20 August 2023 Week #47: Watts of Love
Dear Family and Friends,
On Monday five projects were presented. Afterwards we drove out to My Bonita Home for Girls to make sure we knew where to go and to see how long it will take to get there next Monday for our turnover. On the way back we stopped at Landers to buy a few items. At home we picked up the laundry and after a wonderful baked potato dinner Clyda ironed.
On Tuesday we were up at 3:30 a.m. to leave at 4:00 for the airport. We had a 5:45 flight to Iloilo. The Peters picked us up at the airport at 7:00. We headed to Calinog. President Quimba met us at 9:00 at the church. We then headed to the mountains to visit Supanga Elementary School. It was sad. They had a school with two buildings. One is pretty nice. A year ago, after a lot of rain one of the buildings slid off the mountain. They now have six makeshift classrooms made out of bamboo for walls and metal roofs with dirt(mud) floors. It is really sad. They have some solar panels for electricity. It wasn’t working, but the Harrisons went there when they visited the Peters. Norman instructed the school head on what to do to get it going again. They have some power now. We want to help and we hope to help soon. It was quite a ride to get there.
We spent the night in Jordan on Guimaras Island at the Zemkamps Motel. I killed a big coakroach the next morning. We had time so we went for a walk down the main street on a sidewalk. You don’t see many of those here. The Peters picked us up at 10:00 and we headed to Sibunag Fire Station for the turnover. The young Elders were present. Elder Barney from Meridian has been out about a year and his new companion, Elder Bornales, who has just arrived this past week were present. The branch president and his wife were also present. It was a good program with Elder and Sister Peters and Clyda and myself each getting a couple minutes to share, so we testified of Christ and his love for them. We thanked them for being involved in a profession that is designed to help out their fellowman. The second great commandment is Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. It was a very nice event. We heard the chief afterwards visit with Elder Barney and make sure they were going to be coming again next Wednesday to give another devotional. Pretty Cool!! I can picture her in white. She is a neat lady and has been great to work with throughout this process. They fed us a big feast. Then off to an elementary school.
We arrived at Taras Elementary on Guimaras Island. They are wanting a building for a canteen, a library, and for an instruction area. It is a pretty neat concept. We like the design. However, I don’t know if we can help in construction of a new building to replace their old building. We will see. It is a school about the size of Cokeville with about 18 students per class.
We caught our 8:45 flight and arrived at our apartment at 11:30. It was nice to be home!
Up at 6:00 but we didn’t’ exercise. We caught a 9:30 ferry to Ormoc on Leyte Island. We hadn’t been to Leyte and Samar Islands yet. They are the largest islands we have and both of them combine for the Tacloban Mission. Elder Balorio and the Haynes picked us up at the Ormoc port. We headed to a village in the mountains above Tabango on Western Leyte. We joined “Watts of Love” for a distribution of solar lights. We have joined with this organization to help people. It is pretty amazing. A wealthy lady named Nancy came to the Philippines in 2009 and saw a young girl with a huge severe burn from her ear down onto her shoulder. It really affected her. She asked how it had happened. The family used kerosene lamps for lights. The little girl spilled kerosene on her neck and was burnt badly. When the lady returned to Chicago and continued to deal with the top 1% of the world with her jewelry business, she couldn’t get over the thoughts of this girl’s situation. One day it hit her that if the girl had a solar light that would never have happened. So, she now works with the bottom 1% financially of the world. They go to these small communities without electricity and give them solar lights. Of course, we are involved because we (LDS Charities) buy the lights. They come and distribute them, and they teach and train them. It was fun to watch this young lady teach them about saving money each day with a solar light so they didn’t have to pay for kerosene or whatever fuel they would use for their lanterns. By saving that much each day they could buy something else, like chickens, and it just goes from there. It was fun to watch the training, calculate the amount saved each day X 7 days, X 4 weeks, X 12 months, etc. Then she asked what they would do with that money. Buy more things to help them build a better business to make more money, etc. Before they met with the group they met with a few younger volunteers to train. So they trained the trainers. Then after the general session they broke into groups to get training on saving and setting goals. They were given papers to write down what they were going to do. Light the Dark by WATTS of LOVE, a great book if you can find it and get time. They gave us a book and a light. The box the light comes in is also their piggy bank to start saving their money, an unheard of thing amongst those in poverty. It was really cool!
On Friday it was get up at 4:30 and head out at 5:00. We drove 5 hours, took a pumpboat ride for 20 minutes out to an island to see the same thing happen again. Really cool. Then back to the mainland. A 5 hour return trip with having spent 5 hours going out to the island, having lunch, instructing, and back. We arrived back at our motel at about 8:30 and then did our daily devotional. I was in the back of a vehicle bouncing along on some of the worst pothole roads ever. The day reminded me of going to Little Snake River for a ball game. Over and back in the same long day on a bus. The good thing about this was the great teaching that took place, just like the great wins at LSR.
On Saturday we went for a 30 minute walk at 6:00 a.m. We saw the port and later the finish line of a 5K fun run raising money for a blood drive. We spent the morning at the motel working on paperwork after our daily devotional. At 10:45 Elder Balorio picked us up. He and his wife are the senior missionaries over wheelchairs in the Tacloban Mission and they help out on other things also. We had met him at the templex about a month ago. I mentioned them in a previous letter. They were baptized I believe in 1991 by Josh Heiner. He was a wonderful driver. We headed to Kananga to meet with the Ward about a FAITH Garden project. It went well even with the lack of communicating. The Bishop didn’t speak a lick of English, he just smiled. There were a few people that could speak English however. We felt the meeting went well. We will see how it goes.
We caught the 4:30 ferry at the Ormoc port and headed for home.
It has been a very nice Sabbath. We got home late and slept in. 1:00 p.m. church is pretty nice for us being here. It gives us the morning to catch up with family on Saturday evenings for them. We visited with Tyson and family. They shared with us how they are just finishing up their fire pit. It looks pretty neat. Then we received a call from Olivia who was at Tessa’s for Layne’s birthday party. So, we got to see quite a few grandkids at the party. That was fun.
Meetings were good. I really enjoyed a talk a young man gave about enduring. He went on a mission in 2016. However, to go on the mission he wanted to read the Book of Mormon first. He had a hard time doing it. Then he asked a friend how he had done it. It all came down to choices, giving up some basketball time, video game time, and time with his x girlfriend. He had to endure he said. He described enduring as sticking with the correct things in our lives for our own good and our families good. It was an interesting take on enduring, but the way he explained it, I had to agree. This gospel is true. I continue to marvel at the growth of it when so many are falling away. It still continues to grow. Satan is making plenty of tackles and scoring some touchdowns. But, he is still losing. The winning team is doing so much more. Be sure you are on the winning team.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #47 8/14-8/20
On Monday five projects were presented. Afterwards we drove out to My Bonita Home for Girls to make sure we knew where to go and to see how long it will take to get there next Monday for our turnover. On the way back we stopped at Landers to buy a few items. At home we picked up the laundry and after a wonderful baked potato dinner Clyda ironed.
On Tuesday we were up at 3:30 a.m. to leave at 4:00 for the airport. We had a 5:45 flight to Iloilo. The Peters picked us up at the airport at 7:00. We headed to Calinog. President Quimba met us at 9:00 at the church. We then headed to the mountains to visit Supanga Elementary School. It was sad. They had a school with two buildings. One is pretty nice. A year ago, after a lot of rain one of the buildings slid off the mountain. They now have six makeshift classrooms made out of bamboo for walls and metal roofs with dirt(mud) floors. It is really sad. They have some solar panels for electricity. It wasn’t working, but the Harrisons went there when they visited the Peters. Norman instructed the school head on what to do to get it going again. They have some power now. We want to help and we hope to help soon. It was quite a ride to get there.
We spent the night in Jordan on Guimaras Island at the Zemkamps Motel. I killed a big coakroach the next morning. We had time so we went for a walk down the main street on a sidewalk. You don’t see many of those here. The Peters picked us up at 10:00 and we headed to Sibunag Fire Station for the turnover. The young Elders were present. Elder Barney from Meridian has been out about a year and his new companion, Elder Bornales, who has just arrived this past week were present. The branch president and his wife were also present. It was a good program with Elder and Sister Peters and Clyda and myself each getting a couple minutes to share, so we testified of Christ and his love for them. We thanked them for being involved in a profession that is designed to help out their fellowman. The second great commandment is Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. It was a very nice event. We heard the chief afterwards visit with Elder Barney and make sure they were going to be coming again next Wednesday to give another devotional. Pretty Cool!! I can picture her in white. She is a neat lady and has been great to work with throughout this process. They fed us a big feast. Then off to an elementary school.
We arrived at Taras Elementary on Guimaras Island. They are wanting a building for a canteen, a library, and for an instruction area. It is a pretty neat concept. We like the design. However, I don’t know if we can help in construction of a new building to replace their old building. We will see. It is a school about the size of Cokeville with about 18 students per class.
We caught our 8:45 flight and arrived at our apartment at 11:30. It was nice to be home!
Up at 6:00 but we didn’t’ exercise. We caught a 9:30 ferry to Ormoc on Leyte Island. We hadn’t been to Leyte and Samar Islands yet. They are the largest islands we have and both of them combine for the Tacloban Mission. Elder Balorio and the Haynes picked us up at the Ormoc port. We headed to a village in the mountains above Tabango on Western Leyte. We joined “Watts of Love” for a distribution of solar lights. We have joined with this organization to help people. It is pretty amazing. A wealthy lady named Nancy came to the Philippines in 2009 and saw a young girl with a huge severe burn from her ear down onto her shoulder. It really affected her. She asked how it had happened. The family used kerosene lamps for lights. The little girl spilled kerosene on her neck and was burnt badly. When the lady returned to Chicago and continued to deal with the top 1% of the world with her jewelry business, she couldn’t get over the thoughts of this girl’s situation. One day it hit her that if the girl had a solar light that would never have happened. So, she now works with the bottom 1% financially of the world. They go to these small communities without electricity and give them solar lights. Of course, we are involved because we (LDS Charities) buy the lights. They come and distribute them, and they teach and train them. It was fun to watch this young lady teach them about saving money each day with a solar light so they didn’t have to pay for kerosene or whatever fuel they would use for their lanterns. By saving that much each day they could buy something else, like chickens, and it just goes from there. It was fun to watch the training, calculate the amount saved each day X 7 days, X 4 weeks, X 12 months, etc. Then she asked what they would do with that money. Buy more things to help them build a better business to make more money, etc. Before they met with the group they met with a few younger volunteers to train. So they trained the trainers. Then after the general session they broke into groups to get training on saving and setting goals. They were given papers to write down what they were going to do. Light the Dark by WATTS of LOVE, a great book if you can find it and get time. They gave us a book and a light. The box the light comes in is also their piggy bank to start saving their money, an unheard of thing amongst those in poverty. It was really cool!
On Friday it was get up at 4:30 and head out at 5:00. We drove 5 hours, took a pumpboat ride for 20 minutes out to an island to see the same thing happen again. Really cool. Then back to the mainland. A 5 hour return trip with having spent 5 hours going out to the island, having lunch, instructing, and back. We arrived back at our motel at about 8:30 and then did our daily devotional. I was in the back of a vehicle bouncing along on some of the worst pothole roads ever. The day reminded me of going to Little Snake River for a ball game. Over and back in the same long day on a bus. The good thing about this was the great teaching that took place, just like the great wins at LSR.
On Saturday we went for a 30 minute walk at 6:00 a.m. We saw the port and later the finish line of a 5K fun run raising money for a blood drive. We spent the morning at the motel working on paperwork after our daily devotional. At 10:45 Elder Balorio picked us up. He and his wife are the senior missionaries over wheelchairs in the Tacloban Mission and they help out on other things also. We had met him at the templex about a month ago. I mentioned them in a previous letter. They were baptized I believe in 1991 by Josh Heiner. He was a wonderful driver. We headed to Kananga to meet with the Ward about a FAITH Garden project. It went well even with the lack of communicating. The Bishop didn’t speak a lick of English, he just smiled. There were a few people that could speak English however. We felt the meeting went well. We will see how it goes.
We caught the 4:30 ferry at the Ormoc port and headed for home.
It has been a very nice Sabbath. We got home late and slept in. 1:00 p.m. church is pretty nice for us being here. It gives us the morning to catch up with family on Saturday evenings for them. We visited with Tyson and family. They shared with us how they are just finishing up their fire pit. It looks pretty neat. Then we received a call from Olivia who was at Tessa’s for Layne’s birthday party. So, we got to see quite a few grandkids at the party. That was fun.
Meetings were good. I really enjoyed a talk a young man gave about enduring. He went on a mission in 2016. However, to go on the mission he wanted to read the Book of Mormon first. He had a hard time doing it. Then he asked a friend how he had done it. It all came down to choices, giving up some basketball time, video game time, and time with his x girlfriend. He had to endure he said. He described enduring as sticking with the correct things in our lives for our own good and our families good. It was an interesting take on enduring, but the way he explained it, I had to agree. This gospel is true. I continue to marvel at the growth of it when so many are falling away. It still continues to grow. Satan is making plenty of tackles and scoring some touchdowns. But, he is still losing. The winning team is doing so much more. Be sure you are on the winning team.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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