Briant and Clyda Teichert; LDS Charities; Cebu Philippines

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #64 12/11-12/17 One of our highlights this week was attending the Cebu City and Cebu Central combined zone conferences. We were invited to attend with the office senior missionaries. They always attend these. We really enjoyed the instructions by zone leaders, assistants, and the mission president. It was a 3 hour morning with good instruction. In the afternoon it was a party. All the different districts performed a musical number with some dancing. It was their Christmas party. They did a gift exchange between missionaries and President and Sister Fernandez gave them all a gift. It was a good day and one we were grateful to be involved in. The topic of the conference was using the Book of Mormon in teaching. They called on me to share my testimony. It was fun to bear witness of the power of the Book of Mormon and of missionaries sharing a strong testimony of it. I shared with them the story of Elder Frischknecht, one of my companions. He was learn...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #63 12/4-12/10 On Monday morning it was your Sunday evening so first thing we did after arriving at the office was watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. The translation team had called in a couple extras to help as they translated it into Cebuano. It was a wonderful devotional. Let us all enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ during this coming month. Typical Monday office work. In the evening we had FHE with 20 of us. Sister L presented the lesson, history of the church and English language in the Philippines. Many of our seniors weren’t here when she presented this lesson last February. For some of us it was a second time around and even better than the first. She is a great lady. Sister Jepson went home on Wednesday, so it was a good time telling her goodbye. She is amazing! She is legally blind but game for all the adventures, even jumping off cliffs while canyoneering. We are looking forward to taking her to a BYU...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #62 11/27-12/3 On Monday morning we were able to do our complete exercise routine for the first time in a couple weeks. It consists of one hour walking then 30 minutes of pushups, sit-ups, lunges, wall sits, and stretching. We were sore the next couple of days. Then we did our gospel learning while our heart rates dropped a little. Then a shower and breakfast. Work on projects, kangaroo sewing for Clyda, and preparing for another whirlwind trip. On Tuesday we woke up at 12:01 a.m. (yes, you read that correctly, shortly after midnight) to catch a 2:00 a.m. flight to Manila, then three and a half hours in the airport, caught a flight to Catarman in Northern Samar. We arrived there at 8:00 a.m. (There is no direct flight from Cebu to Catarman, and we can only make connecting flights there on Tuesday or Friday morning.) Mam Olchandra, the young, single Cagdara-o Elementary School Head, met us at the airport. She had a friend who was shuttling us. We t...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #61 11/20-11/26 Last Monday we had a wonderful FHE at the Taylor’s apartment. The Heaths shared a lesson on “Light”, all kinds of light, and of course focused on Jesus being the real Light. It was very good. The activity was by the Parkers. It was “would you rather”, then you had two choices. You would read the question and both choices and then tell the group your choice. It was fun. Some very interesting choices. On Tuesday we caught a 6:30 a.m. flight to Iloilo so we had to be up early. The Peters picked us up at the airport. We headed to Calinog and made a quick unannounced visit to San Julian Elementary School. When we had our turnover there in September, we became acquainted with a 4th grade boy who needed a wheelchair. We were able to arrange for him to receive one. It was fun to see he had it. We also saw some TVs in action. However, it was morning recess time so we didn’t see a lot. Then off to Buruanga Hospital and also the Health Clinic a...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #60 11/13-11/19 We have had a wonderful week with Taffy, Tony, Mylie, Mariah, Brady, and Lewis. It was sad to see them go, but wonderful to see them arrive. If this experience doesn’t make me want to be with my family forever, I don’t know what will. We are so grateful for the sealing power of the priesthood, for the grace of Jesus Christ, this great plan of salvation and exaltation, for the wonderful families we were born into, our parents and siblings, and for the wonderful children born to us, and for the wonderful grandchildren that keep coming. We are truly blessed. Let us all strive to be obedient, go to the temple as often as we can, and keep our covenants so we can be with Tillie and Clyde again. This gospel plan is true! On Monday we were up and headed to the temple grounds at 5:30 where we exercised. Some of us walked and others played basketball. We dropped off laundry as we also visited the office and had a short visit with Jeff and Aaro...

Dear Family and Friends,  Week #59 11/6-11-12 On Monday Clyda and I took Elder Epperson to get RoRo ferry tickets to the Lite Ferries offices here in Cebu. We showed him how he can get tickets here for the Toledo to San Carlos ferry. It is so much easier, and you don’t have a two-hour drive to Toledo and then maybe not be able to get on board. We have learned the hard way on that one. Then he stayed with us as we went to make a second visit to the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary PT/OT Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. We had a good visit and feel like we can now start on that project. We want to provide them with a traction machine, an ultrasound machine, weights, etc. to help them with the therapy they provide for patients. Many of their patients are permanently handicapped and need help to keep some limbs mobile. They also have patients that have recently become injured. And then all of those in between these two kinds of patients. We have sent into purchasing th...

Dear Family and Friends,   Week #58 10/30-11/5 It has been an interesting week. School has been out all week due to holiday vacation. Monday, October 30th, was election day. We were counseled to stay indoors. Things can get a little interesting for elections. During the previous week and on that day, reports told of about 20 people being killed running for elections in different areas of the Philippines. Nothing happened around here. We did leave the apartment to go to the office for a little while to work. Wednesday, November 1st, was All-Saints Day and Thursday was All-Souls Day. We saw some parades go by our place. The area offices in Manila all had the week off so we didn’t have any meetings. We don’t have any real projects going on right now, so we cleaned out old files, and organized ourselves this week. We got rid of a lot of papers from the projects we have done that are all finished and in the books. We have done some work on new projects. One of the biggest items ...