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| Helping Hands in Puerto Rico |
the border of New Mexico and Texas now. The whole mission is closed in
Puerto Rico for the time being because of hurricane Maria. I could be
in my new area for the rest of my mission, or they could also send me
back to Puerto Rico once they get things running there again. So
anyways, this was kind of a crazy couple weeks. I was actually in the
shower when my old comp came banging on my shower telling me we needed
to pack up and leave. So I quickly got out and threw a couple things
in one of my suitcases. We then got a ride over to one of the chapels
with all of the other missionaries there. We were planning on spending
a night or two there while the hurricane passed. We brought some food
and some water for that. However, we ended up staying a lot more than
a night there. The hurricane ended up hitting pretty hard. Our food
was cut back to tiny rations, and we could only have a little water
because we didn't have a bunch. We had a generator running but it kept
breaking. So we ended up sleeping on the tile floor with a hundred
other missionaries with little food and water sweating constantly in
the humidity in a cement building for about a week. Our bathrooms
didn't work either, but we didn't really eat enough to need to go.
Right after the hurricane hit also, we immediately went out and
started clearing all the trees from the roads and stuff. It was
actually super cool. Everybody was pulling their car over and thanking
us. People became like a hundred times more friendly, and were
literally asking us for Book of Mormons. That was also how I got most
of my drinking water. When people offered us some, because I only had
about 4 liters of water. I'm pretty sure I got severely dehydrated.
I'm all good now though. Oh yeah we also had to shower in the
janitor's closet. Well, until the water started coming out brown. Then
we just couldn't shower. I didn't have any clean clothes to change
into anyways. Overall it was definitely not a super fun experience,
but I was definitely humbled by it. I will never take food or water
for granted ever again. We also had to siphon gas between all the cars
so we would have enough gas to get to the airport. The lines for gas
were miles long. I wouldn't be surprised if you had to wait overnight
for the gas. We kept getting up at like four in the morning because we
thought we would be leaving, only to be told that we couldn't leave
yet. We finally got to leave after a week. The church sent a private
airplane over to pick us up, and we had only about seven gallons of
water for all of the missionaries so we kind of needed it. We made it
safely out and everyone got assigned to new missions while they sent a
couple of the older missionaries home.
Anyways I learned a couple different points because of this hurricane.
One is that I need to be grateful for what I have. I only have a few
belongings after the hurricane, but the things I lost can be replaced.
Many people lost their homes and all of their belongings. Many people
are going to have to suffer in those terrible conditions for a lot
longer than I had to. I also learned that if we serve others, we will
have the strength to overcome our own challenges. This was something
said in General Conference, but I learned it before I heard it there.
I felt absolutely terrible. I was sunburned, had barely any food,
super dehydrated, and felt super dirty and gross. However, it was
probably one of the greatest feelings ever to be serving every one in
need. We were also offered some water while we served, and we found
coconuts to eat. In the end all of my needs were met and I was able to
get through all of my challenges.
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| Heading out to El Paso - Brian's new area |