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Transcript

Something I'm very interested in is hearing about Cyclone Pam.

Could you just share a little bit with me about what that was like and some of your experiences, some of the things that you learned through that event that must have been really challenging and difficult? We heard on the news that there’s going to be cyclone, so they told us get the important stuff and move to the higher ground.

When the cyclone hit. My family and I, we go for a refuge and we hid us for the whole night.

It was a frightening experience such a disaster.

I have to move to the chapel.

So I took my kids and my stuff, like not everything, but the important stuff. And I went there, stay there. And then we were safe there.

After the storm. It was totally different. It was like a desert here. In the morning. You just can just see through to the other side of the island. They were no trees. There's no house standing up.

And I couldn't believe that. I thought, this is totally a different place. Not what, villa.

It was time to draw us closer to our Heavenly Father. We see the only.

Through faith, we can endure the challenges in life. Everybody lost their homes. Most people, they slept in shelters for a month. We prepare spiritually, building our faith on a sure foundation.

And also temporarily, physically,

we prepare ourselves by taking care of ourselves, by earning a living, and also by saving. We save for the rainy days.

One of the issues that was described to us was this terrible devastation.

And they proposed that we bring a sawmill to Vanuatu so that the cleanup could begin to process the trees that were on the ground.

Before the storm. We we just built buildings that we know that it's

feasible for us. We don’t build that it’s stronger for the cyclone, but when after the storm. So we start realizing that we have to build strong buildings or strong houses.

We just moved from place to place to find blocks that was destroyed by the cyclone. So we have to cut

and we have to rebuild some of our houses that was destroyed.

Well, let's now talk about how Heavenly Father is interested in each of us

and how Heavenly Father will help us and others.

She was saying that it’s an opportunity that she was able to create business and that enabled them to go and seal their family in the temple. And she was saying how much that happiness does affect the lives of him and their family and the kids. She was just so grateful.

So there's a very direct example of temporal self reliance,

temporal assistance. Having a direct impact on the spiritual self-reliance of your family.

Allowing you to go to the temple to be sealed.

That’s very inspiring, Self-reliance.

is the ability for us to provide for ourselves and for our family members. And also it helps us to be in a better position to help those in need of help.

To me, self-reliance is the ability to be independent spiritually,

physically and educationally.

It doesn't matter a spiritual cyclone or temporal cyclone, but with the faith in the Savior Jesus Christ,

it is like we have a very strong foundation there.

In each experience. You've indicated how you had to learn to rely on the Lord as we are dependent upon Him. We then begin to develop our own spiritual and temporal strength and independence, and we get a gospel perspective and we can really see the hand of the Lord helping us, even in the midst of trials and afflictions.

Cyclone Pam: Faith and Self-Reliance in Vanuatu

Description
People who lived through the cyclone that passed over the South Pacific island of Vanuatu in 2015 describe the frightening experience and discuss faith and self-reliance with Elder Gary E. Stevenson.
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