Week 86 - March 23rd, 2020 (Sinait-Manila, Philippines/ Auburn, California)

Saying goodbye to the Sinait apartment,
Good times with Elders Paredes, Canales, and Walters!

My dearest friends and family, I've been asking you all for so long how life is over there, well now here I am, haha. It's been a long week, but so full of miracles and tender mercies. It all, as last week's entry demonstrates, really started out relatively normal. On Monday the only real big difference is that we had a curfew by 8, after which we were informed via text that the entire Luzon region was going into enhanced lockdown and we were no longer allowed to leave our apartments and proselyte. We all settled in for a couple days to weeks stuck in the apartment, not quite looking forward to the prospects. Instead, on Tuesday after a slow and uneventful morning, around 2 in the afternoon we got a text telling all foreign missionaries to pack up immediately in preparation to evacuate the country- that was the beginning of our long trip. 

Last day in Sinait, goodbye Laoag Mission!

We ended up not leaving until Wednesday, after an entire morning of checkpoints and border difficulties and not being able to cross from Ilocos Norte to Sur, we finally were able to rendevous with a huge caravan of private vans (all public transportation has been shut down) coming from Laoag with all the missionaries from there and get an urgent document to the checkpoint, thus finally enabling us to pass through and pick up the rest of Vigan Zone down in Vigan. From there we all sped as fast as those vans could go down to Manila, we were at first on a 72-hour schedule to get out of the country or get stuck in total lockdown. It was a miracle that we were able to get there, we arrived at the MTC in Manila around 12am on Thursday, though during the trip the 72-hour limit had been lifted so we were given the further miracle of more time for the Church to secure airplanes for all of us here in the Philippines, especially considering the airport was otherwise mostly out of commission. So many miracles happened while we were there, they were able to charter five huge planes out of the USA to fly into Manila on Sunday and pick us all up. It was a good stay at the MTC, most of us were also moved out closer to the airport on Friday to a hotel across the street from the airport. It was quite the experience, and really uniting for all of the foreigners left from our mission as we really sought to stay together and keep our spirits up, we sang the mission song and discussed things to do during this waiting period- it was good to be able to share this experience with so many other missionaries whose examples are just phenomenal and who are all so consecrated. I really felt comforted despite the relative stress and uncertainty of the situation. Eventually the day came for us all to leave- in the hotel lobby, the Philippines Laoag foreign missionaries sang one last time our beloved mission song, then all of the missions in Luzon were taken to the airport and placed on our respective planes that had been prepared, we left Sunday afternoon in Manila and arrived in Salt Lake City after a brief stop-over in Tokyo, making for about a 13 hour flight total- though relative to the respective time zones, it ended up being a total of 2 hour flight, haha. Got into Salt Lake around 6pm on Sunday evening, then all separated to get to their connecting flights to their respective home towns. I and about 10 other missionaries all flew into Sacramento on a commercial flight, and by some miracle all of us were able to make those and get home safely. I got home last Monday morning around 1am, and was subsequently released from my calling as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that evening. 

Operation: Flee the Country

Elder Walters and I at the hotel

Home to my beloved family!

All in all, this has been just so unexpected- luckily, throughout the week I have been given much time to think and ponder upon these events. One conclusion, above all, that I have come to is that faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things to come. Rather, faith is to have a knowledge that if your life is being lived according to the statutes of God, no matter what happens we can know that it will be for our good. Faith is to know that Heavenly Father loves us perfectly and has a Plan for each and every one of us. What a fitting end to this theme that I believe my Heavenly Father wants for me to apply to my whole life. I am so, so grateful for the testimony that I've gained, that I've been blessed with, above all on those simple, pure truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, we are His children, and He has a perfect and pure plan for each and every one of us to become happy. I know that He has given us the gift of His divine, perfect Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins and a mediator for us to become reconciled to God, and that this can be done through faith, repentance, baptism and confirmation, and the rest of this everlasting Gospel and Doctrine that He has established again on Earth through His Church. I know that Joseph Smith truly did see God the Father and Jesus Christ 200 years ago in that grove of trees, and that through him as a prophet of God, the living Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ was restored upon the Earth today, along with the authority and power of God given to men. I know that these truths are contained in the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. It contains a fulness of the restored Gospel, as well as so many incredible testimonies of the power of the Atonement of Christ in our lives. This, all of this, is for us to become reconciled to God- this and this alone is our purpose here on Earth, and this can be accomplished in and through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ- He is our hope, our strength, our salvation. We are all to do all we can to come unto Him. I'm so grateful that I was given the opportunity to represent Him for these past years, and to continue as His disciple for the rest of eternity. Moroni closes, "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is His grace sufficient for you, that by His grace ye may be perfect in Christ..." I will come unto Christ, and I invite all of you forever to do the same, for we may do so at all times, in all things, and in all places. I love you all so much, and love the people of the Philippines. I will see you all soon, and hope that we may all every day come a little closer to our Father through Christ. I leave all these things with you in His sacred name, even that of Jesus Christ, amen.

Our view of the Manila skyline from our hotel

One last Philippines sunrise... Mamimiss ko ito!