Zone Conference........finally

 A quick update on the pandemic. Here in the Philippines, we now have more cases of COVID-19 than any other nation in South East Asia.  With that said, there have only been approximately 3000 deaths which is not too bad for such a small country (area wise) with 105 million people.  The people here are quite careful in wearing masks and quarantining when necessary.  Within our mission, the cases of infection remain very low but have increased in the past two months as overseas workers and people stranded in Manila return here to the northern Provinces.  Notwithstanding the increase in cases, life is slowly returning to some normalcy.  Maybe it has just been so long that we are getting used to it.  (New Normal?)  We now can hold church meetings at 50% capacity for those between the ages of 21 and 59.  I miss terribly the happy sounds of children at church.  Frankly, church is not as much fun without them there.  When we do go out, we are required to wear not only face-masks but face shields as well.  Our daughter Ashley has suggested that we paint the Darth Vader’s mask from Star Wars onto our face shields to give them some style.  I thought about it but decided not to, as it may scare the children.

Recently we received a shipment of flu vaccines that we need to have administered to all of our missionaries.  That created the logistical problem of how to administer the vaccine to 93 missionaries spread over 5 Provinces.  Few people here own cars or vehicles of any type; they just cost too much money.  Because of this, the public transportation system, which is privately owned and operated on an ad hoc basis, is amazing.  You can stand on most street corners and hail a taxi, a bus, a Jeepney, or a tricycle (a motorcycle with a decorated and covered sidecar for passengers).  Because of the pandemic, these services are rarely available, if at all.  The vaccines created both a problem and a wonderful opportunity.  

In a non-pandemic missionary world, we get to see each of the missionaries at least twice, no matter how far away they are, every 6 week cycle: once at interviews and once at Zone Conference.  Because of the pandemic, interviews and all missionary meetings have been held by video call or virtual meetings.  These meetings and interviews have been very nice but.....there is something wonderful about being together.  We determined to hold in-person Zone Conferences for the first time since the first week of March, when the lockdown began.  Newer missionaries who arrived in March have never been to one.  They were told by the older missionaries that they are a wonderful event where you get together with a lot of other missionaries, their friends and former companions, for a day of training from the Mission President, his wife and others.  At noon there is a large and wonderful meal.  It is so fun to be with them all and feel of their spirits.  We have missed these conferences most of all.  We love our missionaries and always love being with them.  

Holding these Zone Conferences in a pandemic would be a huge undertaking.  There is no public transportation.  Some members of the Church who own vehicles kindly provided rides for the missionaries, some from long distances of about 1 hour each way.  The service and kindness of these members is amazing, and we are so grateful.  When members were not available to drive the missionaries, our senior couples, assistants and office elders picked up the missionaries and drove them to the conference.  Sister Craig and I drove about 10 hours delivering missionaries this week.   The logistics are mind blowing; trying to ensure that everyone gets picked up and dropped off.  We would also need to find caterers for the meals and nurses to administer the shots.  Traditionally, we hold the conferences in 3 locations but because of travel and to keep the numbers lower, we will hold them in 5 different cities (yea, more travel for us).  There are also 1000 other details such as mail and supplies delivery, birthday cakes, planning the training and music and conferring with local leaders to ensure the conference will not go offside local restrictions.  We moved one conference from the city of Ilagan to the town of Burgos because Ilagan has been under an enhanced quarantine because of an increase of cases.  Donna is of course a master of logistics.  Without her and the senior couples this would be an unthinkable enterprise.

To make the logistics even more challenging, we have a handful of missionaries departing for home, so we need to do a small transfer (reassigning missionaries to different cities and companions) in connection with the conferences.  Because travel is so difficult it seemed to make sense to transfer missionaries as part of the conference.  It now feels like when you book that flight leaving at 5 AM with two connections, and say to yourself: "This is the cheapest flight, it won’t be so bad."  It’s really not too bad at all until you have to wake up at 2:30 in the morning and leave for the airport.  Worth it, maybe; hard....oh yea.

This week the time for planning ended and it was time to hold the conferences.  We held conferences in the Cities of Tuguegarao and Burgos.  Over the next 10 days we will hold three more conferences in the cities of Santiago, Cauayan and Bambang.  I was so excited the night before the first conference that I only got two and a half hours sleep because I laid awake most of the night going EEEEEEEEEE!  We were up the next morning at 5:15 to make the long drive to Tuguegarao.  I had so much fun.  It is such a joy to be with the missionaries.  It did our souls good.  They had so much fun being together, even if they had to wear masks and keep social distancing rules, instead of being in isolation.  It was so very worth it.  I can’t wait for the other three conferences.

The Burgos conference was catered by my friend Peter Christoffersen.  Brother Pete and his good wife have been catering Zone Conferences here since 2001.  I am sure that they lose money on every conference they cater.  They make so much good food.  They are legends to the missionaries.  The missionaries love their food and they love the missionaries.  The kindness of the people here never ceases to amaze me.  I love Zone Conference.

People of faith need to gather.  

When they cannot gather, they have a tendency scatter.  

Our work here is to gather.

Gathering missionaries.

Gathering scattered Israel as we invite them to Come Unto Christ.

Gathering is good for the soul.