Hurricane Isaac and the Missionaries Part III

 So Saturday Morning in the Mission Home at 6 am.  Every body had to be on the road at 7 to be in LaPlace for prayer at 8.  Some of these elders drove 4 hours on Friday night, to get to Baton Rouge and it was  well after 10 pm when they made it after their teaching appointments.  But they were up and ready to go.

Sis W's great breakfast burito's

There must be some still in the kitchen. Missing 3.

Old friends begin to meet up and some of the member volunteers are starting to gather.

And that is not a bad picture it is actually foggy.  The temp is about 90 + but is is fog (can you call it that when the temp is that high?)

  And this my friends is the infirmary.  Dad spent most of the 3 days here.  Sister W came in and cleaned it up as best she could, the stove is still there but the fridge is gone, water damage, and the stove is unplugged and may be going too. 

a non missionary casualty.

We had had several missionaries on Friday, one grabbed hold of the metal corner as they are removing drywall and thought to pull it off.  Sliced right through his gloves and into his fingers.  Brought in by his DL and their companions he was a some what bloody sight but no one panicked and at this point dad realized we had no supplies and so sent me to find a drug store and possibly a suture kit.  Then he proceeded to tape the young mans skin back together as once they got the blood off it wasn't as bad as they thought.  Sis W. covered his fingers with "fingers" cut from rubber gloves and told him to get back to work after lunch.  Friday Dad looked at a lot of trench foot that was on the mend because the water had receeded and Sis W was smart enough to buy a bunch of cheap white socks to get them to change into at lunch when their feet had been wet last week.  And Blistered hands, oh my gosh, the blisters!  Again Sis W had called Dad earlier and asked what to do so the dead skin had been removed from most and clean bandages had been applied daily so things were looking pretty good.  Saturday brought a round of non-missionary injuries.  3 "stepped on nail" injuries with in the 1st hour.  This young lady was pretty upset as she had come from a BR stake hoping to get service hours for a school project.  Not to be that day.  Before her dad got her back to the church he got a call that the 14 year old sister was coming in for the same thing.  He called the mom in BR and asked her to please come and get them.

Morning break on Friday Sep 7th

Lunch on Friday

the hall is only place to sit down and eat

Singing for their supper (lunch).  Thank You

Another one done!

By this time on Friday the 7th they have been at this since Aug 31st and they have 2 more days to go.  Making 10 straight of clean up.  It is getting easier for everybody but on this Friday they were really fatigued and mentally tired.  They had been really the 1st responders starting 2 days after the incident, even before the water had totally receded.  You can see it in their faces. 















Lunch on Friday and Saturday was any place you can find to sit down, mostly the hallway in this little chapel.  Notice the wall board is cut out.  By the next day the insulation was gone and by Sunday the place was ready for the "rebuild team" to come in and get things back to normal.






Singing to say thanks for being fed is a tradition out here.

Now this elder came to the mission field prepared.  A hammer loop, who would have thought.  You can tell by the shoes what he has been doing.

He was grateful for these but they will never be the same again.

talk about tired!

The number of houses done on Saturday by both missionaries and volunteers

Our 30 min. Sacrament Meeting on Sunday

Pres. is even taking pictures

There were about 250 volunteers and 150 missionaries 

They all went back to their apartments Sunday night after 10 full days for most of them of real hard, nasty physical labor.  They did regular missionary work on Monday, P-day was Tuesday because Wednesday was transfer day and with that many new ones almost every companionship in the mission was affected. Pres gave the new ones Thursday to unpack get a nights rest and Friday at 7;30 am they were back in LaPlace and have been there this weekend with more volunteers coming from further away this time.  I don't know how much longer they will be needed but things will begin to taper off as the "destruction" turns to "construction".  I feel for those 18 greenies.  What and introduction to the mission field after 2 weeks of "rest" at the MTC.  Hot, sweaty, and tired and never enough to eat because it just isn't possible to feed that many young people enough.

That is the one area I didn't touch on that Praises need to be sung loud and clear.  The members in LaPlace have feed those young people lunch every day they have been there.  I can't say enough good about them, 14 days of serving "ward dinner"!  And practically every women who came had some kind of damage in her own home.  Many had no appliances to cook with and had to go to others homes or prepare in crockpots or roaster ovens what they were assigned. One women made brownies and peanut butter fingers and chocolate cookies every day for 14 days and not just a dozen a day but  DOZENS per day no missionary left with out their fill of her contribution,  and those were in addition to her other food assignments. I have put some of their pictures below.

 They all had stories, most are converts.  And they love those missionaries!!

I wish you could hear her laugh.

This is way too long but a life changing experience.  We value our possessions way too much, they can be gone in a flash.  It is the relationships that are important.  I cannot begin to tell the stories we heard of loss, joy in finding the Gospel, Tender Mercies.  It was wonderful.  Love you all
Kathleen