This week has probably been the longest month of my life. Sorry, this email is gonna be a long one.
Allow me to take it back to last Monday - after walking out of the church building when p day ended, there was randomly streaks of smoke in the sky. We didn' think too much of it, until Tuesday morning we woke up to a PITCH BLACK sky. It literally was dark all morning until noon, which was unusual and eerie. It was like we went to bed and Oregon caught on fire overnight.
We started hearing about the fires in Marion County (I'm living in Monmouth Oregon in Polk County, so that is just East of here). Suddenly, we got a call to literally pack everything in case we had to evacuate.
We spent a lot of Tuesday packing. In the middle of packing we actually got a call that we didn't need to pack yet - Monmouth is located in a safe area and wasn't under an evacuation warning, so it was a false alarm/miscommunication. We were already halfway done packing anyway so we just finished anyways.
On Wednesday we got a call telling us that the four sisters in Lincoln City had to evacuate because of the Echo Mountain Complex fire and they were coming to live with us! It then became a blessing that we already packed because it was easier to make room for them to live here. (This apartment usually has 4 sisters and now there were 7.)
After two nights, two of the sisters went to stay with other sisters Dallas because it was pretty packed. So now there are 5 of us living here.
We had permission to go grocery shopping Thursday night. This ALSO turned out to be a blessing because the next morning we got word that we can't leave our apartment due to the bad air quality. Apparently this came from the First Presidency (whom our mission president has to report to daily about the situation here). So I haven't stepped outside in 4 days. We also can't turn on the AC so that's fun (thank heavens for fans).
Right now the air quality index is about 397 which is hazardous and yesterday the highest we saw was 455. It kinda feels like being quarantined from the coronavirus, except worse because the air outside wants to attack my lungs. We aren't supposed to leave unless we have this fancy mask that sounds like the name of a gun (the N95 with two straps that go around the head and no air filter to be specific) and a member gave us a few yesterday.
The fires are all very sad - the Lincoln City sisters have many ward members who lived in Otis and have lost everything. I'm worried about some of the people we are teaching who don't have succificent shelter and one of them has asthma.
But all is well! We have been doing a lot of teaching over technology (blessed that our phones have unlimited data because we have no wifi in our apartment) and I've been learning Español with the Lincoln City hermanas (one of them, Hermana Patten, was my STL in the MTC and I LOVE HER so much). I can now street contact and pray in Spanish and they keep threatening to tell president to switch me to Spanish.
Miracle! So of course right now we are on Facebook 24/7. A couple weeks ago Sister Goold and I sang this song about faith for our Facebook page that I wrote - well apparently they turned the video into an ad for the page. This guy who is from Monmouth but currently living on the East Coast IN A SAILBOAT saw the ad and messaged us about it! We reached out to him and he wanted to call us and explain how the song had touched him! So the three of us video called this man who was on a sailboat and he told us his Christain conversion story. Then he told us how the song applied to his situation perfectly right now. We set up another time to call and we are hoping to start teaching him about the restored gospel! Such a miracle!
Anyways today for P day our plans are to stay inside all day. It's going to be grand.
I know that this is God's work and "no unhalowed hand can stop the work from progressing". I'm grateful to be here to help others get through this and turn to Christ. Sometimes I feel like the longer my mission goes on the more bizarre it gets (I definitely would not have foreseen this happening a week ago but here I am) but I think it goes show the truthfulness of this scripture:
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12
I'll see if I can send pictures in another email. Love you all!
Sister Carlson
Or should we say Hermana Carlson?!?! Nope just kidding
