10 March 2024 Week #76: Putting Supanga Elementary School on a Firm Foundation
Dear Family and Friends,
Last Monday evening we had a great FHE with the seniors. The Lesson by Elder and Sister Heath was sharing experiences from our lives where we know that Jesus Christ lives, he loves us, and is mindful of us. It was a fun spiritual experience. We heard some amazing stories. I’m grateful for the many times the Holy Ghost has born witness to me of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith as a prophet, that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I’m grateful for the testimony from the Holy Ghost also, that the Book of Mormon is true and is the Word of God. I’m also grateful for the powerful experiences I had when I was present, and Harold B. Lee walked into the Hart Building on Ricks College Campus, and I knew by the power of the Holy Ghost that he was a prophet of God also. It was really cool when I was on my mission and a friend attending Ricks College wrote me a letter and shared that same kind of experience when Spencer W. Kimball, now the new prophet, walked into the Hart Building for a devotional. I could feel the Holy Ghost bear witness to me of his prophetic calling through a friend’s letter all the way up to Alaska. The Holy Ghost bore witness to me of Spencer W. Kimball’s prophetic calling. I am grateful I have a testimony now of Russel M. Nelson as our living prophet and I know he will share with us, along with the other apostles, what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to know now.
On Tuesday we caught an early flight to Iloilo. Elder and Sister Peters met us for the last time and took us to Supanga Elementary School for a turnover. This school is receiving enough cement materials to cover up the dirt floors of 7 makeshift classrooms, 75 chairs, and 4 TVs for the 4 secured classrooms. At this school they have 5 satellite primary schools, grades K-3, that feed this school. So there is just one classroom of each of those levels, K-3, and then two classrooms for each of grades 4-6. The 4-6 grade kids come from the areas where those primary schools are located. And of course all the K-6 grade kids within a couple of miles come to this school. Many 4-6 grade kids walk many miles to get to this school. They showed us where some of those kids stay when the weather is really bad, and they can’t get home. They have radios to each primary school to keep track of which older kids are headed to the elementary school if the weather turns bad and the kids haven’t arrived. This is rugged country. You see the signs of many landslides. Also, the reason for these makeshift rooms is because this use to be a campus with two buildings and the larger building was involved in a land slide and went off the back of the mountain. It was a fun turnover and they put on a feast. It is an hour drive up into this mountain community. Probably about like going to Big Park for all of you Cokeville people. About that far and that kind of roads. However, never a very flat area. You are looking down off of both sides often as you are crossing ridges. Tough walking for a lot of kids. Half of the teachers stay there during the week. About half of them have motorbikes and drive to school each day, but sometimes stay if it is pretty rainy because of the roads. Our shipment of cement materials was delayed two weeks because of muddy roads. We were going to upgrade this schools solar system, but the government of the municipality came and did that in December. We now have noticed that the power lines for electricity have gotten closer to this school, but it still has a ways to go. Maybe it will happen in a couple of years.
Then we headed back to Calinog to the church where the stake president had organized a farewell dinner for us and the Peters. Elder and Sister Peters go home a week after us. It was another program with members and non-members in attendance. They had invited the heads of schools and teachers from the other schools close by that we had helped to come attend and say thank you to us. We made sure they knew that it wasn’t us but all the good people who give generously to the Humanitarian Aid of the church that provided their donations. It gave us a chance to bear testimony of Jesus Christ and a living prophet on the earth today to a group which was comprised of more non-members than members. I have enjoyed the fact that here in the Philippines Jesus Christ is talked about freely and as a result I have been able to bear testimony at every gathering. We have also been able to enjoy listening to Elder and Sister Peters testimonies on these occasions. It has been great.
Elder and sister Peters have been marvelous to help us when we have been in the Iloilo Mission. For those who don’t know or can’t remember, Elder Peters worked for Burke on the Nebraska Church ranch for about 20 years. They have had a great mission and have been so helpful to so many people. They have witnessed two new branches being created in the areas where they have served and then the two branches each almost doubling the attendance of the one branch when they started. A lot of these have been reactivation and then quite a few baptisms by the young missionaries. They have had some really good young sister missionaries to work with and some really good young Elders. Sad to say they have had a couple knot head young Elders also. The Peters also connected us to Norman and Cheryl Harrison from Orem. Norman is the one who came over and installed the solar system for Tres Reyes Elementary School out on the island.
We were going to take the Peters to dinner as a thank you, but it was late, and we had already participated in two feasts. So, we treated them to a real nice buffet breakfast the next morning. It doesn’t even begin to repay them for all they have done for us. It would have been a lot different if each time we had gone to the Iloilo Mission we would have had to get a rental vehicle. With the kind of mission we have had, even though they are two missions away, we have probably grown closer to them than anyone else while we have been serving. They are true disciples of Jesus Christ.
One other note with the Iloilo Mission. Of course we have mentioned this before, but Warren Coates’s son, Elder Coates serves in that mission. We have met up with him a couple times. He is a great missionary. Well, we just found out last week before we went to Iloilo that Kurt Robinson has a son in that mission. Too bad he was assigned too far away to get to meet him. If we would have known earlier in his mission, we would have had a chance to hook up with him when he was in the city of Iloilo. Now, both he and Elder Coates are serving at the top end of the island.
We finally got the Calape Branch FAITH Garden Project passed. It has been a struggle. This was the third time to present it and about a month delay in between each presentation as we then had to wait on new information from purchasing. We hope to have two more projects ready to present this coming Monday. We hope they will be approved on Monday by our Humanitarian Aid team and then by the WSR Committee next Friday. We have one other project that we will send into purchasing on Monday and then it will be touch and go if we will receive quotes soon enough to present. These last four projects will all need to be implemented by Elder and Sister Wayman, our replacements. They will also need to monitor a few of our other projects to get reports on the progress of each project.
The gospel is true, Heavenly Father lives, Jesus Christ lives, we have a living prophet on the earth today. We have watched the marvelous hand of the Lord in what is going on here among these wonderful, humble people. It is exciting to watch the prophecies be fulfilled. Lehi’s dream and the Book of Mormon are playing out again right before our eyes. Keep the Faith, be on the Winning Team!
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #76 3/4/24-3/10/24
Last Monday evening we had a great FHE with the seniors. The Lesson by Elder and Sister Heath was sharing experiences from our lives where we know that Jesus Christ lives, he loves us, and is mindful of us. It was a fun spiritual experience. We heard some amazing stories. I’m grateful for the many times the Holy Ghost has born witness to me of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith as a prophet, that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I’m grateful for the testimony from the Holy Ghost also, that the Book of Mormon is true and is the Word of God. I’m also grateful for the powerful experiences I had when I was present, and Harold B. Lee walked into the Hart Building on Ricks College Campus, and I knew by the power of the Holy Ghost that he was a prophet of God also. It was really cool when I was on my mission and a friend attending Ricks College wrote me a letter and shared that same kind of experience when Spencer W. Kimball, now the new prophet, walked into the Hart Building for a devotional. I could feel the Holy Ghost bear witness to me of his prophetic calling through a friend’s letter all the way up to Alaska. The Holy Ghost bore witness to me of Spencer W. Kimball’s prophetic calling. I am grateful I have a testimony now of Russel M. Nelson as our living prophet and I know he will share with us, along with the other apostles, what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to know now.
On Tuesday we caught an early flight to Iloilo. Elder and Sister Peters met us for the last time and took us to Supanga Elementary School for a turnover. This school is receiving enough cement materials to cover up the dirt floors of 7 makeshift classrooms, 75 chairs, and 4 TVs for the 4 secured classrooms. At this school they have 5 satellite primary schools, grades K-3, that feed this school. So there is just one classroom of each of those levels, K-3, and then two classrooms for each of grades 4-6. The 4-6 grade kids come from the areas where those primary schools are located. And of course all the K-6 grade kids within a couple of miles come to this school. Many 4-6 grade kids walk many miles to get to this school. They showed us where some of those kids stay when the weather is really bad, and they can’t get home. They have radios to each primary school to keep track of which older kids are headed to the elementary school if the weather turns bad and the kids haven’t arrived. This is rugged country. You see the signs of many landslides. Also, the reason for these makeshift rooms is because this use to be a campus with two buildings and the larger building was involved in a land slide and went off the back of the mountain. It was a fun turnover and they put on a feast. It is an hour drive up into this mountain community. Probably about like going to Big Park for all of you Cokeville people. About that far and that kind of roads. However, never a very flat area. You are looking down off of both sides often as you are crossing ridges. Tough walking for a lot of kids. Half of the teachers stay there during the week. About half of them have motorbikes and drive to school each day, but sometimes stay if it is pretty rainy because of the roads. Our shipment of cement materials was delayed two weeks because of muddy roads. We were going to upgrade this schools solar system, but the government of the municipality came and did that in December. We now have noticed that the power lines for electricity have gotten closer to this school, but it still has a ways to go. Maybe it will happen in a couple of years.
Then we headed back to Calinog to the church where the stake president had organized a farewell dinner for us and the Peters. Elder and Sister Peters go home a week after us. It was another program with members and non-members in attendance. They had invited the heads of schools and teachers from the other schools close by that we had helped to come attend and say thank you to us. We made sure they knew that it wasn’t us but all the good people who give generously to the Humanitarian Aid of the church that provided their donations. It gave us a chance to bear testimony of Jesus Christ and a living prophet on the earth today to a group which was comprised of more non-members than members. I have enjoyed the fact that here in the Philippines Jesus Christ is talked about freely and as a result I have been able to bear testimony at every gathering. We have also been able to enjoy listening to Elder and Sister Peters testimonies on these occasions. It has been great.
Elder and sister Peters have been marvelous to help us when we have been in the Iloilo Mission. For those who don’t know or can’t remember, Elder Peters worked for Burke on the Nebraska Church ranch for about 20 years. They have had a great mission and have been so helpful to so many people. They have witnessed two new branches being created in the areas where they have served and then the two branches each almost doubling the attendance of the one branch when they started. A lot of these have been reactivation and then quite a few baptisms by the young missionaries. They have had some really good young sister missionaries to work with and some really good young Elders. Sad to say they have had a couple knot head young Elders also. The Peters also connected us to Norman and Cheryl Harrison from Orem. Norman is the one who came over and installed the solar system for Tres Reyes Elementary School out on the island.
We were going to take the Peters to dinner as a thank you, but it was late, and we had already participated in two feasts. So, we treated them to a real nice buffet breakfast the next morning. It doesn’t even begin to repay them for all they have done for us. It would have been a lot different if each time we had gone to the Iloilo Mission we would have had to get a rental vehicle. With the kind of mission we have had, even though they are two missions away, we have probably grown closer to them than anyone else while we have been serving. They are true disciples of Jesus Christ.
One other note with the Iloilo Mission. Of course we have mentioned this before, but Warren Coates’s son, Elder Coates serves in that mission. We have met up with him a couple times. He is a great missionary. Well, we just found out last week before we went to Iloilo that Kurt Robinson has a son in that mission. Too bad he was assigned too far away to get to meet him. If we would have known earlier in his mission, we would have had a chance to hook up with him when he was in the city of Iloilo. Now, both he and Elder Coates are serving at the top end of the island.
We finally got the Calape Branch FAITH Garden Project passed. It has been a struggle. This was the third time to present it and about a month delay in between each presentation as we then had to wait on new information from purchasing. We hope to have two more projects ready to present this coming Monday. We hope they will be approved on Monday by our Humanitarian Aid team and then by the WSR Committee next Friday. We have one other project that we will send into purchasing on Monday and then it will be touch and go if we will receive quotes soon enough to present. These last four projects will all need to be implemented by Elder and Sister Wayman, our replacements. They will also need to monitor a few of our other projects to get reports on the progress of each project.
The gospel is true, Heavenly Father lives, Jesus Christ lives, we have a living prophet on the earth today. We have watched the marvelous hand of the Lord in what is going on here among these wonderful, humble people. It is exciting to watch the prophecies be fulfilled. Lehi’s dream and the Book of Mormon are playing out again right before our eyes. Keep the Faith, be 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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