Hey y'all. Wow this week has been pretty much the same as last. We have been gutting out homes that were flooded and helping people build their faith back up. Each experience has been life changing, I am so blessed to be serving in this area to help out at this time.
We have been able to meet many people in this area and it has softened a lot of hearts towards the restored gospel. Heavenly Father is truly preparing his southern folk for the light of the gospel! It is a very humbling and rich thing to experience. We were able to meet some new people that the sisters taught before we came here, so that has been good. It's less overwhelming to be in an area when you at least know the people that are being taught!
Zachary is seriously the best place ever. Everyone here is so nice and friendly, even to the mormon missionaries. Whhhatt? It's awesome. This town is the epitome of Louisiana hospitality! It also has shown me that Heavenly Father can grant us with the gift of Christlike love if we ask for it in prayer. What a testimony builder that has been!
Wow okay sorry for the useless rambling. Everything is functioning pretty well in Zachary, but some businesses and shops are closed down because their buildings got flooded. It is way worse in the Denham Springs and Baton Rouge areas though.
We worked on the Tate's home the other day, surprisingly it was their ceiling and roof that got damaged from the water! So I got to stand on a ladder and use a hammer to punch the ceilings. It was fun:) Brother Tate was like "What does your dad do again?" I told him he works on computers, then he was like "I don't think he learned that fixing computers". Moral of the story he was impressed for my handy home improvement skills, shout out to my Dad who is amazing and knows how to work hard! Their insulation was the lose kind so it was falling on us like snow....it was not as beautiful as Utah's snow...and it was itchy. Haha but that was an adventure. We helped with a woman named Mary. After our team helped her she had tears fill her eyes and she told us the love that she truly felt from us aka THE SPIRIT. It was really cool to have that experience with her. She said she will skip her church one day to come to ours! What? BLESSINGS.
The last person I wanted to talk about was Paul. His trailer got hit pretty hard. The place was a mess and full of bugs. I hate bugs. It was really hard and the circumstances were so very sad. He looked very depressed and overwhelmed. We later found out, after we had gutted the whole house, that it was going to be bulldozed anyways. It was very sad and some people on our team were frustrated because our work was pretty much useless. But then Brother Sherman said something I will never forget. He said "We are here to fix hearts, not homes". When he said that it gave me goosebumps! True, our 6 hour job wasn't necessary but the look on Paul's face when we left was priceless. He felt the love and care that we had for him, even though we had never met him before. By the time we left and prayed with him, it looked like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He plans on coming to church.
Last adventure of the week was taking out floor insulation! Wow that was fun. I got to go under a house and cut out the insulation above, it was very dirty but an experience for sure! Everyone was laughing because I wasn't worried about getting messy but the second I saw a bug I flipped. Haha. He weren't able to meet the people in that home for the day, but it was still fun to serve them.
I love this area. I love my Savior. This gospel is true and the power that our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is remarkable. We are the only organization able to put together a huge volunteer effort and truly be united. This is all made possible through the rock and leader of our church Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be having these experiences. A natural disaster is the worst/best thing I have ever experienced. Blessings of the Lord never ceases.
LOVE YALL
SISTER CORNIA
