5 November 2023 Week #58: Paperwork and Rain
Dear Family and Friends,
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 stressed here lately is getting reports from our beneficiaries on how impactful the projects have been for them. We have in CHaS a field called TASKS. In this part of the system, we record objectives and measures for our projects. It is also an area where we can record when we want reports from those we help. So, a due date is entered and what we want them to report to us about. For example: If we have given them TVs and we expect that to impact academic achievement then the report is: Due November 10, 2023 – A report of student scores on the 1st quarter exams for each grade and each subject. Then we compare it to last year’s scores to see if with the TVs the grade 10 learners are scoring higher in Biology this year after the first quarter than they did last year at the end of the first quarter without the TVs.
We have to have some kind of report like this for each project and have a due date and what is expected. Then we have to have them report more than just once. Our schools that received TVs will report after all four quarters this year. Other projects might only be asked to report two or three times. The fire station just twice, after six months how many people have they helped using the motorcycle and other equipment we donated. The same with the 7FSSU, how many vehicles have they repaired using the tools we have donated.
We also have to record it into an Excel File that goes to our boss so he can see it easily. So, we spent quite a bit of time updating those files. It was a tedious process because we hadn’t done it in the Excel File for our boss yet. As a result, we don’t have many, if any pictures this week.
We went to the temple on Tuesday. That is always a nice experience. We joined with all the other senior missionaries on the mezzanine floor for a potluck dinner on Thursday and they had invited 8 of the young Elders. Six of the Elders made it. The other two were caught up in a good teaching appointment. It was a good time. Sister Garner and the other couples; Heaths, Welches, and Eppersons, are all in the office and see the missionaries quite a bit. The mission office is being remodeled so they were all in their apartments this week and going stir crazy. It was a fun break.
We have watched the first round of state volleyball and now also the semifinals. It was wonderful and fun to watch the Mt. View Buffalos, Mylie’s team, and our Cokeville Panthers win. Both will play for the state championship. I would normally not send this letter until Sunday and could then tell you who won state titles, but this week I am sending it out on Saturday.
We have had rain each day this week and a lot of blue sky also. With that blue sky the temperatures have been 32 degrees C, or 90 degrees F, with a lot of humidity. This is the beginning of the cool season. I hope it gets a little cooler. Thank goodness we have a nice, air-conditioned apartment and office. We are sissies. The apartment isn’t very well insulated so when we return after a few hours being gone it is plenty warm and takes a little time to cool it down. Did I mention we are sissies.
We are so excited about Taffy and her family coming to visit. They arrive next Friday evening for 8 days of fun and an eye-opening experience for their children. It is going to be wonderful, and we can hardly wait. The long-anticipated arrival is now short. I am really excited, and I don’t have the words to express how Clyda feels about it. Let’s just say I don’t even think our wedding day could match the excitement and anticipation Clyda is feeling to have them here. Family is everything, next to the covenants we make in the temple and then keep. Without those Priesthood Sealings, family is just a short drop in the bucket in eternity. We want that to last forever and not just for the short present.
Tessa mentioned to us an impression she received this week about how visiting the sisters she has been assigned to visit will bless her with new insights and growth. I believe that is so true! Whenever we assist anyone, we receive the greater benefits. Service is so important, and I need to be a lot better at it. It needs to become a habit. I have been blessed to witness it in so many wonderful people in Cokeville.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
Hopefully then we become better people helping the Savior in this great work.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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 stressed here lately is getting reports from our beneficiaries on how impactful the projects have been for them. We have in CHaS a field called TASKS. In this part of the system, we record objectives and measures for our projects. It is also an area where we can record when we want reports from those we help. So, a due date is entered and what we want them to report to us about. For example: If we have given them TVs and we expect that to impact academic achievement then the report is: Due November 10, 2023 – A report of student scores on the 1st quarter exams for each grade and each subject. Then we compare it to last year’s scores to see if with the TVs the grade 10 learners are scoring higher in Biology this year after the first quarter than they did last year at the end of the first quarter without the TVs.
We have to have some kind of report like this for each project and have a due date and what is expected. Then we have to have them report more than just once. Our schools that received TVs will report after all four quarters this year. Other projects might only be asked to report two or three times. The fire station just twice, after six months how many people have they helped using the motorcycle and other equipment we donated. The same with the 7FSSU, how many vehicles have they repaired using the tools we have donated.
We also have to record it into an Excel File that goes to our boss so he can see it easily. So, we spent quite a bit of time updating those files. It was a tedious process because we hadn’t done it in the Excel File for our boss yet. As a result, we don’t have many, if any pictures this week.
We went to the temple on Tuesday. That is always a nice experience. We joined with all the other senior missionaries on the mezzanine floor for a potluck dinner on Thursday and they had invited 8 of the young Elders. Six of the Elders made it. The other two were caught up in a good teaching appointment. It was a good time. Sister Garner and the other couples; Heaths, Welches, and Eppersons, are all in the office and see the missionaries quite a bit. The mission office is being remodeled so they were all in their apartments this week and going stir crazy. It was a fun break.
We have watched the first round of state volleyball and now also the semifinals. It was wonderful and fun to watch the Mt. View Buffalos, Mylie’s team, and our Cokeville Panthers win. Both will play for the state championship. I would normally not send this letter until Sunday and could then tell you who won state titles, but this week I am sending it out on Saturday.
We have had rain each day this week and a lot of blue sky also. With that blue sky the temperatures have been 32 degrees C, or 90 degrees F, with a lot of humidity. This is the beginning of the cool season. I hope it gets a little cooler. Thank goodness we have a nice, air-conditioned apartment and office. We are sissies. The apartment isn’t very well insulated so when we return after a few hours being gone it is plenty warm and takes a little time to cool it down. Did I mention we are sissies.
We are so excited about Taffy and her family coming to visit. They arrive next Friday evening for 8 days of fun and an eye-opening experience for their children. It is going to be wonderful, and we can hardly wait. The long-anticipated arrival is now short. I am really excited, and I don’t have the words to express how Clyda feels about it. Let’s just say I don’t even think our wedding day could match the excitement and anticipation Clyda is feeling to have them here. Family is everything, next to the covenants we make in the temple and then keep. Without those Priesthood Sealings, family is just a short drop in the bucket in eternity. We want that to last forever and not just for the short present.
Tessa mentioned to us an impression she received this week about how visiting the sisters she has been assigned to visit will bless her with new insights and growth. I believe that is so true! Whenever we assist anyone, we receive the greater benefits. Service is so important, and I need to be a lot better at it. It needs to become a habit. I have been blessed to witness it in so many wonderful people in Cokeville.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
Hopefully then we become better people helping the Savior in this great work.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Hello Everyone,
Exciting times with Wyoming state volleyball going on. Both Cokeville and Mt. View playing to be state champions in their respective classifications. It has been fun to watch. The blessings of NFHS and technology.
It was an interesting week watching many amputees receive with big smiles prosthetics made for them so they could now move about without hopping or in a wheelchair.
The next week was so fun to see so many receive customized wheelchairs just for them, and now how they can get out of the house and about. Two humbling weeks that made us really appreciate good health and the ability to move. We should always be thankful for the great blessings of mobility. I can't imagine my life without having been able to run and jump, even if it wasn't very fast or high or far. It has still been a wonderful life of movement. May we all be grateful for that.
Then, to go to a hospital in need of help so they can help people. Other couples from our humanitarian team have helped several hospitals. This was our first visit and we would have had all of our children born at home and all other treatments done at home as opposed to one of these hospitals. It is sad. I hope we will be able to help this one with some things like the other couples have. I think the movable hospital unit on the TV show MASH was better than this. Diane Teichert wrote to us about how it was her responsibility as a mission medical health advisor to do everything she could to make sure no missionaries ever had to go to a health clinic.
The saddest was going to a government assisted living senior center. That was devastating. I'm so grateful Elder and Sister Larsen are helping some there. It needs to be a lot more, like build a new center. They probably need a couple thousand of them throughout the Philippines. It was so sad. Be grateful for the wonderful hospitals and nursing homes we have in the USA. WOW, what an eye opener. We are truly blessed.
When Chad's wife, Kris, was dying he mentioned to me a few times how it was so amazing how much doctors knew, all the knowledge they had, how they could do so many incredible things to help people, and yet how little they really knew and how they couldn't help people in so many ways because of their limited knowledge. When we get to thinking we are pretty smart, and we don't know a drop in the bucket compared to God, we need to realize how little man is. We are truly dependent on a loving Heavenly Father and big brother, Jesus Christ, for even the air we breathe, for life itself, and this incredible living human body. It is marvelous that it breathes, blood flows, the brain works(sometimes), the five senses, etc. What a marvelous creation! We are all dependent on God. Let us be grateful!
On that line, our son, Tyson has had kidney problems for years and they have gotten quite bad in the last year, where now he needs a kidney transplant. It has been quite a process. It looked like his sister Tami was going to be a good match and the operation for both of them would take place in September. The week before as Tyson's blood was tested he had developed some antigens that would attack Tami's kidney. So it was delayed. Gratefully with his blood count numbers being real close to having had to go on dialysis for almost a year now, he has been able to function pretty normally, (at least as well has anyone having me as a dad could call normal). Tami and Tyson have been put in an "exchange bank" where Tyson will receive a healthy kidney from someone if Tami will donate to someone else. The day has hopefully arrived. Blood tests for all four looked good this week and now the surgeries are scheduled for Wednesday, November 8th. If I understand correctly they will take one more blood test that day to make sure everything is okay. This will take Tami quite a while to recover from as well as Tyson. Tyson should feel a lot better as soon as he gets the kidney, but both of them will be a while recovering from the operation to extract a kidney or put one in. Tyson needs to stay close to the hospital in SLC for about a month as they monitor how his body reacts to the new kidney. Tami will be able to go home fairly soon afterwards but needs to be really careful on what she does for 4-6 weeks, no lifting, etc. Thankfully she has a wonderful helpful husband and some older helpful boys that will take good care of her, along with two little sisters living close by who adore her and will be there to help.
The greatest blessing we have is the love our children have for each other!
If you don't have anything else to fast for this coming fast Sunday feel free to join our family as we fast for Tyson and Tami. We appreciate all of your love and support.
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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