Day 181 Carcar, Philippines My first area. . . again

I seriously feel like I've just started my mission over again. . . so weird.

Anyhoo, for all those who are worried about me and how i'm doing, ayaw kabaraka! (don't worry!) I'm actually doing great. Yes, things are different and I've been experiencing a lot of change, but I really feel happy. I have no doubt in my mind that this is where the Lord needs me to be right now. I can feel the influence of Satan trying to pull me down and get me discouraged or distracted, but I know I am his target right now, after all I've been through. Because I can testify that I know there are still miracles today, he wants to prevent me from sharing the gospel. I know that God gave me these experiences for a reason---so I can bear powerful testimony that I KNOW God will deliver us as we put our trust in Him. He is a God of miracles, of mercy. He will never leave us comfortless. There are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. I know that He is mindful of us always. There is a plan of happiness for each one of us. All we have to do is act and follow it. I feel happier than ever, strangely, seeing the gospel in action.

My companion is Sister Zamora from Butuan mission, Mindanao, Philippines. She's a dancer and she loves to sing. She is a recent convert of five years now and she's the only active member in her family.  I'm senior companion, so I'm her follow up trainer! She just barely finished her 12 weeks. She's a fireball with lots of energy and spirit. Love her. She doesn't know much English, so she was nervous to get a foreigner companion. I told her that I want to be a Filipina and that I can more or less understand Cebuano. She gave me the biggest hug and speaks almost straight Cebuano to me ever since. So I'm catching on really fast to the language. My mind is blown away at how much I can remember from the MTC, especially since I don't have my notes or study materials anymore. I'm able to teach and have conversations already in Cebuano. It was hard to switch all my "H"s to "S"s and all the pronouns and stuff, but it's easily to switch when i can just copy what I hear all around me. The best way to learn is to mimic.

My new area is in Car-Car, about an hour bus ride south of Cebu. It's gorgeous bukid all around the city, and it's fairly near the ocean. I'm the first foreigner in my area (this area is newly reopened). Everyone is so shocked that I can speak Bisaya and people gather around me to hear me speak, haha. Which is perfect when I go finding! Also, there's a lady in my ward, Sister Mildred, who can speak Waray2x!! So we speak to each other only in our secret language and everyone else gets upset because they can't understand. It's pretty funny.

Also, sorry to everyone that wrote me letters in the past month or two. I got them and responded, but now they're gone. . . so everyone email me their addresses so I can write you all back! :)

Sorry this is so short. . . I've been trying to read all the emails that i've gotten. Next week! I love you all!

Sister Smith

The B family

Sis Zamora and I

the most EPIC and MIRACULOUS week of my life!!! PART 1

For those of you who have been living under a rock for this past week, there was a SUPER TYPHOON that hit the Visayas region of the Philippines, mostly affecting and obliterating MY mission: the Philippines Tacloban Mission (which no longer exists, as all the missionaries have been pulled out). It was 3 1/2 times the size of hurricane Katrina and was the strongest landfall storm ever!!! My area was hit by a 50 ft tsunami and the north wall of the eye of the storm. AND the typhoon funneled up into my area because of the geography.

It hit early morning on Friday, November 8, 2013. A few days before the super typhoon, we were instructed by our mission president to prepare enough food, water, load (prepaid texts/minutes), brownout lamps, and rope for the next few days. Also, Thursday evening sister missionaries from Alang-Alang and Palo evacuated to my apartment in San Jose, Tacloban, Leyte. So there were 10 sisters staying the night in my apartment: myself and my comp Sister Henshaw, Sister Schaap and Sister Malietoa (my former MTC comp), Sister Guy (who had been visiting for the previous week and just sent her sick comp home two days earlier!) and Sister Hernandez (a brand-spanking new branch missionary from San Juanico, a nearby area), Sister Lindsay and Sister Loertscher (both from nearby Alang-Alang), and Sister Sorronda and Sister Dial (from Palo).

We honestly didn't think much of the storm and just expected to stay inside all day writing letters and cleaning. And we expected to be safe since other sisters had been evacuated to our area. So I wasn't worried much. Well, the next morning, the power was shut off at 3am and the storm became rather strong at about 5am so none of us could sleep. We went outside to grab all our shoes inside so they wouldn't blow away and closed all the windows so the rain wouldn't come inside. Haha. Then past 6am the wind became so strong that the doors wouldn't stay closed so we shoved suitcases and heavy bags in front to keep them closed. Then, the wind broke a hole in a wall in our laundry room so we grabbed some clothes out of the long, narrow room and bolted the door shut with a metal bar. After closing all the windows as best we could, the ten of us gathered into the central room upstairs with the fewest windows---three. I brought my bag and my journal into the room so I would have something to do. As the house began to shake and we could hear houses being torn apart around us, we said a prayer and started to sing hymns to calm our nerves (Sister Guy's idea---she sings all the time ;) ). We sang hymns like Master the Tempest is Raging, etc. After 4-5 hymns or so, Sister Lindsay was inspired to look out the window.

We ran to the window to see a flood rising extremely fast---the water level on the outside of our 10ft gate was much higher than inside. We were already on the second story, but the water would soon reach the window. I went outside the room and looked at the first story: the water had already flooded up to the top of the stairs so that it was level with the second story. Seconds later, the flood gushed the second story. Our first thoughts were to stack the bamboo bedframes on top of each other, but we soon realized that there would be no way out of the second story, since there are metal bars/guards on all the windows. After putting my journal on the highest shelf and my bag on the dresser, I walked downstairs, into the water with nothing but my PJs, glasses, and nametag. Since our apartment was a split story, there was still air downstairs, even though it was flooded  on both levels at this point. Some sisters started to bring their bags, but abandoned them because it was hard to swim with. One sister even had to take off her pants because they were too heavy to swim with. Three sisters couldn't swim, but it was easy to float because it was seawater and the mattresses were floating so there was something to hold onto. I couldn't touch, so I treaded water to the front door.

One sister dived underwater to unlock the front door, but the pressure from the water on both sides of the door sealed it shut. By this point, all the sisters were in the water. I think there was about 3-4ft of air left---I distinctly remember scanning the room to see how much air I had left. I was praying the whole time, but I remember praying that if not me, God would inspire someone else to find the way out. Many of the sisters were panicking at this point and I just had to breathe to stay calm.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK (when I have time to type, haha)

Sister Savanah Henshaw 
Sister Hannah Schaap  
Sister Maina Malietoa 
*Sister Rebekah Guy
Sister Chiara Maria Hernandez
Sister Jessica Lindsay
*Sister Heidi Loertscher
Sister Gale Sorronda
*Sister Camille Dial

Day 174 CEBU!!

First off, I am now in CEBU with President Schmutz! My P-day is now on Wednesdays because i have a temple in my mission (which I've already been to TWICE)!!! 15 of us Tacloban missionaries flew into the gorgeous and HUGE city of Cebu Sunday morning. I think three more are coming later. :) I slept 13 hours straight that first night. At first I was just going to take a nap at 5pm so i didn't change clothes, but i was sooooo tired that i slept straight through the night! I already love it here in Cebu. It's really different from Tacloban, but I think i will get used to it soon. Cebu is just enormous compared to Tacloban. There are three zones off-island on Negros, bordering Bacolod mission. I've been assigned to Car-Car with Sister Zamora, who I'll meet tomorrow. I'll be senior companion, even though I don't know the area or the language, so it'll be an adventure. :)

Since being in Cebu, I've ran into so many people from Leyte! One man was returning to Carigara (my first area) to look for his family. We were able to help him out and tell him where to look and told him to look for the church. At the Cebu temple patron housing, i've seen members from the wards i've been serving in! And I saw Sister Hernandez, the branch missionary who was with Sister Guy during the typhoon! So now all ten of us sisters from the roof are out of Tacloban and safe. I've been running into a lot of relief groups heading to Tacloban, which is comforting to know that supplies and help is continually on the way. Please keep my members and investigators in your prayers!

I read the article by Deseret News, haha. They made it seem pretty dramatic and some things are exaggerated, which is to be expected from a news story.

After the waters had receded a bit, Pres Andaya came with the AP's to find us.
This is outside my apartment on the right.

We later went back to see what could be recovered. This is inside my apartment.
You can see the water level on the wall behind me.

My apartment

This is a link to someone's blog that explains some more of the typhoon and how the geographic regions are set up: http://www.michaeldsellers.com/blog/2013/11/13/our-hometown-of-lawaan-eastern-samar-where-exactly-is-it/

Dad's perspective

For those of you expecting something from Amanda, sorry to disappoint you. This is about me. :0) I don't keep a journal and this is as close as it will probably get but I wanted to record my thoughts and feelings during the week of Yolanda. Liz suggested that I post it here.

----

Wednesday November 6 we heard of a tyhpoon headed toward the Philippines. Looking at the trajectory of the storm it seemed it would pass right through Leyte island near Tacloban where Amanda was assigned. Being the map freak that I am I looked up as much information as I could on where the storm was and where it would go, not really worrying about Amanda's safety as I was just collecting information. But as the storm got closer to her I heard more about it being a super storm and the biggest storm on earth so far this year and winds reaching incredible speeds. Then I started watching as a concerned parent. Where would the strongest part of the storm hit?

Thursday morning I tracked the storm and watched it get closer and closer to land. The eye wall was supposed to hit land at 2pm our time in Guiuan and then Tacloban by 4pm. I watched on the radar as the eye passed just south of Tacloban which means that the eye wall where the strongest winds would be was right in the middle of Tacloban city. I didn't know anything about storm surges or what that meant or what to expect. Liz and I went to a Relief Society dinner that night not worrying very much. We felt she was ok.

Friday morning Liz heard from another missionary mom that the news reported that all missionaries in the Philippines were accounted for. So we relaxed. But later in the day we started to wonder because we didn't see the same story on the LDS news room site. There was nothing at all. So we started to worry and wonder. Later that day we saw the church post that all missionaries were accounted for except those in the Tacloban mission. Ok. Time to worry.

We heard nothing from the church or anybody that day. There were facebook groups for missionary families for the Philippines so we joined a couple of those to see what news people had.

Saturday morning one of the people in the facebook group mentioned finding an email address of an Elder Ferrin and that they sent him an email and he called them with information. We needed to drive down to Moab to take Alex to his race so before we left we sent an email to Elder Ferrin asking what he might know about Amanda and left my cell phone number. He called within 20 minutes while we were driving into Spanish Fork canyon. He told us that Amanda was safe and with the mission president. That was all the information he had. Nothing about her health or conditions or whereabouts or what resources she had available to her. We just knew she was alive and under the care of her priesthood leader. This helped the rest of the drive to Moab and the rest of the day go by very much more relaxed.

We still trolled the facebook groups looking for additional news or information. We saw pictures of missionaries in downtown Tacloban handing out food and water to people.One of the sisters looked like she could be Amanda but we realized it wasn't her. Saturday night we got a call from what must have been Sister Ardern (with a NZ accent) telling us that Amanda was safe. They were just double checking that we had been contacted. Sunday afternoon we got another phone call from the missionary department in SLC saying that Amanda was safe and her needs were being met regarding food and water, etc. That helped a little bit more but it was still just generic information, no details or knowledge about her.

Tuesday morning I woke up one minute before my alarm and checked my phone to see what time it was and saw a missed call from 1 minute earlier that was a Philippines number. Right then the home phone started to ring and we bounced out of bed to grab it. Liz ran faster than me and got to the phone and it was Amanda! It was 9pm her time, they had just arrived in Manila an hour before. We talked for about an hour and then she skyped with us that night from 11pm to 1am. It was such a joy to see her and hear her and know for sure that she was ok. After talking with her that morning the song "My Kindness" came to mind and it was in my head all day and I listened to it in the car and looked up the scripture in 3 Nephi that part of it comes from. I could imagine Amanda having that song go through her head while she was up on the roof in the storm.

Wednesday we talked with Amanda again and she told us she was having a hard time with other missionaries that had been really traumatized by the whole experience. Some of them couldn't stand to be around Amanda anymore because every time they saw her they got flooded with the feelings and emotions of the storm and aftermath. Of course this made Amanda really upset to be shunned by those she loved so much. This broke our hearts and made us feel even more worried at that point than we had through the whole storm and the waiting to hear from her.

Thursday morning I got up and went to look at facebook and saw another missionary parent saying how excited they were they got to talk to their missionary. For some reason I just couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to see any of it anymore. I think maybe I was finally having the emotions break through to the surface that had come from the previous week and from feeling so badly for Amanda and her current trial. I quit the facebook groups I had been following for information on the missionaries. I didn't want to see any more happy posts or sad posts, just wanted to get away from all of it. I was near tears off and on at work throughout the morning and just feeling emotionally drained. At the end of the day I told my boss I was going to leave early for a mental health break. I took my camera and drove down to the dike that surrounds the Provo airport and took pictures just south of the runway. There's a nice marshy, reedy area with open water and the sunset reflects in it very nicely. I listened to Utah Valley Children's Choir music the whole time and on the way home was finally able to break down crying. Though it's difficult to full on sob while driving on the freeway it was good to get it out. Kinda like throwing up I guess. I felt better after that and have since.

Since then it's been a slow coming down off the emotions and intensity of the previous week. Seeing Amanda on the news and the internet in various forms, Liz getting together things for Amanda to replace what was lost, etc.

With Amanda starting a new day in a new place and a new assignment we are also able to begin to move on and get back to a normal life. Though there are so many thousands of others whose lives will not be normal for months or years to come.

UPDATE on Amanda

For those who don't know, on Thursday November 7th at approximately 5pm, typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines. The storm was 3 1/2 times the size of Katrina and had wind gusts up to 235mph. It is reported to be the strongest storm in recorded history. The storm devastated the island Amanda was on and the death toll continues to rise. This area now resembles the effects of a tsunami.

11/11/2013 -As of 6am this morning, this is what we know.

We have been contacted by the church 3 times and this is what we've been told:

- Amanda is safe and being provided with clean water and food.

- They were unable to tell us where she had been relocated to.

- The mission home was hit by a 12'storm surge and is now under 8' feet of water and the mission cars are under 6' of water.

- There is no electricity, cell or land line service. Only a few satellite phones are in operation which the church had brought in.

- There are still missionaries that have not been contacted, but the church is confident they are safe. They are using all means available to get to them and confirm this: boats, helicopters, etc. (as of 12 November 2013 - 9:28 am Philippine Time = 6:28 pm UT time - the church posted ALL Tacloban Missionaries safe and accounted for!!!!)

This is what we have read or been told by others but not confirmed by the church:

- Some missionaries are or have already been transferred to different missions like Cebu and Manila at least temporarily until there are safe places they can stay with food, water, and electricity (they are declaring marshal law in some areas where looting, lawlessness and shootings have occurred). They are going by boat and then plane.

-  This was posted on one site then quickly removed (but I copied it before it was and also wrote to the poster asking if it was valid - he said yes, but that it was removed in consideration of all the families who still had not news of their missionary):

LDS Philippines

Emailed By TACLOBAN MISSION PRESIDENT, read by Elder Brent H. Nielsen, Philippines Area President

During the stake Conference at Cauayan.

"The missionaries are safe. Our mission home was flooded, we have no current (electricity), no water, no clothes, no garments, and no food. But we help each other members by wearing yellow vest helping hands.

Please pass for help."

I asked the poster if that meant the missionaries needed clothing and garments and he said yes.

- At least 2 days prior to the typhoon, missionaries were told to have a 72hr bag ready to move. Our guess is that did not change and that is why some have little else. We are guessing Amanda was one of those that lost almost everything - her apartment was close to the mission home and airport where there is little left and her apartment was on the ground floor with big windows. Some of the zones that are being transferred out only have those 72hr kits with them. (Her apartment was 1/2 mile from the mission home and 2 1/2 miles form the airport)

- We've heard there was a temporary spot set up in Tacloban for internet access, but it is not safe for the missionaries to go there.

- We saw pictures  in Tacloban City with the mission president, his wife and other missionaries passing out supplies to the people that included missionaries that were in Amanda's apartment.

- As of 2 days before the typhoon, Amanda was still sick but had received a blessing: this info was given to us by Sis Resolme, a sister that was in her apartment and went home on a medical release 2 days before the typhoon.

Amanda's apartment in Tacloban

A) shows where Amanda's apartment is B)shows where the mission home, mission office and chapel are. Out on the peninsula is where the airport and runway are.

Helping Hands in Tacloban City
Sis Andaya (with the water bottle in her pocket), Sis.Malietoa, Sis.Schaap

Pres Andaya is in the front right in the yellow shirt with the backpack and name tag.
Sis.Guy (with the red headband and shirt), Elder Parsons, Elder Tofilao 

Tacloban Airport

Day 161 Tacloban, Philippines November already???

Time is flying waaaaay too fast. Tomorrow is my 5 month mark!

First off, I am DYING of laughter looking at the Halloween pictures---especially the one of Jared. :)

There was one day this past week where we were super blessed with crazy cool experiences. The Spirit was soooo strong in all of our lessons! We usually teach R at the church with his girlfriend A. When we got there, there was someone in the room where we usually teach. It turns out he's a recent convert named E so we invited him to join the lesson. During the lesson, he brought up a concern that actually was the same as R. It helped to have him there to give R someone to relate to. E had a lot of his questions and worries answered during our lesson. He told us he's not even from the area, but his feet just carried him to the church. It's amazing to see how God works.

We met a less-active man and taught him an awesome lesson about the power of the Atonement. At least I thought it was awesome----I couldn't understand a word he was saying because he spoke Cebuano. But as we taught, I somehow understood what he meant and was able to know what to say. It's such a testimony to me that the Spirit is the teacher and interpreter.

There's lots of cool names here. Like Cinderella, or LaLa or Queen Elizabeth, or JohnJohn. :)

We didn't work a ton this week because of Election Day and Saints Day when we weren't allowed to go outside after 6pm. And then I got sick. But we have a baptism next week! Sister R had her baptismal interview on Saturday and she is sooooo ready to be a member!

Sister Henshaw gave me a cool idea to try with my patriarchal blessing. She told me to identify all the actions I need to do to obtain the blessings. So I made two columns: action and blessing. I made soooo many more connections and learned a ton about my patriarchal blessing. You should all try it. :)

Funny: So Sister Henshaw and I both woke up sick one morning, so we laid in bed for an hour or so. Then our cellphone rang and it was President Andaya!! Turns out he just wanted to talk to someone else in our apartment, haha. We were both like, "Really?! the one day we sleep in?" We had a good laugh.

Sorry this week's letter is sooo short. I'm still sick so I don't feel like typing much, haha.

Scripture of the week: Alma 27:10

Hymn of the Week: 145

LOVE YOU ALLL!