So I don't know if this is on the news in the U.S., but we've had a pretty big deal flood here in the Philippines. I've had the privilege of walking in waist-deep-diaper-and-who-knows-what-else water. Yay! But we were really blessed in my area because our apartment wasn't flooded unlike a lot of other missionaries who had to evacuate. The water's going down in most areas, but one of our areas has an estimation of October before the water goes down because it has nowhere to go. The Pasig River is full... So there's about 15 families living at our chapel right now, and Sister Daclan and I are there almost every night serving food. We passed out relief goods for two days to others that decided to stay home. (that's where we've encountered the really deep dirty water :) In spite of the disaster we've still been able to teach and we've had some great lessons. One of our member families who is staying at the chapel came with their non-member siblings and their families, and they're really sincere about learning the gospel. We've taught them three times, and one of them asked the golden question "How do you become a member?"
Tapos... A lot of our less actives are staying at the church so we've been able to teach them, and they were able to attend sacrament meeting. But we also had some of our other less actives, who have to walk in knee-high water and pay a lot more for their tricycles, still come to church. They're acting on their faith! It's wonderful to see. We have other less actives that we haven't taught for a while because they're always busy with work, but because they're living at the church, we've had the opportunity to visit with them when they're not at work.
So we've still seen blessings in the midst of this trial, and the bishop of our ward mentioned how there is a reason for this flood. It's a reminder to repent. Actually, in our weekly e-mail, our mission president said how maybe we're starting to understand just a little bit the feeling of the people at the time of Noah. Ha... Not to mention we sang that Primary song mentioned in my subject line several times before the flood happened... For those of you who don't know that song here is a summary of the lyrics found in 3 Nephi verses 24-27: "Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock— And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it." And then in Helaman chapter 5 verse 12 we find the meaning of that rock... "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." I always like to point out something here that I learned in a Sunday School class, it says when not if. The devil will send forth temptations, and Heavenly Father will give us trials, but if we are prepared and are following the gospel that Heavenly Father has given through His Son, Jesus Christ, we won't be dragged down. We can make it through our trials with a smile on our face and a strengthened testimony. And we can overcome temptation without giving in.
Mahal ko kayo,
Sister Cope
P.S. Tagalog word of the week: baha. That's flood. It's fun because the word for wet is very similar.. basa. But if you conjugate it or pronounce it wrong it means to read ;)
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