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