June 2013

The Baguio Mission will be split on July 1, 2013 and this is the last time the Mission President, his wife and the couple missionaries will be together.  The Mortimer's, 2nd from the left will complete their mission on July 2nd.  The Engels on the far left will complete their mission on July 20th.  The new mission will be called the Urdaneta Mission.  We will continue to serve in the Baguio Mission.  We have loved serving with all them and will miss them.  The Dinkel's, 2nd from right, will be in the new Baguio Mission with us.

 

 

 The last group photo taken outside the Mission Presidents home.

 

 

 Hope you enjoy the sunsets as much as we do.

 

 

 The new Baguio Mission office under construction in San Fernando.  This is the building we will be working in when the mission splits.

 

 

 The Aringay Sister Missionaries with a less-active family that we visited one Sunday.

 

 

This is called "Jack Fruit."  It is very delicious if you know how to prepare it. 

 

 

The Ten Commandments are posted in most towns and most are in English.   This one in our town of Aringay is in Tagalog.

 

 

The Stake Center building in Dagupan is located about an hour from us. 

On our Preparation Day we went with the Dinkel's to Lingayen.  The Lingayen Gulf is where MacArthur came ashore when he returned to the Philippine's to liberate the Filipino's from the Japanese occupation.  This is the memorial to that event.  The next few pictures are of some of the displays located on the memorial grounds.

 

 

 General MacArthur coming ashore.

 

 

 A plaque at the WWII Memorial.

 

 

Elder Fullmer on one of the guns on the memorial grounds. 

 

 

 A WWII tank.

 

 

 A WWII plane.  Some of the planes in that era needed to be started manually.

 

 

This boy was at the memorial and came up to me to show his respect.  He took my hand and placed it on his forehead, which is the highest form of respect one person can show another.
 

 

Damortis is about 25 minutes from our home. 

 

 

Agoo mentioned here is about 15 minutes from our house.

 

 

 Another plaque explaining MacArthur's plans.

 

 

 This was taken at the beach where MacArthur would came ashore.

 

 

 This is the park on the beach.

 

Elder and Sister Dinkel enjoyed the day with us.

This is the Provincial capital building.

On our way home from Dagupan we spotted this ship tied up in the South China Sea.

When we become the office couple we will miss going to the District meetings and hearing the Elders great lessons and also role playing with the missionaries.  The object here was to make a knot in a tie by holding the ends of the tie in each hand and not letting go of the tie.  The objective of the lesson was teaching the steps of prayer.  It was really fun.

 

 One more beautiful sunset.  Can't resist sharing the sunsets with all of you.

The bell tower in Balaoan.  This town has the pink trikes.

The Catholic church in Luna where we went with the Dinkel's to look at an apartment for the sister missionaries.  Note the Ten Commandments in front of the church.

This blurry picture  was taken of a gigantic Hulk that was for sale.  We thought the kids might enjoy the photo.

 

District meeting held in Agoo.  This was our last district meeting before transfers.  Some will go to other area's and Sister Dacuno will be going home.

 

 

A farewell dinner at our house for Sister Dacuno.

 

 

This is the last time that this group of Sister Missionaries will be together as Sister Dacuno is going home after completing her mission and some of the sister's will be transferred.  From left to right is Sister's Latido, Rozal, Dacuno, Taliaivao, Loquinario, and Sister Lagrimas.  These sister's made Father's Day memorable for Elder Fullmer.  They gave him a group photo with the caption of Happy Father's Day, and also a card that each one had written a personal message in.

 

 

This was an emotional time for us and when Sister Fullmer hugged Sister Dacuno they both wept openly.  Our heart goes with her as her dad died before she came on her mission and her mother died a few months after she entered the mission field.  She will be welcomed home by other family members.

 

 

Sister Lagrimas may be transferred this next week and we wanted a final photo with her.

 

 

After apartment checks in Agoo we took the Agoo Zone Leaders to lunch.  They are about to enjoy a Halo Halo for dessert.  The Halo Halo contains ice, purple Ube ice cream, corn, small beans, Gelled coconut juice in different colors, Jack fruit and other items.

 

 

The Zone Leaders told us how delicious the Halo Halo was so we ordered one also.  This was our first time to try one.  Halo Halo means to mix and after mixing it really was good.

 

 

Another special part of Father's Day for Elder Fullmer was to present this young member her mission call package.

 

 

This is her sister, mother and branch president.  She is very happy to be going to the same mission her branch president served in.

 

 

Another photo of the very happy sister.

 

 

The sister on the left was presented her mission package a few weeks ago by Elder Fullmer and will leave for the MTC on June 17th.

 

 

We enjoyed our last companion study with these two sisters.   Sister Lagrimas on the left will remain in our area, but Sister Taliaivao, on the right, will transfer to Baguio City.

 

 

Elder Fullmer really enjoys carrying the mission calls to the future missionaries.  It made a wonderful addition to Father's Day.  After the presentation we were invited to eat lunch.  Lunch was brought in by a member of the Branch who is a sea captain.  We wish we would have taken a picture of the meal because we found out later that one part of the meal was pig's blood with part of the pig's innards.  It was black and had a vinegar taste.  Sister Fullmer ate only a little but Elder Fullmer ate all of his.  The branch presidents wife was surprised when she saw that we had eaten it. 

 

 

The future missionary with his aunt.  We are proud of him because his parents are not members. 

 

 This is Sister Latimer with her companion.  When Sister Fullmer went to give all the new Sister Missionaries a hug and asked where they were from, this sister said she was from Lehi, and that Elder Fullmer's brother Boyd was a counselor in her stake presidency before he left for his mission in October 2012. 

 

 

On your birthday you get to take two small gifts from the box of birthday gifts.

 

 

These are missionaries who had birthday's in May and June.  This occurred June 26th, Elder Fullmer's birthday, at the Tri-Zone conference in Baguio.  Sister Fullmer recorded the missionaries singing "Happy Birthday" in Tagalog.

 

 

Sister Taliaivao was born in Samoa, moved to New Zealand, and then to Australia.  She lived close by us when she was in the Agoo area of the mission.  She is now serving in Baguio.  She and Elder Fullmer liked to tease each other and we have sweet memories of her.

 

 

This photo is of all the missionaries at our tri-zone conference that are from Samoa.

 

 

Our last picture with President and Sister Monahan.  He will preside over the Urdaneta mission and we will be in the Baguio mission.  His inspired leadership of the mission has been a great testimony builder for us of how the Lord is in the details of our life. 

 

 

We were delighted that these two young ladies chose to be baptized and this is their families.

 

 

The sister in yellow helped us with our visits to several families in the Tubao and Pugo area of our mission.

 

 

This young lady was baptized today, June 30th, 2013 and was first taught two years ago by an Elder Fullmer from California while he was on his mission in our area.

 

This and the following photo's are of the Agoo Youth Mutual Activity.  They performed folk dances from different parts of the Philippines.

 

 

 The dances and dancers were very good and graceful.  We have learned that the Filipino's love to sing and dance and it is fun to watch them.

 

 

 We were delighted to be able to enjoy this activity because we may not be able to see any of the branch activities in the future due to working in the office.

 

 

 President and Sister Mortensen on the left will be in the Urdaneta mission on July 1st.  President and Sister Dungan, the couple in the middle, are the Agoo District President and his wife.

 

 

Brother and Sister Gatchalian with the Mortensen's at dinner at the Gatchalian's home.

 

 

Our last and fabulous dinner with the Mortensen's at Sister Gina's.

 

 

We end this month's blog posting with another sunset.  We have enjoyed our mission for the last 11 months and look forward to the next seven months experiencing a different assignment.  The Lord needs us in the office and so we look forward to our next assignment.  We know this is the Lord's work and we will work wherever we are assigned.