What an exciting and marvelous experience it was to serve as a Mission President with my wife.  No words are adequate enough to explain what we have experienced in 4 years.  You must experience it to fully understand it.  We have been called by President Thomas S. Monson and set apart by Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  We were called to open the Philippines Butuan Mission in 2006.  It was not an easy task to open a mission, but it was worth it.

In 4 years we have had around 500 missionaries go through the doors of our home, office and most especially in our lives.  I read an average of 22,000 weekly letters responding to 2,000 of them, answered around 30,000 phone calls, 40, 000 text messages and 20,000 e-mails.  I have conducted more than 5,000 interviews daily, an average of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, equivalent to 10 months.  And those are just the scheduled interviews.  Another 5 months for member interviews, some late extend late into the evenings or early mornings.

My wife and I counseled missionaries who were suffering from various kinds of sicknesses: physical, emotional or spiritual. We’ve even had missionaries bitten by a dog, a cat, and a snake.

We learned not only the names of the medicines but even its side effects and dosage. We experienced going to the hospital and later get shocked when the doctor told us that our missionary has leukemia.  We also experienced explaining to a missionary that he cannot eat a whole durian or else he’ll pass out.  We also experienced calamities such as floods, landslides, tsunami scare, earthquakes, daily blackouts, El Nino, and La Nina.

We tried to comfort missionaries when they received a “Dear John” letter from a girlfriend or when one is devastated by the news of the death of their father, mother or a sibling.  We went to this experience probably 5 times for those who lost a parent; several times for those who lost a grandparent, aunt, uncle or sibling.  We tried to console them when things fall apart at home, when parents separate, when a father loses a job, when a mother gets into an accident, when a family member is sick, when parents go abroad, or when their dog dies.  We also console them if their “Skylab” or “habal habal” skids off the road to their appointment in the top of the mountains.

We stood in excitement as we watched for 4 years at 12:30 PM every six weeks as a new batch of new missionaries arrived from the Missionary Training Center (MTC)—shoes polished, ties hanging awkwardly, shirts clean and pressed,  nervous (and sweating) to start their mission in Mindanao.  We gave them a nice lei and a luau for a nice Aloha welcome to Butuan.  We cried as we watch the outgoing missionaries board their planes every cycle carrying their excess luggage and with their tattered shoes, crumpled shirts and faded slacks and their indomitable souls to their mothers and to their homes across the Philippines.  We felt sad as we realize that we won’t see some of them again in this life.  But our soul also rejoiced for the privilege of knowing them.

Best of all, I shared every high and every low with my spouse.  One thing we have never done in any Church calling. Sister Revillo was wonderful--she gave countless talks, trainings, musical numbers to meetings, conferences, firesides, auxiliary trainings, etc.  When we arrived we felt homesick.  Our five children left their comfort zones and encountered a new language, new classmates and a new environment.  The daunting task of establishing a new mission and our children’s adjustment lay ahead of us.  But the Lord was mindful of us.  We have felt His guidance as promised in D&C 84:88, “I will be on your right hand and on your left and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up”.  Now our hearts are heavy leaving the missionaries and the mission.  During the last weeks of our mission some missionaries told us that they wished we would be extended again.  My appreciation for my wife grew in the 4 years we were on a mission than any time in our lives.  Moreover, I have seen the Lord’s divine hand and have been constantly strengthened by His power.  I testify that the restoration of the Gospel took place and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that President Monson is our living prophet.  Our testimony of the divinity of this work increased and we are honored and privileged to be a part of this marvelous work and a wonder. 

President Charlie G. Revillo - Butuan Philippines Mission