On Wednesday we were finally given permission to leave our apartments and we went right out to help with houses. It was so sad to see all the wreckage from the hurricane. We had a really cool experience that day. We were helping a member with their house and a couple elders and I decided to go start walking down the road to see who needed help. Everybody on the streets houses were destroyed. It was weird cause it was like we were tracting but to do service instead haha. The first house we got to, a lady let us right in and we started taking everything out. We did her house for a couple hours and then left and went to the next house and did the same thing. We tore everything up. The owner was an older man who lived by himself. He lost everything and had no idea what he was going to do. We fixed up his whole house the rest of the day and you could see the tears in his eyes as we were working. I was so humbled to be able to be the person to help them. People were just standing outside not really knowing what to do. It was a really cool feeling walking down the street in our yellow shirts and seeing everybody watching us and us being able to help them.
Thursday and Friday we did service all day.
Starting Saturday morning, all the wards in the Spanish stake met up at the stake center to receive assignments on who to go out to help. We split up in groups of 6 and all received places on where to go. I went with a member family in the ward. We went up to a neighborhood that was completely destroyed. We helped out there all day. In the neighborhoods that are destroyed, they have people in golf carts that drive by every hour with megaphones and food and water and yell to everyone as they drive down the streets who needs water and food. It's really cool to see all of Texas and even people around the world come to help and support this tragedy.
Later that day, we came back to that neighborhood with some more people. The place we had been working with didn't need help anymore so we drove down the road a little bit and stopped. The young men's president in the ward got everybody together and we decided to say a prayer on where we should go. We said a prayer and as soon as we looked up, we saw a man walking towards us. He asked us if we were volunteers and we said yes. He said his house was the only house on the street that hadn't been touched yet. He had lost everything in the floods and was living on the couch of his friends house with nothing. So we went in and worked on his house the rest of the day and all day Sunday. It was an experience I will never forget. He thanked each one of us by shaking our hands with tears in his eyes.
Sunday was such an amazing experience. Most chapels got destroyed by the floods and so all the Spanish wards combined into three different chapels. We only went to sacrament meeting and all wore service clothes and all received more assignments on where to go out to work. It was the most spiritual sacrament meeting I've ever had. Everybody sharing testimonies with all of us in our yellow shirts. There was a special spirit in the room.
This has been an unforgettable week. I have been so humbled as I have helped people who have lost everything. I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father has allowed me to be the one to help all these people. Words can't describe how I've felt this past week. I'm so exhausted but it's all worth it. I'm excited to do this all again this week. Thank you for your prayers. I know these people have felt our heavenly fathers love through these hard times. Have a great week and I'll talk to y'all soon :)
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