Craigs in Cauayan

I love Zone Conference week!  It's a lot of work getting ready, and a bit stressful getting prepared, but it is so good to see every missionary in person and see how they are doing, and see their smiling faces and feel of their spirit.  It is rejuvenating to be all together and encourage one another. Ilagan Zone Conference Cauayan Zone Conference Santiago Zone Conference Zone Conference is an opportunity to train the missionaries and also teach doctrinal truths that will strengthen their testimonies as they serve.  President Craig and I train, and also the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, and we had a couple messages from Senior Couples as well.  Caterers come and feed us an excellent lunch each day.  It is also a time for the missionaries to feel the strength of having all of the missionaries together, visiting with and encouraging one another.  The man in the middle is the husband of our cat...

We found another beautiful area in our mission this week.  It is nice to get out to visit these areas that are far from the bustle of the busy cities.  The Cagayan Valley is filled with farms.  Rice and corn fields abound.  Farmers can grow 3 crops of rice in a year, or 2 crops of corn.  Fruit grows in abundance.   We were out in the foothills of the mountains, and the corn crops were growing on the side of the mountain.  I have only ever seen corn grown on flat prairie fields, so this was so unusual to see.  Last week we saw a mountain side planted full of pineapple plants. Our week was filled with two sets of interviews,  working with the missionaries, and a day hosting guests from Manila. Elder and Sister Wakolo came out to visit us on Wednesday.  We felt so blessed to have them come.  They came to teach us, and also to answer our questions.  We were encouraged and strengthened by their visit, and are excited ...

Welcome to Banaue, the 8th wonder of the world.  These rice terraces were built about 1000 years before Christ's advent into the world.  For about 3000 years the Ifagao tribe has been farming these terraces.  They go on for many miles (I would estimate 40 or 50 miles).  The houses you see in the distance are often 3 or 4 stories high to give you some perspective. Having this great wonder in the far corner of our Mission is a great blessing.  For a young missionary to visit the Terraces is bawal (against the rules) because of the time and distance involved in visiting them.  In a missionaries' last cycle (his or her last 6 weeks in the mission) Sister Craig, the senior couples and I take them to see the terraces so they can see them once before they return home.  We leave the mission home at 6 AM sharp.  It takes just over three and one half hours to get there.  The trip takes you deep into the Cordillera mountains.  The highest ...

One departing missionary's shoes Transfers this week!  That meant sending 12 missionaries home at the end of their service, and welcoming 7 new missionaries to the field.  It also meant change, for the majority of the missionaries in the mission.  Our second week in the mission, we started to think about transfers.  Since we were losing more missionaries than we were getting, that meant some areas would need to be closed for the short term, until our numbers increased again.  We are expecting that with the September transfer, as we will welcome more missionaries than we will lose.  Such is the way of missions, so we just do our best to figure it all out, and seek guidance from the Lord as to where He wants His missionaries to serve.  We came up with a scenario that seemed great.  And then we pondered and prayed and knew it was not right.  So we went back to the drawing board.  This process went on for many hours numerous times in th...