Tuesday February 13th, 2018 continued

In our deep sorrow over Ella's illness, the Lord gave us a joyful reunion.  Mary-Rose had sent a message to her name sake, Mary-Rose Villejo Estrada, over Facebook to say that we would be happy to see them at the Cebu Temple whenever they might be coming.  That message was sent at just the right time because Mary-Rose V. replied and said they would be here the next week, so we had arranged to meet on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the day of her birthday, Mary-Rose was being trained by Sister Jodi Ganir in the baptistry.  Mary-Rose sat at the back of the baptistry chapel, so she could observe as the people were gathering for a baptism.  She asked the sister sitting beside her where she was from and the sister responded “Mindanao” to which Mary-Rose replied “Do you know any of the Villejo family?”  The lady replied with a no, but the lady in front of her turned around and said, “I am a Villejo.”  It was Mary-Rose Villejo Estrada, and so the reunion began – a reunion with people we had never seen but who are like family because we have corresponded with them and their grandma for almost 5 decades.   When Mary-Rose and I came to the Philippines in 2009 while on a work trip to Australia, we were not permitted to travel to Davao due to Canadian government restrictions, so we phoned the Villejo home and the person we got on the phone was Mary-Rose.  Now we got to meet her in person.  So M-R sent a message to me that some of the Villejo family were at the temple and I should come and say Hi to them.  So I tried to find M-R and could not, but finally met her on the sister’s side just before a temple session was to begin.  M-R beckoned to Mary-Rose V. (who was waiting on the front row of the session room) to come out into the hallway and then M-R introduced me to Mary-Rose V.  I asked Mary-Rose V. if I could give her a hug and as I did the emotion swept over me and I cried.  The first cry of the day, not the last.

So not much later, there was to be a sealing session.  I went back toward the initiatory area to help there, but a brother came up to me and said “You’re needed for a sealing session.”  When I entered the room, the couple there were a Brother and Sister Jaca, Junadel Jaca who is another grand-daughter of Sister Sabina Villejo.  When I knelt down to act as their son in the sealing, I broke out in tears again.  I think most people in the room wondered what was going on.  Junadel patted me on the back offering some unspoken comfort.  Once my tears were more in control, the sealing proceeded.  It took a long time for the tears to completely stop.  I experienced a deep feeling of joy, finally seeing some of Sister Villejo’s family, whom we love deeply, 47 years after my leaving the Philippines as a young missionary.

Mary-Rose McMullin and Mary-Rose Villejo Estrada