28 January 2024 Week #70: Buttercream Gang shows up in the Philippines!
Hello Family and Friends,
Last Sunday was a wonderful birthday celebration for Clyde. It was fun to see the videos of the Chinese Lanterns being sent heavenward. It is fun to see some family and friends celebrating Clyde’s 4th birthday with Olivia, Tre, and Quincy. Then we got to celebrate Olivia’s birthday on the 26th.
Tel and Kimball are having great wrestling seasons and Mylie and Mariah basketball seasons. It is fun to watch them. I’m grateful for Track Wrestling/with Tyson’s password, mylocalradio.com, and NFHS. We enjoy watching and cheering them on. Thanks for all the other videos and pictures. We sure enjoy them.
On Monday we took the Damstedts shopping for a couple pieces of furniture and then to Landers so they could see what that grocery store had available. Actually, it is more than a grocery store. It was fun to get to know them a little better. We have invited them to dinner later today also. Sister Damstedts said the closing prayer today in Relief Society in Cebuano. Since their call she has been trying to learn the language online and has been trying to say her personal prayers in Cebuano. Pretty cool. I’m not even in that parking lot.
We had another project get passed this week for another elementary school in the outback. Actually, you can drive to this one unless it has rained too much. It has some steep inclines on dirt/rock roads. Portions of the road are paved or cemented. Supanga Elementary School, an hour outside of Calinog, needs cement floors in 7 of the 11 classrooms, 75 chairs for students to sit on, and 4 TVs in the 4 classrooms that are secured. The government provided them with solar power in December and fixed their water system. Many students walk for over an hour to get to this school. It is a K-6 school that has 6 K-2 Primary Schools associated with it as feeder schools. As a result, it has quite a few 3-6 grade students. They refer to them as “learners” here instead of “students”. The floors are pretty muddy when it rains and cracked dirt when it is sunny, so now the desks and chairs wobble on uneven floors. We hope these donations will help provide a better learning environment.
On Wednesday, along with Brother and Sister Colipapa and their friend Albert, we drove to Toledo, parked the truck, caught a ferry to San Carlos, then a tricyle for all of us, with a wheelchair tied on top, to Valle Hermosa. Albert grew up there. His mother still lives there. Albert is about 30 years old. He grew up there, went to Cebu to college and joined the church. He went on a mission and came home and baptized his mother. She had divorced his father. He was in prison. He hasn’t been successful in baptizing his stepfather. He would go visit his father on a regular basis in prison and a year after his father got out of prison, he baptized him. Anyway, back to the story. In this branch in Valle Hermosa is a 16-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy. The wheelchair was for this young lady. She reminded us so much of Shantel Swenson. It was one excited girl and mother and older cousin who is less active but helps with the care of this young girl. Now another cool part to this story is that 6 of Albert’s friends from college, none of them members of the church, (he is still working on that), but Albert and these guys formed a service organization. They get together often to help other people in all kinds of ways (kinda like the Butter Cream Gang). Well, they all showed up to help put this wheelchair together. There were a lot of smiles from a lot of great people. We are continually impressed by so many people here that are serving their fellowmen. Amid all the corruption, there are a lot of great people.
Albert’s mother has reason to be proud of her son. Also, the branch president was called after he had only been home from his mission for one year. He has been the president now for 5 years. Amazing!
Clyda had a good day out with 3 other senior sisters yesterday as Sister Garner is trying to get souvenirs to take home. She is going in two weeks. Clyda, Sister Beesley, and Sister Epperson joined her for a trip to the SM Seaside Mall for shopping and lunch. They had a great time.
On Saturday Clyda joined Sister Garner, Sister Beesley, the Eppersons and the Heaths for a trip up to Liloan-Danao area to Cebu Safari and Adventure Park. It was a couple hours’ drive north, lunch, 3-4 hours touring and a couple hours back. (Every party needs a pooper, that’s why they invited me, party pooper, party pooper!) Clyda said it was a wonderful time. She took a ton of pictures, one of each animal: lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, etc. I went to the office and watched the Cokeville Panthers on the big screen. I also watched some wrestling which I will watch again with Clyda. It might even be more fun the second time around.
The Taylors spoke in Sacrament Meeting today and did a great job. They spoke about trials and how we should strive to have the Savior with us to help us overcome them rather than to take them away. We will all have them, name a prophet that didn’t, that is part of why we are here. Where are we going to go when they come, to the Savior, or away from Him.
Both Relief Society and Elders Quorum discussed President Oaks talk about the Kingdoms of Glory. It correlated well with the Sacrament talks. We will get what we become. It is all about our agency and then making the right choices to show which team we are on. This past week’s Come Follow Me had a topic on only two churches. We are either of the Church of the Lamb of God or of the other church. I hope we will do all we can to live so we can be associated with the Church of the Lamb. We must keep our covenants and strive to come closer to the “Tree” each day. Hold to the Rod and Stand by the Tree!
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #70 1/22/24-1/28/24
Last Sunday was a wonderful birthday celebration for Clyde. It was fun to see the videos of the Chinese Lanterns being sent heavenward. It is fun to see some family and friends celebrating Clyde’s 4th birthday with Olivia, Tre, and Quincy. Then we got to celebrate Olivia’s birthday on the 26th.
Tel and Kimball are having great wrestling seasons and Mylie and Mariah basketball seasons. It is fun to watch them. I’m grateful for Track Wrestling/with Tyson’s password, mylocalradio.com, and NFHS. We enjoy watching and cheering them on. Thanks for all the other videos and pictures. We sure enjoy them.
On Monday we took the Damstedts shopping for a couple pieces of furniture and then to Landers so they could see what that grocery store had available. Actually, it is more than a grocery store. It was fun to get to know them a little better. We have invited them to dinner later today also. Sister Damstedts said the closing prayer today in Relief Society in Cebuano. Since their call she has been trying to learn the language online and has been trying to say her personal prayers in Cebuano. Pretty cool. I’m not even in that parking lot.
We had another project get passed this week for another elementary school in the outback. Actually, you can drive to this one unless it has rained too much. It has some steep inclines on dirt/rock roads. Portions of the road are paved or cemented. Supanga Elementary School, an hour outside of Calinog, needs cement floors in 7 of the 11 classrooms, 75 chairs for students to sit on, and 4 TVs in the 4 classrooms that are secured. The government provided them with solar power in December and fixed their water system. Many students walk for over an hour to get to this school. It is a K-6 school that has 6 K-2 Primary Schools associated with it as feeder schools. As a result, it has quite a few 3-6 grade students. They refer to them as “learners” here instead of “students”. The floors are pretty muddy when it rains and cracked dirt when it is sunny, so now the desks and chairs wobble on uneven floors. We hope these donations will help provide a better learning environment.
On Wednesday, along with Brother and Sister Colipapa and their friend Albert, we drove to Toledo, parked the truck, caught a ferry to San Carlos, then a tricyle for all of us, with a wheelchair tied on top, to Valle Hermosa. Albert grew up there. His mother still lives there. Albert is about 30 years old. He grew up there, went to Cebu to college and joined the church. He went on a mission and came home and baptized his mother. She had divorced his father. He was in prison. He hasn’t been successful in baptizing his stepfather. He would go visit his father on a regular basis in prison and a year after his father got out of prison, he baptized him. Anyway, back to the story. In this branch in Valle Hermosa is a 16-year-old girl with Cerebral Palsy. The wheelchair was for this young lady. She reminded us so much of Shantel Swenson. It was one excited girl and mother and older cousin who is less active but helps with the care of this young girl. Now another cool part to this story is that 6 of Albert’s friends from college, none of them members of the church, (he is still working on that), but Albert and these guys formed a service organization. They get together often to help other people in all kinds of ways (kinda like the Butter Cream Gang). Well, they all showed up to help put this wheelchair together. There were a lot of smiles from a lot of great people. We are continually impressed by so many people here that are serving their fellowmen. Amid all the corruption, there are a lot of great people.
Albert’s mother has reason to be proud of her son. Also, the branch president was called after he had only been home from his mission for one year. He has been the president now for 5 years. Amazing!
Clyda had a good day out with 3 other senior sisters yesterday as Sister Garner is trying to get souvenirs to take home. She is going in two weeks. Clyda, Sister Beesley, and Sister Epperson joined her for a trip to the SM Seaside Mall for shopping and lunch. They had a great time.
On Saturday Clyda joined Sister Garner, Sister Beesley, the Eppersons and the Heaths for a trip up to Liloan-Danao area to Cebu Safari and Adventure Park. It was a couple hours’ drive north, lunch, 3-4 hours touring and a couple hours back. (Every party needs a pooper, that’s why they invited me, party pooper, party pooper!) Clyda said it was a wonderful time. She took a ton of pictures, one of each animal: lions, tigers, giraffes, zebras, etc. I went to the office and watched the Cokeville Panthers on the big screen. I also watched some wrestling which I will watch again with Clyda. It might even be more fun the second time around.
The Taylors spoke in Sacrament Meeting today and did a great job. They spoke about trials and how we should strive to have the Savior with us to help us overcome them rather than to take them away. We will all have them, name a prophet that didn’t, that is part of why we are here. Where are we going to go when they come, to the Savior, or away from Him.
Both Relief Society and Elders Quorum discussed President Oaks talk about the Kingdoms of Glory. It correlated well with the Sacrament talks. We will get what we become. It is all about our agency and then making the right choices to show which team we are on. This past week’s Come Follow Me had a topic on only two churches. We are either of the Church of the Lamb of God or of the other church. I hope we will do all we can to live so we can be associated with the Church of the Lamb. We must keep our covenants and strive to come closer to the “Tree” each day. Hold to the Rod and Stand by the Tree!
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
P.S. On “Come Follow Up” this week on BYUtv one of the guests was the actor who portrayed Nephi in the Book of Mormon videos. It was a real good show.
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