2 April 2023 Week #27: Working out the Details and Another Tooth Bites the Dust

Dear Family and Friends, 

Week #27 3/27-4/2

Office work on Monday. Our meeting was canceled because no-one had a project to present. Amazing. The Whitmores came by the office at about 11:00. They had a great time visiting with the Translation Team. You could tell they had enjoyed each other when they served here. They invited us to join them for lunch. So, the 7 of us went to JY Square to a Chinese buffet and had lunch. It was a wild time with continuous stories from Elder Jim Whitmore.

Afterwards the Translation Team and Clyda and I went back to the office to work for the afternoon. I was really hoping to get the mess on Cayos and Tres Reyes straightened out. We did get a PO for Cayos, but not for Tres Reyes. That puts a hold on the solar project for another week. I hope we get it straightened out this week. The Harrisons from Orem are anxious to come, and we want to get them here, but I keep messing up on the little details in the paperwork. I keep pleading for help, but it falls on deaf ears. I hope I get it right this time.

That evening we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. Sister Noble is still with us. She has a new companion, Sister Pretal, who is 27 and a college graduate. This is her last month. We also had Sister M….., a 25 year old Family History Service Missionary. She lives alone here and serves in the Family History Center.

On Tuesday we went to Lapu Lapu with the Brother Colipapa and Whitmores to see a member that they personally had helped. It was fun to meet that gentleman. The Whitmores bought him tools to build with, a welder, some power tools, etc. The welder is small enough so he can carry it on his lap on his motorcycle to go to work. He throws the other tools in a backpack and away he goes. Now he has a good business going. He long ago quit receiving fast offerings and has helped four other families get off fast offerings also. He has employed them. He has 8 children with one on a mission and he is the 1st counselor in the bishopric. Pretty cool, but against the rules. The Whitmores and the Huskinsons did a few things out of the box of rules we are supposed to live by; however, it sure has blessed lives. However, we are not in a position to do that, and I don’t feel good about playing outside the rules. I don’t fault them though. They were helping people. The problem is though, when other members get word of it, a lot of them start expecting handouts from the Americans, and in too many cases ask for it.

At lunch I broke another tooth. Dang it. Then off to see Ruel, the boat builder, to order 2 more fishing boats for the fisherfolks. It will cost us more this time as inflation has hit here also. We then stopped at a historic site where Magellan was killed on his voyage around the world by the Filipinos in the 1500s. We were then too late to make it to the dentist. I survived a couple days with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. We made It to the dentist on Thursday morning. At the rate Clyda and I are going we will need dentures when we get home. We will be real gummers. We had some of Clyda’s delicious stew for dinner. She is one great cook. If we aren’t doing anything else correctly, we are eating right.

On Wednesday we went to school at 6:30 a.m. to join third grade classes for about 4 hours. It was fun. They loved Clyda’s blue eyes and blond hair. She is a big hit here in the Philippines. It was fun to be in a classroom in the city. They have everything you would need for a classroom, and very few of these things do you find in a last mile school. Cokeville would be a last mile school, but we have everything. The three classes we visited all had a CR (bathroom) unheard of in the last mile school, a TV, a printer, a blackboard, a whiteboard, several lights, a water cooler and the kids each had a water bottle, a couple fans or more and a first aid kit. Each child also had a backpack. The teachers did a good job. The TVs were used very well for teaching. One teacher was teaching English using math story problems as the text. She was teaching the students to read and identify the problem and solution without solving the problem. Remember, English is a second language for these students. Cebuano is their native language. However, most of the language used in class was all in English. It was pretty cool. Another teacher was teaching Symmetry, and the third teacher was teaching a science and geography lesson. All classrooms began with prayer and then aerobics to get the blood flowing. Unlike the high schools we have seen, the kids rotated classes. We enjoyed our morning at school and were shockingly surprised by what these schools had as opposed to the last mile schools we have visited.

That afternoon we went exploring as we needed to find a couple different banks and ATMs. We needed to withdraw a bunch of cash to pay the boat builder and to pay for the service of LDSC’s generators and chainsaws. We also needed to make a grocery store visit. That evening we went to dinner at Italiani’s with the Taylors and the Koyles.

On Thursday we went to the dentist. She fixed me up but told me I would need a crown next time. I hope it doesn’t get to that point and she hopes so to. She is our Choir Director, Sister Merlyn Matthews. She was married to an Australian who has passed away. We also took our truck to the car wash. It was filthy inside and out. While the car got washed, we went to Robinson Mall and bought a couple toys for Quincy. We are getting excited for her and Olivia to make a visit this coming week!!! We went back to the office for the afternoon.

Our AC isn’t working very well in our apartment, and it is getting hot outside. The sun is almost directly overhead at this point. On March 21 it was directly over the equator. It will work its way north to the Tropic of Cancer on June 21. That is at 33 degrees latitude. We are at about 10 degrees north latitude. So, we are in for some hot months from now until next October. We have asked about 5 times now in the past month for repairs to our AC situation but to no avail. They have cleaned them, but it just blows warm air out harder.

That evening we had the Elders over for dinner. It was fun to get to know Elder Jenkins from Monroe, Utah, a little better. He seems like a good missionary.

On Friday it was more office time, trying to get our pipeline updated with all the notes we need to enter, who made the last email, us or them, when, what was said, what needs to be done next, etc. We spent quite a bit of time developing a couple (PDW) Project Development Worksheets. They are documents that are about 5 pages long. To get a PO for a project you have to have 5 items completed correctly and entered into the church’s computer system (CHAS). 1-Decision Point 2-DOD (deed of donation) or MOA (memorandum of agreement) the legal document. 3-Power Point we used for our presentation with all the money totals correctly entered that we get from the 4-Budget we developed with purchasing. The trick on these two is making sure the Philippine Pesos are correct with the US dollar amounts. 5-The PDW. If there is a problem with any of these then you are hung up. They only provide PO’s on Tuesday. If you don’t get it, then you wait until the next Tuesday and hope you have it all correct or you’re sunk for another week. In Manila they can go next door to the bosses, or purchasing, or finance, or the lawyer, or whoever, they are all in the same building. We are hoping they will answer an email or the phone, which I hate talking on the phone. I’m just like the great Elder David Clark in that aspect. I just wish he were here now to get me to do a little hooting to relieve some anxiety. Send me a letter big guy. I love your wife’s letters, but it would be nice for you to exercise you fingers a little and your mind and send a letter to the man in the heated environment. However, it is getting me prepared for my next location when I lay this body down. Sorry to digress a little, one of the good folks on this email list is one of my great buds from my mission days in Alaska.

We went to the Temple in the later afternoon and had a great session. It is always good to go to the temple. This Cebu Temple is beautiful.

On Saturday we spent about 5 hours at the office working on a couple more PDW’s we are preparing for presenting some projects. In the afternoon I digressed a little and watched the BYU spring football game on BYUTV. We also have watched a couple of men’s volleyball matches.

Of course, most every day we still get up early and go walking at the Templex for an hour. We seldom miss, unless we are out of town or visiting an elementary school that starts at 6:30 in the morning. Oh yea, the kids all had a snack break after 3 hours in class. Then we study “Come Follow Me” and read out of the Book of Mormon each day. Our exercise, scripture study, Clyda’s great cooking are the things that keep us sane while dealing with our inept ability to do all of this computer paperwork. I am typing this letter at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday evening. That is when I usually do it and then finish it on Sunday evening. In the last hour I have received 3 emails dealing with what we do. No wonder I can’t keep up. I used to get about 3 emails a month.

We had a wonderful Sabbath Day. It was Fast Sunday, and many humble testimonies were born. We are encouraged to watch General Conference on our own. The culture here is different, but Satan uses the same tactics here as he does in the good ole’ USA. Word of Wisdom problems, pornography, drugs, infidelity, stealing, tempers, abuse, complacency, etc. Anything Satan can do to destroy the family and make it so it is hard to love your neighbor, is prevalent here just like in the USA. Thankfully, Heavenly Father, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and ministering angels are in full motion in both places also. All we have to do is the small and simple things, so we open the door and let them in. Individual and family prayers night and morning, daily scripture study and Come Follow Me. Reading from the Book of Mormon daily so we aren’t under condemnation (Alma 13:20)(President Ezra Taft Benson), attend our Sunday Meetings and partake of the Sacrament therefore renewing our covenant with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. As we do these things faithfully, we will be on the Lord’s winning team. This gospel is true, the calamities of the day, the weather, wars and rumor of wars, etc. are all a sign of what is supposed to take place before the King of Kings returns. “Lift Where You Stand”.

With love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda