Hello, all.
I am happy to inform
you that we did not blow away in the storm! And by storm, I mean
hurricane. Who knew New York got hurricanes? (Actually, I
heard they had one last year, but it's not really a place that you
think of getting hurricanes!) We did, however, lose power, so I am
actually writing this post from the mission home in Scarsdale. We have
been having a good few days in our apartment in Chinatown, but since we have
been without power for a couple days and there was no way to write home, they
had us come up here so we could communicate with you all. I will say that
I am now very familiar with our area book, and I have learned how to light a
gas stove without an automatic starter. Good skills to know, I
think. The one thing is that since we have been in the apartment, we
haven't been able to meet with many investigators this week, so that has been a
little frustrating, and our plans for a hot-pot and pumpkin pie night for
our departing Sister Gao have been cancelled.
In other news, we have
new missionaries in our district! The Blairs are a senior missionary
couple (that's just what it sounds like, an older couple who chose to go
on a mission) that have been assigned to our little branch. Neither of
them speak Mandarin, but Elder Blair spent ten months of his mission in the
South East Asia mission in Hong Kong. They live in our building, right
next to one of the companionships of elders downstairs. We love them
already and know that they will be an excellent contribution to our district
and our branch. One good about this hurricane is it has given us more of
an opportunity to get to know them. On Monday they and the elders came up
to our apartment to help us put up our blinds. Afterwards, since we
couldn't leave our apartments, we ordered a couple of pizzas, went to the
Blairs' apartment, and had a little family night.
This whole hurricane
deal has really reminded me how wonderful it is to be prepared. The
Church encourages all of its members to prepare food and water in case of
emergencies, as well as any other supplies they may need. The same goes
for missionaries, and before the storm hit we were reminded to get everything
we need. We then were given the excellent opportunity to serve our ward,
especially our recent converts and less active members. We called all of
them to remind them to prepare themselves, and to tell them how much we and the
Branch Presidency loved them. Many of them were grateful for the
information and to hear that we wanted them to be safe. We will follow up
with them soon (once cell phones are working a little better) and see how they
weathered the storm.
I am grateful for a
mission home that still has power and internet, a mission president that thinks
to send updates to my family, and for an awesome district that is so willing to
serve each other. it has been a pretty great couple of days, all things
considering.
We'll see how this
next week goes - I have a feeling we are going to be helping out a bit with
cleanup. I'll let you know.
Love you!
Sister Beer
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