Coming Home Information

Dear President,

We are underway in our efforts to return your foreign missionaries to their home countries.  The planned departure of missionaries has been announced by the Church. Will you please communicate with the parents of these missionaries to inform them of what is being done. 

We would like to have a degree of uniformity in the way we describe what is happening in the Philippines.  We thought it may be helpful to have a suggested letter for your consideration and use.

Elder Schmutz

Elder Wakolo

Elder Bangerter

Dear Brother and Sister Hunsaker,

We have been following the situation related to the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines very carefully.  We have been monitoring the governmental actions being taken to fight the spread of the virus. We want to assure you that the First Presidency and the Twelve have the welfare of missionaries uppermost in their thoughts and prayers.  We have received ongoing guidance from the Missionary Department and the Philippines Area Presidency.

Sister Peterson and I want you to know that your missionary is safe and protected.  We love your missionary and are grateful to have the opportunity to preside over this mission.

Last evening, the President of the Philippines issued a presidential proclamation raising the level of alert throughout the Philippines and implementing a heightened level of community quarantine.  This was done to limit social interaction and slow the spread of COVID-19.  This “enhanced quarantine” will have the effect of prohibiting public transportation, limiting movement from place to place, and requiring people to remain in their homes, except to shop for food, medicine and necessary essentials.  All community, social, work-related, and religious gatherings have been suspended.  It has quickly become much more difficult for our missionaries to proselyte or even work with their investigators, as most missionaries are now restricted to their apartments.

The presidential proclamation encourages foreigners living in the Philippines to return to their home countries.  It provides a 72 hour window for foreigners to travel freely to the international airports in the country and board a departing flight for their home country. At the end of that period, we are told that all outbound flights will be suspended until the situation stabilizes.

The Church has made a decision to return all foreign missionaries to their homes. We expect shortly to receive a flight itinerary for your missionary’s travel.  As we receive more information we will provide it to you.  As you might imagine, we are working against a closing window of time to move a great number of missionaries.  It is possible that some will not be able to secure flights within the window of opportunity.  If your missionary is not able to fly home, they will be returned to the mission field.  In that case, please be assured that your missionary will be safe but may be limited to the apartment for some time, where there will be adequate food and water.

We want to assure you that all missionaries are safe.  There has not been a single incident of a full-time missionary catching the COVID-19 virus.  The Church is not reacting to fears about the virus as much as it is responding to the increasing limitations on the missionaries’ ability to proselyte and to the limited time the Philippines government has allowed for foreign citizens to leave the Philippines. 

When your missionary returns home, he or she will almost certainly be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.  Thereafter, we are told that the Missionary Department will communicate with you relative to the possibility of returning to complete your missionary’s mission in the Philippines or being reassigned, depending in large part on the time remaining in the missionary call.

Because of the speed of recent events, your missionary may not have been able to make contact with you. But we will encourage them to contact you as soon as they are able to.

We will keep you informed as we learn more details about flight arrangements and travel home.

With love and appreciation,

President and Sister Peterson

Philippines Lock-down

This week started out pretty normal. Nothing really weird was going on except for the fact that it became forbidden for us to shake hands with anyone because of the effect of the coronavirus. It was kind of awkward not shaking hands with our investigators that knew that we always shake hands with them and it was even more weird when we had our missionary zone conference and we weren't allowed to shake anyone's hands at all, but other than that the first part of this week was pretty normal.

On  Wednesday we had our Zone Conference/Mission Tour where Elder Steven R. Bangerter of the Area Presidency and Quorum of the Seventy came and shared to all the missionaries. It was a super awesome mission tour and easily the most enjoyable of the three different times that a general authority has came to our mission. The spirit was super strong and constantly present during the conference and he was funny and shared lots of awesome experiences. He also had tons of different interesting things to say regarding the topics of stewardship, seership, revelation, creating real relationships, and a lot more. He also was very glad to explain to us that our mission, the Philippines Laoag Mission, is the top performing mission in the nation which is also interesting since the Philippines is also one of the top baptizing countries in the world. After the zone conference we weren't allowed to shake his hand though so one-by-one by just met him and told him our name and where we're from. That was all but that's okay though since the entire conference completely made up for it.

Our entire Thursday was also pretty normal but Friday is where things became a little weirder. In the morning as we were completing daily planning we received a text from the AP's telling us to purchase 6000 pesos worth of non-perishable food items. We dropped everything and bought lots of water, canned goods, noodles, and 60lbs of rice. After getting groceries for a couple hours we then just continued to our normal work. While we were working we also learned that the government of the Philippines banned all travel in and out of the country. We can't even if we want to. Even though lots of weird stuff happened we just continued work like normal.

At this point in time, we've also received lots of new rules and updates concerning our work and the virus. Because no sacrament meeting is being held and our investigators can't attend church we have been instructed to just teach them a 'Come Follow Me' lesson in their homes on Sundays. In our mission, investigators (I'm using this term freely now since Elder Bangerter said the Elder M. Russell Ballard says it's a great term to use) need to attend church four times before they can be baptized but since that's not possible with the current circumstances the whole 'Come Follow Me' devotional in their homes is acceptable as well and counts as one time attendance to church. As for us missionaries, we were given permission just to hold a miniature sacrament meeting with the other missionaries in our district. We also have restrictions in our daily work which means we can't be within one meter distance of our investigators, we need to use hand sanitizer frequently, and can't teach anyone who has any type of illness. Other than that though, the work still goes on! 

Isaiah 41:13 -

 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.

This is a scripture that the AP's sent to the entire mission since people were unnecessarily scared of the Coronavirus from all the fake news they were receiving from locals. It's a great scripture about how the Lord is always there for us. I also just thought it was funny that it was necessary that they had to try and comfort all the missionaries through this verse since they're scared.

Pictures -

I forgot to bring my camera so I can't upload the pictures I took this week so that you can all see that we're perfectly fine.

OH NO CORONA VIRUS.

So I'm supposed to actually call you guys right now but the internet
is down at the only decent computer shop near by and the computer shop
we're at right now has a weird 2010 version of Google Chrome so it
isn't capable of video calling. Anyways, I'm just supposed to tell you
that we're okay and that nothing bad has happened. Church has been
cancelled and they also said that the branch will try and give
sacrament at the houses of members at least once a month (which
implies that it might be a while before it's administered at church
again). We're supposed to just keep working normally though. I'm not
sure how that's supposed to work though since people aren't allowed to
be baptized unless they attend church four times.. and that can't
really happen unless church is being held. We also were told to buy
lots of groceries yesterday. It was more than 5000 pesos worth of
food. We used all our emergency funds. We were also told to by lots of
hand-sanitizer/rubbing alcohol but none is available in basically our
entire mission. Everyone already bought all of it. Also it's
interesting that the government here has banned flight in and out of
the country for at least a month. It's all pretty funny though because
everything was just perfectly fine and normal (except that earlier
this week they banned handshakes/physical contact with anyone,
including other missionaries) until yesterday when they cancelled our
district conference and then everyone started freaking out, and then
the government banned flights. We feel pretty safe and fine though.
Nothing else really seemed to happen. I'll probably be stuck in the
Philippines for the rest of my life though. Haha. Just kidding.
Anyways, I'll call you on Monday and give you a real update on a video
call.

Things and Stuff

This week three people attended church which is awesome. Tatay Agullana, our friend that attended church last week, attended again and this week he also brought his wife, and her friend. He seems very interested and is progressing very well. We also extended a baptismal goal date for March 28 for him and he accepted it immediately. He's also been reading the Book of Mormon even though his reading glasses are broken and he said it makes his eyes tired. He also seems to be understanding what he reads and wants to read and learn more. He also has lots of sincere questions and wants to change. This week was also pretty cool because he told us all about his past experiences in his life and his desire to receive forgiveness.

Also during this week we've been doing more finding and teaching others as well. While doing so we met the 10 year old brother of a member. His name is N.G. and he surprisingly, despite his age, had lots of sincere questions about life and where we go when we die. He also told us about how he read in his sister's Book of Mormon and told us what he learned from his reading and wanted to check with us to see if he understood what he read correctly. Another thing he expressed was his concern of all the people doing bad things at school and their disobedience and how he wants to be mabait (nice/well mannered) like Jesus. The best thing about all of this though is that he went out of his way to tell us all these things. We didn't even ask him questions or anything. He also was sad to say that he hasn't been baptized but he wants too. Though we don't normally focus on children he is someone we'll definitely consider returning too especially since he has support in his family from his older sister. We will also try and teach his parents as well for sure.

1 Samuel 12:

22 For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.

24 Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.

The verses in this chapter were given by Samuel to Israel because of their ingratitude towards God and their desire to have a king over them 'when the Lord... God was [already their] king (verse 12).  We simply learn that we are the Lord's people and he will not forsake us because he's pleased to call us His if we but only serve him in truth and with all our heart and remember all the ways he's blessed us.

Other verses throughout the week: 2 Ne. 32:9 and D&C 88:15, 1 John 4 7,8,18-21 and Romans 13:10, Jacob 1:8 and Matt. 16:25-26, Jacob 2:19 and Mark 10:24, 1 Sam. 15:22-23, 1 Sam. 16:7. Jacob 3:9, 1 Sam. 17: 26,37,45, Jacob 4:10.

Namatay ang tinuturuan namin

Feb. 25 - March 1, 2019

  This week of work has been pretty decent. We've been doing less finding and trying to teach more to some of those people we've found recently that showed moderate interest. We were hoping this would help get some more people to church. That was kind of true seeing has we had one new person attend church this week but the person who came last week didn't come again. So in the end we still only had one person at church but this time he seems a little more sincere. He's a 72 year old man named Tatay Agullana. He's traditionally Catholic but has been recently attending the Born Again church close to his house. Because of the difference of his experience at the two churches he seems to have started developing questions about what's really true from each of them or if it even matters at all. Because of his concerns he has been willing to let us teach him and even attended church which is awesome. He has lots of questions and we're excited to continue teaching him. All the other people that committed to going to church though didn't show up.

Also during this week the Sister missionaries had three baptisms (which is the first baptisms in pagudpud in a VERY long time). They also needed some priesthood holder to baptize them so my companion volunteered immediately. Another thing that also happened during this week was the funeral of one of our previous investigators. We taught her a few times but she recently died of cardiac arrest. We actually went to part of the funeral service ( 15 minutes or so) because she was also the mother of a less active member. 

On Saturday we also worked with Branch President Baloaloa the whole day after the baptism. It was unplanned but it ended up being fun and effective since he's local. He was also able to bear a strong testimony to our investigators about his conversion story in the Ilokano language. It was good and powerful fellow shipping.

2 Ne. 26:8-9, 13

8 But behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecution—behold, they are they which shall not perish.
9 But the Son of Righteousness shall appear unto them; and he shall heal them, and they shall have peace with him.

13 And.. he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith.

This is just something I liked from my Book of Mormon studies. There's not much to add to it since it's very simply put. If we look forward unto Christ he will heal us. If we believe in him he will manifest himself unto us by the Holy Ghost and will work mighty miracles among us. The other thing I've been studying recently is from the Book of Samuel. That's also been pretty interesting to study but I don't know if there's anything worth sharing other than the story of Eli and his seed being cursed which probably won't be super beneficial to you.

Isang PSA

Feb. 17 - Feb 24, 2020

This week has also just been another week of lots of work and finding new people. Fortunately though, we were able to find one person that was willing to go to church. He's a 50 year old man and we only talked to him twice before he decided to go to church. We never actually were able to teach him a lesson because of the circumstances each time we met with him but he did end up going to church. The branch president was excited but also said that he thinks he might just have a "diperensya sa isip" or that he's kind of just a crazy person. He might be right but we'll try and teach him a couple times to discern whether he has true desire or not. Either way one person at church (PSA) is more than the last couple weeks.

Also during this week I had exchanges with Elder Tripp in Bangui. The exchanges were fine as well. It was an enjoyable momentary change. Another thing that happened during this week was just yesterday. While we were proselyting a car rolled up and a minister for Iglesia ni Cristo (some church that is popular here) came out and gave us a copy of their church magazine. He also had his wife take a picture of us with him. I think he just wanted a picture of "Mormon" missionaries holding their magazine for social media or something but I pulled out the Aklat ni Mormon last second when they took the picture just to disappoint him and spread the true gospel of course. During this week we also had our interviews with President Peterson. He told us if we want more success in our area we just need to have more charity. During our companion study later that night we read from 1 Corinthians 13 to try and more fully understand charity. Of course that's one of the best scriptures about charity and it was awesome explaining the meaning to my companion Elder Gajete since english isn't his first language. Though that's a good scripture about charity something I also really like is in John 11.

John 11:35 - 

 Jesus wept.

Of course crying isn't what makes someone charitable but understanding the context of this verse and why Christ wept helps us more fully understand what charity really is. In this chapter of John Jesus's good friend Lazarus dies. Without apostolic insight one might think he cried just because he was sad that his friend died. When I read this verse again though I remembered something that I learned from  James E. Talmage when I read Jesus the Christ. The point he made was that Christ had no reason to cry or feel sorrow for his friend's death alone. Christ had a perfect understanding of the Plan of Salvation and knew exactly what would happen to Lazarus. The death didn't make him sad. He knew God's plan in full. Christ was in reality crying because he felt the sorrow of Lazarus's siblings Mary and Martha. He also loved the two of them and knew that their situation was very difficult. He noticed them crying in their hardship. He also knew that their understanding of the Plan of Salvation wasn't perfect and because of their sadness he also felt sad. Not because of the death of their brother but because he loved them and didn't want them to be sad. I invite everyone to read this chapter in order to develop their own understanding of this scripture but for me charity means to feel the feelings of others. It means to put yourself in their shoes and figure out how to help them. It's simply putting them before yourself. That's Christ's way and that's also why he performed his infinite atonement for us. He loves us. (Moroni 7:47).

Pictures -

We also went to this lighthouse and killed a snake this week.

Pagudpud pa rin

Work here in Pagudpud has been pretty much the same my entire time here. We've done lots of work and lots of finding new people. We talk to lots of people every day but finding those that are open-hearted has been the difficult part. Recently we did find someone named Janet Carbonel who seems very open-hearted. She recently had a very hard experience with her son that got in a motorcycle wreck and she wants to find hope somewhere. Lucky for her we have the answer for her, Jesus Christ. She didn't attend church this week but she seems to have great desire and potential to progress.

Aside from the normal experiences here in Pagudpud it is pretty crazy that Caylor just returned home last week from his mission in Iowa. I can't wait to see him again when I finally return home as well. I greatly look up to him as my older brother.

This week during my personal study I found a couple scriptures that I like in the Book of Mormon that are connected doctrinally. 

2 Nephi 10:24 - 

 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.

Mosiah 3:19 -

 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the fHoly Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

I like both of these scriptures because they focus on one of the most important parts of the doctrine of the gospel. They refer to repentance and the atonement.  We as mortals are naturally an enemy to God. We are a fallen people and need to be reconciled to God. The word reconcile means "to restore to friendship or harmony" or "to make consistent or congruous." That reconciliation is our goal here on earth. We are imperfect and often fail to make the right decisions. We are far from Him but this, our life, is the time of our probation and preparation (Alma 34:32). One of my favorite titles of God's great plan for us is the "Plan of Redemption." Part of this redemption is submitting to the will of the father in all aspects of our lives in order to have harmonious consistency with what God desires for us. We know we've accomplished this once we desire to do nothing other than that of God's will specifically. Once our purpose is the same as His in everything we do we know that the Lord will have 100% trust in us and will give us great power to do good(Helaman10:4-5).