How is everything back home?? I feel so cut off from everyone here. I hope summer is going good for you all.
This week was a little less-productive in work because of the bagyo. It was bigger than I thought it was going to be. We were on lockdown the rest of Tuesday. We also housed some other sisters in our apartment whose areas are prone to flooding. So it was a fun night! Like a giant sleepover. It started raining pretty hard that night...but nothing big. The mission notified us that we would be on lockdown all day Wednesday though. So transfers were delayed. During the night, the winds picked up and we lost power. (No fans, wahh..) Then as my alarm went off at 6:30...I was sooo sleepy, but I started saying my prayers and then suddenly heard a siren start to go off. (It was kind of like those sirens that warn for tornados). It was a creepy sounding siren. I was awake now!! Haha, most of the sisters in the bahay were foreigners so we didn't know what exactly the siren meant, but Sister Acostan was pretty sure that it probably meant Pasig River had now started to flood. Outside, it was raining REALLY hard and was super windy. Well, we just camped inside all day...the worst of the typhoon hit around noon I think. The wind was so strong. It was pretty dark so we were using flashlights for light. And outside it was literally like straight buckets of water pouring from the sky. And the wind was whipping in every direction. We could see things flying through the air in the wind--and one of our little lamp post things to the bahay almost got torn off. I was sad that there was no thunder though.. Later in the afternoon, the storm died down. It got a little lighter outside and it was just a normal rain. For the next day, we just would get afterbursts of pouring rain. It was kind of cool though, cause you could hear the rain coming....it was like a weird wind...and then it would slowly get louder and then BOOM it was pouring outside.
Anyway, that next night, I got sick. I woke up early in the night soooo hot and nauseas. I had a fever, but we still had no power. (Our power was out for 3 days). So all of Thursday, I was lying in bed super sick, super hot, in this sticky, hot, humid weather with no fan. Blahhh, it was miserable. That night I pretty much slept in the CR...puking and trying to sleep on the floor in their cause it was a little cooler. Friday morning, I was still a little sick, but I rested in the morning for a bit, and then we went out that afternoon. I felt pretty weak, but I couldn't stand being in the bahay any longer. I know I was given strength though-- I could feel it. We finally got koreyente (power) again when we came back! By the time I was able to get outside, most of the debris/fallen trees had been pretty much cleaned up in my area. But I heard from others that there had been tons of fallen trees and power lines, metal and glass scattered everywhere. I heard that here in Manila, 10 people got killed. So sad. I just hope my Pateros squatters are all doing okay.
Anyway, everything is back to normal now. One of our investigators, Delia, came to church with us on Sunday!! Gahh! We were so happy. She is starting to progress so much now. When I first got to the area, she was not progressing. She would let us missionaries in, but didn't really seem interested or happy when we would teach. I think I wrote about her before, how we stopped the lessons and started reading from the Book of Mormon with her. For some reason, she has just lit up! Sister Acostan and I bought her a Book of Mormon Stories picture book too, and she was smiling from ear to ear when we brought it over. We invited her to church and she ENTHUSIASTICALLY agreed. She was excited! She came and loved it! She just has this new light in her eyes, we are so so sooo excited for her. We are going to go back to the lessons now that she is interested and wants to learn more. Delia is awesome. I love her!
Pioneer Day is coming up. Our ward is doing a huge celebration! This Saturday we're doing big open house for all the investigators and visitors to tour the chapel and learn about the church, and then a program afterwards with a little skit/play about Joseph Smith and the pioneers. The ward asked me to be Emma Smith so I'll be in their little play thing. Haha, it's going to be a lot of fun!
Anyway, just recently, I was reading in Mark--the story about Christ calming the stormy sea. It is one of my favorite stories. It is short, but powerful. I really like how it relates to us today though. After experiencing a typhoon and seeing how strong some storms can be, I think honestly our spiritual "typhoons" are really the biggest obstacles each of us face. And I think sometimes, we are often like the disciples, where sometimes during our personal "storms" we forget to call on the Lord and ask for help or strength...and then as we are in the pit of our sorrows, we cry unto Him asking him "carest thou not that {I} perish?" Or we ask Him why these things are happening....when this entire time, He has had the power to calm our troubles, to still our souls. How much are we really employing the power of the Savior's Atonement in our lives? When we pray, is it just describing our troubles to the Lord, or do we really call on Him to help us through our storms. He has the power, but he expects us to do our part too. And I know as we do, he will speak, "Peace, be still" unto each one of our souls.
Well, I'm out of time. I love you all!!!
Sister Oyler
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