So, we had an interesting thing happen recently...the island of Tahiti went dark. It was Thursday, October 10th. It was during the last 45 minutes of the last of five zone conferences for this transfer period. I was in the middle of my training and the lights went out. It was not a big inconvenience for me since my PowerPoint slides were not integral to my training...nor for Steven, who followed me. We finished our zone conference without power and left to drive the hour back to our house. Ten minutes later we tried stopping at a restaurant to get a hamburger, but the power was out there too. Because it was still light out it was difficult to tell if there was power at stores or houses. We got back to Papeete and tried stopping at another burger place, where we know the owner well. Joe came out and told us the power was out on the whole island. What?! The entire island of Tahiti without power? My first thought was for the food and ice cream we had just purchased the night before for a dinner for 30 people we were having the next evening. Then, I started to wonder how we could get into our house? There's an electric gate blocking the driveway. And then my concern became more global. What if this lasted for a while...what would the people of Tahiti do if there was no power in the grocery stores and homes for a day or more. It is hot here. Food would be ruined. Water pumps wouldn't work.
As we drove toward our house, we noticed there was power...both at our house (the Mission Home) and at the Temple. We had a generator. The Temple had a generator. I later learned that the work in the Temple never stopped during the five hours of power outage. And as the night fell, the Temple was the only place lit in the whole neighborhood.
One lesson from this experience was that the preparation really pays off. The church made sure that the Temple, as well as the Mission Home, had back up generators. "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." D&C 38:30
There was a more symbolic lesson learned that night. We heard how, as night fell, there was only one building lit up in the neighborhood...The Temple. It shone in the darkness...like a beacon. We live in a world that is often times very dark and frightening. But we have been told that Christ is the light of the world. That Thursday night, the light coming from His temple here in Tahiti was truly a light to the world...to the neighborhood...to the people of Tahiti.
We will never be left in the darkness if we are following Christ and his gospel.
Love you all,
Debbie
