For starters I hope y'all are doing great and staying nice and dry!
Things are going good here over on the east coast! A little soggy, but good! We got released from lockdown on Tuesday morning (yay!!) and set out to start meeting people and see how the storm had affected them. Luckily Camden is not a flood area and the ground is all sand, so water is basically just absorbed into the ground as it falls, so there was not much damage at all from the storm!
Wednesday we had a service project at habitat for humanity helping them sort through clothes to donate and also went out and tried to teach! Thursday we planned for this week and had a pretty typical day! Friday we had a zone meeting and then a zone service project!! For our zone service project half of us helped in Windsor lake (about ten minutes away from Columbia) by filling orders of food and clothes for those effected by the big storm. And the other half went into Columbia to help for clean up. For some odd reason which we never figured out they had Sister Harvey stay in Windsor lake and they had me go to Columbia. In Columbia we went into my old area (which was a little weird going back so soon after leaving) and go to an area where the flooding had gone over the roofs of the houses. We went inside the houses (with protective gear such as hard hats and masks) and started shoveling out every thing inside. There were very few things that could be salvaged from the damage. It was sad walking down the street because there were spray painted yellow "X's" on the houses that were condemned and basically every house in the neighborhood we were in had the yellow x. After finishing one house we went to a second lady's house where she was a retired professor/historian and we were trying to help her save all of her books and pictures and artifacts. It was a pretty special day.
The fun thing was we got to go back to Columbia again on Saturday! They kept me and Sister Harvey together that day! The exciting part was it was raining really hard again. This time we were out helping sort the piles of the gutted houses so that the city could start coming and picking everything up. We were very wet and tired by the end of the day but it was really great to be out helping there again! Sunday we got to go to our Ward for the first time and start to meet the people there! That was a lot of fun and the people here seem really great!
As for a spiritual thought this week. During service in Columbia it was interesting to see what people were and weren't trying to salvage from their flooded houses. People didn't care about the furniture or their big TVs or their clothes. What people were trying to save were their pictures. And these pictures were for the most part all of their families. It got me thinking of if I was in that situation what I would be trying to save, and I came to the conclusion I would also really only be caring about family pictures. I got thinking of how important families are to everyone and how at the end of the day, the memories we make with them are what is most important. I am grateful that we know that families can be together forever. That no matter what we go through in life, that if we are sealed in the temple that we can see our loved ones again. It made me want to go out and share this message with even more people! Good thing I'm on a mission then ;) Well I hope y'all have a blessed week!
Keep Columbia in y'alls prayers please!
I love y'all!
Love always, Sister Amy Bennett :)
Happy Mormon Helping Hands!
Sisters Serve!
One of the homes they cleared
Serving at a home
Flood Destruction
Serving
I only got a little muddy during service ;)
Serving in the rain!
Halloween Package made with Sarah
Halloween package to Sister Bennett
Sister Bennett's happy sheets she bought
