1 Jan. 2023 Week #14: The Giving Machines and a Happy New Year!
Dear Family and Friends,
It is hard to imagine it is a new year. HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!! Time comes and goes, and it seems faster with each year. It is amazing how that happens, amid days that never seem to end sometimes, and weeks that last forever, and then when you look back it seems like last year was just yesterday. I remember after my mission as a young man, within a couple months it just seemed like a dream, like it never really happened, yet I could remember so many learning experiences with clarity. I am grateful for being able to remember wonderful spiritual experiences that strengthened my testimony and gave me insight in how Heavenly Father guides us and blesses our lives. One of my favorite verses of scripture, that President Daniel pointed out to me and our Presidency and others is: D&C 121:45 “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.” Of course I need to really work on my “charity”, but the end of this verse, “the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven”, is really insightful. When does dew happen in the night. We are well aware of it in the morning when we go out early and walk through the grass after a cloudless night. We know it didn’t rain, yet the grass is covered with water and our feet get soaked. When did it happen, at 12:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:43, no, it just happened gradually throughout the night. That is how the Lord works in our lives as we try to “Lift where we stand”. I’m grateful for my testimony that has come a little at a time, with some big moments, and with many days of just trying to fulfill a calling. This is the Lord’s work, in whatever capacity we are called to serve, if we will try to do our best in that calling, we will be blessed, and before we know it, the morning will come, and we will be soaked with a great testimony of this great work. It is marvelous and it is TRUE!!
It has been an interesting week wedged in between Christmas and a New Year. Last Sunday night I picked up a couple, Elder and Sister Lenard and Bonnie Huff, from Manila. Clyda didn’t go to the airport with me, she stayed here with Sister Garner, who has been really sick for a couple of weeks. The Huff’s are Humanitarian Aid missionaries, also, fulfilling their calling out of Manila. They spent the week here on a little vacation. Elder Huff served his mission here from 1971-1973. He baptized a lady here in the Cebu area and has kept in touch through the years. They scheduled Wednesday to spend with this family where Elder Huff had baptized the lady. She then got married and has a wonderful family.
On Monday the Huff’s went with us to a project we are looking at, a shelter home for sexually abused girls. They have 64 girls ranging in ages from 12-23. It is a Catholic School, Bonita something. In the future if I refer to the Bonita home you will know what I am referring to. The head lady of this school is LDS and the one Clyda ran into in the temple a couple of weeks ago. We had a good lengthy visit. The girls perfomed for us singing and dancing, customary for this culture. One girl who is 23 and been in the home for almost 10 years now, sang, and she has an incredible voice. Well, anyway, the project would be providing the materials for the home to put in a center for the 12 oldest girls, or those most ready to go out into the world on their own, then graduate from here, to have the skills necessary to take care of themselves. So, it is necessary for them to develop independent living skills. They need a place where the girls cook for themselves, instead of eat in a cafeteria, etc. We are excited to
help in this project. It will be expensive per beneficiary, and that is one of the things that you have to list that is important to your project proposal, how much money is this going to cost per beneficiary.
We also went with them to a place where a gentleman has a completely solar generated home, hydroponics garden, fish tanks-to raise fish to eat, 60 vermicomposting beds. It should take 60 days to make good soil from compost when you have worms working for you. They harvest a bed each day and then start putting in all the stuff for new compost and then put the worms back in and let them go to work. The worms work for cheap, just food and shelter. They get scrap food from the restaurants in town and from all the leaves that are swept up from the gutters around the city. That was an interesting visit with a very intelligent man, high up in the government, and a self-made man with a mansion.
On Tuesday we took the Huff’s to the beautiful mountains and gardens at Lake View. It takes about an hour to get there. We had lunch and spent about an hour strolling through the beautiful gardens at Lake View. We had them back to town so they could make a 3:00 temple appointment. Without knowing it, when they got into the temple, in their same session was the family they were going to meet with the next day. That family was there because a grandson of the lady Elder Huff had baptized, was being endowed prior to leaving on a mission soon. Pretty cool for them.
The Huff’s said they had a wonderful day with the family on Wednesday and then the Huff’s went on an excursion to Kawasan Falls on Thursday and snorkeling in the ocean. They flew back to Manila on Friday. They had a great time. We were just with them on Monday and Tuesday, along with picking them up on Sunday and getting them to their motel. We fed them here at home on Sunday evening and Monday. We took them out to dinner on Wednesday.
The Huff’s live up in Davis county Utah. He graduated from Davis High and she graduated from Layton High. They have spent about the last 30 years in Hawaii where they raised their family, he was an instructor at BYU-H and she was an elementary school teacher.
On Wednesday I picked up Elder and Sister Hayne, another Humanitarian Aid couple from Manila. They came out the same time the Huff’s did, which was one month before us. Elder and Sister Hayne are from San Diego. She is a Peruvian from Cuzco. She attended college at San Diego State where she met Elder Hayne, who taught and baptized her. He had served a mission as a young man to Japan. He grew up in San Diego and attended college there after his mission. He is a business man, a party planner for big events all over the world. There is nothing shy about him and you can tell he was good at his trade. Their youngest son, a student at BYU, is here spending Christmas with them. They had been to Bohol on vacation for a few days. I picked them up at the port. They had ferried over from Bohol. Clyda spent some time with Sister Garner again. They spent the day on Wednesday at the office with us, teaching us how to prepare projects for approval with the Word Document that we have to fill out, about 3 pages of all kinds of details about the who, what, where, and why of a proposal. Then they helped us start to prepare a Power Point presentation to go along with the Word Document. The Power Point is what we use to introduce and explain our proposal to the committee for approval.
On Thursday they went with us to a Barangay health clinic. They are big into wanting to help in the medical world. They have a passion for that. We had received a request from a Sister Gonzales for medications for the elderly in her area. Well, we can’t provide medications for anyone. I would be good with ending the conversation there. However, before I knew it the
Hayne’s were telling them how we can provide all kinds of medical equipment for them, incubators, etc. With each new thing they mentioned I felt the water getting a little higher. I had the feeling before we got out of there I would be drowning. Then they finished with whatever the needs just contact Elder and Sister Teichert and they will be happy to help. I was now swallowing quite a bit of that water. I hope I don’t drown. We’ll see how this one goes. Oh boy!!
We took them to the gardens in the mountains after the visit. They headed back to Manila that evening. If they come again, I will meet them with my snorkeling gear. They mean well, but I’m not sure that world is one I want to get into with our help. Maybe it will be, but let’s do a little wading and treading before we jump right in.
On Friday we did a lot of communicating with people on other projects. We have one that we are getting pretty close to presenting. It was a lot of questions from us and responses from them. We also had several others that want us to come and visit. They need our help. I’ve never been so popular. Too bad I haven’t a clue on how to help them. We are working on it though.
Another couple arrived this week from Heyburn, ID. They are the Koyle’s. They will be working in the temple and living at the temple patron housing. They had quite the ordeal getting here. But they finally made it. Elder and Sister Woods had to go to Manila on Thursday to get their biometrics done. Elder and Sister Koyle were on the same plane as the Woods coming from Manila to Cebu. The Koyle’s had never been so happy to see missionaries in their lives. They made it and are glad to be here. They have a cattle ranch back in Heyburn. The Taylor’s from Perry, UT, are supposed to arrive here on the 6th and they will also be working in the temple and living at the patron housing, and one more couple to work in the temple will arrive in February. To think that in September the Huskinson’s were the only couple from the U.S. in the Cebu area. By February there will be seven couples here. And if they can get one they want another one here to do what we do. We have such a huge area that they want at least one more couple here to help.
Last week a huge storm hit Mindanao. There are 36 known dead from drowning and 24 missing. This is an area of ours, but we can’t go there because of the civil unrest. Two WSR managers, Ronald Aban and Norman Dolorfino are working with this project (that entails helping out a lot more than the 700 hundred fire victims we had here a month ago). It is over 2,000 families that had no electricity and lost almost everything on December 23. How about that for Christmas. Let us be grateful for the many blessings we have. It may be awful cold, slick roads, blizzards, but so far in good old Cokeville, USA, we can seek shelter pretty quick and enjoy life.
It was fun to work the “Giving Machines” yesterday and meet new and neat Filipino people trying to help poor Filipinos in need. It was a great day. Then we went to the Colipapa’s for a New Year’s Party. We left there at about 10:00 to come home, go to bed, and let the new year sneak up on us. Sure enough, when we woke up this morning the new year was here. It didn’t disappoint.
We understand from Taffy, that Georgia’s funeral was excellent. Condolences again to Burke and family. We are praying for all of you at this time. She was truly a great and loving lady, that will be a great ministering angel to help many family members here as she is allowed to from her other responsibilities in Heaven.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Week #14 12/26-1/1
It is hard to imagine it is a new year. HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone!!! Time comes and goes, and it seems faster with each year. It is amazing how that happens, amid days that never seem to end sometimes, and weeks that last forever, and then when you look back it seems like last year was just yesterday. I remember after my mission as a young man, within a couple months it just seemed like a dream, like it never really happened, yet I could remember so many learning experiences with clarity. I am grateful for being able to remember wonderful spiritual experiences that strengthened my testimony and gave me insight in how Heavenly Father guides us and blesses our lives. One of my favorite verses of scripture, that President Daniel pointed out to me and our Presidency and others is: D&C 121:45 “Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.” Of course I need to really work on my “charity”, but the end of this verse, “the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven”, is really insightful. When does dew happen in the night. We are well aware of it in the morning when we go out early and walk through the grass after a cloudless night. We know it didn’t rain, yet the grass is covered with water and our feet get soaked. When did it happen, at 12:00, 1:00, 3:00, 5:43, no, it just happened gradually throughout the night. That is how the Lord works in our lives as we try to “Lift where we stand”. I’m grateful for my testimony that has come a little at a time, with some big moments, and with many days of just trying to fulfill a calling. This is the Lord’s work, in whatever capacity we are called to serve, if we will try to do our best in that calling, we will be blessed, and before we know it, the morning will come, and we will be soaked with a great testimony of this great work. It is marvelous and it is TRUE!!
It has been an interesting week wedged in between Christmas and a New Year. Last Sunday night I picked up a couple, Elder and Sister Lenard and Bonnie Huff, from Manila. Clyda didn’t go to the airport with me, she stayed here with Sister Garner, who has been really sick for a couple of weeks. The Huff’s are Humanitarian Aid missionaries, also, fulfilling their calling out of Manila. They spent the week here on a little vacation. Elder Huff served his mission here from 1971-1973. He baptized a lady here in the Cebu area and has kept in touch through the years. They scheduled Wednesday to spend with this family where Elder Huff had baptized the lady. She then got married and has a wonderful family.
On Monday the Huff’s went with us to a project we are looking at, a shelter home for sexually abused girls. They have 64 girls ranging in ages from 12-23. It is a Catholic School, Bonita something. In the future if I refer to the Bonita home you will know what I am referring to. The head lady of this school is LDS and the one Clyda ran into in the temple a couple of weeks ago. We had a good lengthy visit. The girls perfomed for us singing and dancing, customary for this culture. One girl who is 23 and been in the home for almost 10 years now, sang, and she has an incredible voice. Well, anyway, the project would be providing the materials for the home to put in a center for the 12 oldest girls, or those most ready to go out into the world on their own, then graduate from here, to have the skills necessary to take care of themselves. So, it is necessary for them to develop independent living skills. They need a place where the girls cook for themselves, instead of eat in a cafeteria, etc. We are excited to
help in this project. It will be expensive per beneficiary, and that is one of the things that you have to list that is important to your project proposal, how much money is this going to cost per beneficiary.
We also went with them to a place where a gentleman has a completely solar generated home, hydroponics garden, fish tanks-to raise fish to eat, 60 vermicomposting beds. It should take 60 days to make good soil from compost when you have worms working for you. They harvest a bed each day and then start putting in all the stuff for new compost and then put the worms back in and let them go to work. The worms work for cheap, just food and shelter. They get scrap food from the restaurants in town and from all the leaves that are swept up from the gutters around the city. That was an interesting visit with a very intelligent man, high up in the government, and a self-made man with a mansion.
On Tuesday we took the Huff’s to the beautiful mountains and gardens at Lake View. It takes about an hour to get there. We had lunch and spent about an hour strolling through the beautiful gardens at Lake View. We had them back to town so they could make a 3:00 temple appointment. Without knowing it, when they got into the temple, in their same session was the family they were going to meet with the next day. That family was there because a grandson of the lady Elder Huff had baptized, was being endowed prior to leaving on a mission soon. Pretty cool for them.
The Huff’s said they had a wonderful day with the family on Wednesday and then the Huff’s went on an excursion to Kawasan Falls on Thursday and snorkeling in the ocean. They flew back to Manila on Friday. They had a great time. We were just with them on Monday and Tuesday, along with picking them up on Sunday and getting them to their motel. We fed them here at home on Sunday evening and Monday. We took them out to dinner on Wednesday.
The Huff’s live up in Davis county Utah. He graduated from Davis High and she graduated from Layton High. They have spent about the last 30 years in Hawaii where they raised their family, he was an instructor at BYU-H and she was an elementary school teacher.
On Wednesday I picked up Elder and Sister Hayne, another Humanitarian Aid couple from Manila. They came out the same time the Huff’s did, which was one month before us. Elder and Sister Hayne are from San Diego. She is a Peruvian from Cuzco. She attended college at San Diego State where she met Elder Hayne, who taught and baptized her. He had served a mission as a young man to Japan. He grew up in San Diego and attended college there after his mission. He is a business man, a party planner for big events all over the world. There is nothing shy about him and you can tell he was good at his trade. Their youngest son, a student at BYU, is here spending Christmas with them. They had been to Bohol on vacation for a few days. I picked them up at the port. They had ferried over from Bohol. Clyda spent some time with Sister Garner again. They spent the day on Wednesday at the office with us, teaching us how to prepare projects for approval with the Word Document that we have to fill out, about 3 pages of all kinds of details about the who, what, where, and why of a proposal. Then they helped us start to prepare a Power Point presentation to go along with the Word Document. The Power Point is what we use to introduce and explain our proposal to the committee for approval.
On Thursday they went with us to a Barangay health clinic. They are big into wanting to help in the medical world. They have a passion for that. We had received a request from a Sister Gonzales for medications for the elderly in her area. Well, we can’t provide medications for anyone. I would be good with ending the conversation there. However, before I knew it the
Hayne’s were telling them how we can provide all kinds of medical equipment for them, incubators, etc. With each new thing they mentioned I felt the water getting a little higher. I had the feeling before we got out of there I would be drowning. Then they finished with whatever the needs just contact Elder and Sister Teichert and they will be happy to help. I was now swallowing quite a bit of that water. I hope I don’t drown. We’ll see how this one goes. Oh boy!!
We took them to the gardens in the mountains after the visit. They headed back to Manila that evening. If they come again, I will meet them with my snorkeling gear. They mean well, but I’m not sure that world is one I want to get into with our help. Maybe it will be, but let’s do a little wading and treading before we jump right in.
On Friday we did a lot of communicating with people on other projects. We have one that we are getting pretty close to presenting. It was a lot of questions from us and responses from them. We also had several others that want us to come and visit. They need our help. I’ve never been so popular. Too bad I haven’t a clue on how to help them. We are working on it though.
Another couple arrived this week from Heyburn, ID. They are the Koyle’s. They will be working in the temple and living at the temple patron housing. They had quite the ordeal getting here. But they finally made it. Elder and Sister Woods had to go to Manila on Thursday to get their biometrics done. Elder and Sister Koyle were on the same plane as the Woods coming from Manila to Cebu. The Koyle’s had never been so happy to see missionaries in their lives. They made it and are glad to be here. They have a cattle ranch back in Heyburn. The Taylor’s from Perry, UT, are supposed to arrive here on the 6th and they will also be working in the temple and living at the patron housing, and one more couple to work in the temple will arrive in February. To think that in September the Huskinson’s were the only couple from the U.S. in the Cebu area. By February there will be seven couples here. And if they can get one they want another one here to do what we do. We have such a huge area that they want at least one more couple here to help.
Last week a huge storm hit Mindanao. There are 36 known dead from drowning and 24 missing. This is an area of ours, but we can’t go there because of the civil unrest. Two WSR managers, Ronald Aban and Norman Dolorfino are working with this project (that entails helping out a lot more than the 700 hundred fire victims we had here a month ago). It is over 2,000 families that had no electricity and lost almost everything on December 23. How about that for Christmas. Let us be grateful for the many blessings we have. It may be awful cold, slick roads, blizzards, but so far in good old Cokeville, USA, we can seek shelter pretty quick and enjoy life.
It was fun to work the “Giving Machines” yesterday and meet new and neat Filipino people trying to help poor Filipinos in need. It was a great day. Then we went to the Colipapa’s for a New Year’s Party. We left there at about 10:00 to come home, go to bed, and let the new year sneak up on us. Sure enough, when we woke up this morning the new year was here. It didn’t disappoint.
We understand from Taffy, that Georgia’s funeral was excellent. Condolences again to Burke and family. We are praying for all of you at this time. She was truly a great and loving lady, that will be a great ministering angel to help many family members here as she is allowed to from her other responsibilities in Heaven.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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