Two Crazy Missionaries in Cebu

     I have had the privilege of knowing two outstanding people, both linked in my mind because the two of them happened to serve missions for my faith in Cebu Island. I suppose over the decades thousands of full time missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have served there, this 126th biggest island in the world, a densely populated tropical land of people speaking a mysterious language, unknown to the greater world.

     The first of the two was 59 years old and a few months; she died not too long ago, in this month of August 2020; she did not perish from COVID-19, as many have done this year, but she was taken by cancer. Cancer. This infirmity was not bigger than her, just a part of her life and epitaph. It is an affliction that she had battled for many years. Cancer can come in waves;  like sand banks or castles on the coast they can be battered and bruised by cancer, eventually succumbing to its onslaughts and perpetual incursions and pricks of better health. It takes millions, and the the rest of us billions die of other things as well. She lived a great life; Cebu was a part of it.

   The other person who served in Cebu Island as a missionary of the Church,  that I personally have come to know, I will call David. That is not his real name, but maybe it it close.  He is a great guy for a number of reasons, and I admire him. I admire both these Visayan speakers, and Cebu was perhaps only a small part of them. That is why they are linked in my mind. Different people, never knew each other, different lives, experiences, families, friends, choices, styles, genders, places of birth: all those things different. But this island brings them together.

David was born and raised in the Inter-Mountain West, by a conservative religious family. He grew up enjoying the outdoors and most normal things, and by the 1990s he was ready to serve a mission for his family's faith, which lead him to Cebu, some twenty or more years after the lady of whom I spoke above. I attended her funeral services where all her immediate family spoke. It was poignant and sublime Meanwhile, I have observed David for about a year and half; we have worked closely a few times, once for a few weeks at a time. He's very professional, he's dedicated and cares about what he knows and what he does, and it shows and people respect him. I like how he enjoys English literature and I ended up reading an author, Richard Russo, which he recommended. Safe to say Russo struck me as a writer who tells interesting truths through fiction, somewhat inspirational.

Both these people are inspirational in real life, and thus I wished to write and ponder about them.

Ponder about Cebu. About life and meaning, and what we are meant to do and be and know and touch and feel.

Craziness, preaching and teaching a foreign people in an exotic island called Cebu, learning to speak in their Cebuano.

There is more to write and say, but I feel I must let this out now. I will.

Suffice it to say I have been fortunate to know them both. And I believe that they and I have been blessed through the island of Cebu. I thank the heavens for such a place.

May we all go there some day. May we meet up with the Cebuano people and this dancing sister and this dedicated soldier.