Or just tear down walls in general, as the case may be. This week has been a lot of that. Monday night we drove out to Vidor, got assigned to our lodgings for the night, and then crashed in preparation for the work ahead.
Tuesday through Friday we had a pretty set schedule. Breakfast was at the Ross complex from 7:15 to 8:20 (we had six people to run through one shower, so we usually didn't make it until about 7:40) then we would head out to a work order at 8:30. It would usually take us until about 12 to muck out a house, then we would have lunch and move to the next project, working until between 4 and 5. Then we would head back and shower (still six people and one shower, it takes time) and then dinner. After dinner we would have a devotional with someone President Ross asked to speak, and then head to bed.
Working on the houses was fun, but it was also pretty sad. A couple of the people had just finished remodeling from Harvey when their house flooded again. Some of the stuff we were tearing out was brand new. Of course, some of the other stuff we tore out was the opposite. One house flooded in Harvey, and the people who owned it at the time skimped on fixing it, so when we started tearing up the walls we found that instead of drywall they just slapped plywood on the studs. Took off the plywood to discover black mold all the way up to the ceiling. I felt so bad for the owner-she had just bought the house 9 months ago, not knowing about all the problems. So in some ways it was a blessing to be able to discover the problems and start on correcting them.
One night we had a devotional at the house of the Orange Stake President. After the devotional, he said, who wants to see the tunnels? And the guy has literal secret passages in his walls, complete with a slide and everything! After everyone had explored them for a bit, they started a competition for who could run through them the fastest. Two other Elders and me all slammed through it in 21.6 seconds. And I mean slammed, bouncing off the walls and ceiling. My rug burn still hasn't healed from it. It was a lot of fun, though. Unfortunately, at one point my car keys slipped out of my pocket. Luckily someone else found them, so we were okay. Didn't have to stay the night in the tunnels...although that would have been pretty cool.
You know, it was crazy seeing how fragile a house is. A team of us could tear it apart pretty well in a couple of hours. I used to look at walls and feel like they were pretty solid...now I know that if I wanted to be the Kool-aid man, I could. (For those that don't get the reference, did you even have a childhood?)
On Saturday we were just dead, but we did our best to get out and proselyte. It was weird being back in the shirt and tie after a week of jeans and yellow Helping Hands t shirts. We got a call on Saturday from a member in Canada, who told us her boyfriend was coming to the YSA the next day. The best part of that story is that he actually showed up! We taught him about the Book of Mormon after the services, and he seems pretty interested.
Sunday night we also visited some potentials...the mother used to be dating a member, which is how we knew them. They were super welcoming to us, and we left them with a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon.
The mission did a special fast to achieve our goal of 100 baptisms through the end of the year, and we were already seeing miracles from it. Just the time we have had since we got back has been super effective, we have seen several people who we had struggled to contact before.
So all in all it was a great week, a long week, a lot of moldy drywall and carpets and tearing up tile and kicking doors off the hinges. I will try and get some of the pictures, I have been terrible at that the last transfer.
Hard to believe that this is the last week of this transfer, and general conference!
This week is going to fly by, because we have a mission leadership conference tomorrow, then exchanges, then interviews, then we teach district training this Friday, then general conference, and then it is next week and transfers. I anticipate staying here, though.
Well, everybody be safe, and don't flood!
Elder DeFord
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