Pedring, Quiel and now Raymond!!!!

As a small child growing up in Nebraska, I was very acquainted with tornado's and the impact one could have on my environment but NOTHING I have ever experienced could have prepared me for the wind, rain, flying debris, damage and loss of electricity that accompanies a typhoon.  Last week we had two roll though here, the first, Typhoon Pedring rolled in sometime in the middle of the night on Monday night/Tuesday morning.  We lost our electricity around 2 and that is what awakened us-the sound of the fan and A/C in the bedroom produces a 'white noise' and when it is gone, it is noticed.  Our power was out from then until Friday evening.  We went to Cauayan to help the Carlo's with their busy week and because the mission home/office compound has a generator, we had minimal lights and fans but no A/C or power to unnecessary appliances or plugs.  The fun thing was this was transfer week!!  That means we had elders and sisters going home on Wednesday and a new batch coming in on Thursday.  Because of the storm, the incoming ones didn't arrive until Friday morning so the transfer meeting needed to be changed as the newbies were getting absorbed into the mix and having the meeting without them was pointless.  Picture the cooking, the cleaning, the dishes, the laundry, etc. WITHOUT POWER!!!  I have not washed that many dishes by hand in many moons but was glad to be here to be able to help out.

Our street.

Randy on the corner of our street...notice the trees stripped clean of their foliage.

These cute entrepreneurs were finding fallen coconuts to sell-see the home behind them that was totally destroyed.

The sad thing was that with all the storm and transfer stuff, the work stopped!  This is the first weekend since we have been here that one of our branches didn't have a baptism.  We thought about that on the way home from church today...our branches only held Sacrament Meeting so we attended two today, neither of which experienced much damage.  Our new convert Sister Ulep told us today that when the rain and wind got bad, she just sat down and read her Book of Mormon.  Now that, my friends, is pure faith!!

Getting ready for church without a blow dryer-no power but this worked!  This battery operated fan that Randy bought is great!

A week ago, before the storms started raging, we had the opportunity to go visit the Agustin family and help them welcome their new little Dion Youone to their family.  Like our Kimberly, they lost their first little girl as a baby and have waited and waited for this little angel.  I took dinner to them [don't think anyone here has ever done that before] and made her two crochet-edged burp cloths.  They are such a great family and are so happy.  They blessed her today and thought you would like a happy thought.

They tell me we can expect Raymond to come rolling in around Wednesday of this next week-we certainly did pick a great time of year to come, don't you think?  Never fear, we are all fine, a little hot, wet, tired and dirty but our faith is strong and our commitment to this work is unfailing.  My prayer is that we could somehow, obtain the attitude of these wonderful saints...an hour after the storm was over, they were all outside, sweeping, smiling, visiting and moving on.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all be that optimistic about our futures???  Just clean it up, put it away and look forward.  What a  great culture of people who are motivated by the future and the possibilities, not tethered to the past and the mistakes.  They just don't look back...