A Month Later - All Is Well

Things have been so busy the past few weeks.  I haven’t been able to write and our internet access is still not good. 

Following the raised volcano alert, the volcano quieted down and stopped swelling with magma.  The alert scale was lowered from 4 (on a scale of 1 to 5) to the normal “level 3.”  It seems to stay at a “level 3” with multiple blasts each day.  Nice to be back to “normal.” 

After the direct hit of the typhoon, we made note of the impact of the high winds and heavy rain.  I didn’t get a photo along the toll way to Satsuma Sendai because there was absolutely no place to park or pull off.  It was shocking because most of the trees were leaning towards the north along the path of the storm.  Some trees were broken and split, most were just leaning even though the wind and rain had stopped.  We drove that same toll way a week later.  You could still see some damage, but many of the leaning trees had straightened up. 

 

We are so thankful our house, roof, and power lines withstood the storm.  We had some water seep in through big windows by our front door, but everything else is ok. 

We are glad we had some emergency food, water, flashlights, and an emergency plan, but are thankful we didn’t have to use them. 

There are many other storms and dangers in our lives.  How do we prepare for our “trials?”  Daily family and individual prayers and scripture reading help us to be calm and clear-thinking.  Listening to the words of our modern living prophets, parents and leaders, and taking action are key.  We must also train ourselves to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit which will always help us to choose the right.  We added (downloaded) scriptures to my iPad music.  I can listen to the scriptures without using our internet (yay!).    I do have the “Gospel Library” app which gives me access to all the Church Magazines, class manuals, videos, and much more (available in many languages).  These things will help us “weather the storms of life” giving us a calmness and peace of mind in the turmoil. 

We went for a walk to get a glimpse of some of the damage. 

 

If you could enlarge this you could see some damaged trees.

 

 

Quite a few hills, and even up is the mountains, were these blue tarps, to prevent the rain from causing mud slides.

 

More blue tarps.

 

Bikes got blown over. 

  

 

Parts of the roof got blown off the chapel in Miyakonojo.  See part of it hanging from the street light, top left of the photo, by the red truck.

 

 

Workers put a screen around the building, while they repair the roof, and refurbish the walls.

 

 

A panoramic view of the volcano and Kagoshima City.

 

 

A beautiful sunrise next to our awesome volcano.