Briant and Clyda Teichert; LDS Charities; Cebu Philippines

Dear Family and Friends, Week #9 11/21-11/27 Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We all have a lot to be thankful for. Number one the gospel of Jesus Christ and our Savior’s atoning sacrifice for each of us. When I talked about us starting our day going for a walk at 5:30 a.m., just know it is already light outside. We are not walking in the dark. This close to the equator we receive about 12 hours a day of the sun being up every day all year long. So, it is getting dark at 5:30 in the evening all year also. By 6:00 it is all dark. We pass little kids with parents taking them to school that the kids begin at 6:00 a.m. On our way back we pass a lot of kids headed to school that starts at 7:00 a.m. It has been a wonderful week. We have seen some amazing things. The thought, the thoughtfulness, the insight, the vision, the resourcefulness, the desire, the caring, the compassion, the goodness of people is incredible. Monday through Thursday several hundred Filipino people received free den...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #8 11/14-11/20 It has been another busy week. A lot of this week has been in the office trying to learn more about our responsibilities and how to go about solving problems and implementing solutions. We have had quite a few firsts and progress in areas that would really be hindering us if we were going full tilt in this mission. Since we are making baby steps at this time they haven’t hindered us too much. Our normal daily routine, we hope, is up at 5:10, out the door at roughly 5:30 to walk for an hour. We head to the temple complex grounds which is a quarter mile away. Once inside the fence it is peaceful, away from the busy street. It is so nice. We arrive back home at about 6:30 and try to do some push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, and stretching. We do our daily “Come Follow Me” app and read a chapter in the Book of Mormon while we cool down. That takes us to about 7:30-7:45. Then we get a shower and breakfast. Then to work. Of course some days we h...

Dear Family and Friends,  Bonus Week #7 Because of correspondence with Burke I have some more to share. But first I want to share a couple of pictures we took in the north part of Panay. When we went to the turnover in the mountains a little ways out of Roxas we had an extra 30 minutes to go to some water falls. It was pretty so I thought I would share. Burke told me a cool story related to the Peters couple that worked for him in Nebraska. I had heard part of this story before and Tami is aware of some of it also. The couple in this story, Jean and Harry Younkins, lived in Tami’s ward. Burke sent me these two pieces in two separate emails as I asked a question. Glad you got to meet the Peters. There’s a very interesting story about how Elaine got my (very non-member) office manager to attend church by having her accompany the kids for the Primary program, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas program. When Jean tried to not come anymore, Elaine told her they surely needed her to pla...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #7 11/7-11/13 It has been quite a week. On Monday we had our weekly meeting with the other couples involved in Humanitarian Aid (Welfare Self-Reliance) WSR meeting. (Elder and Sister Leininger from the Sacramento area, the old timers, they go home in January, Elder and Sister Hayne, from San Diego, Elder and Sister Huff from Laie, Hawaii. These last two couples have just been here one month more than we have.) It also includes a lawyer, Elder Slaugh, to make sure we are staying legal in the stuff we are trying to do. There are three or four other people in this meeting, and I’m not sure what their responsibilities are just yet, along with our supervisor, Jairus Perez, who is over all the Philippines as the WSR manager. It has been just the four of us couples for a month and now Elder and Sister Larsen from the SLC area. Last Monday was their first meeting with us. Another couple joined us over zoom, that will arrive in January. That will make 6 c...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #6 10/31-11/6 It has been another busy week. Too bad so much of it has been spinning our wheels as we are trying to do this work without knowing well enough what we are doing. Oh, we miss the Huskinsons. It has been nice weather. This is the cool season. When we walk in the mornings around the temple grounds it isn’t too hot yet. We leave our apartment at 5:30 and spend an hour walking. It is about a 5-6 minute walk to the temple complex. When we get inside it is quiet, away from the busy street. It is built on a hill so as we take our walks going around the grounds we get a fair amount of uphill walking. Each uphill is probably about the distance and steepness from the cemetery to the shooting range road and we do that about 10 times. We get it in twice on each lap and take about 5 laps. One time we hit a bunch of stairs which we take two at a time to try and keep some leg strength. The other hill is a road. On Thursday Clyda needed to go to ...