October 17, 2017

Typhoon Karen: We heard on Friday that a Level 3 (or 4) typhoon would hit the Baguio/Agoo area either on Saturday or Sunday, and that we should prepare our 72 hour kits and emergency lanterns so as to be ready. But we have no lantern, and we didn’t have money to buy one at that time; and we don’t have 72 hour kits, so we'd have to survive off the food in our house which was sufficient. The Typhoon actually hit at 5:30 am on Sunday, and peaked around 8. I hadn’t known what to expect, just that Sister Esplin said that last time there was a typhoon she had to stay in her house for 5 days. Luckily we just had Sunday to be locked indoors, but even then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon we went out to "check on the sisters" who live nearby, basically just to hangout :). There was a lot of wind and rain, so much that it was blowing in through our windows. A powerline went out, and some signs were brought down, but there wasn’t too much damage. I have a feeling this was a really tame 3, or we were not in the direct path. Probably the worst part about it was church got canceled so our investigators (we would have had 4) couldn’t attend. 

Answers to questions:

The Kalamafoni's sent their daughter a washboard, her name is Luhama and her companion is Sister Abrigo, serving in Philippines but idk which mission.  How do you do your laundry?  We have a member who we pay to do our laundry, its kind of expensive though, 300 pesos a week ($6). I have her do my wash every two weeks and just do a little handwash if I don’t have any clothes clean enough to wear.

What made you laugh this week? What made me laugh this week was remembering from the MTC when we were doing ”Wife readings”, similar in thought to patriarchal blessings, but not sacrilegious. Where Elder Schwab would predict your future spouse, her looks, her personality, your first date, and sometimes even relationship problems you'd have to work on.

Who is your favorite person you've met so far?  Favorite person, probably our MCM (Missionary coordination meeting) Leader, Brother Oliver, he's an RM (Return Missionary), probably 24, feeds us 2 times a week, and drives us around on his trike free of charge! I'll get a picture of him for next week.

What do you do with garbage? I heard they don't have garbage service???  Every quarter mile or so, depending on how densely populated the area is, there are garbage collection points. You just take your trash there in bags and it gets picked up regularly by city workers.

We had a zone conference on Tuesday, at which I was able to meet the other Elder Hennessey! I had heard of him and that I HAD to meet him before he went home. I was able to, it was almost like a blind date, with much anticipation. As we introduced and met each other we realized that we were probably related! Our families moved from (we think) Missouri to California during the Great Depression, his then to Utah, and my relatives up to Oregon. His parents are both converts as are mine. He leaves the mission in about 5 days, but is going to do family history to see if we actually are cousins that met while in the Philippines. Small World.  

I forgot to bring his contact info to the internet cafe but I'll give it to you next week and maybe you can talk to his parents for genealogy? Maybe Grandma Terry would love to search all that.

I'll try to remember more for next weeks email.