Dear Friends
and Neighbors:
We had severe flooding in the Philippines recently. There’s more flooding
than some foolish people may realize. There’s a flood of evil drowning
our Father’s children throughout the world.
As a holy and dear Prophet of God wrote, “Only the gospel will save the
world from the calamity of its own self-destruction. Only the gospel will
unite men of all races and nationalities in peace. Only the gospel will
bring joy, happiness, and salvation to the human family.” (–President Ezra Taft Benson, Preach My
Gospel, page 2).
The floods and tides of evil inundating the lives of the children of the earth
will be soon turned away by the Savior of the World.
You’ll be interested in Sister Taylor’s report of the Philippines Flood,
attached below.
George
& Debbie
Last week and last month the Philippines
experienced a major earth quake and severe flooding. Last year’s rains in the Philippines were not
as bad as this. The rain comes down, not
in drops but in buckets. In 2010, the
lower level of the former MTC was flooded.
“The overflowing
Marikina River in Marikina, Metro Manila, is seen in this aerial photograph
released by the Department of National Defense August 8, 2012. Emergency
workers and troops rushed food, water and clothes to nearly 850,000 people displaced
and marooned from deadly floods spawned by 11 straight days of southwest
monsoon rains that soaked the Philippine capital and nearby provinces. About 60
percent of Manila, a sprawling metropolis of about 12 million people, remained
inundated on Wednesday, Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster agency,
told Reuters.”
“A group of Philippine
farm workers huddle beneath a bridge to seek shelter from rains and rising
floodwaters north of Manila on August 8, 2012. More than a million people in
and around the Philippine capital battled deadly floods on August 8 as more
monsoon rain fell, with neck-deep waters trapping both slum dwellers and the
wealthy on rooftops.”
Here at our new MTC we
are secure, safe, and sheltered from the storm. For our last “batch” we wondered if we were
going to get the departing missionaries out to their fields and the new
missionaries into the MTC on August 9th and 11th. But the watery weather withered and all went
well. We even had a missionary show up the night before he was scheduled to
arrive.
The Quezon City Mission
in which area we reside, had 42 missionaries displaced and moved for a couple
of days to other missionary apartments or to the churches. The humanitarian
missionaries at the Area Office along with the youth from the local wards and
stakes have worked hard preparing hygiene, new born, and food kits. They put
together canned sardines, corned beef, rice, noodles and crackers. Over 10,000
kits were prepared. Our MTC missionaries
loaded the bags onto the trucks for distribution in between their training
sessions.
One of our missionary’s
home was washed away with everything in it just one week before she entered the
MTC. Her stake rallied the members to
provide her with clothing, shoes, and scriptures. We had a few other missionaries that arrived
without scriptures because they were lost or damaged in the flood.
Oh, how grateful I am
for the Lord, the gospel, the members, and all those who bless my life and the
lives of so many others.
Debra Sue Taylor
09-12-12
