Super Typhoon

Hello we had a good week. We had a good Ward Home Evening on November 4. It was the bishop's idea to do the 1st Monday of the month. He is such a good bishop, I have learned a lot from him. It was a good turn out and we had many members and investigators there. We had some good spiritual lessons and some fun games. We had a donut on the string with the bishopric, musical chairs, obstacle course and many more. It was so sweet. We also spent our time wisely and had many good lessons on Tuesday and Wednesday before we were locked down in our home. On Thursday and Friday we had to stay in our home all day during the storm. We did our studies and spent the extra time doing more studies and weekly planning and other things. I also spent my time writing to recent converts from past areas, cleaned the house and just chilled and relaxed. The storm was strong here, it was a category 4 super typhoon. That was my first time in a super typhoon because last year was not too bad. Our house was fine though. No damage but it was so loud and the wind was so strong. Looking out the windows we could see the trees falling over left and right and hear the rain pouring. Saturday we spent the whole day helping the members and our investigators and doing service. It was good to help and it opened the hearts of members and investigators. It was fun and hard work. We did a lot of cleaning yards and moved many fallen trees. All of our investigators and members are ok but many of their homes are damaged. Many lost their roofs and the ones with bamboo houses had much damage to their homes. One of our recent convert's house was completely destroyed, I feel bad for them but the church is going to help them. They are happy though and the people seem to have a good attitude about this. We have no power or running water, but we have a place nearby to buy purified water. We also have a well nearby that we are using to shower. At first we had to use the members well who are our neighbors which was hard to transport all of the water, but then they helped us clean our well in our yard and it is good. We have candles and have adjusted our schedule. I feel like I am in the olden days though ha ha. We are working in the morning and the afternoon and studying at night. No one has power so they go to bed early at like 7pm. We still don't have a signal for our cell phone. Sunday we had a good turn out though. The members were still positive and happy and many went to church. We had many investigators at church also, they are excited and want to be baptized. Some we gave a baptism date this week. Sister Cecilia our baptism candidate for the November 30th brought six of her kids to church and four are over eight and want to be baptized! Also the husband of Erlinda our recent convert came to church and it was his first time. It was so sweet and he loved it and wants to be baptized on December 25. We had to postpone our two baptisms because there was no water at the church and no one was ready because of the storm. The two will be baptized this week. We also have two baptisms on the 23th of November and one on the 30th and hopefully more than six in December so we are excited. The work is going on and moving forward. We will work hard and have a good week. Some scriptures I love that really apply are Helaman 5:12 and Mosiah 2:17. I gave a talk in church and talked about Helaman 5:12 and compared it to the storm. We also need to prepare spiritually because when the trials and temptations come we will never fall if we center our lives around Christ and His gospel is our foundation. I love you all. >>>>>>Elder Mifflin