6 August 2023 Week #45 : I've walked right out of my shoes!
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a real hot week with temperatures between 95-100 and high humidity. It just slaps you in the face when you walk outside. It is like walking into a Sauna. We have been home all week so we have exercised six days in a row. My wife has about killed me off. I saw her checking out my life insurance policy the other day and I think she is ready to collect. The only problem is I’m still upright for part of each day.
Last week was the start of quite a few birthdays during the next couple of months. Tony kicked it off, then Brady and Kinley, and then Piper. It is wonderful to watch our children and spouses as they get older and don’t age at all. It is neat to see how our grandkids change a lot in a year as they grow up. It is hard to imagine that Piper is a year old. Clyda sure misses these wonderful grandkids. She is a trooper though and doing great. Thank goodness for technology, and Napoleon Dynamite, wasn’t he the inventor of technology or just Reiko singing it so beautifully. Probably not, just made an awesome scene in a movie about it. Someone please re-enact it for us on a Marco Polo. Thanks.
If you can’t tell already, it was rather a slow week for us. We are waiting for PO’s and quotes, etc. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday in the office. In the late afternoon we made a Lander’s run for groceries. Our cupboards were getting bare. However, coming home at 5:00 is a slow go. It takes a long time.
On Tuesday afternoon, we knew Dolly Salazar was in town with her husband and child. The Escalante Ward had come to the temple. They spent 3 days here. So, in the later afternoon we headed to the templex. Sure enough we were able to catch her little family along with her sister, Daisy, and family. Dolly is the science teacher we have worked with on the Floro T. Bongco Farm School project. We have now waited for 3 weeks to get a PO for it. It will come when it comes. Dolly and Daisy come from a strong member family of one boy and five girls. The boy is the oldest and Dolly is the youngest. The family joined the church when Dolly was a little girl.
Wednesday was another office and slow day. When we get back from the office Clyda is ready for something else. So, she has been borrowing Sister Heath’s sewing machine and sewing Kangaroo Tubes. She picks it up in the morning when Sister Heath heads to the mission office. Our office is around the block from us. The mission office is in the patron housing at the templex. In the evenings Sister Heath needs the machine back so she can mend missionary clothes.
On Thursday we had a zoom meeting with SLC. It was with the CHaS team. CHaS is the software program that we enter all the project information onto for Church Headquarters to look at. CHaS stands for Church Humanitarian Services. The meeting was good. It was at 8:00 a.m. here, and 6:00 p.m. in SLC. We had people from the orient on the meeting; Japan, Korea, China, etc. During the meeting we got a phone call. Clyda headed out of the room and then I could hear this squealing, for excitement as Michelle broke the news to us about them going to have twins in February. Clyda’s smile was so big she could barely get back into the room through the door. It will be pretty exciting to get grandbabies number 24 & 25. Now, just imagine you are Michelle’s parents with four children. With those four children they are getting five grandchildren in this one year’s time. Pretty cool!
On Wednesday afternoon we had gone to the templex again. Clyda cut Sister Taylor’s hair. I stayed in the lobby and visited with patrons. One of which was Brother Smalley from Garcia Hernandez on Bohol. He is the one that picked us up at the port and returned us to the port when we had our turnover for the Child Development Centers. Well, as a thank you to Clyda the Taylors treated us to dinner on Thursday evening. We picked them up in our truck and drove to Harolds for dinner. The third Cabocus Brother is a cook there. He is the executive secretary for his oldest brother, the bishop. He came out after the meal was over, and we got pictures taken with him.
Sometime on Thursday we headed to the mall and Clyda bought a sewing machine at National Bookstore. Who would have thought you could buy sewing machines at a bookstore. Go figure!
The soles on my walking shoes are about gone and no tread on the bottom. When I was pulling the strings to tie the shoes, one of the eyelets broke. So, I got some new walking shoes at a shoe store for just $34. Go figure!
In the northern part of the Philippines the weather has really been bad because of the typhoon Egay. We have seen a lot of film footage of terrible flooding and rescues. Some of our leaders have been up north to evaluate the situation and how our team will help. As a result, we didn’t have our Friday meeting.
Clyda gave me a buzz. We continued on with the excitement of twins, and the Uinta County Fair where the Micheli’s had another great time showing animals. Brady won grand champion showmanship in the junior division, Lewis had his first time showing at the fair and loved it, Mariah’s steer had problems that made is so she couldn’t enter the showmanship this year, and Mylie handled her steer that wouldn’t stand still at all with great poise. And the best part of all is Connor has completed the first year of his mission in Chile and has paid for it with the money he made from his steers through the years. His testimony is growing about what is really important, our relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. We are proud of them and the things they learn through being involved in 4-H and these kinds of activities. Now this week will be the Lincoln County show and the Parry family’s turn to be involved in all kinds of shows with goats, steers, and horses. We are anxious to see some footage of this week’s adventures.
On Friday night we had Elder and Sister Welch over for dinner. They are a wonderful couple that have been here since before Christmas last year. They just moved into our apartment building and don’t have a stove yet. We have been guests at their place up on the hill in Busay several times. They lived in Downey, ID, for several years as he taught, coached, and was the principal at Marsh Valley for 26 years. I’ve talked about them before. When they return, they will be living in Inkom. I’m sure we will go see them sometime.
Saturday morning saw us going to the templex to pick up Sister Taylor, (Jim had to be at the temple) and Elder Koyle, (Laura was sick) to go to the market to get vegetables. When we drove onto the templex we saw Elder Quicay. I don’t know who was more excited, him or us! It was so good to hug him and see how great he is doing. He is a Zone Leader in Tanjay now. All of the leadership in the mission came for a leadership training yesterday. They headed home today. If we had been two minutes earlier or later, we probably wouldn’t have seen him. Then, after that we got back in the truck and drove to the patron housing to pick up Sister Annette Taylor and Elder Kendall Koyle. Right there was Sister Bernaldez, the Sister Training Leader in Toledo, it was now Clyda’s turn to give the hug and me a handshake to an excited young Sister missionary. However, we were equally excited. We also got to see Elder Hartvigsen, the Zone Leader in Toledo now. It is so fun to see these young missionaries grow in confidence as their testimonies grow. What a wonderful way to start our day. Our first meeting with Elder Hartvigsen and Sister Bernaldez was back in about March when they helped us with the repackaging at Mabuhay Deseret.
The market was great, and we got all the produce we will need for the coming week. We then headed to the templex to an emergency preparedness training for EMS responders. We were asked to give a spiritual thought to start the meeting off. About half of the people are members. The leaders are members and that is why it is held at the church. The head guy is one of the temple engineers and we see him almost daily at the temple when we go walking. He is also the bishop of the Apas Ward. This was just an introductory meeting with videos, question and answer session, etc. It did last for more than a couple hours. The name of this team of Rescue Recon is Seagulls. The reason for the name is because of the rescue for the Saints when the seagulls took care of the crickets for the early pioneers. Several church members, brothers and sisters, busy with their jobs and church callings, are part of this group. In the picture the ones in tan Navy uniforms and the ones with orange uniforms are already members of the group. The ones not in uniforms are the new people that want to do the training to become Rescue Recon responders with the Seagull team.
Then Saturday evening we went to the Stake Youth Show. At the stake youth conference last week each ward youth group had prepared a 20 minute number from several different musicals, like Aladdin, High School Musical, The Greatest Showman, Trolls, Cinderella, etc. They had performed at the Stake Youth Conference and now they did it for the parents. It was a loud rowdy time. It is more like a concert situation where there is screaming and talking through the whole show. I wish it would have been a theatre atmosphere where we could have heard all of the singing. The dancing was great. These Filipinos love to sing and dance.
Oh, by the way, with every spare minute Clyda is now using her VERY OWN sewing machine. Sewing machine and shoes, happy anniversary (44) and birthdays (68 & 65) to us! Speaking of birthdays, I believe it is happy birthday to Violet on the 5th, Casey on the 6th , and Michelle on the 7th, and Layne on the 19th.
We were able to get some video chats in with some family members before church. Church was great as always. Some great testimonies and gospel discussion in Sunday School class. The highlight for me today was watching Brother Apaco and his oldest son. Brother and Sister Apaco have four children. The oldest is a girl in college. The oldest son just graduated from high school and is waiting for a mission call. He is an assistant executive secretary. The executive secretary is the third Cabocus boy who is the chef. The second son in the Apaco family is the ward organist and will be a junior in high school. The youngest child is a girl and I guess about a freshman. They are talented kids, sing and dance. Well, Brother Apaco was a very active guy who had a stroke a little over a year ago. He drags a leg when he walks. He has slurred speech. Well, today he said the invocation in Sacrament Meeting. As he sat back down on the front row of the stand, his son sitting on the second row, reached over and gave him a big handshake with a big smile on his face. When the father faced forward he had a smile and a tear. A wonderful father/son relationship. I’ve watched this wife and mother be so sensitive with her husband and proud of her children. I’ve also watched her sternly visit with the youngest son once. She is not afraid to discipline, and you can tell. They are the best kids in the ward. The gospel is about growing, helping each other, and knowing what is really important in this life. When I think of the Celestial Kingdom I will see this family.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #45 7/31-8/6
It has been a real hot week with temperatures between 95-100 and high humidity. It just slaps you in the face when you walk outside. It is like walking into a Sauna. We have been home all week so we have exercised six days in a row. My wife has about killed me off. I saw her checking out my life insurance policy the other day and I think she is ready to collect. The only problem is I’m still upright for part of each day.
Last week was the start of quite a few birthdays during the next couple of months. Tony kicked it off, then Brady and Kinley, and then Piper. It is wonderful to watch our children and spouses as they get older and don’t age at all. It is neat to see how our grandkids change a lot in a year as they grow up. It is hard to imagine that Piper is a year old. Clyda sure misses these wonderful grandkids. She is a trooper though and doing great. Thank goodness for technology, and Napoleon Dynamite, wasn’t he the inventor of technology or just Reiko singing it so beautifully. Probably not, just made an awesome scene in a movie about it. Someone please re-enact it for us on a Marco Polo. Thanks.
If you can’t tell already, it was rather a slow week for us. We are waiting for PO’s and quotes, etc. We spent most of Monday and Tuesday in the office. In the late afternoon we made a Lander’s run for groceries. Our cupboards were getting bare. However, coming home at 5:00 is a slow go. It takes a long time.
On Tuesday afternoon, we knew Dolly Salazar was in town with her husband and child. The Escalante Ward had come to the temple. They spent 3 days here. So, in the later afternoon we headed to the templex. Sure enough we were able to catch her little family along with her sister, Daisy, and family. Dolly is the science teacher we have worked with on the Floro T. Bongco Farm School project. We have now waited for 3 weeks to get a PO for it. It will come when it comes. Dolly and Daisy come from a strong member family of one boy and five girls. The boy is the oldest and Dolly is the youngest. The family joined the church when Dolly was a little girl.
Wednesday was another office and slow day. When we get back from the office Clyda is ready for something else. So, she has been borrowing Sister Heath’s sewing machine and sewing Kangaroo Tubes. She picks it up in the morning when Sister Heath heads to the mission office. Our office is around the block from us. The mission office is in the patron housing at the templex. In the evenings Sister Heath needs the machine back so she can mend missionary clothes.
On Thursday we had a zoom meeting with SLC. It was with the CHaS team. CHaS is the software program that we enter all the project information onto for Church Headquarters to look at. CHaS stands for Church Humanitarian Services. The meeting was good. It was at 8:00 a.m. here, and 6:00 p.m. in SLC. We had people from the orient on the meeting; Japan, Korea, China, etc. During the meeting we got a phone call. Clyda headed out of the room and then I could hear this squealing, for excitement as Michelle broke the news to us about them going to have twins in February. Clyda’s smile was so big she could barely get back into the room through the door. It will be pretty exciting to get grandbabies number 24 & 25. Now, just imagine you are Michelle’s parents with four children. With those four children they are getting five grandchildren in this one year’s time. Pretty cool!
On Wednesday afternoon we had gone to the templex again. Clyda cut Sister Taylor’s hair. I stayed in the lobby and visited with patrons. One of which was Brother Smalley from Garcia Hernandez on Bohol. He is the one that picked us up at the port and returned us to the port when we had our turnover for the Child Development Centers. Well, as a thank you to Clyda the Taylors treated us to dinner on Thursday evening. We picked them up in our truck and drove to Harolds for dinner. The third Cabocus Brother is a cook there. He is the executive secretary for his oldest brother, the bishop. He came out after the meal was over, and we got pictures taken with him.
Sometime on Thursday we headed to the mall and Clyda bought a sewing machine at National Bookstore. Who would have thought you could buy sewing machines at a bookstore. Go figure!
The soles on my walking shoes are about gone and no tread on the bottom. When I was pulling the strings to tie the shoes, one of the eyelets broke. So, I got some new walking shoes at a shoe store for just $34. Go figure!
In the northern part of the Philippines the weather has really been bad because of the typhoon Egay. We have seen a lot of film footage of terrible flooding and rescues. Some of our leaders have been up north to evaluate the situation and how our team will help. As a result, we didn’t have our Friday meeting.
Clyda gave me a buzz. We continued on with the excitement of twins, and the Uinta County Fair where the Micheli’s had another great time showing animals. Brady won grand champion showmanship in the junior division, Lewis had his first time showing at the fair and loved it, Mariah’s steer had problems that made is so she couldn’t enter the showmanship this year, and Mylie handled her steer that wouldn’t stand still at all with great poise. And the best part of all is Connor has completed the first year of his mission in Chile and has paid for it with the money he made from his steers through the years. His testimony is growing about what is really important, our relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. We are proud of them and the things they learn through being involved in 4-H and these kinds of activities. Now this week will be the Lincoln County show and the Parry family’s turn to be involved in all kinds of shows with goats, steers, and horses. We are anxious to see some footage of this week’s adventures.
On Friday night we had Elder and Sister Welch over for dinner. They are a wonderful couple that have been here since before Christmas last year. They just moved into our apartment building and don’t have a stove yet. We have been guests at their place up on the hill in Busay several times. They lived in Downey, ID, for several years as he taught, coached, and was the principal at Marsh Valley for 26 years. I’ve talked about them before. When they return, they will be living in Inkom. I’m sure we will go see them sometime.
Saturday morning saw us going to the templex to pick up Sister Taylor, (Jim had to be at the temple) and Elder Koyle, (Laura was sick) to go to the market to get vegetables. When we drove onto the templex we saw Elder Quicay. I don’t know who was more excited, him or us! It was so good to hug him and see how great he is doing. He is a Zone Leader in Tanjay now. All of the leadership in the mission came for a leadership training yesterday. They headed home today. If we had been two minutes earlier or later, we probably wouldn’t have seen him. Then, after that we got back in the truck and drove to the patron housing to pick up Sister Annette Taylor and Elder Kendall Koyle. Right there was Sister Bernaldez, the Sister Training Leader in Toledo, it was now Clyda’s turn to give the hug and me a handshake to an excited young Sister missionary. However, we were equally excited. We also got to see Elder Hartvigsen, the Zone Leader in Toledo now. It is so fun to see these young missionaries grow in confidence as their testimonies grow. What a wonderful way to start our day. Our first meeting with Elder Hartvigsen and Sister Bernaldez was back in about March when they helped us with the repackaging at Mabuhay Deseret.
The market was great, and we got all the produce we will need for the coming week. We then headed to the templex to an emergency preparedness training for EMS responders. We were asked to give a spiritual thought to start the meeting off. About half of the people are members. The leaders are members and that is why it is held at the church. The head guy is one of the temple engineers and we see him almost daily at the temple when we go walking. He is also the bishop of the Apas Ward. This was just an introductory meeting with videos, question and answer session, etc. It did last for more than a couple hours. The name of this team of Rescue Recon is Seagulls. The reason for the name is because of the rescue for the Saints when the seagulls took care of the crickets for the early pioneers. Several church members, brothers and sisters, busy with their jobs and church callings, are part of this group. In the picture the ones in tan Navy uniforms and the ones with orange uniforms are already members of the group. The ones not in uniforms are the new people that want to do the training to become Rescue Recon responders with the Seagull team.
Then Saturday evening we went to the Stake Youth Show. At the stake youth conference last week each ward youth group had prepared a 20 minute number from several different musicals, like Aladdin, High School Musical, The Greatest Showman, Trolls, Cinderella, etc. They had performed at the Stake Youth Conference and now they did it for the parents. It was a loud rowdy time. It is more like a concert situation where there is screaming and talking through the whole show. I wish it would have been a theatre atmosphere where we could have heard all of the singing. The dancing was great. These Filipinos love to sing and dance.
Oh, by the way, with every spare minute Clyda is now using her VERY OWN sewing machine. Sewing machine and shoes, happy anniversary (44) and birthdays (68 & 65) to us! Speaking of birthdays, I believe it is happy birthday to Violet on the 5th, Casey on the 6th , and Michelle on the 7th, and Layne on the 19th.
We were able to get some video chats in with some family members before church. Church was great as always. Some great testimonies and gospel discussion in Sunday School class. The highlight for me today was watching Brother Apaco and his oldest son. Brother and Sister Apaco have four children. The oldest is a girl in college. The oldest son just graduated from high school and is waiting for a mission call. He is an assistant executive secretary. The executive secretary is the third Cabocus boy who is the chef. The second son in the Apaco family is the ward organist and will be a junior in high school. The youngest child is a girl and I guess about a freshman. They are talented kids, sing and dance. Well, Brother Apaco was a very active guy who had a stroke a little over a year ago. He drags a leg when he walks. He has slurred speech. Well, today he said the invocation in Sacrament Meeting. As he sat back down on the front row of the stand, his son sitting on the second row, reached over and gave him a big handshake with a big smile on his face. When the father faced forward he had a smile and a tear. A wonderful father/son relationship. I’ve watched this wife and mother be so sensitive with her husband and proud of her children. I’ve also watched her sternly visit with the youngest son once. She is not afraid to discipline, and you can tell. They are the best kids in the ward. The gospel is about growing, helping each other, and knowing what is really important in this life. When I think of the Celestial Kingdom I will see this family.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Comments
Post a Comment