E-mail Dec. 14, 2015: "El Ninyo"

We're in the middle of December with two weeks left until Christmas. It's not that I'm expecting to get 6 inches of snow or anything, but is it too much to ask for a little bit cooler temperatures? I shouldn't complain too much though. A few weeks ago it was starting to cool down a little bit, but then we were hit with "El Ninyo". El Ninyo is a strange phenomenon in the Philippines where once every four years at the beginning of December the weather becomes inexplicably hot and humid. Right now we should be experiencing cool breezes and winter air, but these last several days the weather has hovered between 90-100 degrees all day every single day. On top of that our power went out one day and none of our fans were working. Although I hate to admit it, we got very little done that day. Oh well, on the bright side we have an easy way to start conversations with people on the street now.

"Hello brother! Wow, it's hot today isn't it?"
"Yes, it's so hot, I almost can't take it."
"Well brother if you don't repent and start following Jesus Christ, it's going to get a lot hotter than this."

...Elder Thacker doesn't really like that idea. We'll have to see how well it works though.

Yesterday at church we were expecting many less actives and many investigators to attend. We've been doing all we can for them by visiting as often as we can and even picking them up for church sometimes. As fate would have it though sacrament meeting started and we didn't have a single investigator there. Even our less actives who would have been counted as "returned" had they attended today didn't show up. We were both feeling pretty down during the meeting when low and behold, with 10 minutes of the meeting remaining, Tatay Vic came hobbling up the front walk. We rushed out to meet him and as we walked him inside the eyes of the whole congregation were on us. With triumph and satisfaction on our faces we sat down next to him and couldn't help but smile to ourselves that once again the Lord was working miracles through good ol' Tatay. I'll include a picture of him next week. :)

Anyways everyone until next time, Stay Strong and Rock On. :)

-Elder Clouds