippines going to Brigham Young University and visiting the McKay College of Education to learn more about their teaching methodology some of which eventually was incorporated into some of the school curriculum in the Philippines. 

Now for the movie plot line of his life. 

As a part of his role as consultant for the government and his background as an MBA and educator, he was asked to set up a commission to investigate graft and corruption on government contracts. After digging and uncovering irregularities, he was finishing the final preparation of his report – which was not complementary to a lot of people, he got a phone call from his stake president (Joe was a counselor in the stake presidency) telling him not to go home and to tell his wife to stay with family for a few days and he would pick him up at UP Campus. 

After the stake president picked him up, he told him that he had information that his life was in danger because some of the contents of his report had been leaked and since the report named names, etc., he was not looked on by a lot of powerful people very favorably. The stake president told him that he was taking him directly to the airport and Joe needed to use his Red Passport to get on a flight to the San Francisco Bay Area with nothing but the clothes on his back. 

At least in my life, it’s rare that I get to talk to someone like Brother Joe Aliling who was instrumental in key aspects of allowing the gospel to grow and prosper in a country like the Philippines. The interesting thing is that I would not have known any of this if I hadn’t had the responsibility to capture some of the history of the Philippines by interviewing and talking to Filipino saints and leaders. I often wonder how many other unique stories I’ve missed along the way. 

Joe Aliling in Oakland California

An Unusual Oral History

Five months ago, we met Manny Nester at the Makati 4^th Ward and shortly after this we were invited to dinner with another senior missionary couple where we began to hear of this rather unique life story that brought him to the Philippines.   

Manny was born into the Muslim faith. After marrying several wives, these wives were unable to give birth to a son which is prized by Muslims families. His father took additional wives to help solve this problem. Eventually, the male curse came to an end with the birth of Manny. 

His father and grandfather were respected members of the Muslim community and now with a son Manny was groomed to carry on the family name. He was enrolled in the best schools and was the center of attention of his father and grandfather. 

When he was eleven years old, he walked by a Christian revival meeting. He stopped to listen and was touched by the spirit. He returned several times and later he met several Baptist missionaries that was a part of the Christian group meetings he had been attending. Eventually, he accepted their invitation to join some additional meetings and activities. To be able to do this, he had to sneak out of school in the evenings and on weekends. These clandestine meetings continued until he was inevitably discovered. 

After his Christian activities were uncovered, his father retrieved him from the boarding school and he was taken to his grandmother’s home, coaxed to abandon these Christians which he refused to commit to doing. This resulted in beatings. This continued and he was given an ultimatum to stop, confess, and promise never to see these infidels again. His parent had told him to think about what they had talked to him about and sent him away to think about what he was going to do.  He decided he couldn’t do what they were asking him to do and decided to run away which he did that night.

Having no other means of supporting himself, he became a homeless street urchin begging for food (keep in mind he was thirteen years old), often sleeping in mosques in a neighboring community because he knew the schedule at mosques. His homeless plight continued for several years. The original missionaries had returned to the US.  

Eventually, he met another Baptist missionary. After Manny shared his story with this missionary, the missionary teared up and said that he had heard about him and he was one of the reasons they had decided to come to Uganda and to try and find him. This person was Tony Nester. The Nester’s provided a home for him, enrolled him into school, and provided much needed family structure and love. Manny decided to take the Nester family name. 

Eventually, his former Muslim friends learned where Manny was living. All of his friends were told that he had died. When his friends found out he wasn’t dead, they began to persecute him by stoning and harassing him. After his new Christian friends heard that his family had told everyone he was dead, they called him Lazarus because he had come back from the dead. 

After the Nester family returned to America, Manny decided to move to Kenya to get away from his past and some of the persecution. After settling down in Kenya, he sought out Christians and made friends with a Korean. This friendship blossomed and when this young man returned to Korea he invited Manny to join him on a three-month visitor’s visa. After staying in Korea for a few months, Manny decided to stay in Korea and return to school. He was able to get a full-ride soccer scholarship. However, to qualify for the scholarship, he had to pass the Korean language exam. He studied for the exam and passed it. He majored in business and the Korean language. While attending school, he started a youth ministry on campus and was able to get paid for the youth group speaking engagements. This is how he began to support himself.

During one of these speaking engagements at a youth camp retreat, he met an LDS young lady named Caitlin. They became friends but he thought she was weird because of some of her beliefs on Christ, the sacrament and the Book of Mormon. Nevertheless, they remained friendly and after the camp ended they continued emailing each other. Eventually, Kaitlin returned to the US and he later learned that she was serving an LDS mission. 

Three years later, he became friends with some LDS missionaries while helping these missionaries with their Korean and he began playing basketball with them. During this time, Caitlin’s father was visiting Korea on business and took Manny to dinner and they talked religion. Manny listened politely but never took the things Caitlin’s father was talking to him about to heart. 

He continued to play basketball with the LDS missionaries. When some of the Christian youth ministry leaders learned he was hanging out with the LDS missionaries, they kicked him out of their church because of his association with the missionaries. Now that he had lost his source of income, he got a job on one of the US military bases.  During this time, he met and began to date a young American soldier. They were eventually married.  

Less than a year after his marriage, he had a family situation in Uganda that he needed to be addressed. He went to Uganda and on his return trip to Korea on a stopover in Istanbul as he tried to board the plane to Soule, his ticket and passport were flagged. He was told that his Korean Visa was no longer valid…which was news to him. Since he didn’t have a Turkish Visa, he couldn’t go to the Korean Embassy in Istanbul to sort things out.  The officials at the airport said that the Philippines didn’t have restrictive visa requirements and he could go to the Korean Embassy in Manila to get this visa issues resolved. He flew to Manila.

This began a seven-month long saga of attempting to get an appointment with the Korean Embassy in Manila. During his time in the Philippines, he was in contact with Caitlin and her father who told Manny that he had friends in the Makati 4^th Ward in Quezon City. Instead of contacting the Baptist church because of how unchristian they had been to him in Korea by kicking him out of their church for playing basketball with the LDS missionaries, he decided to seek out the friend of Caitlin’s father that lived in the Makati 4^th Ward. He Googled the nearest church building and walked into the chapel on a Sunday morning.

Manny said when he walked into the chapel on the first Sunday, he felt the same type of spirit he had at other times in his life when faced with big decisions, even when these decisions often resulted in challenges and persecution. Seven months later after many long and all-encompassing teaching sessions, Manny was baptized on January 28, 2024. 

In the meantime, his wife has been reassigned to Atlanta, GA. He now has an appointment with the Korean Embassy in Manila the first week in March of 2024. 

A few days after his baptism, we were able to capture Manny life’s story in an Oral History Interview. Some of the interviews we participate in are special because the spirit of the Lord is so strong as these individuals we interview share their stories of trials, faith, and their journey to the gospel. 

For Manny, as he shared his story, he ended the oral history interview with the perspective that everything that has happened to him in his life was Heavenly Father guiding him on his journey to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  

The Joy of a Finding the Gospel and being Baptized

Since our senior mission is not specifically focused on proselyting, we don’t often get an opportunity to be directly involved in missionary work or related events. Recently, we had the opportunity to attend a baptismal service for Manny Nester. His story is fascinating. Here is an abbreviated version.

A mother and her nine year old daughter perform “Come Follow Me.”

Missionaries sing “Abide with Me “

The Philippines missionaries are from all over the world and Philippines. The missionaries in the picture come from the US, the Pacific island, and China. I often stand in amazement of the inspired nature of how the missionary program works. If it wasn’t inspired, it wouldn’t work. Meshing different cultures, languages, personalities, and temperaments that are thrown together and the result isn’t organized chaos but diligent hardworking young men and women.

I told my wife after talking to Elder Bliss and his companion that I was thinking back to my mission in South Africa over fifty years ago and about how I got up every day for over two and a half years and worked hard every day and never got home sic, or wanted to go home (in the days when you could only call home twice a year), as I thought about this, I marveled that I did it then and that these young missionaries are doing it today.

A thought to ponder: Often we feel the pure love of God most poignantly after there is true repentance. 

Scripture of the day: “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.” -1Ne 11:17