June 2016 Departing and Incoming Missionaries

    The June Departing actually left the mission on May 31. This was a fun filled group of missionaries. There were three elders that came in our first batch. We enjoyed a sweet testimony meeting with all of them. It is tender to look around at the groups of missionaries as we share memories and testimonies and recall experiences with each of them. It is especially wonderful to look around and see the growth that they’ve all experienced. Because many of the missionaries needed to take the English certification before they left we traveled to a couple of areas during May to give the tests. It was especially fun to see how well one of our Tongan elders did. He arrived just 2 ½ weeks after we did and couldn’t speak Tagalog very well and even less English. He received a great rating and it was exciting to see how much he had accomplished. We appreciate the faithful service of this group and will miss them.

     On June 1 a group of 14 missionaries arrived. I don’t believe we’ve ever had the exact number of missionaries come and go ; at least with the exact number of elders and sisters—7 elders and 7 sisters went home and joined us. Last transfer the missionaries were all foreigners. This time they were all Filipino with the exception of one American elder and sister. Each new group come with their own personalities just like the group leaving have their own. We look forward to serving with this group and getting to know them better. It’s so odd to think that we will only be with the elders for half of their missions.