Busy February!

It has been SUCH a busy month so far! Between the ice storm and trying to play catch-up with school, life has been nuts! But, I'm plowin' along and surviving--so far!

February 6-8 (Friday-Sunday), I spent at least 32 hours helping with the disaster relief. After I got out of school on Friday around 11, I went up to the church to take my mom lunch and help her during her shift at the church answering the phone taking work orders that the public was calling in. Our shift lasted from 12-2, but I decided to stay longer to help out. We were getting several calls from the public with work orders, and I decided to help by mapping out these locations to help the crews better be able to find these places. So for a few hours, I was bent over a map, plotting coordinates on work orders. I am happy to say that after living in Jonesboro for over 19 years, I think that after this experience, I am FINALLY familiar with the roads! About time, right?

I took a break from about 5-6:30 and took Ben Mobley to a movie, and then went back up to the church until about 8 helping Mell get ready for the next day. We were sorting through work orders and dividing them up into sections of town and labeling maps for the crews the next day. (Most of our men came from the Memphis area, so they weren't familiar with this area.)

Little did I know what I was getting myself into..

My day started at the church again at 7:30 a.m. and ended about 7 that evening. Same song on Sunday. That morning we were trying to get everything situated and forming the crews. I am not completely sure on any of the numbers anymore...but I want to say that we had around 70 or so men/women workers and over 100 work orders. We handed out t-shirts, had them sign in, distributed equipment, put some crews together, and had the guys off by about 8 a.m.

We still had a few women manning the phones the rest of the day to take more work orders in, while Mell and I held down the fort in the gym. Boy, were we BUSY! I was her right-hand man/helper/SLAVE...whatever you want to call it. It was hard work! We spent our day answering our cell phones (that were ringing OFF THE HOOK!), sending out more crews, trying to direct crews, operating on the copy machine, uploading pictures, and prioritizing work orders...there was NEVER any down-time! Judie Free came and stayed with us throughout the day along with some others who kept us company...and SANE! (Or about as sane as we COULD be!) Judie made some big pots of soup for the crews when they came in for the night and we had bottled water that someone had provided. After collecting all of the work orders that we could and filling out all of the paperwork that we had to, we got ready as well as we could for the next day and left the church late that evening.

...All to be back at the church at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday. We held a very abbreviated Sacrament meeting for the workers and sent the crews out by around 8:00. We had learned a few things from the day before and were a bit more organized in getting the men signed in and documenting their cell numbers. We even got a few more shirts in for the workers who didn't have shirts! Mell and I were in the gym again for most of the Sunday, even though we snuck out to the couch in the foyer a few times to try to hear what was going on in Sacrament meeting. But everytime we tried to listen, one of the million phones would ring, or a crew would come in. Throughout the whole weekend, there was only one substansial injury-and that is a MIRACLE in itself! One man called us and said that one of his men had injured his pinky finger and they thought it was broken. They were near the church, so they headed up here. Mell tried to call Dr. Lewis, but we couldn't get in touch with him. Luckily, we found a lady in the ward, Sister Lumblee, who had the training that we needed. She determined that his finger was just dislocated (pretty badly!) and popped it right back into place! And he was back out working a few minutes later! It was a miracle that that was the only problem we had, other than one brother with a NASTY blister on his foot! Even if I had a picture of that one, I couldn't bear to post it! It was a MONSTER! Poor guy...

We made ourselves sandwiches after church and sent out more crews. (A lot of the Jonesboro Ward people couldn't leave to serve until after the block of meetings because of their callings, ex: the Bishop and his family.) Some women in the ward surprised a lot of the crews and took lunches and snacks out to them throughout the day...it was so wonderful. Almost everyone it seemed like was serving in one way or another.

The Church had SUCH great experiences with this weekend. One crew went out and helped the local convent and had a great experience with the nuns! They took pictures with them and the nuns even promised to put us on their website! How great! We even got phone calls at the church that day of people just calling to thank us for all the great work we were doing. I think that a few doors were opened for missionary experiences, too. Probably more than we realize. One woman's husband passed away the evening that the storm started and her house had so much damage that the paramedics had to cut her husband out of the house to take him away. Another woman went to a bank in town to take out a loan so that she could hire help. The bank teller was a member and told her about the Church so that she didn't have to take out a loan. It was people like that that needed our help most. And we filled every one of those 100+ work orders.

The crews worked SO hard. And they all had such GREAT attitudes! It was incredible. It was amazing how so many different people with different talents and abilities could come together for a common purpose. Mell was also FANTASTIC! She put this together by herself and carried it out SO beautifully! I was honored to play a part in helping her. The Church's organization is just amazing. People can criticize our church for our beliefs or practices, but they CANNOT deny our organization skills! Especially the women! :)

Look at those yellow specks..MORMON HELPING HANDS ROCK!

All different shapes and sizes..all pulling together!

Monkeys...erm...I mean MISSIONARIES in a tree!

You use that chainsaw Bro. Umberger!

It was a busy and draining weekend...but I wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world. It was a great way to spend my weekend. It took me all week, and even sleeping for 13 hours on Saturday to catch up on sleep, but it was worth it!

...and then about an hour ago at choir practice, Mell came and sat by me and said,

"Guess what you're doing again next weekend?"

OH BOY! Will it ever end?! Haha, just kidding.

...kinda...