We have had a really busy week. It was pretty sleep deprived too. But God gave me lots of strength so I made it through alright. I'll try and give you a good run down.
Monday was a normal day. We were just in the office. We had heard a little about the typhoon, but nothing about president's plans for the missionaries. Tuesday we had our P-day and then we went out to work, but after our first appointment, one of the AP's called and said that there was an emergency and we needed to go back to the office right away. We got back to the office and found out that the emergency was that all of the missionaries north of Laoag (there was 82 of them) were going to be coming to Laoag and we needed to get ready for them. So we spent that night getting their sleeping all arranged, and then we planned for what was going to be happening for the next 3 days until the Typhoon had moved out and everyone went home. We had the first batch of missionaries come in around midnight, and we shipped them off to bed. Then we talked some more, ate some McDonalds, and then talked some more until 3:30 when the last batch of missionaries coming in that night made it to the office. We helped them on their way to bed, and then we got to finally go to bed ourselves. By the time we rolled into our beds it was around 4 in the morning, then bright and early the next day (6:30) we got up to go and run some errands to get ready for the incoming Typhoon. Wednesday was the day that the typhoon was supposed to actually roll into Laoag so we spent most of the day getting ready for all of the everything that needed to happen. President Andrada had some people come in and cater for all of us, so that was pretty tasty (: We got back into the office around 6, and talked with President and the AP's some more. Wednesday night we were on a signal number 5, which is the highest that the signals go, so we were getting ready for a really really strong typhoon. We went to bed on time that night.
Around 2 in the morning I was woken up by the wind. It was super strong and really loud in our room. The wind was blowing so hard that it was changing the pressure in the room so that my ears were popping over and over again. I sleep by the window and was a little bit worried that something would fly into the window and it would break and shatter glass all over me. But I got back to sleep despite all that, and we rolled out of bed the next morning to get back to work. The wind had slowed down some and we were only a signal number 2, but the rain was still coming down really hard. We went over to the office and spent the first little while there running around the office tying things down in the yard around the mission home. By the time we got it all taken care of we were pretty soaking wet. After that there wasn't much left to do. By thursday evening the typhoon had moved out of the Philippines area of responsibility and we were back to normal. There wasn't tons of damage in Laoag because when the typhoon hit the mountains between Cagayan and Laoag it slowed down some, so that was a blessing. Thursday afternoon we went to one of the churches and helped pack some bags of relief goods. They were bags with 5 Kilos of rice, some canned goods, bottled water, and some noodles for families who were affected by the typhoon. Thursday evening we still didn't have any power. On friday we shipped all the missionaries off to their respective apartments and then starting making plans for what to do when a missionary's apartment is no longer there, or damaged so that it can no longer be lived in. After that life was back to normal! We didn't get power back until yesterday (Monday) Morning, so Saturday and Sunday night we slept in an apartment above the mission home. And that's all she wrote!
We did do a little bit of service yesterday at a member's home. Two of their walls had been pretty battered by the typhoon and some of their roof had been blown off. We helped them put in two new walls, but weren't able to help them with their roof. We ran out of time and had to come back to the office.
The real damage is in Cagayan. They all lost power, and are just barely starting to get power back again. The good news is that there were only 3 sets of missionaries that had to move apartments because of damage. Two were flooded, and one had its whole roof blown off. There were also relatively few casualties because the government did a good job of warning everyone so that people were able to get prepared. It will take some time though for Cagayan to really recover from the Typhoon.
So that was my week! But this week I have been thinking a lot about life. (we had lots of down time.) and one of the things that I've pondered was procrastination. Its one of Satan's best tactics. We always just assume that we can put it off to the next day or the next time, which doesn't always work out. Sometimes you do get off with it, but not always. A cool thought came to me the other day while we were running some errands.
People often wast their lives
Reading up on how to live
Only planning what they want
Coming up with plans to give
Readying all their perfect tools
And never really acting
Setting all the pieces in place
Thinking out the perfect move
Indefinitely planning
Nourishing their armies,
And never really acting
This life is the time for us to act
Its every hour is precious
Our good works are greatly needed now
Now is the time to act
I just think that its so important that we just do something with our life. If we are moving, God will guide us into the right direction. But if we just stand there and are too afraid to take the first step, then God cannot help us. When we choose to move forward in life, to try new things, to try and learn (which is the whole purpose of this life), we will be blessed, and if we do it with our hearts in the right place, we will have Heavenly Father's guidance, and we will know where to go and what to do.
I love you all!
Elder Childs
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