Missionaries in Exile!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I don't know where to begin…..you all remember the whole terrorists story right?  Well, the week started off just like so many other weeks with a great P-day breakfast with our Sagbayan missionaries and all the other activities that accompany P-day (laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc).  Monday night we all got a call to tell us that they were evacuating all eight of us out of Sagbayan due to the movement of the Abu Sayyaf terrorist.  They believed they were in our general area.  So early Tuesday morning we evacuated, us with a bag that would get us through 5 days and the other missionaries with all of their belongings.

The younger missionaries were assigned to double up with missionaries in the Tagbilaran area apartments.  We senior missionaries were instructed to find a safe place to stay!  We were able to connect with the other senior couple, the Shamrells (who had been out of their apartment since Sunday last week) and together found a small hotel on Panglao Island that had two available rooms for a couple of days. It was infinitely better than sleeping in the multi-cab and so we took it.  The hotel folks were very accommodating and eventually moved people around to allow us to stay for 4 nights.  The Shamrells were able to return to their Calape apartment Friday morning but we are still in exile at the time of this writing.

We are currently back at our old stomping grounds, The Isla Hayahay, who have graciously found us room for four nights also.  It is frustrating to be in exile and to not be able to go back to Sagbayan and our little branch.  Elder/President Bell had to get a little creative today to get everything done that needed his attention.  He was able to call upon branch members and President Nueva, who was going to visit the branch today anyway, to get interviewing done and lists made for the upcoming youth conference.  People have been very good to step up and help and so things are rolling along fairly well. (President Maughan, we were obedient and did not go to Sagbayan today!)

We firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and so we are looking for the lessons and blessings that will come because of this detour in our mission journey.  We are sure in hind sight it will be a little more apparent than it is today, but eventually we will see what has come of this.  I wish we could report that we are enjoying the resort life and relaxing at the beach and paddling around in the beautiful blue water, but in our swift departure the snorkel gear was not on our radar and so here we sit just worrying about everything that is not getting done!

We also did not remember the cord to the camera that allows us to upload pictures from our devices..ah well…no pictures this week….so sorry.  There was not so much happening to take pictures anyway!  Please know that we are safe and being careful and trying to keep a low profile.  There has not been much new news on the terrorist for the last week.  It is believed that there are still 3 of them on the run.  The church is very cautious and likes for no missionaries to be injured, held hostage, or otherwise be in harms way so they take precautions to keep us all safe.  We are grateful, (but antsy) for their decisions that keep us safe.

One sweet story before we sign off….all of us missionaries have been out of Sagbayan for most of the week now and a few days ago we got a call from John Mark, who is 16 years old, and he told us that he and Roneil (17 year old new member) decided to go visit all the investigators they could last week because they knew that the missionaries have not been able to be out teaching them.  Isn't that amazing?  No one asked them to do this!  No one even suggested it would be nice for them to do this…..of their own accord they knew they should do this!  What amazing young men.  Today they organized the rest of the youth to go out and visit all the other people that they did not get to last week.  And so the work goes forth in Sagbayan because these people really understand that 'every member is a missionary'!

Have a great week!  Be grateful that you live in a place that is safe and sane!

Love you forever,
Elder and Sister Bell