Drawing Family Together

During Hurricane Ike, we were without power for 7 days. We were so fortunate to have the cool front come through, but I realized how much more difficult the whole experience would have been if we had been hot. The heat can be so agitating. For this situation (getting by without air conditioning), we were the least prepared. We had a generator and a shop fan, but we all know how inadequate that is for a summer day in Texas. We didn’t have to test our true grit this time on that one.

When Faith was about a week old (and Elisa was 22 months old and Synneve almost 3.5 years old), we were preparing to move from Houston to Temple, Texas when Tropical Storm Frances hit. We lived in Pearland and debated evacuating. All of our stuff was half-packed and we were NOT prepared to weather a storm. I am ashamed to admit that we couldn’t even find a flashlight with working batteries (partly because I had strategically placed flashlights with batteries around the house in the event of a storm or power outage, but the kids were little and discovered the flashlights and used up the batteries). The girls were pretty young and scared of the dark, and I felt terribly guilty. The power was only out for several hours one evening and night, and everything turned out fine, but I determined that I would be more prepared the next time so that my children would be safe and protected and feel secure.

We got a generator before Hurricane Rita, but ended up loaning it to friends because during Rita we only lost power for a few hours. During the power outage after Ike, we mostly only used the generator off and on during the day (about 12 hours/day) for the refrigerator and a shop light at night. Our generator used about a gallon of gas for 3 hours, but we didn’t have too much plugged into it. We had our cars full of gas before the storm and a couple of gas cans full of gas. We were able to obtain more gas by going out early one morning before the lines and thanks to my father who drove to College Station (before they got inundated with gas-seekers) and filled our gas cans.

A neighbor helped move a large tree off of our driveway—tied a large section of trunk to his truck and pulled it across the street with his truck. He went through our whole neighborhood and cleared the roads and driveways that were blocked by trees. The Boyces came Sunday with their chainsaws and helped Robert cut the tree up and set it out by the road. I was touched by the kindness of another neighbor who went from house to house one morning on our street and asked people if they needed gas. He was collecting gas cans and making a trek. Our cans were full or I would’ve gladly taken him up on it. It was sweet to experience such acts of service from family and neighbors and to hear about many more.

We were so grateful for our gas stove and gas water heater, food storage, and camping equipment. Our gas stove really expanded our cooking options. We had a good time experimenting with our bamboo steamer—warming formerly frozen sourdough bread purchased off the discount rack at the grocery store and dried up leftover rice from before the storm. Elisa actually made small cakes in the bamboo steamer. The cakes were very moist, as you might guess. We also used our stick-burning fire to heat a frozen baked ziti casserole to perfection. It had an interesting smoked flavor, but every bit was eaten. We have the usual food storage items in cans, but I also have lots of food packed away in a freezer and laundry room. My brother and his family who now live in Spring and Brad’s sister-in-law who lives in downtown Houston stayed with my parents during the storm and power-outage. We had enough food to feed all of us (party of 15) every night for a week. We had at least 3 meals of venison from Elisa’s “harvest” during the last deer season. I think the fluorescent lanterns were my favorite camping equipment item--they can really light up a room.

The hardest part (and this wasn’t hard enough to merit much complaining) was getting the kids to sleep at night in the dark, but they started to get used to it. Four of the girls all slept together in one room. My least favorite part of the ordeal was also the dark nights with generators humming throughout the neighborhood. Just kind of eerie. Also getting up at night to go to the bathroom was tricky.

We spent most of our days outside cleaning our yard. The weather made that task so much more pleasant than it could have been. When we got bored with our yard, we could help our older neighbors. Somehow it is more fun sometimes to clean up someone else’s mess than our own. My favorite part of the storm aftermath was the nice weather and the time to just be together. We burned sticks in our fire pit, cooked cobbler and pie in the Dutch oven, and roasted marshmallows and sausage on a stick. I particularly enjoyed the phone not ringing, the computer being off, the TV being off and seeing my oldest girls playing on the swingset. Robert had power at his office and was back to work by Monday so he cooked a meal in the crockpot at work once, charged our cell phones, and charged his laptop for watching a couple of movies when we missed technology too much.

While we were in Nauvoo this summer at the pageant, we discussed a statement by Brigham Young and related it to our pageant experience. They were trying to prepare us to have patience in our costumes in the heat, etc. We read this quote each day during the power outage—just in case we forgot:

"If you feel evil, keep it to yourselves until you overcome that evil principle. This is what I call resisting the devil, and he flees from me...When you are influenced by the Spirit of holiness and purity, let your light shine; but if you are tried and tempted and buffeted by Satan, keep your thoughts to yourselves--keep your mouths closed; for speaking produces fruit, either of a good or evil character...You frequently hear brethren and sisters say that they feel so tried and tempted, and have so many cares, and are so buffeted, that they must give vent to their feelings; and they yield to the temptation, and deal out their unpleasant sensations to their families and neighbors. Make up your minds thoroughly, once for all, that if we have trials, the Lord has suffered them to be brought upon us, and he will give us grace to bear them...But if we have light or intelligence--that which will do good, we will impart it...Let that be the determination of the individual, for spirit begets spirit-likeness; feelings beget their likeness...If then we give vent to all our bad feelings disagreeable sensations, how quickly we beget the same in others, and load each other down with our troubles, and become sunk in darkness and despair!...In all your social communications...let all the dark, discontented, murmuring, unhappy, miserable feelings--all the evil fruit of the mind, fall from the tree in silence and unnoticed; and so let it perish, without taking it up to present to your neighbors. But when you have joy and happiness, light and intelligence, truth and virtue, offer that fruit abundantly to your neighbors, and it will do them good, and so strengthen the hands of your fellow beings." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 5:351-352)

During our power outage, I read the first several chapters of 3 Nephi for the Sunday School lesson. Lachoneus leads the Nephites against Giddianhi and the Gadianton robbers. He counsels the people to prepare to defend themselves against the Lamanites by praying, repenting, gathering themselves and all their property and supplies together, and building a fortification to protect themselves. The Nephites suggest a strategy for fighting the Lamanites, but their leader and prophet Gidgiddoni counsels them otherwise. They follow him and defeat the Gadianton robbers. In 3 Nephi 5:1, it says “And now, behold, there was not a living soul among all the people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken; for they knew that it must needs be that they must be fulfilled.”

This experience increased my faith in living prophets who guide us in our day. I am so grateful for my membership in this church and for my testimony of the restoration. I am grateful to know about the trials of the early saints and their diligence in following prophets. I think after our experience with Ike, many of us are less likely to doubt the words of the prophets.

Karin Williams