Almost Cyclone, Digging Holes, and First's - January 26, 2014

This week was an interesting one. By reading the subject line you can see that. 

Friday night we heard about a potential cyclone. In the beginning stages they called it a depression that was to hit a small island called Rapa, which is one of the furthest island in my little island group. They told us that Sunday night we should stay in our families and pray for ours and other's safety. No one seemed terribly worried out me but my companion and I flipped on the inside when we heard that. Saturday passed just fine, other than the killer heat. Sunday passed fine, but the same killer heat and today is the same. The cyclone didn't up hitting us and no one has really talked about it out here. They still seem shaken up from the cyclone that happened five years ago. Understandably. And in the end we didn't have any problems other than this killer heat. 

So, because the work out here is moving at the speed of a rocket...ha. We decided to take a day to give service. We chose two families, one active and one inactive and we decided to help them with the construction of their houses. The inactive family had us put tile joints in their shower and the active member (who showed up two hours later than expected) had us cover a hole. It was funny with the active member because he very quickly stated while we were shoveling that I am not one made for manual labor but more intellectual. He then asked my major and we were able to laugh about that. It reminded me of the t-shirt I made when I was younger, "I'm a thinker, not a swimmer." It holds true. 

The first's are many. It was the first time that I got to work putting in the tile joints. My companion had his first lessons in his first area. Today we did a surprise service project and I laid cement and built a cinder block wall for the first time. My companion decorated his first planner. 

All in all a good week. With some new references we'll see what the weeks ahead have in store. Also, mission president is coming down this weekend! Yay! I am excited and nervous. 

Well, love you all,

Elder Squires

We had to hammer out the bottoms of the cinder blocks. The Sister's were there as well.

Yeah, we wore reflective vests to our service project.

Beautiful sunset.