30 April 2023 Week #31: It Feels so Great to Help
Dear Family and Friends,
We presented on Monday a project for Toboso National High School. It is a school with grades 7-10. They have 1,714 learners, as they call their students here in the Philippines, with 69 teachers and 28 classrooms. Yes, half of them attend from 6 a.m. until noon and then the other half in the afternoon. Students stay in their assigned rooms and the teachers rotate classrooms. Then they have special teachers that don’t have a home room. We are providing them with 26 TVs. They have 2 TVs already. After being out of school for two years, these students are really far behind. We want to try and help them. A teacher at this school taught a great geometry lesson using the TV when we visited them. We feel they will use the TVs very well. I really think it is a great tool to help increase learning. The project passed, and it also passed on Friday with the top people, so we are good to go with this.
Later that day Sister Koyle came and helped Clyda with our April Monthly power point report. She was good to help Clyda. Elder and Sister Koyle are from Heyburn, Idaho, and are temple missionaries. Speaking of temples, the picture rendition of the Montpelier Idaho Temple looks so much like the Cebu Temple. That makes us even that much more excited.
Every Monday at 5:30 p.m. we now have a meeting with our boss, Kenneth Lee. He is filling in for Jairus, as Jairus is filling in for Abe who is in SLC for training. It is basically a PPI with Clyda attending. It went well. Dinner of course was great like always, and I don’t even remember what we had. But with Clyda, it is always good.
On Tuesday we visited with Violet about her job opportunities. It is always fun to visit with our children. Then off to work on all of our projects. Since we were at Iloilo last week we have been getting bombarded by schools. We have so many requests coming in. The stake president must have told the whole island of Panay what we did for Cayos and the visits we made to 7 other schools while we were there. It is crazy. We went grocery shopping and stopped for lunch. That evening we had the sisters over for dinner. Sister Pratel went home that morning, so Sister Noble was with Sister Simmons and Sister Berneldez(sp). It is always good to have them in our home. They are very good missionaries. We asked each of them to tell us about their best experience during the last two weeks. They shared some neat spiritual experiences with those they are teaching. It was really cool!
We started off at the office. We needed help from Jeffrey on our finances. We are non-compliant right now. That means we can’t use the credit card. Hopefully we will become compliant by the time we need to pay the boat builder again, or some other bills. Jeffrey and Aaron were there. They are great guys. We enjoy them. Jeffrey ate gross food, dead bugs and chicken feet. He is a great help with our finances. We basically spent a long morning at the office. We attended the 3:00 p.m. session at the temple. It was great as always, and almost a completely full session. The temple is 29,000 square feet. The Montpelier one will be 27,000 plus. The Star Valley Temple is 17,000 plus, I think, on all of these. I could easily be wrong. We did look them up, but that has been longer than a day ago and since I can’t remember my name or anything that happened 5 minutes ago, you might not want to take this for true facts.
Thursday was more work on projects until noon. Then off to Manila for our monthly meeting. It is about an hour flight. We were delayed for about 25 minutes then off we went. After arriving it was 2 hours in a moving parking lot to our motel. We arrived at 6:30. The team was having dinner at 6:00. So, we were 45 minutes late for dinner. It was at a Chinese restaurant. It is fun getting to know the team better. They are great couples.
We were up early on Friday and arrived at the office at about 7:15. The meeting began at 7:30, and we had to present in person, instead of via zoom. They were good to us, and it passed. We finished up at about 9:30 and then spent the remainder of the day with the team, learning, sharing, and working on closing more projects. We left at about 5:00 and went to watch some remote-control car races. We had people at our motel from all over the world. It was amazing. We arrived after they were done for the day. It is a four-day competition. It was quite a place. However, we got a great picture of neat sunset in Manila. The Heslops are our taxi while there. They drive in from up north and stay at the same motel as we do. We followed the Huffs to the race park. It is in a pretty nice neighborhood. We ended up walking around the area because it was a peaceful place. Then we had dinner at a restaurant there. It was very good.
Saturday morning was early. Our ride to the airport picked us up at 5:30 a.m. We arrived back in Cebu at our apartment at about 11:00. Later in the day we went to Brother Colipapa’s to return the highchair that we had for Quincy. We also needed to give him some money to send to the Sibonga Pig Project. We got lost and spent an extra hour trying to find his place. It was not fun! We finally made it home, had a great dinner and we are spending some time just relaxing. We are watching a BYU softball game. We are wishing NFHS would broadcast the track meets of Mylie and the Cokeville kids. I am missing that. It is raining hard outside right now. It is badly needed. The area is very dry. It has been very hot with no rain for a few weeks now. A lot of leaves are falling off the trees now because of the heat. Clyda’s tomato plants have quit producing. It is just too hot. They blossom and then the blossoms fall off. She feels it is because it is just too hot. She harvested 125 tomatoes. They were wonderful! Depending on how things go, since we’re not sure how exactly this climate will deal with these plants, she will probably replant about August when the rainy season begins, and the heat isn’t so bad. At least that is what we are told.
Today has been a wonderful Sabbath Day. We visited with Tessa, Olivia, and Tyson and families. That was fun. It was fun to see Quincy recognize us, Layne say, “Grandpa”, and Adeline starting the conversation with us. Thanks for calling, Adeline. Church was excellent as always. Our fifth Sunday discussion was on Strengthening Marriage and Families. It was very good. They deal with exactly the same set of problems as we do in America. Satan will do anything to destroy the family. That often begins by creating conflict in the marriage. Let us all press on in being peacemakers and getting contention out of our lives. Let us be kind and thoughtful. Of course, I am addressing myself on this topic. Any vice Satan can think of to throw at us or sneak it in is apparent here as well as back home. He knows our weaknesses and exploits them. Let us resolve to overcome them.
We are having the Koyles and Elder Taylor over for dinner tonight. Elder Taylor’s wife has been gone about two weeks now. He says he is getting homesick. I don’t blame him. She is having a lot of fun attending grandkids games, events, etc. The new grandbaby is doing great and so is their daughter. All of us couples have the same problems, wonderful families back home and our own personal weaknesses. Therefore, we struggle just like the young missionaries. However, we have wonderful experiences as we meet incredible people, see their persistence and dedication. Many are new converts, some from 4th generations, and anywhere in between. Each have moved forward in the gospel strengthening their commitment to live the gospel and help others do the same. It strengthens us. We are grateful to be here and watch the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands roll forth”. This gospel is true, and we need to be active in it to have our families with us for eternity. That testimony was reinforced in our meeting today. I am thankful for the Holy Ghost that witnesses to my spirit of truth. I want to be with Tillie and Clyde again with my family, so I will try to build on Holy Habits and Righteous Routines, and try to Lift Where I Stand.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #31 4/24-4/30
We presented on Monday a project for Toboso National High School. It is a school with grades 7-10. They have 1,714 learners, as they call their students here in the Philippines, with 69 teachers and 28 classrooms. Yes, half of them attend from 6 a.m. until noon and then the other half in the afternoon. Students stay in their assigned rooms and the teachers rotate classrooms. Then they have special teachers that don’t have a home room. We are providing them with 26 TVs. They have 2 TVs already. After being out of school for two years, these students are really far behind. We want to try and help them. A teacher at this school taught a great geometry lesson using the TV when we visited them. We feel they will use the TVs very well. I really think it is a great tool to help increase learning. The project passed, and it also passed on Friday with the top people, so we are good to go with this.
Later that day Sister Koyle came and helped Clyda with our April Monthly power point report. She was good to help Clyda. Elder and Sister Koyle are from Heyburn, Idaho, and are temple missionaries. Speaking of temples, the picture rendition of the Montpelier Idaho Temple looks so much like the Cebu Temple. That makes us even that much more excited.
Every Monday at 5:30 p.m. we now have a meeting with our boss, Kenneth Lee. He is filling in for Jairus, as Jairus is filling in for Abe who is in SLC for training. It is basically a PPI with Clyda attending. It went well. Dinner of course was great like always, and I don’t even remember what we had. But with Clyda, it is always good.
On Tuesday we visited with Violet about her job opportunities. It is always fun to visit with our children. Then off to work on all of our projects. Since we were at Iloilo last week we have been getting bombarded by schools. We have so many requests coming in. The stake president must have told the whole island of Panay what we did for Cayos and the visits we made to 7 other schools while we were there. It is crazy. We went grocery shopping and stopped for lunch. That evening we had the sisters over for dinner. Sister Pratel went home that morning, so Sister Noble was with Sister Simmons and Sister Berneldez(sp). It is always good to have them in our home. They are very good missionaries. We asked each of them to tell us about their best experience during the last two weeks. They shared some neat spiritual experiences with those they are teaching. It was really cool!
We started off at the office. We needed help from Jeffrey on our finances. We are non-compliant right now. That means we can’t use the credit card. Hopefully we will become compliant by the time we need to pay the boat builder again, or some other bills. Jeffrey and Aaron were there. They are great guys. We enjoy them. Jeffrey ate gross food, dead bugs and chicken feet. He is a great help with our finances. We basically spent a long morning at the office. We attended the 3:00 p.m. session at the temple. It was great as always, and almost a completely full session. The temple is 29,000 square feet. The Montpelier one will be 27,000 plus. The Star Valley Temple is 17,000 plus, I think, on all of these. I could easily be wrong. We did look them up, but that has been longer than a day ago and since I can’t remember my name or anything that happened 5 minutes ago, you might not want to take this for true facts.
Thursday was more work on projects until noon. Then off to Manila for our monthly meeting. It is about an hour flight. We were delayed for about 25 minutes then off we went. After arriving it was 2 hours in a moving parking lot to our motel. We arrived at 6:30. The team was having dinner at 6:00. So, we were 45 minutes late for dinner. It was at a Chinese restaurant. It is fun getting to know the team better. They are great couples.
We were up early on Friday and arrived at the office at about 7:15. The meeting began at 7:30, and we had to present in person, instead of via zoom. They were good to us, and it passed. We finished up at about 9:30 and then spent the remainder of the day with the team, learning, sharing, and working on closing more projects. We left at about 5:00 and went to watch some remote-control car races. We had people at our motel from all over the world. It was amazing. We arrived after they were done for the day. It is a four-day competition. It was quite a place. However, we got a great picture of neat sunset in Manila. The Heslops are our taxi while there. They drive in from up north and stay at the same motel as we do. We followed the Huffs to the race park. It is in a pretty nice neighborhood. We ended up walking around the area because it was a peaceful place. Then we had dinner at a restaurant there. It was very good.
Saturday morning was early. Our ride to the airport picked us up at 5:30 a.m. We arrived back in Cebu at our apartment at about 11:00. Later in the day we went to Brother Colipapa’s to return the highchair that we had for Quincy. We also needed to give him some money to send to the Sibonga Pig Project. We got lost and spent an extra hour trying to find his place. It was not fun! We finally made it home, had a great dinner and we are spending some time just relaxing. We are watching a BYU softball game. We are wishing NFHS would broadcast the track meets of Mylie and the Cokeville kids. I am missing that. It is raining hard outside right now. It is badly needed. The area is very dry. It has been very hot with no rain for a few weeks now. A lot of leaves are falling off the trees now because of the heat. Clyda’s tomato plants have quit producing. It is just too hot. They blossom and then the blossoms fall off. She feels it is because it is just too hot. She harvested 125 tomatoes. They were wonderful! Depending on how things go, since we’re not sure how exactly this climate will deal with these plants, she will probably replant about August when the rainy season begins, and the heat isn’t so bad. At least that is what we are told.
Today has been a wonderful Sabbath Day. We visited with Tessa, Olivia, and Tyson and families. That was fun. It was fun to see Quincy recognize us, Layne say, “Grandpa”, and Adeline starting the conversation with us. Thanks for calling, Adeline. Church was excellent as always. Our fifth Sunday discussion was on Strengthening Marriage and Families. It was very good. They deal with exactly the same set of problems as we do in America. Satan will do anything to destroy the family. That often begins by creating conflict in the marriage. Let us all press on in being peacemakers and getting contention out of our lives. Let us be kind and thoughtful. Of course, I am addressing myself on this topic. Any vice Satan can think of to throw at us or sneak it in is apparent here as well as back home. He knows our weaknesses and exploits them. Let us resolve to overcome them.
We are having the Koyles and Elder Taylor over for dinner tonight. Elder Taylor’s wife has been gone about two weeks now. He says he is getting homesick. I don’t blame him. She is having a lot of fun attending grandkids games, events, etc. The new grandbaby is doing great and so is their daughter. All of us couples have the same problems, wonderful families back home and our own personal weaknesses. Therefore, we struggle just like the young missionaries. However, we have wonderful experiences as we meet incredible people, see their persistence and dedication. Many are new converts, some from 4th generations, and anywhere in between. Each have moved forward in the gospel strengthening their commitment to live the gospel and help others do the same. It strengthens us. We are grateful to be here and watch the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands roll forth”. This gospel is true, and we need to be active in it to have our families with us for eternity. That testimony was reinforced in our meeting today. I am thankful for the Holy Ghost that witnesses to my spirit of truth. I want to be with Tillie and Clyde again with my family, so I will try to build on Holy Habits and Righteous Routines, and try to Lift Where I Stand.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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