Shortly after committing a federal crime, we received a text from the mission president's wife, warning us of a hurricane that would be coming in shortly. Her words were, "I hope the storm's not as bad as they say it will be. Hopefully everybody just gets refreshed."
We definitely got refreshed. From our heads to our toes. It took 2 days for that refreshment to dry out of my shoes and refreshed a tie that, fortunately, I didn't like that much anyways. I LOVE the rain, and therefore loved every second of it.
But yes, I can now say that I've been in a hurricane. Hurricane Max hit the Guerrero coast on Thursday in the afternoon, but it was a pretty wimpy hurricane and really just felt like another rainstorm. Our presidente made us stay in as a precaution because it's a "bad idea to proselyte in a hurricane." We got the area book perfectly organized, called like 20 investigators that didn't answer us or return our calls, and I gained like 10 pounds because when you have nothing to do, you get hungry. Yet another natural disaster that doesn't make for any cool mission stories. Sorry folks.
However, Hurricane Max hit SUPER hard in a city about an hour and half southeast of us called Marquelia. The amazing thing is that two weeks ago, due to lack of missionaries in the mission, Marquelia was left without missionaries. Many people were left without food or water, and Marquelia is a very remote town. So Presidente y Hermana Ávila went, evaluated the needs, and arranged for food, water, and clothes to be sent to Marquelia. They called us and asked us to use our church building to be the gathering place for the food. We brought the food in, divided it to the individual families, and packaged it so it wouldn't get wet or broke open. It was such a good experience to be with Presidente y Hermana Ávila, helping those in need in whatever little way we could.
Yesterday, we got up bright and early at 5:00 to load all that food and supplies into a truck to go to Marquelia. I was tired. Missionaries don't usually have extra hours of sleep to donate, but the whole rest of the day, I just knew that my teeny bit of sacrifice was making a difference in the lives of people in a hard place, and I just felt so good the whole rest of the day.
Service does that. Christ spent His whole life serving others, making a difference in peoples' lives. Some acts of service were big miracles, others were words of kindness and encouragement. The ways we can serve others are limitless. But every time you do the smallest act of service, you share with someone else a piece of Christ's love. So... do service... and, ya.
On another, final, unrelated note, last year I passed the Mexican Independence Day in the MTC. It was crazy. It was loud. I was so excited to be part of it outside the wall. Well, you'll be interested to know that NOTHING HAPPENED. They like, didn't even celebrate. I was sorely disappointed.
Well, I hope everyone has a great week! I love all y'all!
-Elder Aldrich
PICTURES
1) It was 76 degrees when the storm came in so I got cold.
2) Hurricane Max, about to hit.
3) Food for Marquelia
4) 5:00 am servicing
5) P-day at the beach
