4 Dec. 2022 Week #10: Our Most Enjoyable Day So Far
Hello Family and Friends,
Another busy week. We only got to exercise the first three mornings of the week. After that we didn’t exercise because of leaving early or trying to get a little sleep as we both came down with nasty colds. We are feeling better now, but it was a miserable 3-4 days.
In our Monday meeting 3 projects were presented. One needs to go back to the drawing board and two were passed. Then we spent time catching up on emails. There is a lot of constant communication going on. We are checking on if supplies have been ordered, delivered, paid for, etc. Also, emails from people requesting our help. Then getting back with them on filling out a more comprehensive form of exactly what they want. Then conference calls.
In the afternoon we headed to the Lahug Chapel to get bags for the food supplies. We then went to Mandaue to the stake center. We met Brother Henry Patalinghug. We call him Henry. I wonder why. He was the supplier for the goodie bags for the fire victums. (He is twice my size and my height. His company is TITP – referring to This Is The Place. Fun name for a guy who has never left the Philippines let alone ever been in Utah.) He brought enough food and supplies to fill 1400 bags of food and 700 hygiene kits. We will deliver 700 food bags and 700 hygiene kits at one time and then the other 700 food kits two weeks later. He was there with his employees unloading the trucks into the cultural hall. We were double checking all the supplies. He wants to make sure he has everything. He doesn’t want us to say later that it wasn’t all there. A good practice. So Clyda and I along with the stake clerk from the Mandaue Stake were counting all of the supplies. It was a lot of rice. In each bag we put 5 kilos of rice, 3 cans of corn beef, 3 cans of tuna, 6 packets of milo (chocolate milk), 6 packets of powdered milk, 4 packs of pansit(ramen noodles).
In the hygiene packs we put 2 bars of laundry detergent, 2 bars of bath soap, and 6 packets of shampoo (each packet good for one shampoo). We were there late and then headed home. If you go there early in the morning it takes 15 minutes. It took us over an hour to return home. On a downer, while eating yummy, dried mangos, Clyda broke another tooth.
Another side note about Henry. His family joined the church when he was a young man. His parents and brother. His father passed away and he became the bread winner for the family. His mother didn’t want him to go on a mission. He wanted to go but his mother won the persuasion battle with the stake president, and he didn’t get to go. His brother is no longer active and has three sons that aren’t active either, but they all work for him. His brother-in-law who is active also is one of his many employees. Henry is a very successful businessman. He has been a bishop and has served in my different callings. Currently he is a gospel doctrine teacher and does a great job. And he says his kids favorite movie, which they watch at least once a month, is “Cokeville Miracle”. What about that.
On Tuesday we exercised, scriptures, devotional, etc. We had a yummy breakfast, all of Clyda’s breakfasts are yummy! Then back to emails, etc. We headed to the dentist, Sister Merlyn Matthews, an incredible lady. She told Clyda, “We need to quit meeting like this. This is the second time in two months. If it is one tooth a month, you will be toothless by the time you go home, sixteen more teeth.” We have got to find another way to keep track of how long we are on our mission.
We then headed to the Mandaue stake center. We met with 15 Elders, 9 Sisters and quite a few ward and stake members from the area of where the fire was. It was a pretty organized event. We had several tables where people brought the boxes of supplies. Then a person at the table would pull them out of boxes to put on the tables in the right amounts, then as someone would come by with the bags, someone would put them in the bags. The rice of course was bagged in a separate plastic bag and put in the larger bag first. That was the big job. The rice was in big 50 kilo bags. They would need to be opened then 5 kilos at a time dipped out of them. Those amounts would come out 1 kilo per dipper/five times. Then tie that bag up, put it in the big bag and off around the table to collect all the other items. Then on top, were placed the hygiene kits that were bagged separately by another group. Then put the bags in an orderly fashion so you could keep count. It worked pretty slick. It started at 2:00. We stopped for treats at about 4:00, and then we carried on to completion at about 6:00. We finished bagging all the rice, because the rice guys got a little overzealous opening the big bags. Therefore, we completed about 150 bags for the delivery in two weeks. The 700 bags and supplies are locked up in the cultural hall. The extra 150+ bags are locked in the high council room. Hopefully everything will still be in place on delivery date and on the next repackaging event. Now I know why they call this a repackaging event, we take everything out of packages and put them in new packages. It was a wonderful event. The young missionaries were energetic, and they enjoyed working with the members, and the members enjoyed working with the missionaries. Clyda was of course as busy as a bee keeping everything going and she was breaking all the cardboard boxes down so they could lay flat and not take up so much room. A guy would bring her the boxes and then she would zip, zip, zip and have them flat. She was also keeping the lines of new bags in order to keep the count correct. I started as a rice dipper, but after a while there was more sweat off my forehead in the rice bag than rice, so I switched to another job. Of course, my main job when things get going like this is stay out of Clyda’s road, or I’ll get trampled. It was a success. Once again traffic was terrible that time of night and we got home late. This was our most enjoyable day so far as missionaries, it was a lot of fun working with this great group with all kinds of positive energy going on.
On Wednesday, we spent the morning at the office trying to review where we are at with finishing up all of the projects the Huskinsons left us. Then, making a list of where we are in the process with projects we are trying to develop. Our boss was to arrive early on Thursday to spend a couple days with us. The stress has us overloaded so here comes the colds. We went home drained and took a long nap. We then went to work in the evening to try and make sure we had all our ducks in a row for the next two days.
We slept in a little on Thursday because our colds were bad. We masked up for the day and headed out. We were schedule to go to a big event with Cebu Schools Division of DepEd. The night before we received an email from them saying we could only have two people present, so either Clyda and me, or Jairus and me. He told us to go. So here he is after coming down from Manila, and now we don’t spend the morning together. He is from here though, so he took our truck and went to see his sister and then his mother, so all was good. In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours with Jairus at the office going over all the projects. Then we took him to his motel. He needed to be on a conference call with Manila. Then we headed back out to Mandaue to meet up with Brother Colipapa to go meet the people of the welfare sevices and the mayor. The mayor was too busy with ambassadors from Australia, (how could they trump us). So, we just met with the ladies running the welfare services on scheduling our delivery. Well, we find out we aren’t the only ones helping out, it is a good thing because it is now a week after the fire. So, we need to schedule our delivery to the victims, and it won’t happen until this week, so two weeks after the fire. So much for being “emergency response”.
The neat thing though is seeing just how many charitable organizations are helping these people out. I don’t know why we couldn’t jump through the hoops faster for us to help sooner. There is a lot I don’t understand. Then back through busy traffic. We now know the way to the Mandaue Stake Center. By the way, it is hidden back off the main drag. It is two back alley drives away from a main street. This was our third trip to the chapel this week. All of them coming home have been in thick traffic.
On Friday we slept in a bit again. Then, we met Jairus at the office at 7:30 for a Team (zoom) meeting with the group from Manila. A couple projects from Monday were passed by the next level. The meeting lasted about two hours. Then off to the templex to meet Bro. Colipapa. He and Jairus are brother-in-laws. The four of us headed up over the mountains to Balamban to a water project to see how it has been going since it was installed a few months ago. This was the final checkup on this project. It was a lot of off road driving, in steep mountains. You wouldn’t want to go there when it is raining or dark. We ended up at a little last mile school. The only person I could understand was the school teacher who is also the head of their water board. She was elected. She seems to be pretty sharp. LDSC teamed up with Single Drop (a charitable organization that helps with water problems). Between the two, a water line with potable water was developed and brought to a school. Along the way 32 paying customers are tied into the line. They each have to pay a small sum to get the water. LDSC provided all the materials and Single Drop provided the labor, engineering, and know how to put it all together for this school and this community. This was a cool project the Huskinsons were involved in.
During the drive home we were in and out of service, but found out about plenty of problems for the Sibonga Swine project. Brother Colipapa is their Champion, I have to approve the receipts I get from him, and then I send them on to Jairus. We were all in the truck out of service. The Sibonga group in a panic because they couuldn’t get a hold of any of us contacted Elder Huskinson in the states for help. They had gone in to get there pig feeds yesterday and were turned down. They should have been able to pick them up on December 1. Now on Dec. 2, they still can’t get feeds for their hungry pigs because they said they haven’t been paid for the last feeds. Elder Huskinson warned me about this. He said pig projects are a pain and until the office in Manila gets the purchasing and payment of feeds figured out it will be a big problem. I have to approve the feeds and get a check requisition sent in. Well, I sent the last one in on the 15th when I received it. This is two weeks later and the company is claiming they didn’t get paid. Jairus said they got paid a week ago. I said, “Well, they said they didn’t, so it is your word against theirs, and I’m stuck in the middle of it. Elder Huskinson warned me about this.” It got a little heated. I agree with Elder Huskinson that these pig projects can be a real good thing for poverty members to get out of their situation and make a living. We pay their way for about a year, until they have had two liters of pigs so they can now pay for the pig feeds, vet bills, insemination, etc. We provide the materials for pens, water systems, and feeds, etc. to get them going. However, until they get this payment of feeds figured out, I don’t want to be in the middle of it.
When we got back to Cebu we visited a large school that needs help. Many damaged rooms that need repair. Other charitable organizations have helped them tremendously, but they still need more help. These people and their partner organization were at the big event the morning before. Jairus was taking us to meet them to see if we could help out. We could, but there are about 20 in line in front of them. Since they contacted him, an old classmate, I think he will want us to go to work on it. However, it isn’t in near the trouble as the ones we see out in the mountains where they don’t have any parents with money or organizations that will be visible to help. (The organization that has helped them has a big banner hanging on the school for publicity and it is founded by a Chinese millionaire whose name is on the school and his family is still helping out.) If their name can’t be seen, they don’t want to help. So, the city schools are the last ones I want to help.
We had an early dinner at TGI Fridays. It was good. Pretty much like a TGI Friday with rice included in every meal.
We dropped Jairus off and went and crashed.
We were up at 4:45, still with colds, to meet Brother Colipapa at the Mandaue Stake Center again to head on a 2 hour drive north to discuss some welfare projects with a Branch President. It was a pretty cool. He is a great and caring leader. We hope we can help in some ways with the struggling members in his branch. So many good things he is doing, and his story is neat. I’m tired of writing and I’m sure you are tired of reading so I’m not going into details here. Needless to say, they were carrying on an all day First Aid and CPR training for their branch with one high school or adult member representing each family of the branch. It was cool. Bro. Colipapa is a major guy in the EMS and his group was doing the training. He was helping us instead of them this day. We met some cool people. One guy donating land for everyone to grow corn on. A single gal, a doctor, went on a mission, taught in the MTC in Manila, pretty as can be, and lives in this little community helping both the church and community.
On our way back we stopped into visit a “Rise and Rebuild” farm. Amazing! That will have to be another letter. Started by a returned missionary that feeds thousands of malnourished kids a day here. They have four large farms and are developing a fifth. It was impressive. You can see the U.S. influence in that project. Nothing primitive about how this farm is run.
Finally, home late in the evening and crashed.
It was a beautiful Sunday, we are feeling a ton better, and meetings were great. It is fun to be in the gospel doctrine class. It is a big class with probably about 75 people. The instructors are real good and the class is great to participate. It flows just like a class should, D&C 88:122 “Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once, but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.” We were edified today. Our testimonies were strengthened and our commitment to live the gospel was strengthened. That was always my main goal as a teacher to prayerfully try to make those two things happen. The Holy Ghost is wonderful to help this happen! It is True!!
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
P.S. The pictures are from repackaging, the school where the water project took place, (the lady in red is the teacher and president of their community water association), a picture of a small portion of the “Rise and Rebuild” farm, and a crescent moon that we would see on our drive home each night this week. How about that angle of the moon. It is a little different here at the equator than in good old Wyoming. It could rock a baby to sleep here instead of dump the baby out
Week #10 11/28-12/4
Another busy week. We only got to exercise the first three mornings of the week. After that we didn’t exercise because of leaving early or trying to get a little sleep as we both came down with nasty colds. We are feeling better now, but it was a miserable 3-4 days.
In our Monday meeting 3 projects were presented. One needs to go back to the drawing board and two were passed. Then we spent time catching up on emails. There is a lot of constant communication going on. We are checking on if supplies have been ordered, delivered, paid for, etc. Also, emails from people requesting our help. Then getting back with them on filling out a more comprehensive form of exactly what they want. Then conference calls.
In the afternoon we headed to the Lahug Chapel to get bags for the food supplies. We then went to Mandaue to the stake center. We met Brother Henry Patalinghug. We call him Henry. I wonder why. He was the supplier for the goodie bags for the fire victums. (He is twice my size and my height. His company is TITP – referring to This Is The Place. Fun name for a guy who has never left the Philippines let alone ever been in Utah.) He brought enough food and supplies to fill 1400 bags of food and 700 hygiene kits. We will deliver 700 food bags and 700 hygiene kits at one time and then the other 700 food kits two weeks later. He was there with his employees unloading the trucks into the cultural hall. We were double checking all the supplies. He wants to make sure he has everything. He doesn’t want us to say later that it wasn’t all there. A good practice. So Clyda and I along with the stake clerk from the Mandaue Stake were counting all of the supplies. It was a lot of rice. In each bag we put 5 kilos of rice, 3 cans of corn beef, 3 cans of tuna, 6 packets of milo (chocolate milk), 6 packets of powdered milk, 4 packs of pansit(ramen noodles).
In the hygiene packs we put 2 bars of laundry detergent, 2 bars of bath soap, and 6 packets of shampoo (each packet good for one shampoo). We were there late and then headed home. If you go there early in the morning it takes 15 minutes. It took us over an hour to return home. On a downer, while eating yummy, dried mangos, Clyda broke another tooth.
Another side note about Henry. His family joined the church when he was a young man. His parents and brother. His father passed away and he became the bread winner for the family. His mother didn’t want him to go on a mission. He wanted to go but his mother won the persuasion battle with the stake president, and he didn’t get to go. His brother is no longer active and has three sons that aren’t active either, but they all work for him. His brother-in-law who is active also is one of his many employees. Henry is a very successful businessman. He has been a bishop and has served in my different callings. Currently he is a gospel doctrine teacher and does a great job. And he says his kids favorite movie, which they watch at least once a month, is “Cokeville Miracle”. What about that.
On Tuesday we exercised, scriptures, devotional, etc. We had a yummy breakfast, all of Clyda’s breakfasts are yummy! Then back to emails, etc. We headed to the dentist, Sister Merlyn Matthews, an incredible lady. She told Clyda, “We need to quit meeting like this. This is the second time in two months. If it is one tooth a month, you will be toothless by the time you go home, sixteen more teeth.” We have got to find another way to keep track of how long we are on our mission.
We then headed to the Mandaue stake center. We met with 15 Elders, 9 Sisters and quite a few ward and stake members from the area of where the fire was. It was a pretty organized event. We had several tables where people brought the boxes of supplies. Then a person at the table would pull them out of boxes to put on the tables in the right amounts, then as someone would come by with the bags, someone would put them in the bags. The rice of course was bagged in a separate plastic bag and put in the larger bag first. That was the big job. The rice was in big 50 kilo bags. They would need to be opened then 5 kilos at a time dipped out of them. Those amounts would come out 1 kilo per dipper/five times. Then tie that bag up, put it in the big bag and off around the table to collect all the other items. Then on top, were placed the hygiene kits that were bagged separately by another group. Then put the bags in an orderly fashion so you could keep count. It worked pretty slick. It started at 2:00. We stopped for treats at about 4:00, and then we carried on to completion at about 6:00. We finished bagging all the rice, because the rice guys got a little overzealous opening the big bags. Therefore, we completed about 150 bags for the delivery in two weeks. The 700 bags and supplies are locked up in the cultural hall. The extra 150+ bags are locked in the high council room. Hopefully everything will still be in place on delivery date and on the next repackaging event. Now I know why they call this a repackaging event, we take everything out of packages and put them in new packages. It was a wonderful event. The young missionaries were energetic, and they enjoyed working with the members, and the members enjoyed working with the missionaries. Clyda was of course as busy as a bee keeping everything going and she was breaking all the cardboard boxes down so they could lay flat and not take up so much room. A guy would bring her the boxes and then she would zip, zip, zip and have them flat. She was also keeping the lines of new bags in order to keep the count correct. I started as a rice dipper, but after a while there was more sweat off my forehead in the rice bag than rice, so I switched to another job. Of course, my main job when things get going like this is stay out of Clyda’s road, or I’ll get trampled. It was a success. Once again traffic was terrible that time of night and we got home late. This was our most enjoyable day so far as missionaries, it was a lot of fun working with this great group with all kinds of positive energy going on.
On Wednesday, we spent the morning at the office trying to review where we are at with finishing up all of the projects the Huskinsons left us. Then, making a list of where we are in the process with projects we are trying to develop. Our boss was to arrive early on Thursday to spend a couple days with us. The stress has us overloaded so here comes the colds. We went home drained and took a long nap. We then went to work in the evening to try and make sure we had all our ducks in a row for the next two days.
We slept in a little on Thursday because our colds were bad. We masked up for the day and headed out. We were schedule to go to a big event with Cebu Schools Division of DepEd. The night before we received an email from them saying we could only have two people present, so either Clyda and me, or Jairus and me. He told us to go. So here he is after coming down from Manila, and now we don’t spend the morning together. He is from here though, so he took our truck and went to see his sister and then his mother, so all was good. In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours with Jairus at the office going over all the projects. Then we took him to his motel. He needed to be on a conference call with Manila. Then we headed back out to Mandaue to meet up with Brother Colipapa to go meet the people of the welfare sevices and the mayor. The mayor was too busy with ambassadors from Australia, (how could they trump us). So, we just met with the ladies running the welfare services on scheduling our delivery. Well, we find out we aren’t the only ones helping out, it is a good thing because it is now a week after the fire. So, we need to schedule our delivery to the victims, and it won’t happen until this week, so two weeks after the fire. So much for being “emergency response”.
The neat thing though is seeing just how many charitable organizations are helping these people out. I don’t know why we couldn’t jump through the hoops faster for us to help sooner. There is a lot I don’t understand. Then back through busy traffic. We now know the way to the Mandaue Stake Center. By the way, it is hidden back off the main drag. It is two back alley drives away from a main street. This was our third trip to the chapel this week. All of them coming home have been in thick traffic.
On Friday we slept in a bit again. Then, we met Jairus at the office at 7:30 for a Team (zoom) meeting with the group from Manila. A couple projects from Monday were passed by the next level. The meeting lasted about two hours. Then off to the templex to meet Bro. Colipapa. He and Jairus are brother-in-laws. The four of us headed up over the mountains to Balamban to a water project to see how it has been going since it was installed a few months ago. This was the final checkup on this project. It was a lot of off road driving, in steep mountains. You wouldn’t want to go there when it is raining or dark. We ended up at a little last mile school. The only person I could understand was the school teacher who is also the head of their water board. She was elected. She seems to be pretty sharp. LDSC teamed up with Single Drop (a charitable organization that helps with water problems). Between the two, a water line with potable water was developed and brought to a school. Along the way 32 paying customers are tied into the line. They each have to pay a small sum to get the water. LDSC provided all the materials and Single Drop provided the labor, engineering, and know how to put it all together for this school and this community. This was a cool project the Huskinsons were involved in.
During the drive home we were in and out of service, but found out about plenty of problems for the Sibonga Swine project. Brother Colipapa is their Champion, I have to approve the receipts I get from him, and then I send them on to Jairus. We were all in the truck out of service. The Sibonga group in a panic because they couuldn’t get a hold of any of us contacted Elder Huskinson in the states for help. They had gone in to get there pig feeds yesterday and were turned down. They should have been able to pick them up on December 1. Now on Dec. 2, they still can’t get feeds for their hungry pigs because they said they haven’t been paid for the last feeds. Elder Huskinson warned me about this. He said pig projects are a pain and until the office in Manila gets the purchasing and payment of feeds figured out it will be a big problem. I have to approve the feeds and get a check requisition sent in. Well, I sent the last one in on the 15th when I received it. This is two weeks later and the company is claiming they didn’t get paid. Jairus said they got paid a week ago. I said, “Well, they said they didn’t, so it is your word against theirs, and I’m stuck in the middle of it. Elder Huskinson warned me about this.” It got a little heated. I agree with Elder Huskinson that these pig projects can be a real good thing for poverty members to get out of their situation and make a living. We pay their way for about a year, until they have had two liters of pigs so they can now pay for the pig feeds, vet bills, insemination, etc. We provide the materials for pens, water systems, and feeds, etc. to get them going. However, until they get this payment of feeds figured out, I don’t want to be in the middle of it.
When we got back to Cebu we visited a large school that needs help. Many damaged rooms that need repair. Other charitable organizations have helped them tremendously, but they still need more help. These people and their partner organization were at the big event the morning before. Jairus was taking us to meet them to see if we could help out. We could, but there are about 20 in line in front of them. Since they contacted him, an old classmate, I think he will want us to go to work on it. However, it isn’t in near the trouble as the ones we see out in the mountains where they don’t have any parents with money or organizations that will be visible to help. (The organization that has helped them has a big banner hanging on the school for publicity and it is founded by a Chinese millionaire whose name is on the school and his family is still helping out.) If their name can’t be seen, they don’t want to help. So, the city schools are the last ones I want to help.
We had an early dinner at TGI Fridays. It was good. Pretty much like a TGI Friday with rice included in every meal.
We dropped Jairus off and went and crashed.
We were up at 4:45, still with colds, to meet Brother Colipapa at the Mandaue Stake Center again to head on a 2 hour drive north to discuss some welfare projects with a Branch President. It was a pretty cool. He is a great and caring leader. We hope we can help in some ways with the struggling members in his branch. So many good things he is doing, and his story is neat. I’m tired of writing and I’m sure you are tired of reading so I’m not going into details here. Needless to say, they were carrying on an all day First Aid and CPR training for their branch with one high school or adult member representing each family of the branch. It was cool. Bro. Colipapa is a major guy in the EMS and his group was doing the training. He was helping us instead of them this day. We met some cool people. One guy donating land for everyone to grow corn on. A single gal, a doctor, went on a mission, taught in the MTC in Manila, pretty as can be, and lives in this little community helping both the church and community.
On our way back we stopped into visit a “Rise and Rebuild” farm. Amazing! That will have to be another letter. Started by a returned missionary that feeds thousands of malnourished kids a day here. They have four large farms and are developing a fifth. It was impressive. You can see the U.S. influence in that project. Nothing primitive about how this farm is run.
Finally, home late in the evening and crashed.
It was a beautiful Sunday, we are feeling a ton better, and meetings were great. It is fun to be in the gospel doctrine class. It is a big class with probably about 75 people. The instructors are real good and the class is great to participate. It flows just like a class should, D&C 88:122 “Appoint among yourselves a teacher, and let not all be spokesmen at once, but let one speak at a time and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified of all, and that every man may have an equal privilege.” We were edified today. Our testimonies were strengthened and our commitment to live the gospel was strengthened. That was always my main goal as a teacher to prayerfully try to make those two things happen. The Holy Ghost is wonderful to help this happen! It is True!!
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
P.S. The pictures are from repackaging, the school where the water project took place, (the lady in red is the teacher and president of their community water association), a picture of a small portion of the “Rise and Rebuild” farm, and a crescent moon that we would see on our drive home each night this week. How about that angle of the moon. It is a little different here at the equator than in good old Wyoming. It could rock a baby to sleep here instead of dump the baby out
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