Sister Tuttle Jamaica, Kingston Mission: August 31, 2015

Brethren and Sistren,

SOOOOO tempting!!

Are you all sick and tired of hearing about all the excitement that has been happening in the Bahamas?? I hope not because there is still more to hear.

This week the excitement started on Wednesday when our zone leaders (located in Freeport) told us there was a hurricane headed straight for us. Oh. My. Goodness. Let me tell you the instructions we received:
7 days of food (where I am supposed to get money to buy a weeks worth of food during the last few days of the month....seriously?? I am a poor missionary)
15 gallons of water per person (we can't drink the tap water in Nassau (the septic tanks are too close to the water tanks) We only had 15 gallons of water for the whole house, so that was a problem.
An evacuation plan incase our house flooded.
Charged phones (I charged my camera too... you never know when the opportunity to take pictures will arise)
Important documents in Ziploc baggies
48 hour kits. Perferably in 5 gallon buckets for easy transportation.
Full gas tanks
When we received the instructions I kind of felt like one of the foolish virgins. We had absolutely nothing prepared. We spent the next few days frantically running around. While in different shops we would ask people if they were worried about the hurricane. I think we ran into one person who said they were actually preparing for the storm.

28 packs of ramen. I guess they will just sit in our cupboard until a real storm comes

Our zone leaders called us Saturday morning to tell us the hurricane watch started that afternoon. It was hard to take them seriously. I mean, it was sunny and bright as ever! Everyone kept saying it was the warm before the storm. To be honest, I got my hopes up. It's not like I wanted a terrible, destructive hurricane to hit the island. I just wanted some wind and rain that would put the power out for a day or two. I guess the prayers that it wouldn't happen outweighed the prayers that it would happen because we hardly got any storm. Saturday evening we were out walking and finding people to teach and out of no where the rain starts pouring! We ran in the sheets of rain back to our car and drove home for what we thought would be the night. By the time we got home the clouds had passed the sky was clear. We changed our clothes and went back out. We were really blessed though because apparently the storm hit the DR pretty hard. We are praying for them.

Rainy days in the Bahamas

Everyone kept telling us that the storms would last until Monday, but thankfully the sun is ripe as ever. I feel really grateful. I started praying from last week that I would have good weather for my birthday. Speaking of my birthday, I was floured this morning. I set myself up for it though. I walked outside to check the weather and the sisters pounded me with handfuls of powder. I didn't retaliate. I couldn't bother with the cleaning on my birthday. The other sisters made me breakfast (pancakes... my favorite!!) and we have big plans for the rest of the day! I will send pictures of our adventures next week.

Birthday breakfast

Have any of you seen Freetown. If not, you need to watch it. And then watch it again. Mom and dad, do you remember my senior year when I wrote the essay on Blood Diamonds. Ya well the movie is about the same stuff so I felt a deep connection.

Other than that everything is so completely normal. Well, besides the fact that there are two more hurricanes that could potentially head this way. I am not going to get worked up about it. Every ting good mon.

I hope you all enjoy my day of birth! I love you!!
Love,
Sister Tuttle
nuff love.
Big up yo self.
xoxoxoxo