Sunday, April 27, 2014

Week 88 - April 21, 2014 - Earthquake!

This week has been a crazy week. So last Monday we had to travel about 3 hours to get to the conferenhce we were going to have with President Camarillo. Well about an hour in to the trip we heard a loud explosion and one of the tires exploded. The bus was going to pull over but it was only a one lane freeway and there were lots of cars behind us. About 5 minutes later he decided he was just going to maintain the very slow rate he was going and that we were going to drive all the way to the stake center. The three hour trip ended up taking about 5. We got there late but President understood.

Friday morning as Elder Aviles and I were studying together we started feeling a shaking sensation. A couple seconds later I realized what was happening. An earthquake was taking place. And just as I practiced the emergency drills in Elementary school, I ensured our safety! haha. We both got on our hands and knees under our desk and watched as everything started falling. Pieces of our ceiling started to fall, along with pretty much everything that was on my desk. After about 3 minutes of pure shaking, we left the house to go see if everyone was okay. Everyone was running around in the streets like crazy people. Some were screaming, others were crying. I felt like I was in a movie. Many houses here in our area were ripped and torn to the ground. It is so sad to see that so many people have lost their houses and the rain is about to come. 

So this weekend Elder Aviles and I just pretty much did service the entire time. We helped a family take the fallen tree off of their roof, along with many other things. It has been a pretty big disaster. This is the biggest earthquake to ever hit here. The last big one they had was in 1985. There are still little earthquakes but the one on Friday was HUGE!!  The epi-center was here in Petatlan (part of our area) so the earthquake hit the hardest here than anywhere else. It was measured at I think like 7.5, which is pretty strong! This week the branch will be doing a couple service projects for some of the less active members to help them reconstruct their homes! Pretty sad to see this happen, especially to these people who don't have much!

Yesterday as I was sitting taking the sacrament, one of the boys handed me a note that the branch president gave him. As I opened it up, I read ¨Elder Payne, could you help us by giving the second talk- you pick the topic. 15 minutes.¨ haha so I gave a talk on the importance of Easter. It went pretty well. After sacrament ended we noticed that there were no teachers for primary. The branch President asked if I would teach- TWO HOURS!!! Man I had a headache. None of them would listen. It was the primary and the nursery combined. I mean there were only like 12 kids in total but still...!!!!

Things are getting better here each day. This past month of April has kind of been a tough month here but we are hoping to see lots of success here in May. Yesterday we had 74 people at church. Elder Aviles said that is they most they have had all year. So we are going to try and get to 100 next month!! Things are going great and I am still sweating like crazy, but just enjoying it a little more. 

Thanks for all the love and support!! Have a great week!!! I love you all!!!

Elder Payne

Ps- Can't believe I only have 10 weeks left!! The time has gone by so fast. I have now been a missionary for 91 weeks!!!!

My new companion
I think it's time to repair my shoes!  I'm determined to finish with this pair! haha
A very standard bar... with two horses in front haha
Just chill in on a pile of coconuts... no big deal
The coconut field, cows, and palm trees
Playing "Simon Says" in primary... the kids were too hyper to listen to a spiritual lesson haha 
Two cute little brothers in primary
As you can tell the kids were very interested in my lesson... look closely at every kid in this picture hahahahaha 
That is our mansion.  That whole building is our house... and that is me laying in my hammock haha
The view from our porch where I lay on my hammock

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