30 July 2023 Week #44: Sewing Therapy

Dear Family and Friends, 

Week #44 7/24-7/30

Pioneer Day isn’t celebrated here. Go figure! We had our regular Monday meeting with 6 projects presented. The Haynes presented one for $213,454.65. That is huge and has to go through the committee in SLC. We keep getting told to go big and the Haynes do. The rest of us don’t go quite so big. Especially us. The project is at the division level with 580 elementary schools in the Masabate Division. 3,303 teachers will be involved. 78,103 K-3 students will be the beneficiaries. It is the Haynes way of doing a literacy program. I like it. It is helping the young kids with a proven site word program, the Dolch word list. There are a lot of things that I am worried about. I am worried that a lot of boxes of materials will be dropped off at schools and never used. I’m not sure the teachers will get trained on how to use them. The superintendent says they will. How will we monitor it? I’m anxious to see how this goes. It is now on the table in SLC. It will be interesting to see when we hear back on this.

Since it was Pioneer Day, we celebrated! The Koyles invited us, all the senior missionaries, to their place to watch 17 Miracles. However, Sister Garner, the Taylors, and us were the only ones that showed up. It was a great movie, as always. Plenty of popcorn, and caramel popcorn, pretty good caramel popcorn, but not Ellen Thompson, Chemene Petersen, or Keith Nate caramel popcorn, that is for sure. As a result, I didn’t completely gorge myself, but I did eat plenty along with chips and salsa. A great evening. Onward all of you pioneers in your own way.

Tuesday was an office day. We hope to have 3 more projects ready to present soon. I thought we would have them ready for this coming Monday, but it looks like a few snags have arisen here at the end of the week. Clyda spent the afternoon sewing Kangaroo Tubes with Sister Heath’s machine while I kept working on the budget for these projects. We had cheese baked chicken and scalloped potatoes for dinner. It was delicious.

On Wednesday we continued to work on the budget for these three schools. We met Sister Myrna Nob, the Apas Relief Society President, at the Lahug Chapel to pick up the LDSC sewing machine that wasn’t working. So, their ward hasn’t done any Kangaroo Tubes yet. It was fun to meet her. She has a banana stand around the corner on Salinas Street. A senior couple about 12 years ago would always buy bananas from her. They ended up introducing her to the gospel. Now she doesn’t sell bananas on Saturday or Sunday or in the mornings, so she can devote time to doing the Lord’s work. Pretty cool!

At 10:00 Clyda headed out with the rowdy bunch, Sisters Garner, Heath, Welch, and Epperson. They went to Blak Fabric to shop for material. I’m glad it was them and not me. Clyda enjoyed the time out and she had no pressure to need to buy anything or have a husband outside in a truck waiting. Clyda said they were lucky and found the last parking place on the block. Clyda saw a policeman and went to ask him if they could park there. While she was doing that a guard at the store they were parked in front of, came out and told the sisters they couldn’t park there. Well, just at that time Clyda asked the policeman and he said yes. He overruled on the security guard. Way to go Dear!

At 10:30 I gave the Taylors a ride to the airport. They headed to Manila to a wedding. They were supposed to go on Thursday, but their flight was canceled so they had to head out on Wednesday. All the other flights on Thursday were full. The roads were packed so it took about an hour to get there and another hour to get back. The wedding the Taylors were going to was a Filipino gal who served a mission in Cambodia while the Taylors were on their Humanitarian Mission there.

Clyda was home working with the Singer sewing machine that wasn’t working. She spent about an hour or so on it. She got it working. It works really well on regular type fabrics, but on the stretch fabric it is so powerful it just takes off and bunches up the thread on the bottom side. She got it worked out, but it still takes a light foot. She hopes it will work for the lady. They were going to have a party on Saturday and sew up a bunch of tubes.

Later in the afternoon we visited the school site where the Humanitarian Experience group was working with Rise and Rebuild. We met some great people. One of the adult chaperones served here in Cebu in 1991-1992. Elder Scott Lyons who lives in the Eagle, ID, area. The two young advisors, one who was here with the last group, Sister Malory Mendon from Gilbert, AZ. The new advisor with this group served in the Tacloban Mission 5 years ago.

We visited with Clark Rafada, building foreman from Rise and Rebuild about the Lahug project. He hasn’t done anything. He is waiting for Rayson Pua to see what he wants done, and when, with this Lahug project.

Thursday found us taking the Singer sewing machine to the front desk of the patron housing for the Apas Relief Society sisters to pick up for their Saturday sewing extravaganza of Kangaroo Tubes. We then headed to the airport to catch a flight on Philippines Air to Manila for our monthly meeting. We had a Sealing Time at the Manila Temple for 5:00 p.m. with Elder and Sister Woods. However, our flight was delayed by about 2 hours, and we ended up arriving at the temple at 5:20. So much for that. We did however have a fun evening with Elder and Sister Woods. They have a nice apartment on the temple lot. Sister Woods cooked a great alfredo pasta dish. I thought I was eating at Olive Garden. Then we played several rounds of U-NO. Of course, with a new rule after every win. We had a good time. They then took us to our motel. We arrived at about 9:00 p.m.

Friday morning saw us up at 5:30 getting ready. We grabbed breakfast at the Microtel Motel lobby. It is a sit-down breakfast with cooked food. The toast was good. I won’t get it confused with the Hampton Inn. We had to leave at 7:00 to get to our meeting in the Area Office by 7:30. It was an interesting meeting. Only 3 of the 6 projects from Monday were presented. Of course, Haynes big one has to go to SLC first. Two others needed some revising. Then we switched to another room for our monthly training meeting. It was good and busy. We worked right through lunch time. They brought in some delicious pizzas. Elder Hayne presented information and training on legal matters, DODs and MOAs, and working with purchasing and legal with these. He does a good job of everything he does.

Elder and Sister Huff did some training for us on the Literacy Projects. That was good, but still too many problems that I can’t resolve yet. I don’t know if I am ready to try and take it to schools or stakes yet. Getting all the materials together seems so cumbersome. I know it will be a good thing, but if we are counting on the schools or stakes to laminate all of the materials, I think we will have problems. I really see problems on the stake level when they might not have anyone that even knows how to run a laminator, or has the time to do it, or can coordinate with someone to get into the building to laminate all the materials.

Sister Hayne did a great job teaching us how to do Tasks in CHAS. That was helpful if we do it. Then we had the head of “A Single Drop for Safe Water” on a video chat about developing water projects. He only is involved with big projects. And of course, he, with the Haynes, have a huge one going right now. He sends his engineers to evaluate the project and see if it is worthwhile. They are putting together a project for all of Masbate Island. It includes several municipalities with each one procuring their water in a different way, but then all linked together. Oh baby!!

Later in the day we had a temple appointment at 4:30. After the session in the dressing room I visited with a young man. Several YSA were in our session. They had all come together. Well, this young man had been to the wedding of the young Filipino gal that day. He had served in the Cambodia Mission also at the same time as she did. He of course knew the Taylors as well and had been able to catch up with them earlier in the day. Pretty cool!

We went to a nice restaurant as a group after the session. It was within walking distance of the temple. It was a nice evening. Jairus and his wife, Kenneth, the Huffs, the Haynes, the Larsens, the Heslops, and the Bjorkmans. Elder Bjorkman is our new legal advisor. Elder Slaugh is still with us also for a couple more months. Sister Bjorkman is going to do Humanitarian Aid projects with our team. The Bjorkmans are a neat couple. He graduated from Malad High School in 1966, so he is a little older but very spry. This is their 4th mission, two to the Germany area where they have two children living. He served as a young man in Switzerland. They also served in Hong Kong. They have 8 children spread far and wide. She is a Skyline gal from Idaho Falls. They met at BYU. She was a 1970 high school graduate. They are a healthy couple and real sharp. We arrived back at the motel at 10:00. It was a good day.

On Saturday morning we rode with the Heslops to the Quezon City South Stake Center, also an institute building, a three story building, to watch the stake literacy program in action at 9:00 a.m. We had a good discussion with the leaders there. However, it is a community where most of the members speak English in their homes. They recognize the need for that, so although they are Filipino, Tagalog is their 2nd language. We watched 2 mothers with 4-year-old boys do the tutoring part of the program. They did very well. We had a good discussion. They test the children before the program begins to see what level to start them at. The Dolch site words once again is a big part of the program. Proper phonetics would be a big help also, but I didn’t see it as a part of this program. It might be and I just haven’t become aware of it yet.

At 11:00 our shuttle arrived to take us to the airport. The driver was named Eddie. His young family of 3 girls joined the church last year. They are on the 5th temple preparedness lesson and have a date at the end of August to go get sealed as a family. They were tracted out by missionaries. It was fun to hear his story and listen to his enthusiasm for the gospel and what a difference it has made in their family. He got to baptize his oldest daughter in May. Pretty cool stuff!

No delays this time so we arrived back in Cebu about 4:30. We arrived back to our apartment by about 5:30. It was good to be home. We just relaxed and enjoyed the evening.

Today was a good day as we had video chats with Tyson and crew who had just come home from a week camping in the Big Horns. Sounds like a blast. Then we connected with Tessa and family. It is fun to see the excitement of our grandkids and video chat with them. Marco Polos are good, but it is not the same as real time interaction. Thanks Tyson and Tessa for giving us a call.

This past week Bill Thompson made us aware that Grayson DuBose’s son is here in our mission. Sure enough he is serving in Toledo right now. This is just his second area. We hope to meet up with him. For those who don’t know, Grayson was the volleyball coach at Utah State for several years and Coach Thompson had him come and do the Cokeville volleyball camp. Olivia and Tessa got to know Coach Dubose quite well.

The Dickinsons arrived back this morning at 5:30. I don’t know where I got wrong information, or I was just dreaming about their return. Anyway, they are back now instead of at the end of August. They have been home since the end of May. We fed them a brief lunch before church and will join them at the Heath’s for dinner later today.

Meetings were good. The church is still true and I’m grateful to see the gospel in action here in the Philippines. I’m grateful to see the valiant older people here who joined the church long ago and have been real leaders here. I’m grateful to see second and third generations of members who are actively moving along the covenant path. I’m grateful to witness all the new members of the church grasping onto the Iron Rod, like Eddie. This gospel is true. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live! They have arranged for a prophet in our day to help guide us back to them. Let us follow. “…whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” D&C 1:38

Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
“Lift Where You Stand”

With love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda

Hello everyone,

It has been a good week. Six projects presented on Monday with the Haynes presenting a school literacy project for k-3 grades. It is for some 520 schools, 30 some thousand students and over 3,000 teachers. It will cost over 200,000 dollars. So it has to go to SLC for approval.
We went to Manila for training meetings on Thursday and got home on Saturday evening. The meetings were good.
There has been a typhoon that has hit the northern part of the Philippines killing several people and destroying thousands of homes. We were missed by the big winds. It was north of us. Also, a lot of flooding.
Meetings were good today with encouragement to live the gospel. This work is the real deal. Gathering Israel is the greatest work we can be involved in whether we do it as a called missionary, in our communities, our families, or wherever, on both sides of the veil. "Lift where you stand"

Sincerely,

Elder Teichert

Dear family,

We received a wonderful letter from Jessica Balser. I asked her if I could share part of it with you. She said yes, so here it is.

Jared and I just got back from trek at Martin's Cove as a Ma/Pa. This was our third time. I think one of these times we will get it right, but until then I'm loving all the practice! We got dumped on the first 2 days. Everything was wet and soggy. All the tents, bedding and our clothes. It was actually great to experience some bad weather on trek. It really helped put into perspective what the pioneers went through. I loved learning all the stories and history of the pioneers. Some were new to me and others were good reminders. We are truly so blessed and have such a legacy in the gospel to live and appreciate. If you think of the handcart as a "type" of Christ, and it carries everything that we need, including water that is essential for our survival. Just like the living water of Christ. But the handcart and water can't help us if we don't engage with it. It can't just go on its own and bring everything to us. We need to put forth effort, we need to bring it with us, to keep it with us always to ensure our survival. We must also be sure to keep it on the narrow trail, the correct path. Or we will encounter pitfalls, cliffs and impassable rivers. The correct trail keeps us on the safest path to our destination. But it still isn't an easy path. It is still hard and sometimes bringing the handcart with us is hard and requires extra help. It all seems so symbolic of our life, our path and the challenges we face on earth. Christ doesn't take them away, but He gives us everything we need to survive it, to make it easier. He is our Salvation and we need to keep Him with us. Thinking about all of this on the trail made me really see a new perspective on life and how Christ helps us, and what my part is. I also learned that planning and preparing is important. We need to do all we can, but after that we need to turn it over to the Lord. Because most likely nothing will go according to "our" plan. But that's ok. We don't want our plan, we want His plan. His plan is better and will give us growth and progression. So I need to not stress when things go wrong with what I've planned, but just to see it as God's plan. And in that I can trust all will be well.

I hope you enjoy it. Livi and Quincy have a great time at their place this weekend for Bela's wedding. If any of the rest of you are going to be in Utah this coming weekend you might want to attend the reception. I'm just guessing the reception is this weekend, I really don't know.

Love,

Dad