This week was absolutely fantastic. Like WOW I love being a
missionary! The hurricane came through and gave us so many wonderful
service opportunities. We've been helping and uplifting people all
week and it's been great. Many miracles and people we wouldn't have
been able to see or meet with had Hurricane Irma not knocked some
trees down.
Jennifer, for example. Members in a local congregation told us
about this lady who loves missionaries and has met with us before, but
not in Gainesville. A tree fell down in her backyard and she needs
help. We went over and were able to clean up a good deal of the tree.
We talked to her at the end and she was crying in gratitude for us
coming to help. As a missionary, we know what we are doing is right. I
now know that I have a testimony of the gospel that's strong enough
that I would happily keep working if I didn't see any success and
nobody listened or even talked to us. But seeing Jennifer cry and be
so grateful for our service really made an impact on me - we are
making a difference in people's lives. All of us are. It's really hard
to see that sometimes, but it's true.
Many have asked what the hurricane was like. We
were in our apartment Sunday afternoon - Tuesday morning. Saturday
it seemed like a constant rain storm, just a drizzle. On Sunday there
were occasional gusts of wind, and rain. Sunday morning at 9:42 AM (I
checked), there was a big gust of wind, and then suddenly our power
goes out. We pulled out flashlights and kept studying, as a diligent
missionary would. The wind picked up throughout the day until it was
just LOUD all night long. Our apartment was totally fine, but then Monday
morning we walked around the area to see how everything looked.
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| This face sums up how I felt out biking during the hurricane. |
There's a retention pond in our complex - very deep and very
big. There's a parking lot right next to it. The pond was overflowing
and all the cars next to it were chest deep in water. It only drained
a few days ago. Many of the roads nearby us were impassable because of
flooding. Lots of trees had fallen down, but not much damage to houses
- mostly just on power lines, in the middle of the street, ya know,
the typical places for a tree to fall.
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| When you're biking to a teaching appointment and realize that you'll have to find another way to get there. A regular occurrence this week. |
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| Out biking... |
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| Only in Florida... These things were more common than stop signs. (Maybe not quite.... that might be hyperbole.) |
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| Florida sunsets are beautiful! The picture doesn't do it justice. It literally looked like the sky was on fire. |
That was about it, though. It wasn't as bad as we thought it
would be. All the missionaries and members are totally safe. We will
have service to do for another few weeks, but we are getting back to
our normal routine. In my free time I memorized John 17 (10/10, would
definitely recommend.) I decided that week that memorizing verses is
too hard, because I can never remember where they are, so memorizing
chapters is much more straightforward. Working on the Sermon on the
Mount right now...
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| When God sends you a message through Panda Express. Not an expected answer to my prayers, but hey, it works! (Fortune cookie wisdom: "Be willing to admit you may be wrong. You're only human.") |
Well I'm just blabbering on at this point so goodbye! I
actually took some pictures this week, so enjoy those. I hope you all
have a great week, and know that I love you all! :)
-Elder McMullin
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