Week 89-ish: All This Was Done in Cauayan

Hey folks, I bet you didn't think you'd be getting another one of these, seeing as I'm not a full-time missionary anymore, but I personally like closure and had some musings I'd like to get off my chest, so I guess I'll use this little platform I've got to do that in front of all y'all.

For those of you who don't pay attention to my life outside of these weekly emails, I'll give you a quick update: due to civil unrest caused by the coronavirus pandemic, my mission to the Philippines Cauayan Mission that was supposed to be 24 months long was cut short just before 21 months. I and countless other missionaries assigned in foreign countries have been sent home, some of whom will be reassigned to missions in their home countries, but that seems pretty darn unlikely for me, just based on how close I was to going home anyway.

It started on Monday night, when we got word that we'd be under house-arrest until further notice. I was armed with my Old Testament, a bootleg copy of Monopoly, and a winning attitude to get me through what I thought was going to be the most boring time of my life. I thought wrong.

We got halfway through our first game of monopoly when the big guys called and told us all to pack up in case we had to "mobilize." They claimed to was more for precaution than anything, but it hurt really bad to get that call. The Philippines had become my home over the past 21 months, and I felt like I was being kicked out. Those feelings only intensified a few hours later when they told us that all missionaries from foreign countries were being sent home. I sat in disbelief and tried to get some sleep later that night, but that was hard mostly because I was waiting to get the call that we needed to leave, but in a more real way it was because I was ridiculously congested and had a nice little cough, which had turned into me sounding like I had smoked 2 packs a day for both decades of my existence. It was bad, but I didn't have a fever, which was nice.

Wednesday morning rolls around and they told us to "mobilize" and get to Cauayan so that we could get on busses heading to Manila to get on a plane and go home. What could go wrong? Not a whole lot, it just took longer than expected and was very boooooring.

That's a picture of the roommates and I as we waited for a very nice member to pick us up and take us to a stake center to meet up with more missionaries in the area who were all going to Cauayan.

That's a picture of (mostly) all the foreign missionaries from Cauayan mission all chillin' in the Manila MTC, waiting for ANYTHING to happen. It was a boring few days waiting for the flights out of Manila to get all finalized, although, they eventually did, and on Sunday, I flew home, and Monday morning I was greeted with this sight for sore eyes:

So that pretty much catches you up to my current situation. I'm back in the great state of Massachusetts, out of the Philippines for the foreseeable future, and it's very bittersweet. Anyone who's come home from a mission can testify to the joy of seeing your family again, and being home, but it does feel like I left a bit of myself in the Philippines. In the Manila MTC, while we were waiting to go home, we had a bit of an impromptu testimony meeting about the Book of Mormon, and for some reason Mosiah 18:30 just popped into my head and wouldn't get out:

30 And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

I thought about that verse in my head and felt like I should stand up and share it, but I had no idea why. It's a fine verse, but how is this gonna help a bunch of missionaries who are getting sent home? I stood up, shared the verse, and then repeated it, with some minor adjustments:

30 And now it came to pass that all this was done in [Cauayan], yea, by the [SM* of Cauayan], in the [Mission Home] that was near the [SM of Cauayan]; yea, the place of [Cauayan], the [SM of Cauayan], the [Mission Home of Cauayan], how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.

This might seem pretty dumb to those of you reading this, but I mean this with my whole heart. I testify to all of you that in Cauayan I came to a greater knowledge of my Redeemer. I had the opportunity to help others come to the same knowledge of our perfect Saviour. For this reason the Cauayan Mission is beautiful to my eyes. I don't know any other way to describe it. I feel blessed for this time that I've had to serve Jesus Christ in that way. I miss it so much. I've seen God's power as he's changed me and those around me through his Son. Now that I'm home and that period of my life is over, I still feel the obligation to "sing his praise forever." I love the Philippines, I love the Cauayan mission, and I miss them terribly, but they're in the hands of the Lord of the Harvest. The mission has done a weird thing to me in that now I associate the strong spiritual feelings of "[coming] to the knowledge of [the] Redeemer," and "[Singing] his praise forever," with a geographic location. when I read about the Waters of Mormon, or the Land of Ishmael where King Lamoni lived and was converted, when I imagine the great city of Zarahemla where Alma the Younger spoke, or Jerusalem where Christ himself ministered, I'll remember my time in the Philippines Cauayan Mission, when those stories became a part of me, because in some small way, I got to see them play out before my eyes over the course of these 21 months.

Love,
Elder Menzie

*SM is a chain of malls in the Philippines and there's one right next to the mission home in Cauayan

Thomas is Coming Home

Dear Friends and Family,*

Months ago we were Skyping with Thomas from his mission in the Philippines. He said, "I had the weirdest dream. I was home! I thought how strange it was to be home because I wasn't done with my mission yet. It was too early."

Tuesday morning we were woken up by a call from Thomas saying he was coming home. The President of the Philippines gave a 72 hour window of time for foreigners to leave the Philippines before airports locked down in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19. This time limit has been softened due to the incredible logistical hurdles needed to overcome to get thousands of foreigners home quickly and safely. We acknowledge the sleepless, tireless efforts of so many to make this happen. While we are thrilled to have Thomas home, it will not be the usual missionary homecoming. We will welcome him at the airport, but there will be no party; no gathering of friends and family to celebrate his service. Add to that, this turn of events has been incredibly abrupt and jarring. There were no good-bye visits to those Thomas has served and grown to love. No doubt after serving for 20 months, a chunk of his heart will be in the Philippines. We will do our best to shower him with love and support as we welcome him home (no travel details yet). He will have a 2 week quarantine when he arrives in MA.

I'm sending this email to invite you who have followed Thomas' mission to help us welcome him home. We will be posting notes, pictures, cards, etc on the walls of our home so Thomas can be constantly reminded that he is loved and supported and welcomed home.

Our snail mail address:

32 Hapgood Way

Shrewsbury, MA 01545

Thank you for loving our Thomas. We will follow up with more details on his homecoming in the next few days.

Much Love,

The Menzies

Rebecca, Wayne, Christina, Thomas, Grace, Caroline and Wesley

*email sent out to everyone on Thomas' mission email list

Welcome Home, Elder Menzie!

❤ Happiness looks like FAMILY ❤

Week 88: That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes and airplanes (and the coronavirus)

So this has been a very stressful week, as I'm sure it has been for all of you. But look at this, we were given YELLOW watermelon as a snack and it was verrrrrrry good.

Look at that, doesn't that look like all watermelons should be yellow? and it tastes better too! It's sweeter and I felt more cultured while I ate it. I can't explain why, but I did.

We had Zone Conference this week, which was super fun for several reasons, mostly because of the food, but also because of the friends, and also because nobody had quite lost their minds yet. I took a nice picture with some of my friends so that my mom knows I have friends:

Are you convinced mom? If you're wondering what that thing is we're doing with our hands, it means "peace be with you" or something.

So Zone conference was Thursday, and Friday morning they told us to drop everything and go buy 2 weeks worth of groceries because of the coronavirus. It was a pretty crazy day. Church is cancelled until further notice, which is difficult because that's kinda a big part of missionary work. We were freaking out, trying to figure out what was going on, and we ended up deciding to go eat.

this is a picture of me raising my glass of root beer to the end of the world

I'm just kidding ... mostly. The world probably isn't gonna end anytime soon, but it was a very challenging few days coming to grips with everything.  My mind kept going back to the first verse of Be Still My Soul, which is one of my favorite hymns.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev'ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav'nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

I was impressed by the message of optimism in this song, that no matter what change or trial in our life, God will always be there on our side.

Be safe, wash your hands, and drink water. This has been a Health advisory from Elder Thomas Menzie

Love,

Elder Menzie

Week 87: Wow, Tuguegarao!

Howdy boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Elder Menzie, here to tell you about all the good stuff that's happened this week. It's been a hot week, even for Philippines standards. I don't know where this week ranks in all the weeks in terms of temperature in the Philippines, but I was sweating. Such is life in Tuguegarao, and it's the best.

This is us, meaning, our apartment of missionaries. there's 4 of us in the ward, and we're all collectively roasting like a rotisserie chicken. so we went out to a restaurant that makes filipino barbeque chicken called Mang Inasal. Inasal is the Ilonggo word for barbeque, and One of my companions tried to explain the meaning of "mang" to me one time, but he couldn't really do it. It had something to do with the chicken being masculine I think, but I'm also positive that's not what it means because why would it. I've met very feminine chicken.

I guess the city got word that it was really hot this week, so in accordance with that, they shut off the power to half our area for a day, so even when we went to 7-11 to escape the heat, there was never a true escape.

You can see us here drinking juice, which probably has some vitamin c or something, which I hope will help against the pandemic that is ripping through the rest of Asia, but being a bro and leaving the Philippines alone for the most part. Thank you for that, coronavirus. that being said though, we are not allowed to shake hands, fist bump, or whatever for the time being. they did not, however, ban typing using the keyboards at these netshops which are probably cultivating the next super-disease.

that was pretty much it for the week. I'll try to take more pictures next week, but I had a nice little cold this week, and I was trying to remember to not hi-five all the little children.

Come, Follow Me this week was about Nephi and his last testimony. I love how simply and humbly Nephi declares what he knows to be true. I love his trust in the Lord and all the goodness contained in these last chapters of 2 Nephi.

3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Week 86: Batter Up, Swing it in!

It's been a great week. I don't have any qualifiers for that, it was just a really happy week for me this week.

I got transferred this week! I said goodbye to Santiago and all my friends there to make the triumphal return of Elder Menzie to his favorite city in the Philippines: Tuguegarao.

Alright, I will give one clarifier, it was kinda bittersweet to leave Santiago, I have a lot of good memories there, especially with the dope missionaries I met. I got to see so many missionaries learn and grow in Santiago, which is pretty sad to leave behind, but they're grown ups, and they're in pretty darn good hands. here's a picture of our last District Council before transfers:

I was very excited when I got word that I was transferring to Tugue, but one thing I forgot was just how far away it is from everything else. That bus ride was not fun. The committed readers of this series of disjointed emails will know that Elder Menzie travels in style:

I'm going to be honest, as I'm sure you've come to expect, and tell it like it is. A lot of people don't really like Tuguegararo! I don't understand it either, but it's the truth. Maybe it's because it's ridiculously hot, maybe it's because it's kinda stinky, but I'm going to be honest, I love this city. Maybe it's because I finally found a city that's harder to pronounce than Worcester, or maybe I just really like cities with hard to pronounce names, maybe it's because the letter "T" is my favorite letter of the alphabet, or maybe it's because of Gosi Ward:

So since I've left, my second area, Gosi, which is in Tugue as well, became a sisters area. they had a baptism this weekend, and were going to have Elder Pino, who was my companion in Gosi, do the baptism. But here's the thing: he transferred. So they collectively said, hey let's have Elder Menzie do it, to which I said YES! it was soooooo cool to see the ward again and talk with all of my friends and see how they're doing. When I walked up to the chapel, the bishop greeted me and said "Elder Adobo" I am Elder Adobo. I will wear that as a badge of pride wherever I go for the rest of my life.

I love this city and these people, and I'm so happy to be back, even if they all told me I got fat.

Love,
Elder Menzie

Tagalog right where it hurts:
Elder! Tumaba ka na. -- Elder! you got fat.