Two elders serving from our stake in Houston, Texas (temporarily reassigned from their missions in Mexico and the Dominican Republic due to the pandemic) have been hard at work the past few weeks cleaning up after Hurricane Laura.
Elder Jason Cook: "Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Louisiana and stayed the night to do some hurricane cleanup. It was crazy down there. Tons of trees snapped in half or uprooted, every single person's roof had been mildly to severely damaged, the telephone poles and the billboards had all been knocked down, random stores had shattered windows from all the debris flying around, huge sheets of metal strewn out on every lawn, etc. Lots of damage. The first day, we spent our time going house to house cleaning up the trees and shingles and debris from the yards.
The second day we went into this house that had flooded from the roof and the ceiling collapsed in the kitchen. The whole house was drenched and there was tons of insulation from the ceiling covering the whole kitchen. We took everything out, cleaned up all the insulation, and ripped all the carpets out. That one house took 10 of us the entire day to empty out. Saturday and Sunday was more hurricane cleanup. Taking massive fallen trees, some on houses, some just on the lawn, and cutting them up with a chainsaw and putting the wood into a pile. Pretty fun stuff.
All in all we probably did about 40 hours of service this week. I have found service to be extremely satisfying, as I KNOW for a fact that I'm helping somebody. We'll probably have more to do this coming week. There is SO much hurricane cleanup to do."
Elder Truman Minor: "Last week we were helping a family clean up their attic and roof. It took a couple days of hard work, I mean HARD work! We were exhausted, it was hotter than anything, and the humidity here is NO JOKE! While we were working and sweating , I thought to myself, "Why am I in an attic with dust everywhere in the 110 degree and super humid weather!? This isn't all a mission is! I haven't been able to teach anyone. We can't go out and track, or go into anyone's homes!" A couple times I wanted to just lay on the ground and pass out but then I realized that this IS what a mission is about! Serving the Lord's sheep!
The last day we were at this house, we finished cleaning up, and the family that lived there wanted to talk to us. The family was thanking us and they just started crying. I was a little confused and didn't know what was going on, but they then explained how it would've taken them months to remove all the damaged parts of the roof and attic and that our service was an answer to their prayers. When they told us that, I forgot all about the super hot humid stickiness and could only feel the spirit. The spirit testified to me that I was there for a reason. There is a reason I was sent home from Mexico, was home for a couple months, got reassigned to Houston Texas, and was assigned to do service for this family for just a couple of days. It was so I could help the Lord fulfill what he wanted done for this family at that time.
From that experience I learned that each of us can help change someone's life. Even if it's just by serving others or helping others with some minor things. Service in the Lord's eyes is service! No matter how great or small! I now try to put myself in others shoes when we are serving to help me work harder and it makes me want to serve even more. I know that when we are serving others we are also serving our Heavenly Father."
