3 March 2024 Week #75: Missionary Connections
Dear Family and Friends,
We headed for Bacolod on Negros Monday morning. We had an early lunch in Toledo with Elder and Sister Webb before getting on the ferry to San Carlos. After arriving in San Carlos, we met Elder and Sister Cary. We had packages for them and for some of the Elders and Sisters in their zone. Then off over the mountain to Bacolod. It was the most peaceful, beautiful drive we have experienced here in the Philippines. Very little traffic and roads wider than normal. The scenery was beautiful, and I could actually look at it quite often because of the lack of traffic and narrow roads. We arrived in Paglaum Village at about 4:30 and met Elder Jonas Bird, Zack and Krista’s son, where the Elders in his zone were playing b-ball. He and his companion, Elder Pope from American Fork, Utah, cleaned up and then we took them out for dinner at the Viking Buffet. It was a great meal, and incredibly enough Elder Bird ran into one of his schoolmates from Casper Kelly Walsh High School. She and her family are here with some others for a couple weeks on a mission trip with their church. Is that amazing or what, two classmates running into each other halfway around the world from home.
It was so fun to meet up with Elder Bird. You can tell he is a great missionary. He is having a good experience. It is so fun to be around these missionaries that have the Spirit with them, and you can see the light in their eyes.
We have just learned of another Cokeville missionary connection here in the Iloilo Mission, Elder Robinson, Kurt Robinson’s son. I wish we had known that before. We are going to Iloilo this week for a turnover and our last trip there, but he is too far away and we won’t be able to connect with him. He and Elder Coates are serving in the same area. I wonder if they will ever have enough of a discussion to find out their fathers graduated from the same little high school in wonderful Cokeville, Wyoming. Kurt graduated in 1983 and Warren in 1990 so they probably didn’t know hardly anything about each other.
The next morning, we were up early and headed to Cauayan to visit with some fisherfolks about a project. Then to Himamaylan to visit a school. We made both of these visits with Bishop Erwin Boiser WSR Manager and Jude Solidarias, our new assistant supervisor. Jude is a good man and was a great one to work with out of the purchasing department. He was the one to make It happen for us with our projects. Any others in purchasing that we have worked with have taken forever to get things to happen. It is good for the Humanitarian Team to have him in a way, but a loss not to have him in purchasing.
We headed back to San Carlos and had a nice evening with Elder and Sister Cary. The next morning, we were up early to head to the port to get RoRo tickets. It is a long process, taking a couple hours. We made it out on the 9:00 a.m. ferry along with about 30 people from the San Carlos District headed to the Cebu temple with the Carys. We were back in Cebu in the afternoon. Almost all of them were going to do baptisms. There were quite a few young people and quite a few newly baptized members. It was an excited group heading for the temple.
That evening we watched the broadcast of the performance of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. They are performing in Manila, and it was broadcast for the rest of the Philippines. It was a very nice hour and a half performance.
Office work now is just trying to wrap up a few things on projects we are trying to finish and on “closing” quite a few of the Huskinson’s projects and ours. “Closing” means to make sure all bills have been paid, everything was delivered, then evaluate the project measures and see what percentage of the objectives have been met, then recommending closing it so the remaining funds can be appropriated to other projects. It is time consuming and often we don’t have enough information to get it done properly. We ask for reports from the beneficiaries, but too much of the time they don’t respond. They are really good at communicating while preparing to receive our help. Too often they aren’t too good at communicating after we have helped them. That is the sad reality we are finding out.
We had a great session at the temple on Thursday.
On both Friday and Saturday mornings we spent time watching three ball games, Mylie and the Mt. View Buffalos at their regional tournament and the Cokeville Panthers at their state tournament. Mylie’s team took second at regionals and will play next week at state. Go Mylie go! The Cokeville boys lost in the semifinals to Saratoga, a team they had whipped three times this year. The boys ended up taking 3rd place at state. They had a good season. The girls also lost in the semifinals to Southeast High School. They hadn’t played them this year. Then they lost to Burlington in the game for third place. They had whipped Burlington twice this year and now lost when it counted most. They had a real good season with just a couple losses.
On Friday evening we had Sister Beesley over for dinner. It was a good time. She is an amazing lady. I can hardly believe she is 77 years old.
On Saturday we got word that Elder Sorensen from the Cebu East Mission, a senior missionary, was in the hospital not being able to hardly move at all. He has Guillain Barre Syndrome, and auto immune disorder. He and his wife have been here for about 8 months and are doing an incredible work in the Bogo District of the Cebu East Mission. They have been to our FHE group a few times and Sister Sorenson documents great times with the members and missionaries in their district. It is so fun to witness the love the young missionaries have for these senior missionaries. The seniors are really appreciated and they love these young Elders and Sisters.
Of course, the main purpose of our fast is for Elder Sorensen. Our meetings were wonderful as always. I love the hymns of the church and hope we still have a functioning ward choir we can participate in when we get home. I remember one time Carol Petersen asking me how I could go coach right after school. She says she is so exhausted after school she is worthless for an hour. I told her that was how I felt when I wasn’t coaching track. I told her that I could go to football, basketball, or track practice, and even if it was a bad practice I was rejuvenated and ready to go home and be a father, or serve in the church. We decided everyone needs a good hobby to be able to participate in often: mechanics-Pop, wood carving-Joe Deromedis, photography-Paul Etcheverry, sports/coaching-Briant Teichert. Singing in the ward choir brings me peace. The songs are always about something good, gospel centered, and even during some bad practices I still feel the peace the gospel brings. Good gospel centered music has helped alleviate times of depression and anxiety. Even if I was in the very back, I hope I was in the angel choirs that sang in the heavens on special occasions, and I hope I get to join again on my return.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
Week #75 2/26/24-3/3/24
We headed for Bacolod on Negros Monday morning. We had an early lunch in Toledo with Elder and Sister Webb before getting on the ferry to San Carlos. After arriving in San Carlos, we met Elder and Sister Cary. We had packages for them and for some of the Elders and Sisters in their zone. Then off over the mountain to Bacolod. It was the most peaceful, beautiful drive we have experienced here in the Philippines. Very little traffic and roads wider than normal. The scenery was beautiful, and I could actually look at it quite often because of the lack of traffic and narrow roads. We arrived in Paglaum Village at about 4:30 and met Elder Jonas Bird, Zack and Krista’s son, where the Elders in his zone were playing b-ball. He and his companion, Elder Pope from American Fork, Utah, cleaned up and then we took them out for dinner at the Viking Buffet. It was a great meal, and incredibly enough Elder Bird ran into one of his schoolmates from Casper Kelly Walsh High School. She and her family are here with some others for a couple weeks on a mission trip with their church. Is that amazing or what, two classmates running into each other halfway around the world from home.
It was so fun to meet up with Elder Bird. You can tell he is a great missionary. He is having a good experience. It is so fun to be around these missionaries that have the Spirit with them, and you can see the light in their eyes.
We have just learned of another Cokeville missionary connection here in the Iloilo Mission, Elder Robinson, Kurt Robinson’s son. I wish we had known that before. We are going to Iloilo this week for a turnover and our last trip there, but he is too far away and we won’t be able to connect with him. He and Elder Coates are serving in the same area. I wonder if they will ever have enough of a discussion to find out their fathers graduated from the same little high school in wonderful Cokeville, Wyoming. Kurt graduated in 1983 and Warren in 1990 so they probably didn’t know hardly anything about each other.
The next morning, we were up early and headed to Cauayan to visit with some fisherfolks about a project. Then to Himamaylan to visit a school. We made both of these visits with Bishop Erwin Boiser WSR Manager and Jude Solidarias, our new assistant supervisor. Jude is a good man and was a great one to work with out of the purchasing department. He was the one to make It happen for us with our projects. Any others in purchasing that we have worked with have taken forever to get things to happen. It is good for the Humanitarian Team to have him in a way, but a loss not to have him in purchasing.
We headed back to San Carlos and had a nice evening with Elder and Sister Cary. The next morning, we were up early to head to the port to get RoRo tickets. It is a long process, taking a couple hours. We made it out on the 9:00 a.m. ferry along with about 30 people from the San Carlos District headed to the Cebu temple with the Carys. We were back in Cebu in the afternoon. Almost all of them were going to do baptisms. There were quite a few young people and quite a few newly baptized members. It was an excited group heading for the temple.
That evening we watched the broadcast of the performance of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. They are performing in Manila, and it was broadcast for the rest of the Philippines. It was a very nice hour and a half performance.
Office work now is just trying to wrap up a few things on projects we are trying to finish and on “closing” quite a few of the Huskinson’s projects and ours. “Closing” means to make sure all bills have been paid, everything was delivered, then evaluate the project measures and see what percentage of the objectives have been met, then recommending closing it so the remaining funds can be appropriated to other projects. It is time consuming and often we don’t have enough information to get it done properly. We ask for reports from the beneficiaries, but too much of the time they don’t respond. They are really good at communicating while preparing to receive our help. Too often they aren’t too good at communicating after we have helped them. That is the sad reality we are finding out.
We had a great session at the temple on Thursday.
On both Friday and Saturday mornings we spent time watching three ball games, Mylie and the Mt. View Buffalos at their regional tournament and the Cokeville Panthers at their state tournament. Mylie’s team took second at regionals and will play next week at state. Go Mylie go! The Cokeville boys lost in the semifinals to Saratoga, a team they had whipped three times this year. The boys ended up taking 3rd place at state. They had a good season. The girls also lost in the semifinals to Southeast High School. They hadn’t played them this year. Then they lost to Burlington in the game for third place. They had whipped Burlington twice this year and now lost when it counted most. They had a real good season with just a couple losses.
On Friday evening we had Sister Beesley over for dinner. It was a good time. She is an amazing lady. I can hardly believe she is 77 years old.
On Saturday we got word that Elder Sorensen from the Cebu East Mission, a senior missionary, was in the hospital not being able to hardly move at all. He has Guillain Barre Syndrome, and auto immune disorder. He and his wife have been here for about 8 months and are doing an incredible work in the Bogo District of the Cebu East Mission. They have been to our FHE group a few times and Sister Sorenson documents great times with the members and missionaries in their district. It is so fun to witness the love the young missionaries have for these senior missionaries. The seniors are really appreciated and they love these young Elders and Sisters.
Of course, the main purpose of our fast is for Elder Sorensen. Our meetings were wonderful as always. I love the hymns of the church and hope we still have a functioning ward choir we can participate in when we get home. I remember one time Carol Petersen asking me how I could go coach right after school. She says she is so exhausted after school she is worthless for an hour. I told her that was how I felt when I wasn’t coaching track. I told her that I could go to football, basketball, or track practice, and even if it was a bad practice I was rejuvenated and ready to go home and be a father, or serve in the church. We decided everyone needs a good hobby to be able to participate in often: mechanics-Pop, wood carving-Joe Deromedis, photography-Paul Etcheverry, sports/coaching-Briant Teichert. Singing in the ward choir brings me peace. The songs are always about something good, gospel centered, and even during some bad practices I still feel the peace the gospel brings. Good gospel centered music has helped alleviate times of depression and anxiety. Even if I was in the very back, I hope I was in the angel choirs that sang in the heavens on special occasions, and I hope I get to join again on my return.
Holy Habits
Righteous Routines
Lift Where You Stand
With love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Briant and Clyda
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