Mormon helping hands unloading food from trucks

Cyclone Part 7

Sunday March 22nd, 2015 We went to church this morning at the district center and two branches that go to church in Nambatu.  We went to church with the 2nd branch and it was awesome!  It was a lot like back home, they even had an organ to play the hymns!  Everything was done by the members.  I've been in the bush too long!  The AP's had to drop a missionary off at the airport so they told us to go to sacrament meeting with the other branch as well.  After church the AP's came back and we went on splits and we all visited members and shared scriptures with them.  Then we met back at the house at 6pm.

Monday March 23rd, 2015 This morning we flew to Tanna with the district president and John Bennion who looks over the church buildings and shipments here.  We all flew there and everything was so dry!  Nothing green at all.  It looked a lot worse than when we left Tanna.  The phone network was still out.  A transport brought us into town and we went to the market and luckily found three of the branch presidents and the district president there.  Also the unit leader was there with his truck so he took us all to the whitegrass chapel and we all met together. 

Each president discussed the needs of the people.  Everyone in Tanna is struggling.  Water, food, and clothing was all needed.  The church will probably help them out by sending seeds, gardening tools, tarps, and tents to help keep them going.  We met with all of them and then went to greenhill wo we could see the branch president there.  The churches structure sat on two meter long posts in the ground and when the cyclone hit, the wind blew the church over and the posts tipped over and the church lay flat on the ground about ten feet over from where it used to be.  It hit the missionary house but just did minor damage.  They will probably just re-build the church there.

 It got late and we got dropped off at the whitegrass resort, but on our way we stopped by whitegrass church first and and everyone was cooking food for the afternoon.  Sadly enough we found out that they only had enough food for one meal a day.  Just boiled bananas or manyoke and it's starting to go bad.  Their food will probably only last a couple more weeds before it's all gone.  We had some extra food that we gave them to eat.  We then got to the whitegrass resort. This is where Pres Brewer stays and surprisingly they were still running and had a few rooms available.  We stayed in bush huts that were very nice inside like a hotel.  I haven't slept in a nicer room than that since before my mission. 

We ate crackers, and tin meat for dinner because the resort was low on food.  We flew back to Tanna Tuesday morning where we learned how the mission would be down sized.  Afterwards me and Elder Pearce split up and now I'm staying with good ol' Elder Leva, Elder Mastin, Elder Manu, and Elder D.

Well this is about all that happened with our experience with the cyclone.  Crazy huh?  Everyone is all right and I know the Lord has protected us.  He has a special plan for Vanuatu, especially Efate and Tanna.  Great blessings will be seen and received, and in the future as well.  I hope this paints a good picture of my experience.  Mi luvam tumas!
 

The church organizing food for the people

Love, Elda Beynon