REJOICE EVERMORE

I just heard from Brandon!!!  I am SO HAPPY!!!  He didn’t have a lot of time, but I will pass on what he wrote and then add the additional things he said as we emailed  back and forth for a few minutes:

Mom!!!

I'm so sorry I wasn't able to email on Monday!!! We had a typhoon last Friday night that wiped out all the power in Nueva Ecija, which is like from Bountiful to Provo, and so we didn't have power until two nights ago. On Monday there was no power for a hundred miles in any direction. It was quite an adventure!

We just got authorization from the president to send a quick email to our families under the discretion of the zone leaders. So I'm fine! Some of our food went bad, and it was really hot in our apartment, but I'm good! In fact I learned a lot from the experience. I learned not to count what you don't have, but count what you do! So I'm ok, I'm fine, no problems here! So yeah.

 The work is going forward. This is my last week with Elder Lungay, which is crazy. Anyways, I don't have a ton of time. I love you so much and everything's fine here!

A simple awesome scripture that sums up how I've tried to deal with no power: 1 Thessalonians 5:16—REJOICE EVERMORE.

Love you!

 --Elder Christensen

And now for the answers to my questions:

….I'm alive!!! Hahaha- we had a killer typhoon that knocked out the power!!!

….I'm doing just fine! Great, actually.  Our water and power has been on and off the past couple of days, but it's getting steadier now! Without power...dark! Ha--I relied heavily on that flashlight you gave me. Actually around 8 o’clock it gets bright because that's when the moon comes out and it’s pretty full now. We've been able to teach a couple times by moonlight! Kinda cool! 

How are you? I hope you didn't worry that much. I've been praying for you that you would not worry too much.

….We’ve done a little bit of service.  Our area didn't get hit as hard actually-- some rice plants got damaged and some signs got blown away, but everything else is good!

…. I promise I won't miss (emailing you) if I can help it. I'm so sorry, Mom.  I didn't mean to make you worry. Just always know that I'm safe. I am called and protected by God. And I can survive here, even without water and electricity as I found out! And it has not affected the work at all, thank goodness!

In response to asking him if he’d been able to see conference yet:  ....I have not still! Get this, we had a generator at the stake center, but it overheated twice! So I've seen 2.5 hours of conference out of the 10 that I wanted to watch! We're going to download the talks sometime and watch them at our apartment.

Hahaha-- I love you guys! Well, l I have to get going. I still have language study! Then out to work! Or in Tagalog: Aalis po ako, kasi may aral na lingua pa rin! Mahal ko kayo talaga!

‘Til Monday!  I love you!  Bye!