On July 1, 1988, the mission was created from parts of the Philippines Baguio and Philippines Quezon City missions. At that point it was named the Philippines Quezon City West Mission. Robert J. Kennerley, from New Zealand, was appointed as the first mission president.
In 1991, the mission home was moved to Angeles City and the mission office to San Fernando, near the boundary of Angeles City. The mission was then renamed the Philippines San Fernando Mission. That same year, President John H. Lyons, from Phoenix Arizona, succeeded President Kennerley on July 1. The following year, on January 1, 1992, parts of the San Fernando, Quezon City and Manila missions were taken to create the new Philippines Cabanatuan Mission.
In 1994, Allen C. Christensen, from California, was called as the new mission president on July 1. During the same year, an administrative decision was made to move the mission home and office to its present location in Olongapo, at which time it would be renamed the Philippines Olongapo Mission. However, due to administrative concerns in regard to moving the mission home, the move was temporarily postponed.
In 1997, Del B. Garner of Declo, Idaho was named as the president of the San Fernando Mission. He arrived in Angeles City on July 1, 1997. The following summer, the mission home was finally relocated in Olongapo and the mission was renamed.
The Olongapo Mission includes all of the provinces of Bataan and Zambales, much of Pangasinan and some of Pampanga. The Island of Corregidor is part of the mission although no missionary work is being done there at this time. Within these boundaries are some of the most famous battle grounds of the Second World War. Mount Samat in Bataan is a memorial marking the final engagement before Bataan fell to Imperial Japanese troops on April 9, 1942. It was from the Mount Samat and Bagac areas that the infamous Bataan death march began. (The headquarters of the Orion District is near Mount Samat.) To the north of Mount Samat, along the 22 kilometer Pilar-Bagac line, the Far East command of General Douglas MacArthur made a gallant stand against superior Japanese forces. Seriously outnumbered and under-equipped, American and Filipino troops on Corregidor were forced to surrender on May 6, 1942. Their brave defense of the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor Island had upset Japan's timetable for conquest in the Eastern Pacific.
Today, Corregidor is the site of the Pacific War Memorial. One other site in the mission has played an important role in the military history of the Philippines, Subic Bay Naval base at Olongapo, which was headquarters for the U.S. Navy's Far East Command. This base was returned to the Philippines in the early 1990's and today is an economic development zone.
On June 15, 1991, the long dormant volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted. Most of the mountain was literally blown away in a seismic explosion that left only a large crater. The volcanic ash spewed into the atmosphere is said to have changed the Earth's weather patterns. Ash deposits, called lahar, have created a new alluvial plain which, when combined with water, can become a deadly mudslide. Such a slide has burried the town of Bacolor, Pampanga, which was once home to 100,000 people. The Republic of the Philippines government is building a huge megadike complex in an attempt to divert the lahar flow into Manila Bay on the east and the South China Sea on the west. Seismologists estimate that it will take at least ten more years before the volcanic ash, which was once Mount Pinatubo, are stabilized.
Set among the histories, geography and seismic challenges of this part of the world are the Balanga, Dagupan, Lingayan and Bayambang Stakes; and eight districts of the mission, namely: Iba, Morong, Olongapo, Orion, San Antonio, Dinalupihan, Alaminos and Santa Cruz. Where once there was war, there are now hundreds of messengers of peace. It is a great place to serve. There is no other mission quite like it in all the world. The Philippines Olongapo Mission truly is a Mission of Excellence.
