Dear Family,
This week was quite the memorable week. In case you haven't heard, the Philippines just got rocked by a huge typhoon. They have warning signals for storms 1-5 and it was a signal 4. The thing is, the news didn't warn anyone so it caught us off guard. It hit here Saturday and my companion and I just happened to be in a far part of our area when the storm started.

I asked the members and they said that they thought it was only about a signal 1 or 2, so I told my trainee that we could still work. But at about 5:00 we were at an appointment and I realized that it was getting too bad to work. There were trees falling everywhere and people's houses were getting blown to pieces left and right due to the strong winds and rain.

My comp and I ran to a members house hoping that they could give us a ride home but they were all too scared to leave. We tried texting our zone leaders to see what we should do, but there was no service at all. So due to the fact that we didn't have a ride home and we had no contact with our leaders, we ended up sleeping at a members house on their floor. They lived in a cement house so we knew we were safe there.
My trainee had the bright idea that we should walk home and kept insisting that we could make it home if we had a flash light. I don't know what the heck he was thinking cause stepping outside was like walking into a tornado. Sometimes he has some really weird suggestions and I don't know really how to respond to them.

The next day when we got back to our apartment we saw that our roof had blown off and some of the members were trying to fix it. A lot of my stuff got wet but mostly just clothes and my bed. Other then that everything was ok. Today at district meeting our leaders told us that this week we will mostly be going around our zone and fixing peoples houses that got destroyed in the storm. There was a lot of damage and my area is still without electricity so its been quite the experience.

On the bright side of things our work has been really good. Though we missed a few days of work because of the storm we managed to get 26 new investigators and 31 lessons. We had the highest states in the zone but my trainee acts like our stats are low. Its definitely hard training a new missionary cause he doesn't quite know how things work in the mission yet and sometimes he argues with me about how things are done in the mission though I've been out about 14 months now and he's been out about 3 weeks. Elder Pontino is a way shy guy but there are times when he does talk and it is usually when he has to complain or when he has a off the wall suggestion. Oh well, he'll get over it.

That's pretty much all the news I have for you this week but I hope things are going good with you guys over there. The mission is flying by now and its definitely keeping me busy. The months seem like weeks. I love you guys and write back soon. Elder Anderson

The Wedding of Darcy McKay Anderson and Adam Scott Pingel

Whew! I survived another wedding . . .barely, and I think my family survived ME (but you will have to ask them yourself!) I got very intense and grouchy at times, but considering how much work was required to pull this off, I think I managed pretty well.

Darcy and Adam were married on May 2nd at 1 PM at the Spokane Washington Temple. Surprisingly, it was the first sunny day we have had in a very long time. The ceremony was short, sweet, eternal. The room was filled with family and close friends, and our dear friend Clive Grimmett (who is in the temple presidency) performed the sealing. Darcy's cousin, Jessica Maus took the pictures on the temple grounds, and they all turned out beautiful as usual. I included some of them above.

I headed straight back to the church after pictures to finish up the last minute details. I had decided months prior, that I needed to do most of the work myself if this was going to be the classy event the kids wanted, and stay within our budget. I was very careful to gauge my time, so that I didn't leave too many stressful things to get done at the last minute. For weeks I worked on: tablecloths that I made out of gold satin sheets from Ross (the fitted ones were a pain to disassemble, believe me)...centerpieces made from ivy covered grapevine wreaths, covered with sugared fruit & grapes, floral, and bows....bouteniers, corsages, bouquets...and on and on.

I had cleared the gym for the three days prior to the wedding so that we could transform the gym into a classic gold tuscan beauty. I would call it Olive Garden meets Donald Trump. Lots of gold satin, Ivy, grapes and sugared fruit, cedar arbors, lighted ficus trees, and beautiful floral. Sister Felsing brought her white parachute lined in icycle lights to produce a false ceiling, and then we hung a gold glass chandelier down from the center.

My sisters Val and Kristen were such troopers, spending many hours at the church with me, and putting up with my micromanagment. John was at the church til nearly midnight the night before, trying to repair the chandelier, and hoist it up to its proper place.

We decided early on, that this was going to be a black & white wedding, at least for the attire. Darcy was able to wear the exact dress she had imagined, thanks to my friend Julie. I sewed her a gold satin sash, literally finishing it on the way to the temple. She adorned it with a rhinestone brooch, and wore a rhinestone headpiece in her hair.
Julie loaned us a couple toddler sized dresses that looked just like Darcys, for Riley and Hailee. They had so much fun twirling the night away, and sneaking into the reception line for attention from time to time. For the bridesmaids, I found five tuxedo-like black satin dresses at J.C. Penney for just the right price. I sewed satin shrugs to match, and Darcy found white pearls for each of the women. All the men wore black suits, and we found burgandy satin ties for each to wear.

Thanks to my dear friends Pam Knight & Julie Jensen, the food was delicious! Loads of yummy finger foods and pastries, too much to mention. I would describe the kitchen staff as the "dream team". They worked hard and fast, and kept the food coming with no delays. Adam's mom, Shari Pingel made the wedding cake, and it was the tastiest I had ever tried.

We had a steady stream of people for over two hours, and I would estimate that 300 plus people attended, which may be standard in Mormon communities, but its a stellar attendance for here. Our family and dear friends stayed after it was over, and we all worked together quickly and efficiently to get everything down and put away. Its nearly three weeks later now, and I am still exhausted. All in all, it was a wonderful party, and worth all the work.