28 May 2023 Week #35: Prosthetics, Fabrics, 7FSSU, and so much more!!
Dear Family and Friends,
On Monday five projects were presented. I always marvel at the diversity of the things that our team comes up with. We are pretty bland compared to the others. After our meeting we met up with Natalie from Mabuhay Desert to visit Alex (a prosthetic genius) at the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). Alex has created some amazing tools from old tools to help him make prosthetics. He reminded us of Clyda’s father, Clyde. He has come up with quite the tools to help him. He demonstrated the process he has to go thru and all the tools he uses to make the prosthetics. A young man he is creating one for was there when we arrived. It takes a long time to make these, and he thinks he could make them a lot faster if he had good tools. We agree. It will still take a long time. There are a lot of people here who need these. Mabuhay arranges the operations for these people who need the amputations. They need help securing prosthetics. I guess many are willing to cut their legs off, but few can help them with a fake leg. Then we went to Vicente Sotto hospital rehab to discuss the same thing. They need tools and a certified prosthetic maker. We want to help out at both places to provide more prosthetics a lot faster. In October a person from the U.S. is coming to train on how to build the prosthetics. Both places would love to have the tools by then so Alex can do it more effectively, and so the hospital can attract a certified builder of prosthetics (I’m sure there is a name for that kind of guy but I haven’t got a clue what it is), and they can attend the training and then be able to go to work with the correct machines.
Then, we headed to Blak Fabric in downtown Cebu, old and crowded. Clyda found the kind of Lycra material the nurse at the hospital would like the Kangaroo Tubes made out of. No parking to speak of so I waited in the truck with the flashers going while Clyda went inside. She came out with a bolt of material. We figure it will take at least 10 bolts to make the 1,400 Kangaroo Tubes. Clyda is excited about this project. (Lynette Nate where are you when we need you). Clyda met with the stake relief society president and all the ward relief society presidents last Sunday to organize the sewing. We will cut them all out and deliver. Two wards don’t have any seamstresses, one ward wasn’t represented, seven wards each agreed to do 200. It works out perfectly. I might get blisters cutting material. We have three real busy weeks coming up where we will just get a few cut out and started, and then we plan on getting after it in the middle of June. We came home in rush hour traffic. Believe me, it is not a rush, it is about 2 miles per hour. A moving parking lot. “What a country.”
We headed early Tuesday morning to catch a plane to Manila for our monthly training meeting. When we arrived at the airport with two young missionaries from Cebu area, a young man and a young lady, another young lady met us at the airport. The young lady at the airport, a returned missionary, was intercepting all the new missionaries coming to start their missions. We had a fun short conversation with the three of them. Then we got in our shuttle, and she sent those two in a shuttle. She waited to catch the next ones. She said she would be there most of the day. When we arrived at our motel, the two young missionaries arrived right behind us. They were staying there for the night and would be checking into the MTC the next day. Manila Mission Headquarters have them stay there that night as they are shipping out a bunch from the MTC. Well, we met a Sister from Fiji and an Elder from Samoa who were already there. By the end of the day there were about 20-30 missionaries there ready to get started the next day. One we had met the previous week in Iloilo. He was the young man taking all the pictures at the embarrassing high school we were celebrated at. Later that day at the Area Offices and MTC we went to see Elder and Sister Woods who have returned from home, now to Manila instead of Cebu, as Elder Woods is now an Area Health Advisor instead of the Cebu Mission Health Advisor. It was fun to see them again. Clyda went with Sister Woods to her apartment on the temple grounds. Clyda said it was fantastic, new, big and nice with a great view and quiet. I had gone into the offices to get some help from Elder Huff. Before we had split up, we ran into another missionary who just began his mission a couple weeks ago. He was the young man I sat by in the stake choir. He is headed to the Taiwan Taipei Mission. It was fun to see him. Then, Clyda made it to the temple before I did. While waiting for me four young sister missionaries approached her to visit. What do you know, but one of them is Sister Bernaldez’s little sister who has just begun her mission. That was fun! Sister Bernaldez is in the neighboring ward (Apas Ward) with Sister Simmons from Park City. We have had them over for dinner a few times with the sisters from our ward. The four of them live together. Sister Bernaldez came to Cebu at the end of September. She has now been in this area for 8 months. Sister Noble had been in our ward for seven months. They have lived in the same apartment, but not companions for seven months. It is a good thing they enjoy each other. They really are good missionaries. We enjoy them. I’m pretty sure they will both be leaving in June on the next transfer. It has been extended until the middle of June. Elder Renlund is coming and will address the missionaries for both the Cebu and Cebu East Missions on June 12th. They are bringing all the missionaries from those two missions here to Cebu for that great day!
Back to the story. I get sidetracked quite often as you are now well aware from reading past emails. We joined our team for the 5:00 session in the Manila Temple. It was beautiful. It was different than any other temple I have seen. No center aisle, just three rows and only held 25 people. They have four endowment rooms like this. They had one male and one female as the lead people and they both sat on the same side of the room. Afterwards Clyda came and got me to show me a Grandma’s painting of Queen Esther. That was fun, but it was by the women’s new name booth, so I quickly got escorted out of there. It was on the outside, not in the locker room. Nonetheless, it was on the women’s side of the ordinance rooms not the men’s. We then went out with the team for dinner at the Viking Buffet. It brought me back to my glory days of No-Toe Teichert kicking footballs for the Ricks Vikings. The food was different though, so I soon woke up to reality.
Wednesday was a full day at the office and then catching an airplane back to Cebu. It was delayed about 3 hours because of a marvelous lightning storm. What a show! I was glad I was inside the airport. We arrived home after midnight, so we slept in Thursday morning.
We met Brother Colipapa at the Mandaue Stake Center to go over the list of tools we are going to give to the 7th Forward Service Support Unit (Army). We were checking prices with what we had priced at Belmont Tools with what the 2 vendors quoted. It took quite a while. Then, we tried to get it already for the final presentation on Friday. The pressure was on. They want us to have this one ready for a turnover on June 12th when Elder Renlund and Bishop Budge are here, so with Jairus’s help in Manila we probably won’t have to wait for a PO. We were ready to present this project in February and had submitted the list for quotes. We never received anything until last week when it now became an emergency.
On the way home we stopped at Lander’s to stock up on food supplies. A typhon is heading our way that just wiped-out Guam. We watched a video of it lifting up a truck like ours and rolling it over a couple times. We are supposed to make sure we have food and water in case of the typhon hitting us.
On Friday we made our 7FSSU presentation along with 6 other presentations by others. All were passed. We then went to work on getting it ready so we can get a PO next Tuesday. We were both extremely tired and getting colds so we took a nap. That evening we had Elder Espinoza and Elder Jenkins over for a chicken enchilada dinner. It was fantastic! I am so grateful I was able to marry way over what I deserve, and that is not just cooking, it is in everything. Clyda is magnificent in every way.
This morning, Saturday, was an early walk and workout. We had only got one full workout in last Monday. I am stiff and sore from this work out. Amazing how that happens after just 4 days off. I guess I’m not 20 anymore. We spent a big share of the day getting the project entered into CHAS. We also have cut some material and spent time figuring out how to do that with the size specifications, so we don’t waste material. It has been fun to use our imaginations and math skills. The lycra material is stretchy, which is needed, but it is a little stretchier one way than the other. We need it to stretch more in the direction for pulling it over shoulders or up over hips than from top to bottom. So that is a little tricky. With my 3rd grade math skills, I hope we don’t mess up on this. Clyda has done a lot of reading on this project. She also has contacted Linda Whitmore, from the original project to learn, and now Clyda, along with involving the relief society, are ready to go. Clyda also has contacted Rabbi, who helped with putting the LDSC logo on all the tubes, helping cut them out, boxing and distributing them, collecting them, and delivering them. We haven’t met him yet, but Clyda says he seems excited to help out with this project again.
This afternoon we attended baptisms, Sister Noble and Sister Ramos had a young man, 16 years old, baptized. Elders Espinoza and Jenkins baptized a mother and 14-year-old daughter. They will be confirmed tomorrow in Sacrament Mtg.
We had left-over enchiladas and jello for dinner. Oh man was it good! I am a lucky man. Some people don’t want to eat leftovers, all I can figure is they have never had Clyda’s leftovers.
It was a wonderful Sabbath Day. Sacrament Mtg. and Elders Quorum were about Ministering. Elder Gong’s talk in the Saturday Morning Session. Great talks and a lot of good comments in Elders Quorum.
Today we had about 30 Americans at church. They are a group who have come for 3 weeks to do a service project. It makes me wonder if they are with the same organization Savannah Bell went with last summer. They go all over the world on these short service projects. They are here to help “Rise and Rebuild” construct a “Child Nutrition Center” by a school. We hope to find a free day to drop in on them in the next couple of weeks. We visited with a few of them. The ones we visited with range from juniors in high school to having finished a year of college. Some have mission calls. We had a father (chaperone) and his daughter from Gilbert, AZ. She just finished a year at BYU. She is going to Taiwan Taipei on a mission. A girl from Oklahoma, where the Oklahoma City Temple is. She will be a senior. A lot of Utah kids. Mostly south Salt Lake area and north Ogden. Also, a Gillette, WY gal. She is a Camel, not a Bolt, and will be a senior. Her last name is Holden. This was fun.
The gospel is true. Hold on tight. Don’t get sidetracked. If you don’t follow the correct signs in Pocatello on I-15 you might end up in Canada instead of Portland Oregon. A little miss can lead you a long way down the wrong path. This is all about you and your connection with the Savior. Follow him through his living prophet, “He knows the way”. The small and simple things, the fundamentals, are necessary for success in athletics and the gospel. Make sure we can always answer the temple questions so we have a current recommend and we will be safe. I love the simpleness of the gospel and how our Savior has made It so we can all return, no matter our wealth or lack thereof, our education or lack thereof, our place in society or lack thereof, etc. We can all be obedient, or continually strive to be. “Righteous Routines” and “Holy Habits.” “Lift Where You Stand”.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #35 5/22-5/28
On Monday five projects were presented. I always marvel at the diversity of the things that our team comes up with. We are pretty bland compared to the others. After our meeting we met up with Natalie from Mabuhay Desert to visit Alex (a prosthetic genius) at the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). Alex has created some amazing tools from old tools to help him make prosthetics. He reminded us of Clyda’s father, Clyde. He has come up with quite the tools to help him. He demonstrated the process he has to go thru and all the tools he uses to make the prosthetics. A young man he is creating one for was there when we arrived. It takes a long time to make these, and he thinks he could make them a lot faster if he had good tools. We agree. It will still take a long time. There are a lot of people here who need these. Mabuhay arranges the operations for these people who need the amputations. They need help securing prosthetics. I guess many are willing to cut their legs off, but few can help them with a fake leg. Then we went to Vicente Sotto hospital rehab to discuss the same thing. They need tools and a certified prosthetic maker. We want to help out at both places to provide more prosthetics a lot faster. In October a person from the U.S. is coming to train on how to build the prosthetics. Both places would love to have the tools by then so Alex can do it more effectively, and so the hospital can attract a certified builder of prosthetics (I’m sure there is a name for that kind of guy but I haven’t got a clue what it is), and they can attend the training and then be able to go to work with the correct machines.
Then, we headed to Blak Fabric in downtown Cebu, old and crowded. Clyda found the kind of Lycra material the nurse at the hospital would like the Kangaroo Tubes made out of. No parking to speak of so I waited in the truck with the flashers going while Clyda went inside. She came out with a bolt of material. We figure it will take at least 10 bolts to make the 1,400 Kangaroo Tubes. Clyda is excited about this project. (Lynette Nate where are you when we need you). Clyda met with the stake relief society president and all the ward relief society presidents last Sunday to organize the sewing. We will cut them all out and deliver. Two wards don’t have any seamstresses, one ward wasn’t represented, seven wards each agreed to do 200. It works out perfectly. I might get blisters cutting material. We have three real busy weeks coming up where we will just get a few cut out and started, and then we plan on getting after it in the middle of June. We came home in rush hour traffic. Believe me, it is not a rush, it is about 2 miles per hour. A moving parking lot. “What a country.”
We headed early Tuesday morning to catch a plane to Manila for our monthly training meeting. When we arrived at the airport with two young missionaries from Cebu area, a young man and a young lady, another young lady met us at the airport. The young lady at the airport, a returned missionary, was intercepting all the new missionaries coming to start their missions. We had a fun short conversation with the three of them. Then we got in our shuttle, and she sent those two in a shuttle. She waited to catch the next ones. She said she would be there most of the day. When we arrived at our motel, the two young missionaries arrived right behind us. They were staying there for the night and would be checking into the MTC the next day. Manila Mission Headquarters have them stay there that night as they are shipping out a bunch from the MTC. Well, we met a Sister from Fiji and an Elder from Samoa who were already there. By the end of the day there were about 20-30 missionaries there ready to get started the next day. One we had met the previous week in Iloilo. He was the young man taking all the pictures at the embarrassing high school we were celebrated at. Later that day at the Area Offices and MTC we went to see Elder and Sister Woods who have returned from home, now to Manila instead of Cebu, as Elder Woods is now an Area Health Advisor instead of the Cebu Mission Health Advisor. It was fun to see them again. Clyda went with Sister Woods to her apartment on the temple grounds. Clyda said it was fantastic, new, big and nice with a great view and quiet. I had gone into the offices to get some help from Elder Huff. Before we had split up, we ran into another missionary who just began his mission a couple weeks ago. He was the young man I sat by in the stake choir. He is headed to the Taiwan Taipei Mission. It was fun to see him. Then, Clyda made it to the temple before I did. While waiting for me four young sister missionaries approached her to visit. What do you know, but one of them is Sister Bernaldez’s little sister who has just begun her mission. That was fun! Sister Bernaldez is in the neighboring ward (Apas Ward) with Sister Simmons from Park City. We have had them over for dinner a few times with the sisters from our ward. The four of them live together. Sister Bernaldez came to Cebu at the end of September. She has now been in this area for 8 months. Sister Noble had been in our ward for seven months. They have lived in the same apartment, but not companions for seven months. It is a good thing they enjoy each other. They really are good missionaries. We enjoy them. I’m pretty sure they will both be leaving in June on the next transfer. It has been extended until the middle of June. Elder Renlund is coming and will address the missionaries for both the Cebu and Cebu East Missions on June 12th. They are bringing all the missionaries from those two missions here to Cebu for that great day!
Back to the story. I get sidetracked quite often as you are now well aware from reading past emails. We joined our team for the 5:00 session in the Manila Temple. It was beautiful. It was different than any other temple I have seen. No center aisle, just three rows and only held 25 people. They have four endowment rooms like this. They had one male and one female as the lead people and they both sat on the same side of the room. Afterwards Clyda came and got me to show me a Grandma’s painting of Queen Esther. That was fun, but it was by the women’s new name booth, so I quickly got escorted out of there. It was on the outside, not in the locker room. Nonetheless, it was on the women’s side of the ordinance rooms not the men’s. We then went out with the team for dinner at the Viking Buffet. It brought me back to my glory days of No-Toe Teichert kicking footballs for the Ricks Vikings. The food was different though, so I soon woke up to reality.
Wednesday was a full day at the office and then catching an airplane back to Cebu. It was delayed about 3 hours because of a marvelous lightning storm. What a show! I was glad I was inside the airport. We arrived home after midnight, so we slept in Thursday morning.
We met Brother Colipapa at the Mandaue Stake Center to go over the list of tools we are going to give to the 7th Forward Service Support Unit (Army). We were checking prices with what we had priced at Belmont Tools with what the 2 vendors quoted. It took quite a while. Then, we tried to get it already for the final presentation on Friday. The pressure was on. They want us to have this one ready for a turnover on June 12th when Elder Renlund and Bishop Budge are here, so with Jairus’s help in Manila we probably won’t have to wait for a PO. We were ready to present this project in February and had submitted the list for quotes. We never received anything until last week when it now became an emergency.
On the way home we stopped at Lander’s to stock up on food supplies. A typhon is heading our way that just wiped-out Guam. We watched a video of it lifting up a truck like ours and rolling it over a couple times. We are supposed to make sure we have food and water in case of the typhon hitting us.
On Friday we made our 7FSSU presentation along with 6 other presentations by others. All were passed. We then went to work on getting it ready so we can get a PO next Tuesday. We were both extremely tired and getting colds so we took a nap. That evening we had Elder Espinoza and Elder Jenkins over for a chicken enchilada dinner. It was fantastic! I am so grateful I was able to marry way over what I deserve, and that is not just cooking, it is in everything. Clyda is magnificent in every way.
This morning, Saturday, was an early walk and workout. We had only got one full workout in last Monday. I am stiff and sore from this work out. Amazing how that happens after just 4 days off. I guess I’m not 20 anymore. We spent a big share of the day getting the project entered into CHAS. We also have cut some material and spent time figuring out how to do that with the size specifications, so we don’t waste material. It has been fun to use our imaginations and math skills. The lycra material is stretchy, which is needed, but it is a little stretchier one way than the other. We need it to stretch more in the direction for pulling it over shoulders or up over hips than from top to bottom. So that is a little tricky. With my 3rd grade math skills, I hope we don’t mess up on this. Clyda has done a lot of reading on this project. She also has contacted Linda Whitmore, from the original project to learn, and now Clyda, along with involving the relief society, are ready to go. Clyda also has contacted Rabbi, who helped with putting the LDSC logo on all the tubes, helping cut them out, boxing and distributing them, collecting them, and delivering them. We haven’t met him yet, but Clyda says he seems excited to help out with this project again.
This afternoon we attended baptisms, Sister Noble and Sister Ramos had a young man, 16 years old, baptized. Elders Espinoza and Jenkins baptized a mother and 14-year-old daughter. They will be confirmed tomorrow in Sacrament Mtg.
We had left-over enchiladas and jello for dinner. Oh man was it good! I am a lucky man. Some people don’t want to eat leftovers, all I can figure is they have never had Clyda’s leftovers.
It was a wonderful Sabbath Day. Sacrament Mtg. and Elders Quorum were about Ministering. Elder Gong’s talk in the Saturday Morning Session. Great talks and a lot of good comments in Elders Quorum.
Today we had about 30 Americans at church. They are a group who have come for 3 weeks to do a service project. It makes me wonder if they are with the same organization Savannah Bell went with last summer. They go all over the world on these short service projects. They are here to help “Rise and Rebuild” construct a “Child Nutrition Center” by a school. We hope to find a free day to drop in on them in the next couple of weeks. We visited with a few of them. The ones we visited with range from juniors in high school to having finished a year of college. Some have mission calls. We had a father (chaperone) and his daughter from Gilbert, AZ. She just finished a year at BYU. She is going to Taiwan Taipei on a mission. A girl from Oklahoma, where the Oklahoma City Temple is. She will be a senior. A lot of Utah kids. Mostly south Salt Lake area and north Ogden. Also, a Gillette, WY gal. She is a Camel, not a Bolt, and will be a senior. Her last name is Holden. This was fun.
The gospel is true. Hold on tight. Don’t get sidetracked. If you don’t follow the correct signs in Pocatello on I-15 you might end up in Canada instead of Portland Oregon. A little miss can lead you a long way down the wrong path. This is all about you and your connection with the Savior. Follow him through his living prophet, “He knows the way”. The small and simple things, the fundamentals, are necessary for success in athletics and the gospel. Make sure we can always answer the temple questions so we have a current recommend and we will be safe. I love the simpleness of the gospel and how our Savior has made It so we can all return, no matter our wealth or lack thereof, our education or lack thereof, our place in society or lack thereof, etc. We can all be obedient, or continually strive to be. “Righteous Routines” and “Holy Habits.” “Lift Where You Stand”.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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