"Water, Water Everywhere, but Not a Drop to Drink" by Ed Gates

This entry was originally written for our family Christmas service blog on Dec 25, 2017.  I had Ashley's name as my recipient this year.  She is currently Relief Society president in her ward, and always serving others.   This experience is an important chapter of our mission, so I wanted to add it to our mission blog.  

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By serving in Africa as a missionary it's not very hard to find a way to do a service project!The real challenge is putting that serving to the particular person who you will be serving for?

I really thought about who I was to serve, early in the year. 

You have heard about the orphanage, we have kind of adopted.   On our last mission we built a wall to stop the flooding creek.  In early November there was a terrible storm and the creek overflowed and rushed through the area.  Our wall held up, but not the neighbors on two sides.  The pictures will show what we found when we arrived, better than me trying to explain it to you.  

My service was for my favorite daughter in law Ashley!  The challenge was that I had to connect my getting the water  out and doing it for Ashley who is the Relief society president.

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The water originally was up above the top of the door and windows.  However, much of that dissipated when the 2nd neighbors wall collapsed.  The bedrooms are about 2 feet lower than the ground, so when we arrived, there was over 2 feet of water in the house and a good foot throughout the yard. We tried to pump the water out of the house, but the pump didn't work.  After hours of trying, we finally gave up and bucketed the water out of the house.

There was much clean up, and many dishes to be done, once we got the water out.  I said to Kristine that we needed help from the local relief society but they never came.  I spent most of two days getting the water out and she kept busy cleaning dishes and working on getting clothes dry and helping get clean food for them.

I know that if this was in Ashley's ward, she would have made sure that there were some sisters there helping get the clean up done!

I am proud of you Ashley for the way you serve as president of your Relief Society.  There were many many times throughout this year that my thoughts were of you and of how I could do a service for you.  .

To end this report, I need to say how difficult it was,not physically,but mentally.  It was extremely difficult not get depressed,because of how blessed I am,and how blessed all of us are.  I do know that as you have served in this  calling, there have been some of those same feelings.  Both of us have been able to grow from the service we have been blessed to give.

I love you Ashley.