Elder Ian Rich: October 15: Lessons from the chaos

Last Monday night, we got actual notice that they were really going to shut off the water. My companion and I got prepared by washing the little dishes that we needed to wash, and by cleaning parts of the house that we needed to clean before the water shut off. We visited many people that night that continued to let their dishes sit in the sink. Even though they knew the water might get shut off, they decided to not do anything about it. The water evidently did shut off and those that didn't wash their dishes or do the necessary things ended up suffering by having a dirty house for 5 days, dirty dishes the whole week, or not having enough water to drink.

There are many lessons we can learn from this, we need to be prepared, not be slothful, but what I learned from this is that we all know that one day our Savior, Jesus Christ, will come. This is something we all know. Are we going to push it off like the many people that pushed off doing their dishes? Or are we going to do something about it? Are we going to start preparing ourselves now? We all have the opportunity to "wash our dishes and clothes" by doing the necessary things like praying, studying the scriptures and serving others. If we prepare ourselves now, one day we will be prepared to meet God.

This week we stayed in almost every day and since there was no water, we did grow a decent beard. The schools and buses were still shut down, and all the supermarkets ran out of food and people went crazy. People in our ward were good to check in on us and bring us food. This week many policemen died by the bombs or by fire. Many angry people marched around with spears, torches, and bats spearing every car tire that drove by.

We did not have church this week, rather we stayed home and we blessed the sacrament there. On my 1 year mark on Thursday, we ordered a giant pizza from someone in our ward covered in 1/2 pound of cheese and we sat up top of our house and watched all the people walking around with torches, and bats. I was able to even burn one of my white shirts in honor of the 1 year. I feel humbled to have been a missionary this last year.

We got notice yesterday that everything is back to normal. Sunday evening the President met with the indigenous leaders and he decided to give up on the gas prices and put them back to normal prices. The area presidency asked us to stay indoors again yesterday as a precaution while things are stabilizing. So now everything should be getting back to normal and we are all safe. Thank you for all the love and prayers during this period.

Elder Rich