Well all of you are probably wondering why I am emailing on a Tuesday instead of a Monday. Well the answer to the question resides in the subject of this email.

 

Yesturday we recieved a text message at 6:20 AM that read, "Emergency Evacuation. Please make your way to the safe haven as quickly as possible. Follow the evacuation proceedure." Yep, Hurricane Season has begun.

 

We then proceeded to move everything to rooms with no windows and move all the food into the freezer which was then put on the highest setting. We packed a bag with a bunch of clothes (dresses and service clothes), we grabbed water, we got our 72 hour kits, and hit the road.

 

Now nobody has to worry. hah We got to the safe haven (which was the church) and we were informed it was just a drill. :P hah Believe me, Sister Howard and I did not have any idea it was only a drill. In fact, we were all thinking we would have to stay at the church for days and blah blah. Haha, Looking back, I don't know why we didn't figure it out when we called the bishop and he said, "Well have fun!" (Yes, the evacuation paper said we needed to call the bishop) haha Or maybe we should have figured it out when nobody else outside seemed to be worried in the slightest. Every one was just going about regular life.. Or maybe we should have figured it out when we got to the church and the young women were leaving for Girls Camp.... but nope. We had no idea until we were standing in front of Elder Nielson and he said "If this were a real evacuation.... "  hah duh.

 

Despite all of that you will be proud to know I didn't really feel scared. I knew everything would work out how it was suppose to work out.

 

So actually the real reason I am emailing on Tuesday is because we got our P-day moved this week so we could go to the temple!!!! Yes! We went to the temple this morning with the Kroskop family in our ward! The Houston Temple is gorgeous! The windows are filled with tinted glass. Pink, green, blue, and yellow!! It was just wonderful we loved every second of it. :)

 

This past week was filled with miracles at every turn.

 

Early in the week we had an appointment fall through and so we were trying to pick which person to go see next. We were not entirely sure and so we said a short prayer and right afterward I had the name "Akon" go screaming through my mind. Akon is a guy who we just happened to talk to the week before because he was a neighbor of one our our investigators. Acting on the impression we went over to his house. We ended up giving him the first lesson and I have never seen anyone so excited to recieve knowledge about the Book of Mormon. He was elated at the thought that there was actually another book of scripture to help us in our lives. That was just incredible.

 

Also this last week we had a myterious phone call. It turns out a guy found a card on the ground that had our number on it. The called it because he wanted to learn more about Mormons. He had spoken to a guy on a plane about it and was really interested!! hah! We set up a church tour and he is probably going to be baptized in a couple weeks!

 

I can't even express how much I love this work. I am so priviledged to even get to help people! I know that if the Lord wanted to he could do his own work. He just lets us participate because it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I wish that people could see how happy this gospel makes me. I wish everyone could understand how much their Father in Heaven loves them. Never before have a felt so much love for people. It is because I really understand that all of us are brothers and sisters and we are all on the same team!

 

Sister Howard and I are doing our best to "Keep giving em Heaven" here in Texas. I know that this gospel truely is the only way by which we can live with our Heavenly Father forever. He loves us. He gave us happiness. He gave us the way to Him! I can't say how grateful I am.

 

Eu amo voces!

Sister Earl