Typhoon Pedring and Typhoon Nalgae

As many of you heard and saw on the news back home, we have had typhoons again. Typhoon Pedring hit about a week ago. It is one of the largest typhoons they have had here in the Philippines in years with a span of 300 km (about 175 miles wide). We had lots of rain from it here at the mission office. (see pictures below) There were several trees uprooted and branched broken off of tress that we saw on our way to the Jubilee event last weekend. We had several of the missionary apartments that were flood, but all missionaries are safe and dry. There were many Filipinos who lost their homes. Many of these were those who lived close to the rivers and their homes washed away. I'm not sure how many members were affected.

Our mission president was on his way to Baler, which is on the east coast of the Philippines, last Saturday. They got over a bridge where the water was rising quickly and headed up the mountain only to be met by water flowing over the road. They turned around to go back, but when they got to the bridge, the water was going over it. So they were stranded in their car for 5 hours. When the Martinos arrived in July, Sister Martino felt impressed that each of the missionaries needed to have a 72 hour kit. She encouraged each missionary to get one. It was a prompting from our Heavenly Father, I am sure, because he knew that our missionaries would need it. Many missionaries had water and food to get them through this time. One group of missionaries had 1/2 cup of rice and a kit-kat bar between 4 missionaries. Branch members fed them after that was gone.

This was definitely a lesson in listening to promptings when we get them. No one had any idea that the typhoon would be as bad as it was. The stake president siad this was the worse one he has seen in 30 years. Other missions were hit much harder than ours was. There were several roads in our mission that were flooded and routes to different areas had to be changed. We had transfers last Thursday and several of the trainers coming in from those areas did not arrive at the mission home until after 1pm (they were supposed to be her by 10a).

The water covered the dirt where the plants are
next to the house ~ lower left corner

More of the flooding and water running down to the street.

The water running down the driveway into the street.
You can see how much water was in the gutter in the upper right corner.

A river of water in the backyard

You could almost use the water from the downspout for a shower!

Papayas that Jose cut off of the tree so that it didn't break.
(The Filipinos put the green papayas in different dishes that they make.)

A tree that was blown down during the typhoon.
The people cut it up and take it to use for firewood for cooking.

The sky after the rain had stopped . . . blue sky . . .
for a few minutes anyway!!

These guys are fixing the air conditioner
in the back yard while it is raining.
Thus the umbrella . . .
I know that our Heavenly Father was protecting us during these storms. I hadn't seen the wind blow here until these typhoons came through.
Now we are just hoping that the rain is going to stop for a while. . . .
but then again, it rained again today!!!