Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Welcome, Alaminos Zone!

On July 1st, President Monahan and I celebrated our one-year mark in the mission by saying good-bye to the Baguio Mission and hello to the new Urdaneta Mission. On day "one" we traveled 2 hours southwest of Urdaneta to welcome our wonderful missionaries in the Alaminos Zone, near the beautiful area of Hundred Islands.  We had a nice meeting with the missionaries, then enjoyed a snack and, of course, took pictures....
                                                 One year older..... and WISER, too!  :)

                                         Meet our missionaries of the Alaminos Zone.....
               Senior Couple, Elder & Sister Ashton                        Sister Fulgar
                                    Sister Malama                                       Sister Pacardo
                     Elder Beckstrom, Zone Leader                                Elder Era
                                     Elder Flores                             Elder Lonzaneda, Zone Leader
                                    Elder Manuel                                          Elder Martos
                      Elder Pabica, District Leader                Elder Tumanuvao, District Leader
                                    Elder Urcia                                                Elder Wait
                       Sister Monahan with Sisters Pacardo, Fulgar, Dela Torre and Malama
                                        (Sister Dela Torre is awaiting her mission call)
                               Assistants to the President, Elder Machen and Elder Millevo,
                               with Elder Pabica (left, center) and Elder Urica (right, center)
                     Elders Era, Flores and Pabica                               Elder Wait
                 President Monahan with the elders           Elders Beckstrom, Lonzaneda & Wait

New Missionary Training

The week following the arrival of our new missionaries, they return to the Urdaneta Stake center for training.  We have found that waiting a week to train the new missionaries is better than giving training their first day or two in the field. After a week, they are generally more rested and able to retain the information they receive. It can still be a little overwhelming, but each new missionary has their companion/trainer to help with things like shopping, cooking, doing laundry and getting settled. Here are a few pictures taken after the meeting....