21 April 2024 Homecoming Talk: Dad

They asked us when we wanted to speak and I said, "Well. When's Mia Dayton speaking? I want to speak when she speaks." Mia, that's how we're here together. That might not be all true, but anyway, grateful to be here and she gave a fantastic talk.

I'm grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm grateful that my wife didn't make a habit of changing that "D" on Dell to an H when we were struggling. We had some wonderful experiences and this is just one of many that Clyda shared. Those girls couldn't go back home because that's where most of them were being sexually abused so they needed to go someplace else and live on their own. It was fun to get the reports. After every project you ask for reports to see how it's going and the report came back telling about the successes and the failures. Three girls went out to get groceries and they bought stuff for themselves, but didn't get enough groceries when they came back, so now they're being disciplined and one of them ran away from the home... and anyways. There're successes and failures with every project, but we're grateful for people like Marilou Galarde that wanted to work with those young women to help them have a better life. 

Another project that Clyda was heavily involved in was Kangaroo Tubes which was to sew fabric tubes. She told this story in the other ward, but not in this one, and the one she told just now, she didn't tell the first ward. This Kangaroo Tube project saved a lot of premature babies. Clyda involved the single service missionaries and the stake relief society to get it done. It was great.

We had a lot of wonderful experiences while we were there and a lot of connections that helped us know that we're here now and we need to be here now. We met people who knew James Teichert on his mission. One was a Branch President we were doing a project with. Another one we met, he and James had served together for 6 months, a Filipino, married with two kids (James wasn't married yet when we met him). He said my goal in life is to save enough money and go to Wyoming, ride a horse, and rope a calf. I said, James' goal is to get married! And he did.

Anyway, making these kinds of connections. We met a sister that's our age who was a young beehive in the ward. She was in the ward when my cousin Conrad was a missionary there. He served when Manila Philippines was just a new mission. It was created the first mission in the Philippines in 1967. Conrad served from '68-70 there and she knew him. When a Filipino came and said "Hey, Elder Teichert" you knew they knew a Teichert because they don't know how to say that name, even in English it's "Tee-chert", it follows the German rules so the "ei" says "I" and the "ch" says "k", so anyways. Just made all kinds of fun connections. It was fun to see those.

One morning we were walking along the temple, and of course I couldn't keep up with Clyda, she's gone ahead, and I'm walking along, this young man, a Filipino stops me and says, "Hey Elder, Where are you from?" I said, "I'm from Wyoming." He says, "Wyoming?! Do you know..." I guess he thought Wyoming was this little tiny place, and I'm like that. I'm always looking for a connection, and he says, "Do you know Ammon Halls?" I go, "Yeah, I do! He's from our town." He says, "Oh! I lived with him the last 4 months of my mission. He is a fantastic missionary! I miss him!" He had just come home from his mission. He's from Vancouver, British Columbia, but his parents are Filipinos and raised in the Philippines, so he's Filipino and he was just there. He had about a week before he was going to start college and his family was visiting the Philippines and what're the chances of meeting him?

We had numerous experiences like that. We're in the McDonalds in Toledo, checking out some projects over there. We'd called a couple of the missionaries that we knew. We fed the young missionaries once a week: the elders one week, the sisters the next week when we were in town. Clyda loved to feed them. It was a wonderful treat for the Americans to be able to come and eat some food that wasn't Filipino food and the Filipinos got so they like her food too. All of them, even the Filipinos, liked Taco Tuesday. It was great. Chocolate chip cookies, and she'd send a box of chocolate chip cookies home with them. Anyway, we just had all these different connections with different missionaries. We were there at the temple grounds seeing some of the missionaries from our ward and an Elder that hadn't served in our ward came up to me and said, "Elder Teichert, do you know a Lo"ch"lyn Teichert?" I go, "Well, I know a Lo"k"Lyn Teichert!" He says, "I used to go missionarying with him!" And here he is now, 25 years old, and serving a mission. This is a while ago when he knew Lochlyn, but he recognized that name and came and talked to me. He's in our mission, the Cebu mission. 

We covered Cebu, Cebu East, Iloilo, Bacolod, and Tacloban Missions. We had a lot of great experiences in all those missions. We're involved in work in all of them. We met a couple, Elder Mitch and Elaine Peters, that my brother Burke knew. Mitch Peters managed the Nebraska Church Ranch for Burke and ended up working there for 20 years. They got called on a mission to Iloilo. Burke contacted us to let us know they were there and from them on they were our ride whenever we went to the Iloilo Mission. We were there and sister Coates told us, "Hey, when you get there, say hello to my grandson!" "Okay. Which mission is he in?" "I don't know. He's in one of the missions." So we checked with Cebu, he wasn't in Cebu. We checked with Cebu East, he wasn't in Cebu East. Well we were over there with Elder and Sister Peters and we were going for a drive. It turned out to be a long long day. At the end of the day we were going back to the city of Iloilo. I said, "Hey, is there a chance that there is an Elder Coates in this mission?" "Oh yeah. There's an Elder Coates. This is his area. And that's him right there!" He was riding his bike on the side of the road. We turned around, went and picked he and his companion up, put their bikes in the back of the truck and gave them a ride to their apartment. They had just come from a lesson where they'd taught 52 people. Find out later on that they baptized 17 of those 52 people. He's a great missionary. We got to meet him another time, and that's how we met James's companion that wants to ride a horse and rope a calf. Anyway, just some fantastic experiences. 

The Peters asked us about some of our projects. We told them we had a project going on this island, Tres Reyes, which is about a 30 minute pump boat ride out in the ocean. A pump boat is about the size of a canoe, but it's got outriggers. The first time we went out there we just got drenched! It rained the whole time and the waves were crashing and we just got soaked. But we were prepared because we'd done all our missionary shopping at Cabela's and Al's Sporting Goods. The only time I wore a white shirt and tie on my mission was on Sunday and to go to the temple. Anyways we were soaked but the clothes dried real fast. They had no electricity on this island, so the project was to provide this elementary school with solar panels so they could have electricity. Well the Church will take care of paying for all of that but we were instructed that we do not pay for the installation, or pay for the labor of any of our projects. We had to get someone else to kick in on those things. Well, we couldn't get anybody to kick in on this thing. 

After we dropped Elder Coates off we had about 30 more minutes back to our motel and they asked us about our projects. We told them about this project and Sister Peters goes, "Hey. I had a mission companion on my mission when I was young and her husband installs solar panels. They live in Orem, Utah. I bet he'd come over and do that for you." I go, " Yeah. Okay (eye roll)." So we go home. Two weeks later, still no success in finding anybody to do the installation. We call up Sister Peters, "Sister Peters. Is there a chance that he'll come?" "Oh yeah. I'm confident he'll come." So we give him a call, "Hello. Brother and Sister Harrison, is there a chance you'd come and do this?" "We've been waiting for the call." Brother and Sister Peters had told them about us. Through that connection he came and did the installation and provided this school with electricity. The six teachers lived on the main land, on the island of Bohol. They had to go out and back every day. The schools in the Philippines, I tell you what. If you've watched Little House on the Prairie, those school rooms are better than the Philippines. A chalk board and that was it. Desks, maybe. So we gave them electricity to help the teachers out. Now they could do some of their prep at work instead of having to go back at night and preparing on a computer and printing on the main land and bringing all that material back to school the next morning. This was a huge blessing to their school and to those teachers also. 

The head teacher was the Branch President of Ubay. He had been attracted to this pretty gal, asked her out on a few dates. She said, Yes. They went out on a few dates when he said well, maybe we ought to get together. She said, I'm only marrying a guy that can take me to the temple. She had been one young lady that joined the church at 15 years old in this little branch of Ubay of about 15 people. She went on, served a mission in the Butuan Mission in Mindinao, came home and got a college education, and this non-member wants to get to know her better. She was firm in the faith. He took the missionary lessons and he joined the church. A year later they got married, April 2019. She has now signed a contract to work in Hong Kong. She's got a contract to go to Hong Kong right after they're married. It'll be a year contract and she can't return for a year. They're married for 3 weeks before she goes in 2019. March 2020, what happened? Covid. So come April 2020, she cannot return. She cannot return the next year, or the next year. They're married for 3 weeks and they don't see each other for almost 4 years. If we didn't do the project for those kids and that school, I wanted to do it for HIM! In the meantime he's called to be the Branch President. They have a typhoon. All communications, even on the mainlands is all gone, except for down in Tagbilaran. For 6 months, this island, except for the city of Tagbilaran doesn't have electricity. So every Saturday he would drive 3.5 hours to Tagbilaran to charge his phone so he could then communicate with his wife who was in Hong Kong. They didn't get back together until last April, 2023. 

I asked her, "Hey, while you were in Hong Kong is there a chance you knew Lynn and Marion Wardle?" Marion Wardle is my cousin and her husband had served a mission with my cousin Conrad back in 1968 in the Philippines. They were now on a service mission in Hong Kong and they were in charge of the Filipino Branch. She said, "Yes I know Marion Wardle! She gives the best hugs, and I needed them!" Just like Clyda was with the Filipinos, the ladies and the children, she's the best with them because of her loving heart. 

About a month ago we were in the temple and I experienced the funnies, saddest, coolest, most spiritual experience I think I've ever had. So we were in the temple and it's time to put on the robes. I'd never seen this until I came to the Philippines. Every time it comes to this part, people are headed out to the restroom. They just get up and leave. They get up and go to the restroom and come back. I'd never seen that before, but anyways, we're there at the 11:00 Tuesday session because Mitch and Elaine Peters said, "we've got these two couples coming over to be sealed in the temple. They're a little older, they're coming, but they have no escorts. We can't come. Can you be there? So we were there for the 11:00 session. Turns out they were in the 3:00 session, but we were in the 11:00 session. We get there. There's two people there that say "New Endowment" on their shirt. Then there's another guy and then two guys that say "Escorts". A gray haired guy in between these four. Four more behind them and then a young man behind them. I tried to talk to them but they didn't understand English. I wanted to know if they were from the island the Peters' were on. They were not, they were from Sagay, in the Bacolob Mission. Talked to the gray haired guy later. He was a convert to the church 17 years earlier. Eight of these people, the escorts, it was their second time to be in the temple and it was like five years earlier. The one young guy back behind, I think he was the Branch President. Sagay is on the ocean but it also leads up into the mountains. These were weather worn people about in their mid-40's. You could tell they were either fishermen or sugar cane farmers and they're there at the temple. So now it comes time to put on the robes. They didn't know how to do it. They had everything on wrong. They did have the hat on the head, but not right. They had the robe on the wrong shoulder. They've got the sash wrong and the apron still on. And I'm just back there going, Oh my goodness, this is something else! But it's not something I hadn't seen before because we'd been to the temple a lot. But anyways, the lead guy started helping the guy closest to the door get dressed properly. The guy with the gray hair had gotten dressed and he heads out to the bathroom. The next guy and the guys back here must think this is what to do, so they all follow him out! They've got half the session gone to the restroom! And I think, oh my goodness! But I'd decided quite a while ago I can't judge these people for not being able to go to the bathroom before they come in. Who knows? When you're eating Filipino food you might have diarrhea and you might have to go! So I'm not going to judge anything. If they've got to go, they've got to go! So I just say, okay! We can get through this. So it's about 20 minutes later when we finally got everyone dressed and that was just the funniest thing. 

Then it just became so sad because I thought, "These people would know how to do this if they could come to the temple more often." But they probably don't make enough money to come but once every four-five years. They live 12 hours away from here. Just to get off work is one thing and to make it here, finances is a tough deal for so many of them. We had two couples that were serving missions and we were shocked how often they said that they'd have someone come to go to the temple for the first time and they were all alone. There was no escort with them. Money couldn't, or they had saved enough for themselves, or they were the only one that was a member of the church. And they'd come to go because they're going on a mission. They had a testimony of Jesus Christ and they were coming to the temple. 

Then it turned from being the saddest thing to the coolest thing. The Lord is making it so the temples are close to them. Thirteen temples in the Philippines. They're popping up all over! Now they're going to have a temple that's two hours away. One bus ride away, instead of two bus rides and a ferry and 12 hours away, they're going to be two hours away. That just became the coolest thing that the Lord is providing that for them. "I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few... I beheld that the church of the Lamb who were the saints of God were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small. ... I beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi 14:12, 14) They're armed with the power of God through making covenants in the Temple. 

Then after having that funniest, saddest, coolest experience, it was almost like the Lord put His arm around my shoulder and said, "Brother Teichert, I don't care if they know how to dress correctly. They will learn. What I do care about, is they want to be with me. And I want them with me. They want to make the covenants to return to me and I want them back." That's where I want to be, is back there, with my Father in Heaven, with our wonderful children that support each other so well, with our daughter Tillie, with our grandson Clyde. I want to be there. In order to do that I've got to attend the temple here often, so that I'm armed with power. Not the power like Ammon to cut off some arms, but the power to battle Satan. He's alive and well in the Philippines, just like here. What's the problem: alcohol, tobacco, drugs, pornography, discouragement, anxiety, depression. Everything he's battling you guys with here, he's battling the Filipinos with there. Satan is after you. He wants you. You must be special. He wants to destroy you. But Heavenly Father wants you back. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for us so that we can return. 

When I got to see Elder Jonas Bird, Zach and Krista's son, serving in the Bacolob mission, what a privilege to see the light in his eyes. When I got to see Brayden Bradshaw, 6'7", Jolene Buckley's son, a great athlete for Lyman High School. When I saw him first he'd been out about a month, deer in the headlights, thinking, "What am I doing here? What have I gotten myself into?" And to see him now, right before we came home and to listen to his testimony and his love for the Filipino people! He said, "I just want to love these people like Christ would love them. That's my goal, to love them like He would love them." And he's doing it. We can be so proud of these missionaries that we have a connection to that are doing a fantastic job there. Their parents and grandparents, their siblings, can be so proud of them. 

The Gospel is spreading throughout the world. The prophecies are being fulfilled. This is Jesus Christ's church here on the earth. We're led by a living prophet today and they're guiding us back to Jesus Christ if we will just follow. 

I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.