Lockdown

Shortest week ever this week!
After the worlds most tiring weekend ever we got back on the bus up
here on no sleep and having eaten nothing with nutritional value for
at least three days. We got on the bus and my comp recognised the
conductor as the one involved in the bus crash she was in just a
couple weeks ago, where a person was killed, so we were already off to
a sketchy start. Having no other choice, we stayed. Now bus rides here
aren't like bus rides at home. Its more like a roller coaster. You're
going super fast, weaving through traffic, overtaking things and
rushing back to avoid head on collisions, suddenly stopping, getting
literally airborne, its out of control. Plus the road is on stilts on
the side on a mountain above the ocean. Its magunda but its
nakakatakot. So we're all trying to get some sleep when BAM, smash
into another bus and the guardrail protecting us from a watery grave.
Everyone starts yelling at the bus driver but we don't really have any
other option we just have to keep going. The ride was ok after that,
but one of us threw up in a plastic bag, again....I won't say who.
The whole time I was thinking about this training someone gave a while
ago. About when Nephi was tied to the ship and everything was out of
control and how at that point he just really didn't feel like a
prophet. I have a lot of those moments. Sometimes you're just in these
really awkward situations and you're just thinking man, I just really
don't feel like a missionary right now. But then you get home, pull
yourself together in the 5 minutes you have to spare, head out to a
lesson and you just testify, and then you have those moments when you
can feel like a missionary again.
So I had one of those this week! I think I said it before that 6
months ago I used to come on exchanges in this area so I'd already met
a lot of the people. There was this one family where everyone but the
dad is a member. 6 months ago he'd done a 180 in his life, was coming
to church, loving the scriptures and set for baptism - the only
problem was he was struggling to give up smoking. I remember teaching
him back then and seeing how much he wanted it, but its like the focus
was all on his smoking. When I got here my comp had never even taught
him before so somewhere along the line he got lost, and obviously was
never baptised. I felt so strongly to go there, and have been going on
about him for weeks. Finally we found them, and at first he tried to
make an excuse to leave but we managed to get him to sit down. I
haven't felt the Spirit that strongly in a lesson in a while, it was
telling me every word to day. I told him we wouldn't even ask him
about his smoking, because thats not what were here to do, we're gonna
focus on his spirituality, and helping their family to be as strong as
they can be. And then out of nowhere I went on about how sometimes we
feel like failures, and we get kicked when were down but if we just
remember that the main goal is them going to the temple then
everything will happen in its right time. He looks at me and goes,
"Sister, thats exactly how I felt, like a failure." I knew I'd said
the right thing. I felt like a missionary. Sometimes you really just
don't, but sometimes you just really do.
So Saturday afternoon at 3 we get a text from President saying at 5
everyone is to be inside, were on lockdown because theres a massive
hurricane coming. Take a sneaky peek out the window - not a cloud in
the sky. Nevertheless, being obedient, we we go home and at 5 on the
dot it starts to rain. Wake up in the middle of the night to a raging
storm. It went all morning til literally about half an hour before
church, and there was sudden calm. Not even half the members were
there because the areas flood super easy, but as it went on we watched
people start arriving one by one. I was so happy for them, they really
area amazing to do that. Then like clockwork about half an hour after
church, power cuts back out and the storm starts raging like nothing
else. It was a violent, violent hurricane.  I sat and watched the
shore for a while waiting for the tsunami any second, our house was
shaking, the coconut trees were bent further than any tree should
bend, and the rain was basically horizontal. But were not scared,
because we're missionaries. But were a little scared to see what the
storm did to the members houses, so were going after this. We've still
got no power but we managed to find a computer shop with a generator.

So thats my week. I just love this place so much, and I don't like to
think that theres going to be more storms and more problems in the
future and I'm going to be oblivious to it all in my happy little life
at home. But like everything else, the Lord's got this, and thats
really the most important thing.

Love you,
Sister McKim
xx