ELDER COOK AND THE VOLCANO

Last Sunday evening a volcano located approximately 40 miles south of Metro Manila erupted spewing ash as far as our office in Antipolo.  Our apartment is about 60 miles from the volcano and we woke Monday morning to a light layer of ash covering everything outdoors.  Other than the color being wrong it reminded me of a light dusting of snow in Utah.  The Taal volcano is located on an island in a lake south of Manila in the Cavite Mission.  Residents of the island and nearby areas have been evacuated and the news has been warning of possible further eruptions.  Evidently, the eruption has been getting a lot coverage in the U.S. news as we have had many inquire as to our safety.  We, and all the missionaries in our mission, have face masks that we can wear.  We have only used our masks on days when the wind blows, and the ash gets back in the air.  We have heard that some of the missionaries in the Cavite Mission have been relocated to other locations within the mission.  We have also heard that the Church’s disaster relief efforts have been responding to the crisis.  

Elder Cook, an apostle from our church, arrived in the Philippines last Saturday and had been planning to hold a joint missionary conference with our mission and the Quezon City Mission Thursday afternoon.  We received word Tuesday afternoon that the meeting had been rescheduled to Wednesday morning at 8 AM, in Quezon City.  With the airport having been closed and further eruptions expected, I (Russell) think they wanted to get Elder Cook out of the country ASAP.  The two hours we got to spend with Elder Cook were wonderful.  Elder Cook talked about this being the 200^th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s first vision and the subsequent restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.  He emphasized the need to utilize the Book of Mormon more in teaching the gospel.  He spoke of the Philippines first being dedicated in 1955 and the building of the first church meetinghouse in Makati.  He said that today we have over 800,000 members of the Church in the Philippines but with a population of over 100 million that there is still a lot of work to be done and spoke about the urgency of that work.  Elder Cook also spoke about his experience with assigning missionary callings.  He said that the inspiration often has more to do with placing a missionary with a specific mission president than to a specific location, emphasizing the mission president – missionary bond.  What stood out to me the most was his testimony of Jesus Christ.  He told us that, “I know the Savior's voice, I know the Savior’s face.”  He then proceeded to give an apostolic blessing to the missionaries, telling us that our efforts would not only bless us, but our families as well. I think I and all the others in the room that day will remember forever how we felt as we listened to an apostle testify of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Later in the week, while visiting some of the young missionaries in their apartments, two told us how much they appreciated our efforts on their behalf.  One was specifically with regard to a medical issue and our having taken him to the hospital a few times.  The other was with regards to housing.  Both comments made Eileen’s day!  It is amazing to me the amount of joy that can come from a heartfelt expression of gratitude.   

Map of where the volcano is in relationship to Manila

Image from CNN newsroom, the Taal volcano caused many volcanic lightening strikes.

Image from CNN newsroom, woman evacuating amid the ash with her baby wrapped in plastic 

Image from CNN newsroom, local fisherman with volcano erupting 

The volcanic ash outside of our apartment building

Ash on our car

Eileen loves to swim in the pool, but it is ashy sludge now

Elder Cook met with the Quezon City and Antipolo missions early on Wednesday morning and later in the day with some saints who were sheltering at a church in an area affected by the volcano.

Missionaries waiting for jeepnies after devotional with Elder Cook

The devotional with Elder Cook was held at the Pasig meetinghouse.

Heading out on the rented jeepnies

Elder Ivins is our funny AP.  He has been sick and when I asked what medicine he was taking he told me he was taking Triactin. When I questioned what medicine that was he kept asking us "you don't know what Triactin is?"  He finally told us that he takes the medicine "'Try acting' like a man." That gave me a big laugh.  This is the missionary who does 240 push ups in the morning and 240 every evening. 

Eileen and Sister Gibson taking a selfie for our friend Fran Moulton who is in Centerville. Fran served with Sister Gibson on Temple Square. Sister Gibson is from Tasmania.