June 30
My hat is off to Scot and Maurine Procter for their wonderful Meridian Magazine coverage of the church in Cebu as noted in the attached. These are exciting times in Cebu. We work daily with John Balledos (Employment Resource Center Manager), a man with a delightful personality, a spiritual giant and Stake President. He was one of the drivers for the Monson Party during the Temple Dedication, Pres. Eyring, wife and body guard being his guests on board a rented suburban. They had police escort that drove in the counter-flow lane when needed. We are having a very memorable time in our service, with all this flurry of Temple activity behind us now, a sweet memory. Recently we began teaching the Self-employment Workshop (Monday and Tuesday of this week so far, will continue once per month), similar to the ACE Academy program, accept that any member can come to our five day class. ACE's program lasts 8 weeks, is much more intense and enrolls only return missionaries. Bev and I also taught a young man and his wife last night the first two sections of Self-employment. He is a member of our Ward's bishopric, currently enrolled in the Perpetual Education Fund program, attending culinary school once per week on Saturday, and in February I assisted him with his resume that helped him get a culinary job at a resort hotel on the small island of Mactan where the airport is located, connected to the Island of Cebu by two bridges.
