Briant and Clyda Teichert; LDS Charities; Cebu Philippines

Dear Family and Friends, Week #5 We are grateful to know that Coach Dayton is doing better and has gone home. It was good to see a picture with Coach Nate at the hospital with him. Janet said that was the best medicine. I’m so grateful for my association with these two men. They have been tremendous mentors to me. I’m not a very good guy, but I’m much better because of their influences, teachings, examples, and friendship in my life. Last Sunday we flew to Manila for a leadership conference with all the leaders here in the Philippines over Welfare Self Reliance. (WSR) There were about 30-40 of us there. It was three long days of a great conference. I am so impressed with all the incredible things that are going on here to try to help these people have a better life. These leaders love for their people is amazing. They have powerful testimonies. It was interesting. There are five of us couples from the US involved in this humanitarian work. There are a lot of other couples i...

Dear Family and Friends, It has been another great week. We have been on a vacation with tour guides. When they head back to Idaho everything might come to a screeching halt. I might only have about one paragraph to write next week. At the stake conference I talked about last week I mentioned the choir. It was like a tabernacle choir with all the ladies having the same dresses. All the brothers wore dark pants, white shirts, and all had the same tie which matched the women’s dresses. In both the adult session, on Sunday morning, and the general session, they sang a hymn before the conference started. Then a member of the stake presidency welcomed us, etc. Then the choir sang again, opening prayer and speakers. They would do another special number. Then we would have a standing rest hymn. That was the only time the congregation sang. The choir would sing the closing hymn. So the choir sang four numbers in each session, eight total, and they were not easy numbers. Come to find out they h...

Dear Family and Friends,  It has been a wonderful week. We spent Monday and Tuesday in Manila receiving more  training for our assignment. Then we flew to Cebu on Wednesday. The driving here in the  Philippines is incredible. Please pray for our safety. The lines on the road, if they have any don’t  mean anything. They do drive on the right side of the road like in the U.S. That is basically  where the similarities end. Don’t do any thing too fast and hopefully we’ll be safe.  Motorcycles/scooters are everywhere and always on your right side in blind spots. If your side  of the road is a two lane road there are three lanes of vehicles and another with motorbikes on the right and many times in between you and the car in the lane next to you. They will pass   anywhere, anytime, and do u-turns anywhere. It is like a bunch of cattle in stockyards going to different pens, etc. Except, hopefully in our vehicles we don’t touch each other. Intersecti...

Dear Family and Friends, I was going to send you a long email of all our activities but it has taken this rookie 2 hours to try and get a list of email recipients. This would not allow me to import my file of contacts from my old book of contacts. After trying several different things I finally gave up and just created all new cards for you in this gmail account. Oh baby!! We have had a busy second week on our mission. We had a lot of training at the MTC in Provo on Humanitarian Aid. It was like trying to drink from a firehose. It was all really good but real overload. The presenters were all excellent, going at a good pace with things so we could understand it all, but no way could we begin to retain it all. We have a flash drive with all the info on it. I don't know when we will ever have time to look back at the flashdrive. I'm sure when we get to our apartment, with the Huskinson's gone, the people we are replacing, and we then don't have a clue what we are doing, w...

It has been a busy week and a half. I have been very sick and wearing a mask the whole time I have been here. I tested negative for COVID but it has been a bad cold. I am feeling better.  We have had many wonderful connections. I have shared some in texting and Marco Polo’s. We are learning a lot but not near enough. It is like trying to drink from a hose. We are only getting a part of it. We are excited but very nervous. The connections have been great.  Connor’s emails have been wonderful, and Taffy telling more about their phone conversations is great. The spirit is wonderful and many times I am too emotional to talk. The general authority devotionals have been fantastic, both the speakers, and singing “Called to Serve” and “We’ll Bring the World His Truth”. FANTASTIC!! More on the next one. It is late and we need to get to bed to make it on time tomorrow morning  to class. With love, Dad and Mom Grandpa and Grandma Briant and Clyda In the MTC cafeteria with the Walker...