Few things at Sunday’s early morning sacrament services for Latter-day Saints here could aptly be called “normal.”

For starters, there was a gaping hole in the ceiling above one side of the Panama City Stake Center podium, the handiwork of Hurricane Michael. The chapel’s water-damaged carpet had been pulled from the floor days earlier. Resting on the grass outside was the meetinghouse steeple, toppled by the dreadful winds. And hundreds of congregants — including many who arrived hours and even days earlier from several states — were wearing yellow T-shirts and jeans instead of white shirts, dark suits and ties or dresses.

But don’t be mistaken. The Latter-day Saints who gathered just as the sun was rising on devastated Panama City were observing the Sabbath in pure form.

Read the full Church News article here_._