Over a month on Palawan

Mission experiences

Last week was our first transfer week which was a new experience for Elder and Sister Wolcott. For those not familiar with LDS missions, every six weeks new missionaries come to the mission, missionaries go home and for various reasons missionaries are moved to different companions. This is a complex logistical feat for the mission president, in our case President Ostler, as he considers needs, potential new trainers, personalities, work ethic and so forth, then seeks inspiration to put the right missionary in the right spot. Companionships may last one transfer or several but in any case when the word comes that you or your companion is leaving there is a period of sorrow for it is unlikely you will see each other again. These elders and sisters develop strong bonds because they are in the trenches together in difficult circumstances. It was an interesting experience to see these companionships say goodbye as we came to pick up the departing missionary.

Saying Goodbye on Transfer day

Some are going home, some are moving to another area, but it is goodbye.  This is tempered somewhat by the expectation that in a few hours the missionary will get a new companion and will develop a new relationship. It is overall a growing experience for these extraordinary elders and sisters.

The children of the Puerto Princesa Branch 2, gave their Sacrament Meeting Presentation last Sunday.  It was such a special treat.  Children are children where ever you may be.  It was fun to see all of the girls with white bows in their hair, singing like angels (Filipinos have beautiful voices).  We loved watching them.  They did an incredible job. As a child Sister Wolcott remembers singing short songs about the love Jesus has for us, but read the words of the song they sang.

"I Know That My Savior Loves Me." 
A long time ago in a beautiful place, Children were gathered around Jesus.
He blessed and taught as they felt of His love, each saw the tears on His face.
The love that He felt for His little ones, I know He feels for me.
I did not touch Him or sit on His knee, Yet, Jesus is real to me.
Now I am here in a beautiful place, Learning the teachings of Jesus.
Parents and teachers will help guide the way. Lighting my path every day.
Wrapped in the arms of my Savior's love, I feel His gentle touch.
Living each day, I will follow His way, Home to my Father above.
I know He lives! I will follow faithfully, My Heart I give to Him.
I know that my Savior loves me. I know that my Savior loves me.

The children loved singing this song and they sang it with all their hearts.  It was a joy to watch them.

We went went to the "fish farm" again today with sister missionaries to meet an extraordinary family. They manage a fish farm about 60 Km North of Puerto Princesa. The sister teaches seminary in their little community every day and this opens the door to many missionary opportunities. When we go there with the sisters assigned to the area they always have one or two families for us to visit and teach. Not only that, they usually have lunch for us. Today it was siopao (Chinese dumplings), Dumplings filled with seasoned chicken, it was extraordinary. While there the brother opened up two green coconuts, poured the water into a pitcher, then scooped the soft coconut meat into the drink, nothing else added. This was our first taste of buko, nothing in the store will ever match what we drank today.

Lunch at the fish farm

Life in the Philippines

There is a local mall called Robinson's, as a public service they offer voter registration for the 2016 elections when they are open from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM, Voter registration closes this Friday so there is some urgency to get registered. As we left town at 8:00 this morning we drove past a line of people that was at least a kilometer long. As we talked to those who have registered one needs to be in line by 2:00 AM to get registered. This evening at 8:00 there were still about 50 people in line outside of the store, hoping to get registered today. Memories of this will help me when I have to wait an hour some day at a government office!

To our engineering friends. In an upcoming post we will share some amazing engineering and construction photo's.

Another Week in Paradise

Time goes screaming past, it is unbelievable. Since our last post on our blog we have experienced so many new and wonderful things.  We were able to have our Mission President and his family here for a few days.  President and Sister Ostler are amazing and they have the greatest spirit about them.  We were able to participate in the District Conference here in Puerto Princesea where Elder Wolcott was sustained as Executive Secretary for the Philippines Manila Mission.  It was incredible to be at District Conference to see the devotion and excitement of the members of the church and they love to learn and grow. They participate with their all their hearts.

Filipino children in Tay Tay

 The greatest resource that Philippine has is their people. The people are so kind, so happy, so inviting and loving.  The more we get to know the people the more excited we are that we get to be here to experience the “love of others” in the Philippines.

We had a zone activity on Monday and watched a movie called “17 Miracles", it is very inspirational.  Some of the missionaries are descendants from individuals that were talked about in the movie.  The movie helped the missionaries understand that everyone can do difficult things and they can still go onward to do their very best.  When life gets tough it is still important to go onward and upward.

This is the Puerto Princesa Zone, It's exciting to work with these great Elders and Sisters.
Each of them have amazing stories!

This past weekend we were able to watch the General Conference that was held in Salt Lake City, UT the weekend before.  We are a day ahead here in the Philippines so we watch conference a week late. It was exciting to hear the new apostles talk.  We really liked the talk by Brother Stanfill about the Hiawatha Trail.  The trail is in part of the forest that Elder Wolcott helped manage when we were in St. Maries, Idaho.  We have been to the tunnels and trestles in that area more than once, it is a beautiful area to bike in.  The trail goes for over 70 miles. 

This past weekend we went to TayTay (pronounced TieTie) to watch conference with the members there and to see if we could help out the missionaries in that area.  Here are some pictures of some of the things were saw.  It is a beautiful place with a lot of history.

The Northern sky at Tay Tay
close to Sunset on Saturday.
This is the Sulu Sea

Sunrise on Monday at Tay Tay near the harbor entrance.

A boy from the fishing village collecting clams from the harbor

Fort Santa Isabel constructed by Spain in 1667

Since Monday was our P-Day we used some time to go exploring.  We went to El Nido which is a resort area on the beach.  They have many tours that tourist go on including island hopping. We went to get a feel for what was there so maybe when some people come to visit we can go on a tour. 

Tour boats in El Nido Monday Morning. This is the South China Sea.

Now We Are On our Own

On Saturday morning the 26th we took President and Sister Hiatt to the airport for their flight to Manila where they stayed until Monday, then flew home to Idaho. The week we spent together was filled with training, travel, visits and sharing over twenty years of memories serving together in the Sandpoint Idaho Stake of Zion.  It was a blessing for us to have such great trainers who worked hard to fill our minds with all the necessary things we would need to know for the future. We will be eternally grateful for all their help.  It was fun, spiritual and exciting.

Some of the highlights of last week:

On Sunday after a good day of meeting members in the four local branches we went to Family Home Evening at the Duking family. The evening was filled with family time, a great lesson from the Old Testament and wonderful food. Sister Duking is the District Relief Society President and is a stalwart leader in the area.

Sister Wolcott feeding the carabao
on her morning walk

Within our walled community there is a domestic Carabao. He is always eager to see us everyday because we bring our fruit scraps to him. (The mango's and banana's here are extraordinary)

Filipino Cowboy along the road to Narra

On Monday we drove to Narra which is about 90 Kilometers Southwest of Puerto Princessa, there we met Elder and Sister Wirthlin and took care of some mission business. We all took a short side trip to Estralla Falls, it a beautiful spot to visit.

Elder and Sister Wirthlin,
Elder and Sister Wolcott,
Elder and Sister Hiatt

Tuesday was a special family activity at the Malvar chapel with couples from throughout the district invited. Sister Wolcott and I were invited to answer questions about family relations, it was an interesting hour or so! The questions varied from how to manage finances to how should a husband conduct himself.

On Wednesday we had dinner with the Maraneta family, it was a special time as we were treated with Filipino hospitality. They are a middle class family with a great home, as is a frequent custom they had dinner place settings for their guests and waited until we had eaten before they had dinner.

Thursday evening we visited with the Santos family and heard his incredible story of survival, baptism and bringing his family from poverty and a Nipa Hut to a managerial position and a comfortable situation. One can escape the crushing poverty, but many do not. Sister Santos can prepare a meal for a large group, take it to the church and serve it hot, with a two burner gas stove and a small outside charcoal BBQ, it is amazing.

Sister Hiatt signing the Conch at Tay Tay

On Friday we drove about 90 Km NW to Roxas and then another 90 Km to Tay Tay, in Tay Tay President and Sister Hiatt signed the conch alongside Elder Durfee's name. Elder Durfee was from Sandpoint, Idaho Stake and served part of his mission in Tay Tay.




Of interest this past week was a national celebration of the family in the Philippines, it was a great opportunity for conversation as the church participated in the events and had several activities including showing the movie Meet The Mormons and other family activities.


Our resident gecko is telling us it's bedtime! I've seen him a couple of times, Sister Wolcott hasn't looked for him...

Week one is Done

It has been an eventful week for the Elder and Sister Wolcott. We left the MTC at 3:30 AM MDT, Flew from SLC to LA and then cooled our heels from about 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Our flight crew to Hong Kong had crew rotation issues so our flight was delayed five hours. This caused us to miss our Hong Kong to Manila flight so we had to stay overnight in Hong Kong. The accommodations were nice, but the night was short because we had to be at the airport at 5:40 AM for our flight to Manila. We arrived in Manila at 10:30 AM on Wednesday, just 12 hours later than planned.

In SLC we met our traveling companions; Elder and Sister Hansen and Elder and Sister Simon.

 

After arriving in Manila we stayed at a motel in Quezon City, a few Kilometers from the Manila Temple. Day One was a rest day and trying to adjust to the jet lag. Thursday we processed our immigration paperwork which took 20 minutes of time and about 3 hours of driving.  The traffic is interesting. 

This picture is from the front of our motel, during a relatively quiet period. My observations: Traffic lanes are suggestions only, even the center double striped lines dividing the direction; Blinkers are optional – probably an American; He who hesitates is lost – point your nose the way you want to go and … go; Give way as necessary; Don’t be in a hurry, it may take an hour to go a kilometer; Go with the flow; Don’t get wrapped around the axle when  motorcycles pass on both sides of you, or cut across between your car and the next; Philippines means patience.

On Friday morning, during rush hour (a period of time, no one is ‘rushing” anywhere) our driver pulled into this chaos with barely a pause, drove across three lanes and made a left turn.

Of interest: There are relatively very few accidents and no one gets angry. It works as well as possible in this metropolis. In short we Americans can learn a lot about how things can work differently.

After we finished our immigration processing Elder and Sister Simon and Sister Wolcott and I went to the Manila Temple. It is the same design as the Boise Temple, but is much smaller.

Members getting on a jeepeney at the temple

Friday morning we got our Philippines Driver license.  

For our friends in Libby and Missoula that are disappointed and frustrated spending an hour getting a license:  This is the processing line at the LTO: NO air conditioning, 6 stations, Three hours. And we didn’t have to take a test! But we now have a license! But again the people are incredibly patient, kind and gracious. I'm not sure I want to drive in Manila though.

On Friday afternoon we met with President and Sister Ostler. We reviewed our assignments and a little of what to expect on the Palawan island.  

After dinner in the mission home Sister Wolcott and I went on a teaching assignment with Elder Hadley and Elder Wilson. A young investigator has committed to baptism; we continued teaching her and her two LDS friends about the atonement of Christ and the Restoration. For privacy reasons we will not share the names.  The investigator has the blue top, she is a sweet spirit. We met several ward members and the children were excited to meet us and shake our hands. Just as we were told the Filipino people are warm, somewhat shy, but love Americans. It was a great start!

We spent about an hour Saturday morning at the American Cemetery and Memorial. This was a spiritual experience, very similar to Arlington.  The sacrifice to retake the Philippines in WWII was tremendous!

On Saturday afternoon we flew to Puerto Princessa where we will live for the time being. President and Sister Hiatt met us at the airport and we started our training on the way to our bungalow.

We really appreciated their preparation and the detail. We also really appreciated the full pantry and being able to move into our cozy bungalow. It is very nice.

On Sunday we visited four branches, Puerto Princess 1 and 2 and Santa Monica 1 and 2 after that we came home, spent time reviewing transfer material with the Hiatts then went to a Family Home evening at a members home.

THE Mission Training Center is over and we are on the way!

It is 6:00 AM Monday September 14, 2015 and we are at the SLC airport. We left the MTC at 3:30 this morning and are on our way to Manila, expecting to arrive about 9:00 AM Mountain time Tuesday morning. The adventure begins.

The Mission Training Center experience was excellent. We made some good friends, met some incredible people and felt the Holy Ghost testify of the work. We enjoyed many tender mercies of God, not the least of which was being in the MTC the same time as our grandson Jarom Wolcott Junior. We saw him nearly every day, usually at meal time.

Possibly the most important thing we learned as Sister Wolcott said “We can do this, if we rely on The Lord”. We particularly liked the devotional with Bishop Causse’ and his Wife Valerie, as he reminded us to be bold without being overbearing. We also enjoyed a short video clip of Elder Bednar in which he counseled those concerned about being guided by the Holy Ghost to “quit worrying about it. If you are good boys and girls and are living the best you can you will be guided by the Holy Ghost.” And following the final devotional Sunday evening we watched another talk by Elder Bednar discussing the character of Christ. It was a one hour incredible learning experience. To summarize for this BLOG it is that Christ always reached outward to others as opposed to the natural man which focuses on oneself. Our goal is to put away the natural man and become like Christ, reaching outward to others.

Our District at the MTC
Elder and Sister Roberts, Elder and Sister Turner, Sister Eliason, (one of our teachers), Elder and Sister Harvey (District Leader) and Elder and Sister Wolcott

We are also impressed with being around 2,000 young men and women who are dedicating their lives to Christ, as young as 18 years old, their enthusiasm is contagious.

There were many more things which are too numerous to include here, but let it suffice to say that we are leaving the MTC spiritually fed and more confident that we can do the work.

First Day at the MTC

Boise Airport

We flew from Boise To SLC this morning at 6:30 AM, arriving at the Mission Training Center in Provo about 8:30 AM, well before our assigned arrival time. We appreciate the send off by Justice, Joanna, Chris, Jaymalee and McKenna who got up early enough to be at the airport at 5:00 AM.


Today was primarily orientation and getting to know other Senior Missionaries, there are 54 couples and 1 single sister that arrived today. It is fun to meet and talk about the different assignments and mission locations.

Among many other things we were encouraged and counseled to trust that the Lord will take care of our families, that when we are on the Lord's errand we will receive the Lord's help and that after years of meeting needs of our family this is a time to grow closer together.

We need to have a clear understanding of our purpose which is the training topic for tomorrow. But to be brief our purpose is to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

We enjoyed the spirit of the Holy Ghost as it testified to us this day that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Gospel has been restored to this earth.

And So It Begins

As many know we have been called to serve in the Philippines Manila Mission. We received our Mission Call from President Monson May 2, 2015.

Since then we have been busy preparing, visiting family and working on the last minute details of preparing to be gone for two years. July 26th we gave our "farewell' talks in Libby.













Yesterday President Ballard set us apart as Missionaries, we are officially Elder and Sister Wolcott.