Sandy Follow-up

So this past week has been interesting.

On Sunday evening we went up to Providence to spend a few days with the Providence Sisters.  

Monday we were told to stay inside all day. Which we did.  There were 6 Elders (the ZLs have their apartment in the same building, Groton, Our DL, and another pair were there with the ZLs), and us and Providence Sisters.  

Tuesday we came down to access the damage in our area.  There actually isn't that much damage around here.  Some houses next to the beach are now on a beach. We drove around with the ZLs and checked out New Port and Narragansett areas.  Then we checked on members in our area since Providence wasn't hit with anything except some wind and rain. 

The W.’s (our apartment) were still out of power so we drove back up that night and slept in Providence. We were the only apartment of the whole mission still without power, or at least in our zone.  All other missionaries went back to their areas. Wednesday we once again drove down and started to actually help people. Sister S. and I helped a couple shovel their driveway free of sand and another woman clean off her lawn of all sorts of debris in New London.  Then we had to drive back up to Providence because we had to be in early because of Halloween.  We didn't really do anything fun because we were so tired and had to debrief with the ZLs.

Then there was today.  We went back to our area and helped clean up again, along the same road.  Did I mention there was 2-3 feet of sand in the roads?  The city had mostly cleaned off the roads but home owners have to clean it off their property and people’s basements were flooded. 

Then we once again drove around more of our area and Groton's area looking for areas that had been "wiped out."  We couldn't find those areas.  We drove and drove and drove.  Nothing was found.  Apparently these "wiped out" sections were greatly exaggerated by the press.  We are now calling the cities to see if we can find opportunities to serve that way. 

The W.'s got power today!!  Which means no more driving up to Providence!!  So that is were we stand right now.  Tired from service and driving.

For now the service has died down in our area because a lot of it now is waiting for insurance to evaluate.  Plus we didn't get hit as hard as the lower half of the state. 

We might get to be part of Mormon Helping Hands in a week or so down in New Haven and Bridgeport.  If needed the whole Mission will be down there.  How cool will that be?  If that happens I will have been all over Connecticut and Rhode Island (roughly 2/3s of the mission) in two weeks.  It's awesome.