Fall Mission President's Seminar

This week we attended our first Mission President's Seminar. It was held in Manila and Elder Neil L. Anderson was in attendance. It was quite an honor to be there and listen as Elder Anderson taught us - and also be counseled by Elder Clayton, (who accompanied Elder Anderson), and our Area Presidency, Elder Nielson, Elder Ardern, and Elder Echo Hawk.

This is an amazing group of Mission Presidents, wives, and Church Leaders. President and Sister Tanner reported on the relief efforts that are underway in the earthquake damaged Cebu Area. He is currently serving as Mission President in Cebu East Mission and we were shown slides and given an update of their progress.

President Tye and I are always pinching ourselves to make sure we are not dreaming. To be in involved in missionary work in this capacity is truly a great blessing for both of us.

 President And Sister Monahan (Philippines, Urdaneta Mission) sat in front of us during Tuesday's instruction.

On Wednesday we went through a session at the Manila Temple. With so many of us doing a session at the same time, I was very impressed at how efficient and organized the Temple workers were.  

 This is a picture of "our batch" - all the Mission Presidents who flew with us from Utah and started the same day we did.
Do we look 5 months wiser?

 Elder Ferrin and President Tye. Elder Ferrin is the Area IFR of the Philippines. (In Field Representative) 

Sister Ferrin and Sister Tanner

Elder and Sister Clayton, and Elder Neil L. Anderson take a picture with us.

 

We were the guests of a Cultural Presentation with Singing and Dancing all about the Philippines. The youth were from the Manila area, and a lot of them were from the stakes in our mission. It was fantastic!

This cute young man was so obedient. He did not move his hand from that position the whole time they sang. I wish I could have found him after the show so I could shake that hand. I would like to meet a 7 year old that can do that. 

 

Pictures with our mission youth.

It was a wonderful Seminar, but were anxious to get back to our missionaries that we love so much! 



S.M.I.L.E.

Once every three months we are asked to have Specialized Training. This means that we should focus on one area of the mission and have training classes, instruction, or an activity centered on that specialized area. We decided that during this quarter we would devote our Specialized Training to the Sister Missionaries, and so this week we had our first Sister's Day.

The theme of the training was S.M.I.L.E.

Sister Missionaries Influence Lives Eternally.

All sisters met at the mission home and keeping companionships together, we divided into 4 groups. Each of the groups rotated between 4 different classes:

Lock Your Heart and Smile!

Healthy and Easy Meals

Companionships That Smile

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Sister Villanueva teaching a class. 

 

Sister Daquila teaches as Sisters' Sevia, Leavitt, Hamm, and Halasima listen and take notes. 

 

 

Sister Paddock and Sister West teach the cooking class. 

Sisters' Paug, Montemayor, Schick, Mendiola, Sarmen, Davey, and Vanfleet at the craft table.

 

After the rotation of classes, we all had lunch outside on the patio.

 

 

 

 

 I couldn't forget that Halloween is next week!

 

 

Then we were honored to have Elder and Sister Jackson - he is our Area Medical Advisor - come and speak to us about physical and spiritual health.

And this is where the men hung out.

Elder Davis, President Tye, and Elder West

 

It was a wonderful day! It turned out that way because of these amazing sisters who helped and brought the event together.

 Sister Villanueva, Sister Vaki in the back, and Sister Daquila, Sister Cayago on their knees. These are the Sister Training Leaders who planned the day and taught classes.

 Glenda, my wonderful helper in the mission home. She is constantly cleaning up after me!

And I can not say enough about the Senior couple missionaries we have. They are always so willing to help. Sister West and Sister Paddock taught the cooking class, and Sister Davis and Sister Pugsley taught the craft class. (I feel horrible about not getting a picture of Sisters Davis and Pugsley!) They LOVE every missionary and give so much time and care to them. They are greatly appreciated!

 

We now have about 95 jealous Elders who are looking forward to their Specialized Training Day!

 

Parting shots of the sisters . . .

 

New Missionary Follow-Up

Has it really been 4 weeks since our newest missionaries joined us? Today we had 'follow-up' with them to see how they and their trainers are doing.

 

We had instruction then split into groups. Trainers went into one room and the newest missionaries stayed in the chapel. Within the groups, we discussed how the training is going and we answered questions. It gave us some great insight on ways we can improve.

Next we brought everyone back together and had an activity with the companionships. The activity idea came from President and Sister Carlos who were just released as Mission President of the Philippine Cauayan Mission last June. Each companionship chooses three words to describe their goal as companions for the next eight weeks - or until the end of the training period. Some of the words chosen were, "Love Is Key", "Don't Stop Believing", "Work With Fun", "Live Like Christ", and "Together We Stand."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love this picture!

These two elders are picking up some sheets.