4 June 2023 Week #36: Sometimes We Get The Run-Around

Dear Family and Friends, 
 Week #36 5/29-6/4

Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad!! Holy cow, it is more than 80 years together. Sad that I don’t know the year they were married. But they have been married for a long earthly life and a short heavenly life. I am indeed thankful for their love and example of striving to follow a living prophet and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I couldn’t have asked for better parents. I don’t know how they survived dealing with me, but they did in a classy way, and I am grateful!! I never doubted they had testimonies of the restored gospel, and they wanted us to know where to look for a return to Heaven. 2 Nephi 25:26

What a week! Monday was laundry and office day. Some great projects passed. I continue to be impressed with the Haynes. They come up with some amazing projects. His technology and business prowess just make him really good at this. Also, he could sell swimsuits to Eskimos in the winter. She is really good at this stuff, also.

We picked up 10,000 pesos at the bank for our trip to Toboso on Tuesday. We had a busy day at our office. We also spent some time at the mission office, on the temple grounds in the patron housing. We wanted to get contact information for Elder Willis and Sister Bangcong over on Negros Island, where Toboso is. Clyda baked chocolate chip cookies to take to them, we have a few left. After me eating cookie dough and cookies, they will get a few. Clyda did ironing, yes, still a weekly duty. Not one of her favorites, but better than cleaning the bathroom. Thank goodness a maid comes in and does that twice a week. We then went to bed early because we needed to get up early to head for Toledo.

Up at 5:00, get ready and head for Toledo to catch a ferry to San Carlos on Negros Island. Toboso is an hour north of San Carlos. It is a two-hour drive to Toledo. Then a two-hour ferry ride to San Carlos. You must be to the ferry office two hours before the ferry leaves to get your tickets. We arrived and found out FastCat ferry wasn’t running that day because of the rough seas. (We have been under Typhon warning for a couple of weeks. It really rocked Guam but has barely missed us.) So, we headed to Lite Ferries, three hours before they were going to leave. They wouldn’t sell us tickets until two and a half hours before, but they did take our truck title, you must present that to get on. They put it in a pile of about 5-10 papers and told me to come back in a half hour. I did and then ran in to four guys that really wanted me to have them help me get my ferry tickets. Well, I didn’t let them help me, and it turns out they were big time scalpers, bribes. When I went back and waited in line for an hour, and those four guys would bring papers, crowd in at the front of the line with papers and then head back out with papers. I was a little upset, and when I finally got to the window and my paper still wasn’t at the top of the list. Also, with just two guys in line before me, they came out and announced that the ferry was full of vehicles. I was upset and tried hard to keep my cool as a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ. I didn’t do really well. They told me to come back at 3:00 to get tickets for the 6:00 ferry. We had now missed our turnover at Toboso that was scheduled for 2:00. We communicated with Sister Plaza at Toboso National High School. We figured we would go over and have the turnover the next morning. We had scheduled a motel room in San Carlos for that evening. When I got back to the window at 2:30 to make sure I was first in line, I was first in line. Imagine that. At 3:00, they told me tickets don’t go on sale until 3:30. Steam is now coming out of my ears. At 3:30 they didn’t know if they would be selling tickets or not because of the rough seas. Well, at 4:30 they said they wouldn’t be running a ferry again until tomorrow. I had now spent two more hours in line. WOW! We now had a two-hour drive back to Cebu and try to figure out when we would try to go back. It was a trying day, just sitting around in our truck and standing in lines. Clyda was in the truck most of the time having kids constantly knocking on the windows begging for food.

In between the two times I spent time waiting in line we had lunch at Jollibee’s where I tried my first yumburger. It wasn’t yum, but it was okay. The fries, pineapple juice, and peach mango pies were good.

On the way home we took the shortest route, which now included a real narrow road. If a vehicle was coming from the other direction you had to find a place to pull off the road. Thank goodness that section was in day light. We arrived back in Cebu at about 7:00. We went to the templex and watched some church basketball. There were some pretty good players. Both outdoor courts going and quite a few fans. We met up with youth from Iloilo North Stake. That includes Calinog and Dumangas. Since we have been to many of those places it was fun to renew acquaintances and visit. They had 48 youth here for 3 days to do baptisms, have firesides, devotionals and have some fun. There were more boys than girls. You don’t see that very often. They just came out of a fireside in white shirts and ties and nice dresses. Then they headed to get a picture with the lighted temple in the background. Pretty cool.

We visited with the two counselors in the Calinog YW presidency. The YW president is Leah Cerbolles. She is single, never married, and about 45. She is also the seminary teacher and a Sunday school teacher. Not to mention the choir director for their stake. She is the one we buy banana chips from. Well, she couldn’t make it because one of her pigs had 13 piglets just before they were supposed to come. These two counselors are both one year removed from high school. They don’t know life without Leah. These counselors are preparing for their missions. One is from a member family and the other is the only member in her family. She is working hard to make enough money to serve a mission. Pretty and neat young ladies.

Well, after the disastrous day it was a wonderful evening seeing this youth group with light in their eyes. After a terrible day, with this evening, we now went to bed with gratitude in our hearts for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Missing the ferry turned out to be a blessing in our lives. We had several interactions with more of these leaders and youth that night but too many stories to tell. Just suffice it to say it was a spiritual lift for both of us. We went to bed happy.

Wednesday was a project development day for me while Clyda cut out 256 strips of material for Kangaroo Tubes. She got a system down and got after it. It is a project we can do without having to get all kinds of approval, since it is continuing an old project. We had bought some material the week before. We will end up doing over 1,500 of them. We went to the 3:00 p.m. session at the temple. That is always a good time.

Thursday, oh no! We decided to go get some more material. We stopped at the bank and picked up 40,000 pesos. We headed downtown into the teeth of Cebu. I stayed in the truck, parked illegally because there is no place to park, while Clyda went into the fabric store. An hour and a half later she came out needing to go to the bank to get more money. She was stressed, and I was stressed as I had just got into trouble with the law. I didn’t handle it well, so now we are headed back to the bank with me mad and her crying. It wasn’t good and all my fault. I was completely stressed out, and not aware of just how stressed out she was. If I had been thinking of her and not me things would have been just fine. But, self-centered me didn’t think of her situation. Once things got going in the store, she just wanted to get all the material she would need now so she wouldn’t have to come back later. I only wanted to spend 40,000 pesos. We are allowed about 84,000 pesos a month. We had now taken out 50,000, 10,000 to be prepared for our trip that didn’t happen and 40,000 earlier in the day. When we got back to the bank, after 45 minutes of terrible traffic, Clyda went and tried to withdraw 40,000 more pesos. Of course, that exceeded our limit so she was denied. She came out crying. We headed back toward the store to pick-up 40,000 worth of material. Then she said they are closed from 12:00 until 1:30 for lunch. My heck, it is now 12:45. We headed home. We got home at 1:00, came in and I had M&Ms for lunch while Clyda laid down on the bed. I’m still a jerk. Finally, we head back. We decide to go to the bank and pick up 33,000 pesos. It will max us out, but it will pay for all of the material, and we can at least work on this project while waiting for quotes on other projects, and PO’s on other projects. We don’t know what we are doing wrong, but not getting any feedback. With the projects we have had approved we don’t know of anything we have done different with those than what we are doing with these others. I guess it just takes time, although I cannot figure out why. We picked up the money, got the material, and arrived home at about 5:00. What a day. “What a country.”

Missions have those kinds of days, even with the best companion ever. I need to improve a lot on how to handle the frustration. My wonderful companion was just as frustrated as I was, maybe more, because this is a project she really wants to do and will feel really good about.

If we were back home we would have had two choices: 1-Both of us going to Logan and JoAnn’s House of Fabrics. I would wait in the vehicle in a nice parking lot relaxed and waiting for her to hurry up, but not stressed. She would be in the store enjoying playing with fabric, etc. but, in the back of her mind still knowing that I am getting impatient out in the car. 2-Clyda going to Logan by herself, spending as much time as she wanted in JoAnn’s and enjoying every minute of it and looking forward to meeting up with her sister Linda for lunch afterwards. Oh that would have been nice.

Friday was a good meeting with the Hayne’s projects being approved by the main department. We got some more work on developing projects to get passed. We did a little grocery shopping and had Sister Noble and Sister Ramos over for dinner. We had breakfast for dinner, French toast, hash browns, eggs, and juice! It was really good, like always.

Up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday to go to the island of Olango, just off of the island of Lapu Lapu. It is in the Cebu East Mission. They have just placed 4 missionaries on the island and want them to get it ready to organize a branch there. Right now, it is a 30-minute ferry ride and then 20 minutes in a jeepney to get to church on Sundays. One missionary from Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, one from Sydney Australia, and two Filipinos. They seem like really good missionaries.

We met Brother Colipapa at 6:00 to get to a 7:00 ferry. Once on the island we were a part of a Dental Clinic, pulling teeth on all ages, and a vision screening, giving many older people reading glasses from +.75 to +4.0. Young and older ones were screened for prescription lens. LDSC provides the lenses for these glasses. Another humanitarian aid organization provides the frames and reading glasses. We take care of the more expensive prescription lenses. It was fun to see the Stake President, Bishops, and a lot of others from the stake participate, helping with the reading of vision charts, holding heads still as dental people gave shots and pulled teeth. Mabuhay does the vision screening and involves us and the other organization for the vision. Two member dentists from that area lined up the dental part. They had 4 dental students helping them. I visited with one of them at lunch time. He is from Saudi Arabia. He is here in his sixth year of dental school, almost done. It was fun to visit with him. He is not a member of the church. I don’t know if he is in the pictures or not, he was wearing a green shirt.

This was done #1, to help these people, and #2, to let the people on the island know who the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are. It was great exposure for these new missionaries now living on the island. Many members were great help and examples today. It wrapped up at about 12:30. We then headed to the lady dentist’s home on the island for lunch. It is out in the country. It is small. She stays there for part of the week. She is a government dentist, so she is at the mercy of the government as to where she is assigned. Her main home with her husband and family is over on Lapu Lapu island.

After lunch, Brother and Sister Colipapa and Clyda and I went with the Barangay Captain to assess the need for water on the island. On these small islands water is a big problem. Any water well produces water with some salt in it. If it has too much salt, then you can’t use it to cook or do laundry. They do have six wells in this barangay that have okay water. None of it is drinkable. But it is okay to use for cooking. They are old 3-foot square wells where you pull it out a bucket at a time. They will need to make a proposal of course, and then we have to develop a project to help them. We will provide the pipes, covers, and a hand pump for each of the six wells. We told them to get us a proposal soon and then be patient, because it is taking us a long time to get projects approved. It was a long day, but it was fun to see so much good taking place with a large group of people donating their time to help people. A wonderful service! We arrived home at about 6:00. We had a wonderful dinner of left-over chicken soup and brownies.

Then it was time to open the beauty parlor. Olivia did Clyda’s hair when she first arrived about April 10th. So, it was time to do it again. I must admit, I’m getting pretty good at it. After our mission, I will probably be Olivia’s replacement in her salon on days when she needs to go to hunting camp.

It has been a wonderful Sabbath Day. We visited with some of our families. That is always fun. We are so grateful for them. We are so grateful that they got together while Tyson and family were in town for a few days. It sounds like a good time up Pine Creek for a hot dog roast. We are grateful that his appointment in SLC for his kidney transplant went well. We are hoping and praying that things will happen soon. We are grateful for family members who have volunteered as donors. The doctor sounded like they will try to get this done in July, so that was encouraging. We are grateful that he has stayed healthy enough to continue to work and attend to family and church duties. Wonderful blessings.

This gospel is true. As I watch it growing here in the Philippines, I remember the Prophet Joseph Smith telling the people on the day of the organization of the church with six members that it would fill north and south America and then the whole earth. What a prophecy from a prophet. The Holy Ghost has witnessed to me many times that he was a prophet. I am so thankful for that witness. I know President Nelson is a prophet today. “Follow the Prophet.” Always remember that it doesn’t matter what a bishop or stake president does or doesn’t do, or any other church leader, this is all about you and your relationship with Jesus Christ. We don’t go to church because of the bishop, we go because our Savior has commanded us to. We pay tithing, not because the church needs money to help people around the world, we pay it because we love the Savior, and he has commanded us to. “Obedience is better than sacrifice” and the first covenant we make in the temple with our Savior.

Holy Habits, Righteous Routines. “Lift Where You Stand”

With love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda

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