Saying Goodbye to Good Friends

We've a steady stream of friends stopping by the mission home to say goodbye and unfortunately I didn't always have my camera handy. But here are a few of our well wishers! We truly believe that the church in this area is in good hands with wonderful leaders and members. Our goal is to meet many of them at the Urdaneta Temple Dedication--which should take place in about 3 years. We're so glad that friendships are eternal!

 The Tamayo Family

 I love this photo because I wish I had his amount of energy--whee!

 The Pagigans--special friends. Missing their two oldest.

 The Uys--missing two great sons.

The Abarabars missing their two sons and the Delos Reyes

May our Heavenly Father shower out his greatest blessings on you precious friends!

Next blog post....With family in Utah!

Honoring Two Great Assistants

We have the tradition of preparing a special meal for any assistant to the president who was going home or returning to the field. We let them pick who they would like to come and what they want for dinner. Since we won't be here when Elder Ilagan and Elder Nielsen return we thought we'd honor them both on the same day. So they invited some of their closest friends. Living in Solano near his sister (Sister Ilagan) is Sister De Luna a brand new missionary. She is Mexican but grew up in the US. She is a great cook and Elder Ilagan has fallen in love with Mexican food. So we invited her to come and cook the meal.

Here's the menu:
Homemade Salsa
Chicken Fajitas with homemade tortillas
Refried Beans
Watermelon
Homemade Cookies and icecream

Sister DeLuna got all the other missionaries to help prepare the food and then we all enjoyed a wonderful Mexican feast!

We have loved every one of our assistants. They truly spend every waking minute helping to assist in the workings of the mission. We love them and appreciate them!

 Sister Diola, Sister De Luna and Sister Ilagan help in the kitchen

 Elder Robinson and Elder Dixon are now in Burgos Zone and they came with their barangs--just for the party and soon they switched back to their missionary attire.

The food was awesome

 Elder Mortensen and his companion came from a football game in Angadana and hadn't changed yet.

Elder Volpe, Proctor, James, Lasay with Elder Ardon and Elder Ilagan in the back.

Oh how we love these missionaries!

Surprise for Brother Pete and Malou!

We have two very special friends in Tuguegarao and that's Brother Pete and his darling wife Malou. They work tirelessly to spoil the missionaries who live in the two zones there. Brother Pete is quite the cook and puts on the most delicious spreads of food. Our first Christmas here he was able to get us 13 turkeys and they came for three days to the mission home and cooked and cooked and cooked so we could serve a traditional American Christmas Dinner (but we added rice). That first Christmas, Malou saw my dancing snowman and feel in love with it. For the last few years Pete has asked me over and over if he could buy the snowman from us. I always told him that I was going to take it back home so my grandkids could enjoy it. When it came time to ship our stuff back home I just couldn't take the snowman.

So when Brother Pete suggested he make Philly Steak Sandwiches for all the missionaries in both Tuguegarao Zones after their zone training meeting we thought we'd spice it up and give Malou a surprise--the snowman.

We ushered them into a classroom and the snowman started to sing and dance. Both Pete and Malou teared up--they were so excited that we had saved it as a gift for Malou.

We are going to miss so many wonderful friends here and Pete and Malou are certainly two that we will truly miss.

 The missionaries loved his Philly Steak Sandwiches!

And Here They Come...23 Wonderful, Happy, Excited and Eager New Missionaries

Our June batch arrived right on schedule. Wow! What an amazing group of new missionaries. We are confident that they will help bring about mighty miracles here in the Philippines Cauayan Mission! (Please forgive me for not getting a close up of every new missionary!)

 Welcome Elder Echano and ElderDomingo

 Elder Ilagan welcomes who? His little sister-Sister Ilagan. Wow, how can the Philippines Cauayan Mission be so lucky to have two Ilagans serving here!

 Elder Mills is helping with the new luggage. With 23 new missionaries President Carlos proclaimed it a "All Hands on Deck" day and all mission vehicles and couples and assistants were needed to help transport the missionaries and ALL their luggage.

 Welcome Sister Sumagpao

 From Tonga comes Sister  Funaki and from Kirabati comes Sister Bureeti

 Here comes Sister Tebwaruaki

 Welcome Sister Davis!

 Elder Thacker-we're so glad you're here!

 Sister Frame!

 Here come's Elder Stephenson

 Elder Zhang--I bet you never dreamed of being a missionary in the Philippines

 Welcome Elder Domingo

 Here comes Sister Berghout!

Elder Young--welcome!

 It's Elder Teitjen

 Also from Kirabati comes Sister Nambengu

 Sister Gleave--welcome!

 After two days of traveling Elder Williams is still smiling!



Sister De Luna from Utah! Welcome!


Once in the mission home President had a welcome and we got to learn a little about each of our new missionaries.

After picture taking and lunch, President began his interviews and the assistants and I conducted a brief orientation.

Preparing for the Transfer Meeting was a group of our Polynesian elders and sisters who were singing a musical number.

 And their song sounded so awesome!

 Later a Sister Larsen accompanied on the flute Sister Busboom, Sister Obnias and Sister Ramos--it was lovely!

 Sister Flory and her anak Sister Ilagan are heading to Solano!

 After the meeting there's a lot of visiting before board their rented vans to head to their new areas

What a great bunch of the Lord's ambassadors. We love them all!