Church Jubilee in the Philippines

May 1, 2011—Church Jubilee in the Philippines as recorded by Mary

Fifty years ago on May 28, 1961, Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Philippines to the preaching of the Gospel. This is the jubilee year or 50th anniversary for the Church in the Philippines and the Filipinos are celebrating this momentous occasion in a big way. In fifty years the Church membership has grown to 630,000 members. The Philippines have had the largest convert growth in the least amount of time of any place in the Church. They started the planning three years ago intending as part of their celebrations to accumulate 1 million service hours given in the communities and church. They have exceeded that.

Last evening, the Manila area held a huge cultural celebration which was broadcast to all areas of the Philippines, and we were fortunate enough to view it in connection with the Stake Conference here on the Temple Complex. The narrator said that the Philippines was a nation divided by water but united by culture, and in the case of the Church, united by the Gospel. The youth and young adults performed folk dances, choirs sang church hymns and Filipino songs including their national anthem, and the history of the Church in the Philippines was shown in video clips. Thousands were gathered for this amazing spectacle in a huge coliseum, and thousands participated. Seventeen stakes were involved in that production. (Other Stakes all over the Philippines are doing their own in two weeks. I know the stakes here have been practicing for months.) Again, I was so impressed with the creative colorful, spectacular costumes and the stunning choreography. One group was led off and another came on with no time wasted. The dances were varied: couples doing a complex form of the national favorite--tinikling with the bamboo poles; boys with coconut shells tied to their shoulders and waists and knees hitting themselves with more coconut shells while they danced; couples doing intricate steps on long narrow benches—some even stacked two high; girls swaying and gliding with pots on their heads—most had 5 but one had 8 (Larry says he counted 12) on her head!; dancers depicting planting of rice fields; couples dancing to Spanish-type music doing graceful Spanish dances passed down from the time of Spain’s control of the Philippines; dancers carried in on bamboo poles and maneuvering about on the poles; boys doing martial arts in beautiful formations; girls bearing lighted candles in small glass containers and putting them on their heads while dancing; youth wearing long sewn-together strips of material that they manipulated while dancing to create lava lava type skirts and then changing it to wound headpieces, then to arm bands and so on. The last group to dance were young adults who masterfully performed latin rhumbas, cha-chas, sambas, tangos, etc. The girls were dressed in sophisticated, long-sleeved, navy blue body hugging dresses that had double rows of wide ruffles at the mid-calf hemline; the boys were in black barongs and black pants. No professional dance teams could have out danced the 50 or so young adults last night. They finished with a crowd pleasing rock and roll jitterbug.

Choir numbers were interspersed with the dancing. At least four different choirs performed: the huge adult choir, the young adult choir, the youth choir and the primary choir. All were in costume—the women in native Filipino dress with the big flat puffed sleeves and long slim skirts, the men in barongs, the children all in white with either blue or red ribbons or ties. Even though all were very dynamic, the primary choir stole the show--when the camera would zoom in for close-ups of some children and they recognized themselves on the giant screen, they reacted in such fun ways—some would nudge a neighbor and point, some would giggle, one girl ducked her head behind her friend—we loved it!

I realized how much I have come to love the temple and the people here when during the video clips shown on the history of the Church in the Philippines, a night-time shot of the Cebu Temple was projected on the screen. Tears filled my eyes and my heart was about to burst. The day had been one of joy.

Our earlier afternoon adult session of stake conference had the most inspiring choir of the day for me. Sister Matthews does an amazing job with about 35 singers. They sang an arrangement of “Keep the Commandments” that was truly inspiring. Stake President John Balledos told us that there is a battle going on right here—a battle between convenience and what is required of us. He urged people to pay their tithing, increase their fast offerings, and become worthy to receive the blessings of the temple. The statistics he gave were astounding: there are 2,186 adult members in this stake but only 199 full tithe payers; there are 293 who hold temple recommends and 131 who have expired recommends; 81.75% of the adults are not endowed! Those who do come to the temple are so faithful, but after hearing his statistics, we realized that it is the same people coming again and again. He implored us to keep the commandments. He said there is great need for an increase in fast offerings and cited a young boy who is in the hospital with a terrible ear infection and whose family has no money. Another brother, Brother Tirana, is in the hospital paralyzed after suffering a stroke Friday night at the temple, and they have little money. (Larry was at the veil with him when he had the stroke and helped carry him out.) We know of others too. One grandmother came to me very distraught; her single daughter was in the hospital with a premature new born and the hospital authorities would not release the mother because she could not pay her bill so each day she stayed, an additional 500 pesos was added to her total! The grandmother had borrowed 30,000 pesos for the baby’s care—they would not admit the mother until a deposit was paid--but that amount could not be used to pay the mother’s bill. Their hospital systems here are crazy—sort of like debtor’s prison. How these people ever get out from under the burdens they carry, I do not know. It is heartbreaking.

I was impressed that the Relief Societies had made sandwiches for those who had come to the adult session of conference and stayed for the cultural celebration, which was pretty much everyone. People had neither the time nor the money to go home and come back. The men had sat through a Priesthood Leadership Meeting before the adult session too, so some, including Larry, sat for almost 6 hours with just 25 minute breaks between the meetings. Larry was hurting, but he would not have considered leaving!

The Philippines Area Conference was broadcast to all stake centers and district chapels this morning. Before the main meeting started, President Balledos released President Hisita as his 1stcounselor and we sustained President Dumas as 1st counselor and Brother Pua as 2nd Counselor. What a young stake presidency! President Balledos is in his forties and both President Dumas and President Pua are in their thirties! All three are dynamic but humble, devoted men who know and love the scriptures.

President Michael Tey of the area presidency and also a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, spoke first and said the cultural celebrations were not the highlight of the Jubilee—that the highlight would take place in us individually as we raised our vision to new spiritual heights. He said we need to be prepared spiritually for what the Lord has in store for the Philippines, that we have seen nothing yet. The work of the Lord will burst forth in this land and the Lord will give us the opportunity to participate, but we need to prepare ourselves spiritually. One very important way is to STUDY THE SCRIPTURES, particularly the Book of Mormon, consistently.

Sister Julie B. Beck told us that she recognized the challenges, especially the economic challenges the Filipino people face but that the Gospel can be lived in any dwelling by any people. She talked about how many women in the Philippines travel to other countries to work and then send money back to their families. She cautioned of the dangers in such a practice-- a child needs a mother more than anything money can buy. Strong families are not an accident. We need to love one another. She said she had grown up in a family with 10 children where there was not much money, but there was Gospel teaching and much love and cooperation. Just about every night was a family home evening—often it was her father reading from a good book to the children while they did small jobs, like folding or mending clothes. She remembers cooking and washing dishes with her mother. They had few clothes, few toys and few possessions, but their family had the most important things: her mother taught her to honor the priesthood and she prepared her sons for missions, fatherhood and priesthood service.

Elder Quentin L. Cook who served in the Area Presidency and lived in Manila from 1996 to 1998, talked about his older brother Joe living in the Philippines in 1964 as a navy doctor when the Church was very new here. He talked about Elder Hinckley’s dedicatory prayer in 1961 where he blessed the Filipino people that they would be “friendly, hospitable, kind and gracious to those who would come to teach the Gospel” (and they have certainly been that!), and that they would have the faith to receive the Gospel and the desire to share it with others. (Every young man and most all of the girls have expressed strong desires to become missionaries as I have talked to them in the temple). In 1964 ground was broken for the first LDS chapel and 5 full time labor missionaries were called from Filipino saints. One of those is now the Manila Temple President. In 1965 there were 663 converts since 1961, and now there are over 630,000 members. Elder Cook said he learned three main things about the Filipino people: Filipinos love the Savior; Filipinos are very capable but very humble; Filipinos know how to deal with adversity. He emphasized that “most of what we need to accomplish in our lives occurs within our families and our homes”. What a profound statement!

President Boyd K. Packer was the concluding speaker and he said, “Young men speak of the future because they have no past; old men speak of the past because they have no future.” He told about his experience in the Philippines just after WW II. He was camped on the beach and hunted all over to find another church member to have the sacrament with. He found a young man who had attended his high school in Brigham City. Together they looked for a quiet place and finally found an 8 foot deep hole apparently dug to put garbage in. There was a plank laid across it; they sat on the plank and blessed the sacrament. His impression of the Filipino people was that even though they did not have any bathroom facilities, they were a very clean people. He told the story of President Joseph F. Smith dreaming that he was going to meet Joseph Smith but he stopped on the way to bathe himself and put on clean clothes only to have Joseph say to him, “You are late,” to which he answered, “Yes, but I am clean.” President Packer emphasized the importance of personal physical and spiritual cleanliness. He told us we would always be warned by the Holy Ghost before making a mistake, but that some of us were “past feeling” or chose not to listen. He invoked a blessing upon the Saints of the Philippines telling them they would be watched over by God, and that “angels are guarding you”. Special blessings for special people! Another wonderful day.