What a weekend!!

These past five days or so had some highlights and some lowlights. I think the reason that it was hard for me was because I had so many hopes and excitement going into the week. We had planned a trip to the beach with the kids again this Thursday and we were super excited (we were only ready with sunscreen that was more than spf 15); in addition, we were going to the Guatemala temple early Friday morning – Saturday night. We had to get special permission to go because normally the volunteers are not allowed to go to Guatemala but seeing as we were going with the stake they gave us permission. Let’s just say we were going into the week with high expectations. On Wed it started to rain and when I say rain I mean down pour. We just thought "hmmm maybe this is just one of those huge down pours that will only last an hour." That wasn't the case... Then on Wed all our hopes were dashed when they announced that the beach trip was postponed because of the tropical storm. I had no idea there was a tropical storm coming!! When I lived in Florida you knew and were tracking the storms that "might" hit like a week in advance; here they don't even know until it's hit us...so typical :) For those of you who don't know a tropical storm is one step down from a hurricane. Well I thought "no biggie it's just rain" after all my experiences with hurricanes I thought that this wasn't going to be very bad--I was wrong. What would have been a minor annoyance in the U.S turned into a national catastrophe (It sounded funny to me that they were calling it a "national emergency" but considering the size of El Salvador it really was a national emergency.) With El Salvador being such a poor place these little shacks were all demolished. The rivers also overflowed and caused a lot of damage. It was sad to watch the news! To put the nail in the coffin the internet went out on Wednesday night! I never knew how dependent I am on the internet until I lost it for so long. Mark was equally devastated. Thursday we did an activity where they created little bugs with close pins and they loved it.(I'll post pictures on our blog.) Then we got the news that we wouldn't be going to Guatemala for the temple trip because in addition to the tropical storm a volcano had erupted there!! Poor Guatemaltecos as if having the brunt of the storm hit there wasn't enough! We were pretty sad about that but hopefully we'll be able to go later. Then on Friday and Saturday the kids weren't allowed to go out because the nuns didn't want them to get sick. So we were stuck in our little casita. I at least was able to finish two books during those couple days. After finishing the first book I asked Mark how long it had been since he'd read a novel and he couldn't remember. He said he just never has time so I told him of many quotes of general authorities and prophets that talk about the importance of reading books and that now was as good of time as any. So he took my challenge and sat down to read Wednesday Letters. It was such a good book that I thoroughly enjoyed so I figured it would be a good start for him. I truly believe that was the high of our weekend, getting Mark to read a novel. Not only that but HE LIKED IT!! Church was an adventure in itself. We called the bishop Saturday night to see if there would still be church and he told us yes, so….. we walked in the pouring rain to church. Luckily some falling apart little pick-up truck invited us to sit in the back on the sides and then dropped us off to church but I don’t think it left me any less drenched because it was raining so hard and water was splashing on us. We both got to the chapel with water dripping from us everywhere. Mark told me that we should start hitching rides with these dumpy little pickup trucks everywhere we go because he said, “ I bet we could pay them 10 cents and save money (the bus fare being 20 cents!!!)” I told him that his cheapness was going a little far if he was willing to put our lives in danger for 10 cents saved. Church was pretty cool but interesting because after starting 40 min late there was only 10 of us! Finally by the end about 15 more people showed up. The rain had started to dissipate by the time we were to walk home so it wasn’t that bad. Then we read some more and prayed some more that the internet would come back on…to no avail. Luckily we were able to play with the kids last night which helped a little of my cabin fever. This morning we woke up to the biggest blessing ever THE INTERNET WAS BACK. One of the definite tender mercies of the Lord while I’ve been here is that although the internet has gone out quite a bit, every time I need it to work to turn in an assignment for my class it’s worked! Just a little blessing of God letting me know he’s there. We love you all and miss you!