Post Tornado Pictures---plus a Transfer to Serraria

Hey Mom,

Yeah, I´m glad you heard about the tornado from me first, too. I´m sending some pics of the storm damage in Xanxerê to you today.

[Elder Duffin and Elder Stahn helping clean up debris in Xanxerê]

I´m in my new area now--got here this morning. I´m in a place called Serraria; it´s just on the coast across from the island of Florianopolis. It´s kind of a poorer part of the city, but it´s got some pretty scenery. My new companion is named Elder Shakespeare (no relation to William). He´s from Nebraska and just finished his training.

That´s about all I know about this place for now! 

[He sent us the following pictures as well.  He said they are not from his new area, so they are either from Xanxerê, or from his bus ride to Serraria.]

[And this is probably a zone picture from his last area]

Glad to hear Dad´s arm is getting better. Catriel looks like she had fun at prom! She looks very grown up now.

Give Aunt Christi a pat on the back from me.  I can´t imagine running 50 miles without stopping--that´s crazy!

Love you Mom! I´ll talk to you next week! 

Elder Duffin

An Eyewitness Account of the Tornado in Xanxerê

Hey Mom!

Well, I´ve got some interesting news. An F2 tornado hit Xanxerê on Monday. It´s been all over the news here; I´m sure you´ll read about it online. 

 

photo credit--MetSul Meteorolgia

On Monday around 2pm Elder Stahn and I were in the Lan house by the bus station. I had just finished writing my mission president and had opened up Dad´s email when the power went out. The wind and rain started to pick up outside and we heard a very loud crash.  When we looked out the door we saw the tornado. It was pretty close to us--we were in the same section of the city where it touched down. It was coming our way at first, but turned before it reached our street. I got some video--we saw it rip the roof off of someone´s house nearby. It moved away out of sight pretty quickly. The tornado didn´t last very long either. 

 

Aerial photo of the damage in Xanxerê, Brazil.  (Battalion of Air Operations - Santa Catarina Military Firefighters)

 [We think Ben-Daniel was probably one of the people in the street pictured below]

photo credit ARCAJO

The news makes it look like the whole city was destroyed, but it was really only one part. Two thirds of Xanxerê didn´t even know about the tornado till the reports showed up on the news the next day. The area hit really sustained some damage though; it destroyed a lot of homes. Tuesday and Wenesday Stahn and I went out and helped clear debris all day. I´ll send you some pictures. 

 

[He had trouble uploading the pictures, so we didn't get any photos this week.  All the pictures are from the internet.]

The whole city was without power until Tuesday night. Only two people died in the tornado, as far as I´ve heard. Some people were injured too. I just feel bad for the people whose homes were destroyed. Everyone in the city responded to the disaster very quickly and work is still being done. I´m very happy it didn´t hit any other parts of the city.

So, my last week in Xanxerê is turning out to be quite dramatic! I'm going to be transferred this Monday. I´m hurrying to put together your package and pack all my stuff in the time I have each day 

 

As far as weather down here, after the tornado it´s been overcast, but today it´s a little more sunny. The Fall here is like our late spring--but I´m really ready for winter ( ha ha).

That´s about it as far as news goes. It looks like you guys didn´t hear about the tornado, so that´s good! Didn´t want you guys to worry about me.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder injury, Dad! That´s rough. I remember I had a similar one a few years back while innertubing on Lake Tapps--couldn´t raise my right arm. I had twisted my pectoral muscle (how, I have no idea). That´s no fun; hope you get better soon.  Love you Dad! Thanks for all you do!

Love you, Mom! Looking forward to talking to you on Mothers Day! Hopefully one of the church members in the new area will have Skype or Facetime.

Talk to you next week!

Elder Duffin

What District Leaders Do and Pictures of Exotic Fruit

Hey Mom,

Sounds like you´re all having a good time. That´s quite an experience you had in primary, Mom!

This fruit is delicious. It´s called a Caqui. It´s kind of like an apple, and very sweet.

I´ve been collecting little things here and there to send home to you; I´m putting together a box or two. I´ll need to mail it off within these next two weeks before I get transferred.

I´m doing good too. I´ve seen how kind and patient Heavenly Father is with me during the mission; I'm really grateful for grace.  

 

Last two weeks in Xanxere. Can´t believe I´ve been here for almost seven months! This next week will be busy.  I don´t know yet where the mission president will send me.

Oh yeah, I´m a district leader now. I´ve been one for the past four weeks, actually. I conduct district meetings every week, call in numbers for the week and relay them to the zone leaders, and interview the investigators of the members of my district to be baptized.  It´s pretty nice; I like doing the interviews and it´s been cool to implement some of the things we did in Houston to my district.  I don´t travel to the mission office though; only zone leaders and assistants do that.

Yes, I got your three packages! I ate a lot of the snacks during conference. I´ve already gone through one of the jars of peanut butter--ha ha!  I´m enjoying opening up a letter a day and seeing pictures of you! :) 

 

I made my planner into a replica of the golden plates

Ha ha Mom, you do NOT look like Uncle Dwayne. I always show a picture of you guys to our investigators and they all comment on how young you and Dad look ;)

 

I´m jealous of Grandma and Grandpa´s opportunity to go to the FIRM conference; I really enjoyed the one I went to with them. I wrote them a letter last Monday and sent it on Saturday; so they should get it in a few weeks.  I wrote Hillary, too. I'm excited to visit her and Jon next fall! 

Love you Mom! I´m glad you´re doing well and having fun. I pray for you every day.

Have a great week; I´ll talk to you next Monday!

Elder Duffin

Narrowly Avoiding a Flood of Biblical Proportions

Hey Mom!

Looks like you all had a great Easter! I loved seeing all your smiling faces!

Some cactus, huh?

 

Brazilians call Easter Pascoa. It´s pretty much the same as in the states; lots of candy marketing. I like ``Candy Holidays.´´   

I had a pretty good Easter too. Everyone had family get-togethers. Though, during these get-togethers many of those families blared loud polka music into their neighborhoods.

Conference didn´t start till 1:00pm here, so we ate lunch beforehand. I felt the spirit more during this Conference than any other. Elder Anderson gave a great talk on recognizing God´s hand in our lives yesterday. I really enjoyed Holland´s talk, and Uchtdorf´s talk on grace. I love General Conference. This last one was the best one I´ve heard yet.

The weather was nice and chilly; it felt like springtime back home, actually! Ha ha! I ate a lot of the snacks you sent in the packages.  I got the packages this last week. Thanks so much!!! :D I´m enjoying opening a letter a day and seeing you. The quotes are very good, too. I appreciate it.

We had a baptismal service for our investigator, Arno, on Saturday, right after the first session of conference. That morning, before conference, we cleaned out the baptismal font and began to fill it up with water. The font fills very slowly, so I did not think to check it again before we locked up the church and walked to our lunch appointment--20 minutes away from the chapel. We were at lunch for a little under an hour and on the walk back to the chapel, I realized that the font must still be running! So we walked faster, hoping it hadn´t overflowed. When we got to the chapel, there was no water on the ground, but when I opened the doors to the font, I found it literally filled to the brim.  Only about two centimeters remained unfilled. Had we arrived even two minutes later than we had, it would have overflowed and that would have been a big problem! 

I quickly turned the water off, turned on the drain, then locked the font doors. Just in time too, because as I was closing the doors people started to show up for conference. It was quite a miracle of timing! 

The baptism went great! Arno's family did not attend the service, though. I was disappointed in them. I´m really grateful to have a family who is supportive of me. 

Wish I could´ve been with you all for Easter! That looked fun. Glad you all had a great time.

Love you, Catriel! I´m very proud of you and happy for your decision to go to BYU-Idaho!

Love you Dad! Thanks for your prayers and support; it´s helping a lot.  Thanks for sending me pictures each week. And tell Grandma and Grandpa that I got their letter and will respond to them soon.

Love you Mom! Thanks for all you do; looking forward to talking to you next month on Mother's Day.

Have a great week!

Elder Duffin