24 Oct. 2022 Week #4: Back to Lesson Plans and Vouchers

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 have spent two hours each Sunday for three months practicing. They were really good. The rest hymns we sang together were Christmas songs. (We were in a mall yesterday and the music playing on the intercom was all Christmas music.) 

On Monday we spent several hours with the Huskinsons learning how to document our work on the church required site. There are a lot of different things we have to document, etc. On each project we have to enter the reason for the project, outcomes expected, how to track the progress, who is involved and to what extent, then a contract is made up with all the parties involved, it goes through the church’s legal team, to hold everyone accountable to doing what they say they will do. A DOD, Deed of Donation, is signed, or a MOA Memorandum of Agreement. We are using sacred funds from all church members who contribute to the Humanitarian Aid on their tithing slips, so we want to make sure what is said to be done, is done. I am for sure in favor of that. Also, the DOD and MOA are supplied to us by the church, and we just have to fill in the blanks and get it signed. However, filling out the reason for the project, outcomes expected, etc. reminds me a lot of doing lesson plans and I had hoped I was done with that portion of life. Another thing we have to do is account for all expenditures, travel, hotels, taxis, ferry, etc. and that reminds me of school vouchers. I thought I was done with that. Oh well, I guess some of my experiences will help. Of course these need to be done to the penny, or should I say peso. 

On Tuesday we woke up at 2:30 a.m. to get to the airport for a 5:00 a.m. flight to IloIlo. We were on the go all day until 9:00 p.m. It was a full day in more ways than one. We ate six meals. All of which I was pretty picky about. Apparently, as I watch my Filipino leaders, it is insulting to not fill up your plate, but (thank goodness, as I watch their example, it isn’t insulting to not eat it all). So I put it on my plate, eat what I dare, and stir the rest together. We had a turnover meeting at a school where we donated 21 smart tvs, 8 printers, a year supply of ink, and an overhead projector. The school put on an incredible ceremony to thank us. The main guy to get the ball rolling on this is the Bishop of the Ward in the area, who is a teacher at the school. Be thankful for what we have in the U.S. These schools have been through a typhoon that has devastated them. The schools aren’t the best anyway. They are so grateful for these donations. Their commitment is to train the teachers on how to use the equipment donated, and keep them locked up and protected in the classrooms. There are 21 classrooms. What I really liked is that in the agreement, the TVs have to stay in that school’s classrooms. They can’t be utilized by the district office or given to another school in the district.

 

We then went to visit the pig project being done by 9 families in the ward. One of them being the bishop. LDS charities helps these families get going with these projects by providing two piglets to start with, materials to build small pens, feed for about 9 months, and insemination fees. The participants have to have good gardens so they have proven they want to be self-reliant and then commit to be an active member of the group so they can help solve problems together that arise in the raising of the pigs. They must commit to give one pig away from each litter to help someone else. It is a pretty neat program but a lot of pigs might die on my watch getting the owners money to feed their pigs. In this group we have the bishop, a school teacher as I have mentioned, the key person is the past bishop who got it going. He is a get after it guy (pointing in this photo). He is 41 years old now, and was bishop for ten years. He is very outgoing and real great leader for this group. He returned home from a mission and fell in love with a lady in the ward who at age 48, and had never been married, had adopted a baby boy, since she felt like she never would get married. (she is the lady in the back in this photo) They got married and she is 24 years older than he is. That baby boy is now ready to go on a mission. They are a neat couple. He says in millennial years he is 1,040 and she is 1,064 and that doesn’t seem like much of an age different at all. Another girl in the group is still in high school, taking care of a disabled father. (she is the girl in front taking the selfie) She is active in this group with a great garden, and enjoying raising the pigs. It is fun to see her determination to be successful in life. We visited several of the farms and with each farm was a meal. At the school there was a huge meal. We got to the motel at 9:00 p.m. and up at 4:00 a.m. to catch another early flight back home. When we got back home we crashed for a couple of hours. Then went through more training with the Huskinsons.

On Thursday we had more trainings in the morning. (With all these trainings you would think I would know what I’m suppose to do and I am still clueless. It is scary.) In the afternoon we headed to the mountains. We ate at a great restaurant where I understood the menu and had a salad and sandwich as if I was at Zupa’s. It was a chicken pesto sandwich and it was really good. We stopped at some roadside vegetable stands and got things to eat. We bought some carrots, cucumbers, garlic, tomatoes, and corn. They were all good. We spent about an hour walking through some gardens with millions of incredible flowers. It was a huge garden on a steep hillside. Jesus truly was a masterful creator of all things, and with someone taking some initiative and organizing these incredible plants, it was a delight to walk through. 

Friday was another day going to a school about the size of Cokeville’s up in the mountains. The project here was getting them water, (where theirs had been taken out with a mudslide during the typhoon) and desks, and some books. LDS charities brought in not only water, but potable water, which most schools don’t have. (Even in our motel we are staying in tonight in Manila there is no potable water. We get it at a dispenser by the ice machine). I visited the kindergarten with 14 kids, and joined in on their start to the morning with some dancing, watching someone on TV and doing what they do, then vocabulary as the words were on the TV so the kids could hear and see the words, and examples of the words. The kids would say the words with the TV. Of course I joined right in with the kids and they giggled seeing this fat white guy dancing and calling out the words, they were emotion words, “sad, happy, scared, shy” etc. I had a fun ten minutes. Then to the celebration. They of course also fed us on bamboo tables under grass thatched roofs made by the kids. They were cool.(this was a picture at their school)

    On Saturday we made it to a child nutrition screening. It was cool. They started in the chapel with a song, opening prayer, and a short speaker that was really good tying nutrition and good health into the gospel. The guy was an older gentleman that did a great job and shared a cool testimony of good nutrition making it so the kids can be better off spiritually, emotionally,

socially, and physically. 

    We flew here to Manila today, Sunday morning, and we have meetings here this week. We go back to Cebu next Friday. We will then be alone to finish up projects and get some more going. It is scary. We will need all of your prayers, we feel very inadequate. It will be a steep learning curve. We have to work with a lot of other entities, government organizations, companies, etc. to make it all happen. We want to help make these poor kids and peoples lives better though. I’m confident the Lord will guide our footsteps as we move forward, relying on Him. This is His work and His children. However, He expects us to do a lot of work and figure things out along the way, so please pray for us and these people. The gospel is true, Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. That is why we are here.

With love,

Dad and Mom

Grandpa and Grandma

Briant and Clyda