The wet season

One sleepless night with a thunderstorm raging outside, I went to the living room window to watch the lightning. I got halfway to the window and realized that I was walking or slipping in water. I turned on a light and saw a stream of water coming out of an electrical outlet on the wall. I hated to wake Mark, but when one suffers we all must suffer right? We mopped from midnight to 4:00 a.m.

This was the second "flood" we have had. The first time was when an AC unit clogged up and drained into the house. This flood was caused when rainwater overwhelmed the draining system in the flower boxes around our apartment. The rain came again the next day, and another flood to clean up. The third day it started again, so I got out the little shovel Mark bought and started digging into the beds that surround the apartment and started bailing water over the edge of the planter box down to a "patio" below. We were able to slow the flow and rest our backs from the bending. The building where we live is part apartments, level three to ten, and the first three floors are occupied by USAID. The building was constructed thirty years ago or more and the system of draining these flowerbeds worked, but as the roots have grown and clogged the holes they don't work as planned. Well I created holes deep enough to act as catch basins. So far so good.

Catch basin in flower bed just outside living room window

Bailing out the catch basin

A few days later, we had plumbing problems, so workers came in and "fixed" it so it does not work at all and the promised fix has yet to be completed. We do have a second toilet so we still have facilities. Then the tub faucet sprung a leak, so we called the mission office (they have jurisdiction over apartments) and scheduled someone to come and check it out. Didn't come when they said, so we went to the office. Some water was then leaking but it went into the tub, not to worry. Wrong assumption. When we returned at 4:30 pm the whole apartment was flooded with at least an inch of water from the front door to the back corner. We started the task of cleaning this up after trying to turn off the water into the apartment, finally finding the right valve. Elder and Sister Bybee stopped by to get drinking water and ended up spending an hour helping us mop up. Elder Bybee found the best tool was a dustpan. Thank heaven for good people like the Bybees. The Super, a local, got involved when a man that lives just below our apartment complained about water covering his living room floor. Next day repairs were made and all is dry.

The church General Conference was another great time; we were able to use a wireless modem, a projector, and a wireless speaker to host the couples for conference sessions. We were able to watch four sessions live streaming and the priesthood at 6:00 am Sunday, thus Sunday started at 6:00 am and ended at 11:00 pm, well worth it. We also attended three hours of church between Priesthood Session and Sunday Morning broadcast. Great day.

iPad and nano projector with conference image on the wall

Sister Cook asked the senior sisters to help her with a Sister Missionary Conference. Each sister gave a talk; my topic was getting along with your companion. Sister Cook instructed the sisters about the use of sacred funds among other things and gave each sister an apron she had made. The sisters wanted their picture with the aprons and they wanted to pose with Elder Smith and Elder Bybee who were wearing their wives’ aprons to emphasize that men do household work alongside their spouse and children.

Presenters Sis. Sneddon, Sis. Bybee, Missionary Training Ldr., Sis. Smith, Sis. Johnson, Sis. Cook