Weather advisory
Monday Dee woke up after being in bed about 11 hours overnight, but she still felt pretty bad. She tried to rally, but zonked out for a morning nap and decided to stay home, with my encouragement. She cancelled her dentist appointment (which would have been hard enough for her to get to, as you will see). While I was doing the dishes, I managed to find a spikey glass shard (we have no idea where it came from) in the sink which embedded itself deep into the tip of my index finger. I think that it actually hit the bone; it was very painful and there was a bunch of blood spurting out even though the hole was small. It took over an hour to stop bleeding, much of which was spent lying on the couch applying pressure and holding it above my body, as our mission nurse recommended. We would end up finding blood on several walls in the kitchen and bathroom from when I was first trying to clean it and stanch the bleeding. The finger would be quite painful all day, especially when I used my computer , but by the end of the day it was starting to feel somewhat better.
On Sunday evening I had ordered some USB-C cables and flash drives so they would arrive in time to give out to the young missionaries at our ward district meeting on Wednesday morning. Amazon promised Tuesday delivery, but they actually arrived the very next morning! Apparently there is a big warehouse nearby. We love Amazon.
There was a severe weather alert in effect, with high winds (30+ mph) and rain. The schools and universities here closed based on the forecast. I drove alone down to the Institute, and at one point saw a huge tree fall over about 100 yards in front of me. It blocked the main street that I was on, but fortunately I had Google Maps going just in case, so I took a small detour and arrived safely. I spent much of the afternoon working on my lessons for the coming weekend. To my delight, it turns out Ugo will be in town, so he can take his turn teaching Sunday School after me teaching for a month, making my week easier.
For much of the afternoon it wasn't clear how many kids would arrive. Some of the subways were closed due to flooding, and it was generally ugly outside. Dee urged me to cancel the activities for the evening and come home, which I considered. The wind was blowing hard and the rain was heavy. I was worried about him driving home in the dark, with potential tree failures in his path. But about 5pm kids started to show up, and we actually had a good showing. Maybe it was the school closings that allowed them to come. In addition, there was a zone leadership meeting for the young missionaries, so the place was really full all evening. Even before home evening (it was P-day), they were all playing games together. Sheyla and Jomar also put up some Halloween decorations around the place for our big festa on Wednesday.
For my FHE lesson, I did a recap of my talk from Sunday, since there was nobody present from our ward. We had a visitor, Joshua, an artist from the US, who is here as a volunteer doing final touchups on the temple murals this week. Very cool. My lesson went very well, especially telling the stories of some times recently when Dee and I have been moved by the Spirit to do something at just the right time, without knowing why beforehand. The kids were really with me, and Jomar shared a nice testimony, as he often does. We had a lot of fun together in the meeting. At the end I told the kids that I had spent all afternoon baking dessert, which I would serve now. They all looked amazed and excited, but then I said "Naah. I am just opening some boxes of storebought cookies!" They all laughed really hard.
Afterward the big group had a game of Cover Your Assets, with lots of excitement and fun. I excused myself early to go home and see how my wife was doing. They were all very concerned about her and told me to give her their best. Fortunately the winds had subsided by then, though it was raining hard, so the drive home was safe and easy. Dee was feeling a little better, but still not 100%. We hope she can make it to Taco Tuesday after a good night's rest.
My stomach was tender and my head hurt a lot. Even though I had a lot of time, I was only up to easy stuff at home. I really need some desk time when my brain is on full power. One thing I did was write to my friend Helen, whom I haven't communicated with in a long time. It was so fun to hear back from her. I miss her a lot.
