If You're Scared, Go to Church!

This afternoon we got a message on Facebook to call Elder Johnson.  They did not have internet access and were told to stay in their homes.  President Rios gave the missionaries permission to call home for a few minutes.  It was so great to hear his voice---for the third time this month!  (We have been spoiled!)  He is doing great and gave us a run down on the situation in Peru.  He didn't think he would be able to email until next week.  Then at 5:00 this evening, we received this email and pictures from him.

This week, Peru Trujillo South Mission became the newest Mormon Hands that Help squad.  We did straight up service all week.  This has honestly been one of the craziest weeks of my life.  I have seen and experienced some things that have really humbled me.  Trujillo, on average, gets about 1 to 3 cm of rain every year.  In the 13 months of my mission, I have seen it rain twice and if we were in Utah, it wouldn't even be considered rain.  It just sprinkles for 10 minutes and then it stops so whenever it's overcast or if it looks like it's going to rain, nobody gets fazed because nothing ever happens.  As a result, there is no drainage system here because there has never been a need for it in the past.  That came to a quick change on Tuesday.

Tuesday was a pretty crazy day.  To start out, after we ate lunch at the pension, there was a drive by shooting in front of pensionista's house.  Some guy got popped because he supposedly jacked a bunch of stuff.  It made me feel like a thug though because this white boy walks these streets every day!!  That was the start to this crazy week.  After all that went down, we left to proselyte and it was overcast and off and on rainy throughout the day.  We had a really busy day and we finished with our last lesson and got home at about 9:30 that night.  Usually when we get home, we talk to the owner of the house, Hermana Neyra, for a little bit.  While we were talking to her it started POURING!  In like 10 minutes, the road turned into a river and everyone's houses were flooding.  We were up until almost 11 helping Hermana Neyra push the water out of the house and cleaning everything up.

The next day we were going around to all of the members' and investigators' houses making sure that they were all good.  We helped them throw all of the water out of their houses and built barriers so that if it rained again, no water would get in the houses.  Supposedly, the news said that it was going to rain all week like it did on Tuesday, so everyone was rattled and panicking all week.  People were stealing stuff from the markets because everything got super expensive and it has just been super crazy, honestly.  I have never seen anything like this in my life.  Luckily, throughout the week, it didn't rain that much in the city, but in the mountains it has been raining non stop and rivers have overflown and have completely flooded the city of Trujillo.  Rivers and mudslides that are hours away from Trujillo have absolutely wrecked us all this week.  I actually had a pretty spiritual experience though.  There has been a bunch of water but it hasn't gotten in our house or anything.  I remember on Saturday, we finished our studies in the afternoon and we left to go proselyte.  We were about four blocks from our house and out of nowhere, I had an impression to call the Zone Leaders because they have money that they need to give my companion because we need to buy some food storage stuff and they were going to stay at their house and we were going to go over there to get the money.  They felt like they needed to come to our house to bring the money to us.  So, they told us to go back to the house and wait for them to get there.  At this point, we had no idea another river had overflown.  We were waiting for them and about five minutes after they got to our house, the water from the river got to our street.  It was more water than the other days.  If all four of us weren't at the house, Hermana Neyra's house and water tank would have gotten owned!  Luckily, we were about to push all of the water out and nothing happened.  I know we were guided by the Spirit so that we could be there to help Hermana Neyra.

Everything is pretty crazy here.  Supposedly, the mountains are still getting destroyed with rain so the rivers are going to continue to overflow until the 25th they have said.  They have cut the water from everyone because mud has gotten into the pipes and the water is contaminated.  Luckily, our house has a back up tank full of water so we should be good for about a week or two with water.  We have been instructed by the area that we won't be able to leave for a couple of days because it is too dangerous with all of these huaycos (mudslides).

That was my week!  Keep Peru in your prayers because the whole country is getting absolutely owned.  I know God protects His missionaries so I'm not worried about anything.  Mom, I know you are going to be worried about this situation, but the only thing I've gotta say is.....they don't call me Johnny Tsunami for no reason.  Everything will be fine.  I will keep all of you updated about what goes down this week.  I love you guys and pray that you all have a good week!

They helped to clean up this family's home

Elder Johnson