I am alive and well. Southern
Alabama missed the full power and fury of Hurricane Irma. Portions of my
mission, namely Tallahassee are right now taking the storm head on. Many of our
missionaries have been evacuated to safer areas within the mission to wait out
the storm. Our great Mission President has kept us up to date on all the
changes in Irma and has done a great job at keeping us informed and safe. We in
the Florida Tallahassee Mission have been very lucky and so has much of
Florida. This could have been a much worse disaster. We are heartbroken when we
see the footage that is coming from the Atlantic islands, Bahamas, Cuba, the
Virgin Islands, Antigua, and the others. They were not prepared and the storm
too strong. The storm could have been much worse for Florida. There is still
much danger to those in Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee. Governor
Scott of Florida has done a great job with his preparations for his state. He
has been pleading with people to flee. Evacuate and come back when it is safe.
So many people made the wise choice to leave. Here in Alabama we have seen
bumper to bumper Florida licence plates of people heading to safety. There is
no gas or supplies left in Tallahassee, prices here shot up 60 cents over the
week.
Through the storm we have
seen the best come out in people as they made their preparations and are
helping one another survive. I am so thankful to have the gospel in my life and
during times like this I am very thankful for the church in my life. The church
stepped up and was one of the first to show up and help in Houston, Texas. The
church took change in leading the preparations to brace for impact of Hurricane
Irma. Local leaders gave direction of what to do, what to gather, where to be,
and where to evacuated to, who to see, and what to do when you get there. All
the plans were made to ensure the well being of so many people and to make it
as comfortable as possible. So many people left Florida and had no idea what to
take, where to go, or what to do. We have been in close contact with local
priesthood leaders to answer all of those question. Now we wait out the storm
then we await orders as the clean up begins.
The week for us has been
super busy and a tad stressful. There was a large list of things we had to get
done here in Daphne and the stress and worry about the storm only added to the
already heavy workload.
Tuesday, the amount of alarm
in the area heightened. The storm was not going to go up the east coast and was
heading west. It looked as if it would direct towards Florida or even enter
into the Gulf of Mexico. People along the Gulf Coast began to worry. Our
mission president, wisely advised to take the time early on to go and get
supplies, particularly water and fuel. We went to Sam's Club as they wheeled
out the last pallets of water in stock. Buy a few cases. Reports came to us
from other missionaries in our area that all the stores were sold out of water
for miles in all directions. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey all the supplies
in the south were shipped west to aid in Harvey relief efforts. We have a
connection with the regional manager of Publix supermarkets. The ten stores in
this area sold $1million of supplies on tuesday alone, let alone the other
1,200 stores back in Florida. We were very luck to get the order to buy
supplies when we did as water and gas became very difficult to find.
Also on Tuesday, we did a ton
of service. We helped a family move out their house to a place luckily as it
were more inland. They were very grateful for our help. Immediately from that
move we went on to do yard work for a family for the remainder of the day. Lots
and lots of lifting and labor on Tuesday.
Wednesday was again very
busy. I drove across the bay into Mobile to give a baptismal interview to a man
that was prepared to be baptized. He told me about his life and his struggle
leading up to this time. He has overcome so many hardships and adversity. For
years he lived homeless in Mobile, but with faith and trust in God he found
work and got an apartment, he cleaned up his life. Now he has to return the
favor back to God. He sought for God in his life. He church shopped for years
with no luck. Nowhere felt like home. That was until he met the missionaries
and he attend a Latter-Day Saint service. He told me he knew this was home the
moment he walked in the doors. He story warmed my heart.
The rest of the day we were
on the run, we had a series of appointments and chores to get done. We have
such great people here in Daphne and I am so lucky to get to work with them. We
had a fun time as we even taught a lesson to the young men in our ward. They
are a fun and great group. In the evening we loaded up our car and headed east
to Navarre, Florida. We had a meeting in the morning and went that far to save
time.
Thursday morning we left
Navarre and went to Crestview, Florida for Mission Leadership Council meeting.
I look forward to this meeting each month. The members are among the best
missionaries in our mission, outstanding individuals. We covered a range of
topics about leadership and how to be as effective as we can with our time. We
focused on how leaders are to serve those they called to watch over and see
that their needs are met. We talked about how important proper goal setting was
and making the plans to obtain our goals. We can set goals as high as we can
imagine and if we plan effectively and make the necessary compartmentalized
goals we can reach our ultimate goals. The meeting was very edifying and
uplifting. That night we made our way back to Alabama. We had a few special
chores to take of along the way. One of which was delivering a car to the
sister missionaries in Pensacola, Florida. To make it was as efficiently as
possible, Elder Southway and I drove separately. It was a 30 minute drive, this
was the first time I have been alone in 10 months! It felt so odd. I was glad
to be sharing a car after the delivery was made.
Friday we made many
preparations for a variety of things. In the morning we helped a woman prepare
her home for the off chance Irma made a turn west. We battened down the hatches
and cleaned up the yard, removing possible flying projectiles.
The evening we set up for
Zone Conference taking place in the morning. We were short on tables and other
supplies but we managed to make it work. At 8:30 the mission president called
and told us he was combining our zone conferences so they could better prepare
for the possibility of storms this week. We had just finished setting up and
had already stretched our resources thin. We made it happen. It took some
ingenuity and some figuring but we made it work. We finished at 9:30 and swung
by the president's hotel to pick some things up at 9:40.
Saturday was the day of the
multi-zone super conference. Everything was a huge success. After we finally
got the caterer to double our lunch order to feed the total of 60 people it was
all down hill. President Smith gave us great council and guidance as we Press
Forward in the FTM! It was fun to be with such a large group of great missionaries.
There were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of but all went off
without a hitch!
Sunday was a very restful day
after a week of stresses. We held an urgent mission-wide conference call to
talk about our plan of action once it was known that Irma was coming for
Tallahassee. Plans were made and put into effect. Everyone is safe and sound.
Church was great. The ward was very concerned about what could be done to help
the people of Texas and Florida.
After church we had a few
meal appointments to attend and then enjoyed the Elder David A. Bednar
Devotional to Young Adults. It was great. Elder Bednar spoke about the chains
that link our families together over the generations and we need to do all we
can to be strong links in the chain. Our decisions today have profound effects
on our children and our children's children. A choice today can affect hundreds
if not thousands of our very own posterity. (https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/worldwide-devotional-sep/2017/09?cid=HP_SA_10-9-2017_dSI_fBCAST_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng)
I reccomend watching!
This was a stressful week.But
has been a lot of fun! Many ups and downs and uncertainty. One thing I
know for certain, God loves us. He is always with us. He is watching over us
and protecting us, supporting us one moment to the next. I know that Jesus
Christ is our Savior and He has overcome the world. He can and will help us.
Have a great week yall! I
love you and be safe during these crazy times! Thank you for all the Love,
support and prayers!
Love, Elder Graham
--
Elder Graham
forgot my name tag at home so I had to
make one hahahha
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