Sarah's August 30th email

Hello Family!

Sister Dixon, survivor of a giant hurricane reporting!

I'm afraid my dear friend Irene kept me from writing you yesterday. She also kept me from showering. Yuk! Last year at about this time, there was another huge hurricane (hurricane Earl) that we heard about that turned out to be nothing more than a drizzle. So naturally, I thought that Irene would be the same. However, when they told me that they were evacuating New York, I started to get nervous. The storm started late Saturday night and was over Sunday at noon. They canceled church, (which meant that Mike and Mary's baptism will have to be moved. grrr) and Sister Allen and I spent all of Sunday studying and playing rummicub (I won:). We tried to go out after the storm but found a giant tree had fallen across our driveway and we had to wait hours for someone to cut it up so we could get our car out. The power and water were out until this morning, so we've been roughing it with candles and water bottle baths. It was fun for the first day. We have been busy trying to make sure everyone is okay, and that no trees fell on anyone. So far, everyone is. Lots of the roads have just opened back up, and it seems as though everything is getting back to normal. so hooray!

Before the hurricane, Sister Allen got really sick and we stayed inside fro a couple of days, so that combined with the storm, you can imagine how sick of staying inside we are! We are both bursting to stay out all day, but on the good side, we have both caught up on any sleep we may have lost in the past three months.

We just now came from an appointment with a lady, Linda Duschene, we have been teaching since I got here. She is a sweetheart. She LOVES to talk! Last Wednesday we took her on a tour of the church so that she'd feel more comfortable going and to end the tour, we took her to the font (Which I have not seen yet) we told her: "Linda, this is where you will get baptized and where you'll promise God that you will always follow him. This is the place where all your sins can be washed clean." The spirit was strong, and as we opened the font, Linda looked in excitedly. It. Was. Filthy. There was rust and dirt caked inside and cobwebs strewn across the stairs, and in one corner there was a big black spider perched on his web, looking up at us in surprise. Sister Allen and I were mortified! "Don't worry, we'll clean it before your baptism" She says. "Yeah, we will be sure to get all of the old dried up sins out of there first." I say.

Luckily, Linda was sweet enough that she didn't mind. And it all ended up to be good. She told us that she would be baptized!

Take that Mr. Spider!

So anyway, that's about all on this end. I hope everything is going well over there! how is school going? Fall is in the air here! I'll be sure to take more pictures of the vibrant leaves this year.

Loves!
Sister Dixon