Hello everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that I am safe and totally fine after Typhoon Haiyan passed through (which is called Yolanda here in the Philippines)! Since we are hundreds of miles to the north of the impacted area, it felt a lot like a warm winter storm from back home and that’s it!  Since we don’t watch TV and I don’t understand very much Tagalog anyway I did not understand the full impact of the storm until I got emails today!  It sounds pretty scary in Kyle Oake’s mission area of Tacloban – I will keep him and the rest of his missionaries and Filipino people in my prayers.

Some of the branch threw a little party for me to make me happy on my birthday so I appreciated that very much 🙂  I haven’t gotten any birthday packages from home yet! I’m hoping that I might get them tomorrow at a zone meeting which is where a lot of people get mail from the states.  If not, I will get them eventually!  Also, President and Sister Tye called me and sang me the “Happy Birthday” song so I know they love me!

A birthday cake provided by local members of the church.

Me with frosting smeared on my face!

Here’s a picture of a baptism we had on Saturday!

Editor’s Note:  Although Hunter’s area was relatively unscathed by the Super-Typhoon, other areas of the Philippines were devastated.  To learn how you can contribute to the LDS Church’s humanitarian aid efforts in the Philippines and throughout the world click the link below:

http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/funds/humanitarian-general-fund.html#topOfPage