I just wanted to share some photos from my wonderful experience this weekend in Mississippi. My friend from the single's ward told me that the ward was asked to send people down to assist with Katrina clean-up in Hattiesburg, MS- the town we were actually in was Oak Grove, but just outside of Hattiesburg. I couldn't leave work early- so me and two guys from the ward that wanted to leave later also took off on Friday night after work. We pulled into town at around 2am, and were kind of confused because we didn't see much destruction or any apparent damage to buildings... but of course it was dark! Anyway- there was a big camp out of about 100-150 (or more) LDS people at a middle school where there was a large field that they let us camp out on. After a pretty rest-less night of sleeping, or lack thereof, due to barking dogs and snoring men and needing to go to the bathroom and being disgusted by the out houses (breath) - we got up around 6 or so. I did mostly because I just couldn't sleep anymore. Then around 8am we got our assignments and took off.

There were about 21 or 22 people in our group, including two members of the Bishopric and a couple of their family members.As we drove to the neighborhood we were helping out in, we finally saw why these people needed help. It's not like anything I'm sure you all have seen on TV, but considering the town is about an hour away from the coast- they got hit HARD. There were several homes with large trees that had just fallen right on them. Some of them we were pretty sure there was no way to repair. Apparently they got winds up to 100 MPH and there were also tornadoes.

Anyway, the first two houses we cleaned up downed trees and limbs and either filled up a trailer and drove it to the street or just dragged them. The men had chain saws and cut down trees that were dangerous to leave standing, and cut the wood up so that we could load it on the trailer or drag it easier. The third house a very large tree had fallen through the home owners bedroom. Luckily when it happened she was in her basement. We didn't get to meet her though because she wasn't home and didn't even know we were there- so I'm sure that will be a VERY nice surprise when she comes home. We got to meet her next door neighbor and one across the street and they were grateful that we stopped by to help.

By the time we got to the last house all of us were pretty exhausted and all about to suffer from heat stroke- but we cut down three trees and cleared them out in about 1 1/2 hours. We left feeling very blessed to have had the experience because the lady that lived there cried tears of joy and was overwhelmed with how much we did in such a short time. What took us that short amount of time would have taken them months to do. She hugged a lot of us and thanked us and I know that we touched her and her family. Even her small kids were SO happy that we were there. It was touching. None of the people that we helped were members of the Church, but if anything we've planted a seed! The guy that owned the first house we worked on said "We were thinking about becoming Mormon- but you guys work too hard! And it's amazing that even though it's hot and you're working, you're still smiling!"

It was HARD work and it was hot and humid (the most humidity I've ever felt) but everyone was SO grateful. It was amazing how all of us pulled together and just worked. No one complained, everyone cooperated with each other. No one made assingments of who should do what- we just did. It was so awesome to just be working hard together and to know that everyone was pulling their weight. It was so much fun!! I felt very blessed to be there, not only to help these people- but because of what I have and how lucky I am. I'm grateful I was able to serve those people and hope that I will have more opportunities.