Hello! This is Sister Dilag. I am currently serving in the Philippines San Pablo Mission, San Pablo Zone. I am waiting for mission changes on my original assignment to the California Sacramento Mission.
I will give you weekly updates on my current mission. I will also attach interesting attachments! I hope this finds you entertaining!
Heads up! This week was the busiest and the greatest of weeks I had in the mission. We received New Missionaries in the Philippines San Pablo Mission. We are well-loved by the Members of the Ward. And! Transfers! I bet you will find this exciting!
Events: New Missionaries
The Philippines San Pablo Mission received 22 New Missionaries from different parts of the Calabarzon Area. The Missionaries are ‘Temporary Reassigned’ on their Home Area, and will wait for further updates on changes. If that happens, the missionaries will go directly to their original assigned areas!
It was great to see new Missionaries with familiar faces! It was so cool to see them in action. All of them are willing to re-open areas and to learn missionary life. They had such good spirits in the Mission.
I might have to mention a good story from one of our New Missionaries in the Mission, Elder Madriñan. He is currently serving in the Philippines San Pablo Mission, but specifically assigned to be in the Philippines Tacloban Mission.
Before he decided to get into our Mission. He went through rough and tough roads to accept the temporary mission call. It was a tough decision, because he knew a few Members in the Mission. It felt weird of him to serve his Home Area. But! Elder Madriñan pondered and prayed about his service and he knew it was the right decision to serve.
I mentioned him, because it is a good story to tell! He was our Ward Missionary Leader in our Ward. He will do fantastic in the Mission!
Quick Update: Missionaries are not allowed to communicate by any Missionaries by any Zone unless approved by the Mission President. Just to tell it straight up, or you might see this the other way.
Transfers: New Young Missionary Leaders
Anyways! I had updates for you too. We received 3 New Missionaries in our Zone, and 2 additional ‘Young Missionary Leaders’ in our Zone too.
I had the chance to talk to Elder Sumiran (Sta. Cruz Zone) in our District, he came from Australia and moved back to the Philippines. He was called to the Philippines Urdaneta Mission, it was cool. Also, this morning. We happened to stop by Elder Justaga (Lucena Zone) with the other District. He has a great family background in Lucena, he’s known in Davao City, which is cool he knew a few of my closests friends which is also his friends too. He was called to the Philippines Tacloban Mission, another cool mission.
They had strong spirits, with such great examples. It was humbling to see them and diligence to serve. There is a quotation and I bet it is familiar, “It doesn’t matter where you serve, it is how you serve.” I don’t know where I get that line, but I heard this line a few times in the mission. It was a good line to hear!
Another update! Elder Perlas and Elder Gamas are part of the San Pablo Zone. We had our Zone Prayer, the other night, because it was Sister Rafon’s Birthday! We celebrated it through Zoom. Elder Perlas and Elder Gamas are the finest missionaries out there. They are cool, and happens to be Elder Lopez’s Companions, he’ll be leaving soon. His last companion was Elder Bulanon (Zone Leader). He got transferred to Lopez Zone.
Also! This Morning, Sister Arbutante and I delivered food surprises for Sister Rafon and Sister Pangan (San Pablo 1) and Sister Lianto and Sister Gaspar (San Pablo 2). We dropped off their favorite, Banana Bread. Haha! It was Sister Rafon’s birthday and we wanted to make her happy for the rest of the week.
Members: San Pablo Stake
I will talk about the Members of the Ward. They are fantastic! I had a great week with them. I couldn’t express my thoughts for them, because they are amazing. I love all of them. As you read along the email, I might talk about a few families.
• Guevarra – Guerra Family
The Guevarras’ and Guerras’ are well loved! It was our Stake President’s Family of the San Pablo Stake. I love them so much, we had daily dinner appointments with them. I had a fun time talking with them either it could be spiritual or anything about life. They lived in a humbling success and deserves the recognition. We happened to have family activities like, watching SafetyZone with the kids, we would paint and draw, home redecorating, we would probably talk about our favorite food and make it happen so we can eat it! The list goes on, I love them. I couldn’t forget Sister Guevarra sobbing, thanking us for our presence in their home.
• Ibo Family
The Ibo’s are my favorite! It was our Bishop’s Family of San Pablo 3A. They are a fantastic couple with fantastic ideas shared on their portfolio! I hope you get to see their Facebook Page: We Finally Made it! It is a Page where you book for Photos and Video Coverages either it could be wedding or debut.
We happened to have the same similar likes and designs. It was great to share my ideas for them. We hope in the near future we could collaborate. They had shown a ton of portfolios for me. I had to scroll, but I will come back to see more. I was drawn to the colors they put on their Lightroom Preset. It was way cooler!
Also! Sister Ibo, showed her creative illustrations for me too. I love her digital art too! She has great talent, with little time we had to set another dinner appointment to see her finest works. I love this family!
• Reyes Family
The Reyes’ are the funniest to be with! They would laugh and cry with us during our discussions with them. We happened to talk about our favorite messages of General Conference. With too many conversations, we ended up by just talking about food. I talked about a favorite dish of mine, I am desperately wanting to eat, it’s called, “Laing.” I do know it’s from Bicol. They happened to love Laing, and they made it happen! They cooked it for us! I love this family. I know it’s short, but there will be more bits of pieces of them in the next emails.
Mission Updates: Cool Updates
Were you able to meet other families in the ward besides them?
I did! The Maligons (Area Seventy) knew I came back to the Area. They happened to drop off food in our apartment. Haha! We have a dinner appointment on Saturday. It’ll be a good one! Sister Maligon would chuckle on her promise to me, because she wants to get to know us. Anyways, that’s for now. We’ll see by next week.
Are you going to drive in the mission?
Woops! Good question, I might? But! I don’t know when possible, but I got updates from the Browns’ and Lohners’ I can drive for the mission, but my companion needs to drive too. I don’t know when that will happen, but it’ll be nice to drive again.
Are you moving out to a new apartment?
Aw snap! I got a call from the Mission President and the Browns’ they wanted us to move out and they found a new apartment for us. Sister Brown called and updated their findings on the new apartment. I honestly don’t want to leave the old apartment. I had good memories with the apartment, and it’s hard to leave it behind with good neighborhoods.
Alright, this is all I got for you today. I bet this is wrap! I do hope you find this entertaining and the updates are straight up there. I do love the miracles that brought upon the mission. For sure this week will be exciting for all of us! ♡
Love,
Sister Dilag
Sacramento • San Pablo
