12 Feb. 2023 Week #20: We're Bringing Home to the Philippines
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a good week. The only downer was not getting an email from Connor in Chile. I guess he had a real busy day. We look forward to hearing from him each week. He is having a great mission with all kinds of neat things going on. We love his growth in the gospel and his strong testimony. We are proud grandparents. Missions are hard, like life, but they bring great growth in ways that only a mission can. The ups far outweigh the downs. Through our trials and discouragements, we are truly being blessed.
We finally got our passports back and now we can go get a drivers license. It has been 5 weeks now without being able to drive. I hope I can still remember how to drive in this traffic. I pray we won’t ever get into an accident here. Brother Colipapa is taking us to get the licenses on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday are full. Thursday is also full.
On Monday we had a full day with meetings and office work. Then in the evening we had a FHE with the seniors. It is fun to get to know them better. Clyda was in charge of the activity after a great lesson from the Woods. Clyda just asked for them to each tell about a favorite pastime or hobby, in a minute. It was fun to listen to them. Some we knew, but several were new things we didn’t know about them. Then we had ice cream with all kinds of toppings.
We are in the Philippines, but with our apartment, living conditions, the grocery stores we go to, you might think we had just gone over the hill to live. Clyda cooks the same kind of meals we ate at home, with almost all of the same ingredients. I’m getting fatter on chocolate chip cookies and especially on the cookie dough. We eat hamburgers, chicken and noodles, cheese-baked chicken, meatloaf, baked potatoes, beef stew, salmon, etc. with carrots, green beans, potatoes, green salad, etc. When you are out on the streets though, you for sure know you are in the Philippines. Many of the Filipinos live like us. But the majority of them have a tough life. They are a resilient people. One of our housekeepers, works basically 6-7 days a week and a 12 hour shift, with an hour commute to get here and then another hour to get home. She is married with 3 children. Her oldest is 12 and has seizures all the time. She can’t talk. This young mother is amazing. She speaks pretty good English. We can have a conversation with her. Most of the help here only know a few English words, but their friendliness is amazing. Anyway, in visiting with the young mother she is doing well. Her husband takes care of the kids because she can make more money than he can. She has worked here for 10 years. She always smiles. Her husband does work when she is home. He is a moterbike taxi driver. (Habel-Habel) She tells of her home with only a couple walls and a roof, so it is good, it keeps the rain and sunshine off of them. Your heart goes out to them. You just want to give them a place to live.
We are thinking sometime soon we are going to get a few projects passed. It takes so long and just when you think it is ready, you don’t hear from someone you need to hear from for a week or two. It is frustrating. Then you also find out you didn’t do something you needed to do, or didn’t contact someone you needed to. We will get a project done before we come home though.
We spent the day Wednesday traveling to and from Sibonga, visiting their pig project. It seems to be doing well. They have some healthy-looking pigs. Our pig project over at Calinog had a setback this week when a pig 92 days pregnant died. It is one of the bishop’s pigs. It was just three weeks from having piglets.
On Friday we spent the afternoon in the Philippine version of Home Depot. It is called Belmont Industrial Tool Center. We were pricing tools for the Army 7th Support Service Unit. They are the ones that rescued the wheelchairs. They are asking for several big tools for repairing broken down support vehicles out in the field and in their shops.
One of the highlights this week was going to the temple. What a shock, when I went through the new name booth and the gentleman didn’t do it right, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t feel like it was my place to correct him. Then, all the changes in the session. WOW! That evening we had the Koyles over for dinner. They are from Heyburn, Idaho, and have been here about a month now. They serve in the temple, so we had a great discussion with them. It was so interesting to hear about all the changes. I’m real glad I didn’t try to correct the Filipino in the new name booth. Holding my tongue is something I’m trying to improve on. I still have a long way to go, but I was so glad I had done it this time. Amazingly enough, I don’t know everything, (I’m finding I hardly know anything). Anyway, a gentleman arrived here from Salt Lake and gave all the temple workers a rundown on the new film, etc. on Sunday. He said it was happening at all 140 operating temples on the same Sunday. He brought two new films and took the old ones, that aren’t that old, back to Salt Lake. Pretty cool. We really enjoyed the session and are looking forward to doing other ordinances, because each one has a slight change in the wording, baptisms, sealings, etc. like the new name.
We went on our first Habel-Habel outing yesterday. We went to the mall. In the truck on a good day it takes about 15 to 20 minutes. On a bad day it takes an hour. We went so Clyda could do a bunch of pricing on toys for the Child Development centers project she is working on. We got two bids back from purchasing and there were some big differences, so she wanted to go price some of the items. She spent about an hour and a half in a couple different stores, (Toys-r-us) and Metro. Well, the Habel-Habel drive got us there in 5 minutes and back in 5 minutes. We have a member in our ward, an older man and a convert of 20 years, father of the 2nd counselor in our bishopric, who is a Habel-Habel driver. I had gotten his number. I gave him a call and he brought another member with his bike, and they gave us a ride to the mall. It was fun and so quick.
We had Sister Bangcong and Sister Noble here for dinner last night. We continue to be impressed with these sisters. Last Tuesday we had Elder Espinoza and Elder Willis here. Elder Quicay has been transferred. We will miss him. It was fun getting to know Elder Espinoza. He is twice the size of Elder Quicay. He is a good-sized Filipino. He is 26 years old and barely made it out before he became too old. He is a college graduate in electrical engineering. He is from up by Manila. He wasn’t active in the church when he was of mission age. During his college days his mother got cancer. After college he became her caretaker. She has passed away. However, that is what got him active in the gospel and he wants to serve because of her. He is a good young man. He speaks real good English. I asked him when he became good at English. He said it improved quite a bit during college, but it really improved when he was taking care of his mother. He couldn’t find a job in electrical engineering that would allow him to be home with her. The best job he could get was in sales. He found out that in order to be successful at that job he had to speak good English. So, then he really worked on it so he could do well in Sales. He plans on getting a job in electrical engineering when he goes home.
We are speaking in church today. We are the youth speakers, we each have 7 minutes, then there will be a hymn and then the main speaker. We hope we speak well enough so they can understand our English. We want the Spirit to be with us so their testimonies are strengthened and their commitment to live the gospel will be strengthened. This gospel is true. The work goes on. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands is rolling forth with increased speed. Buckle up and hold on, it is going to be a great ride.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #20 2/6-2/12
We had a good week. The only downer was not getting an email from Connor in Chile. I guess he had a real busy day. We look forward to hearing from him each week. He is having a great mission with all kinds of neat things going on. We love his growth in the gospel and his strong testimony. We are proud grandparents. Missions are hard, like life, but they bring great growth in ways that only a mission can. The ups far outweigh the downs. Through our trials and discouragements, we are truly being blessed.
We finally got our passports back and now we can go get a drivers license. It has been 5 weeks now without being able to drive. I hope I can still remember how to drive in this traffic. I pray we won’t ever get into an accident here. Brother Colipapa is taking us to get the licenses on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday are full. Thursday is also full.
On Monday we had a full day with meetings and office work. Then in the evening we had a FHE with the seniors. It is fun to get to know them better. Clyda was in charge of the activity after a great lesson from the Woods. Clyda just asked for them to each tell about a favorite pastime or hobby, in a minute. It was fun to listen to them. Some we knew, but several were new things we didn’t know about them. Then we had ice cream with all kinds of toppings.
We are in the Philippines, but with our apartment, living conditions, the grocery stores we go to, you might think we had just gone over the hill to live. Clyda cooks the same kind of meals we ate at home, with almost all of the same ingredients. I’m getting fatter on chocolate chip cookies and especially on the cookie dough. We eat hamburgers, chicken and noodles, cheese-baked chicken, meatloaf, baked potatoes, beef stew, salmon, etc. with carrots, green beans, potatoes, green salad, etc. When you are out on the streets though, you for sure know you are in the Philippines. Many of the Filipinos live like us. But the majority of them have a tough life. They are a resilient people. One of our housekeepers, works basically 6-7 days a week and a 12 hour shift, with an hour commute to get here and then another hour to get home. She is married with 3 children. Her oldest is 12 and has seizures all the time. She can’t talk. This young mother is amazing. She speaks pretty good English. We can have a conversation with her. Most of the help here only know a few English words, but their friendliness is amazing. Anyway, in visiting with the young mother she is doing well. Her husband takes care of the kids because she can make more money than he can. She has worked here for 10 years. She always smiles. Her husband does work when she is home. He is a moterbike taxi driver. (Habel-Habel) She tells of her home with only a couple walls and a roof, so it is good, it keeps the rain and sunshine off of them. Your heart goes out to them. You just want to give them a place to live.
We are thinking sometime soon we are going to get a few projects passed. It takes so long and just when you think it is ready, you don’t hear from someone you need to hear from for a week or two. It is frustrating. Then you also find out you didn’t do something you needed to do, or didn’t contact someone you needed to. We will get a project done before we come home though.
We spent the day Wednesday traveling to and from Sibonga, visiting their pig project. It seems to be doing well. They have some healthy-looking pigs. Our pig project over at Calinog had a setback this week when a pig 92 days pregnant died. It is one of the bishop’s pigs. It was just three weeks from having piglets.
On Friday we spent the afternoon in the Philippine version of Home Depot. It is called Belmont Industrial Tool Center. We were pricing tools for the Army 7th Support Service Unit. They are the ones that rescued the wheelchairs. They are asking for several big tools for repairing broken down support vehicles out in the field and in their shops.
One of the highlights this week was going to the temple. What a shock, when I went through the new name booth and the gentleman didn’t do it right, I didn’t say anything because I didn’t feel like it was my place to correct him. Then, all the changes in the session. WOW! That evening we had the Koyles over for dinner. They are from Heyburn, Idaho, and have been here about a month now. They serve in the temple, so we had a great discussion with them. It was so interesting to hear about all the changes. I’m real glad I didn’t try to correct the Filipino in the new name booth. Holding my tongue is something I’m trying to improve on. I still have a long way to go, but I was so glad I had done it this time. Amazingly enough, I don’t know everything, (I’m finding I hardly know anything). Anyway, a gentleman arrived here from Salt Lake and gave all the temple workers a rundown on the new film, etc. on Sunday. He said it was happening at all 140 operating temples on the same Sunday. He brought two new films and took the old ones, that aren’t that old, back to Salt Lake. Pretty cool. We really enjoyed the session and are looking forward to doing other ordinances, because each one has a slight change in the wording, baptisms, sealings, etc. like the new name.
We went on our first Habel-Habel outing yesterday. We went to the mall. In the truck on a good day it takes about 15 to 20 minutes. On a bad day it takes an hour. We went so Clyda could do a bunch of pricing on toys for the Child Development centers project she is working on. We got two bids back from purchasing and there were some big differences, so she wanted to go price some of the items. She spent about an hour and a half in a couple different stores, (Toys-r-us) and Metro. Well, the Habel-Habel drive got us there in 5 minutes and back in 5 minutes. We have a member in our ward, an older man and a convert of 20 years, father of the 2nd counselor in our bishopric, who is a Habel-Habel driver. I had gotten his number. I gave him a call and he brought another member with his bike, and they gave us a ride to the mall. It was fun and so quick.
We had Sister Bangcong and Sister Noble here for dinner last night. We continue to be impressed with these sisters. Last Tuesday we had Elder Espinoza and Elder Willis here. Elder Quicay has been transferred. We will miss him. It was fun getting to know Elder Espinoza. He is twice the size of Elder Quicay. He is a good-sized Filipino. He is 26 years old and barely made it out before he became too old. He is a college graduate in electrical engineering. He is from up by Manila. He wasn’t active in the church when he was of mission age. During his college days his mother got cancer. After college he became her caretaker. She has passed away. However, that is what got him active in the gospel and he wants to serve because of her. He is a good young man. He speaks real good English. I asked him when he became good at English. He said it improved quite a bit during college, but it really improved when he was taking care of his mother. He couldn’t find a job in electrical engineering that would allow him to be home with her. The best job he could get was in sales. He found out that in order to be successful at that job he had to speak good English. So, then he really worked on it so he could do well in Sales. He plans on getting a job in electrical engineering when he goes home.
We are speaking in church today. We are the youth speakers, we each have 7 minutes, then there will be a hymn and then the main speaker. We hope we speak well enough so they can understand our English. We want the Spirit to be with us so their testimonies are strengthened and their commitment to live the gospel will be strengthened. This gospel is true. The work goes on. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands is rolling forth with increased speed. Buckle up and hold on, it is going to be a great ride.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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