Early October our Stake was ask to send 100 brethren to Galveston to help with the clean-up. So we all organized and went Galveston to meet at our Galveston church building. This is the first time I've had an assignment like this one. But I have to say that this was very well organized and executed.
Mike King, Ed Ehlers, Steve Scott and the Lopez's and I drove up together. We met at Stake Center about 4:30am then drive to Galveston. This was about a 4 hour trip.
Once we arrived and reported in at our church building in Galveston we were given our clean-up assignment. Everyone received a
Yellow Mormon Helping Hands T-shirt so that we could all recognize each other.
We did some clean-up at a home that was right on the shoreline. Just amazing the amount of destruction that had taken place. These are a few pictures I took while on this
Mormon Helping Hands assignment. We were all glad to be there in these Galveston residents time of need.
Gary Boucher saving an air conditioner.
Our next assignment was at a home further into the city. This whole neighborhood was under water from the storm surge 5 feet. This home had to have the whole interior gutted out. We had to peel off the chalk board throughout the house and wheel barrow it to the street for pick-up. This was a dirty job. The older lady that we were helping out really was filled with much gratitude. We were all glad to help.
The garbage pick-up arrived just at the perfect time. We just completed the job at 3:30pm and was able to check-out at our church building and head home.
The drive back is another story... 5 hours of pure laughter with some great friends! We were so exhausted/fatigued and just had a funny bone going that wouldn't stop.
Sam Reed with NPI Construction Installed our new blue deck. We were very happy with how it all turned out. Our deck was built with treated pine. Arbor was build with Ceder. Columns built by Tucasa. Spot lights and other electrical was installed by Gabe Oliva. We also installed misting fans to keep living area cooler in the summer time.
I'm On My Way To The Stake Dance...
It was wonderful to meet my Cousin John Alexander for the first time ever. Seems unusual to have a cousin that I've never met but as we know that Uncle Albert & Aunt Thelma lived there several years while Albert worked for Bank of America as VP over his division.
We enjoyed reading to each other over several days. And just spending our time together while we traveled around to Fredericksburg & Medina/Bandera areas. Below is Medina Lake where we spent some time reading.
This was at the city Park of Bandera
Raz got a little help from her mom in climbing the tree. Not sure if she enjoyed this adventure very much
Wonderful time together!
You can see the tide surge that came up over our deck as hurricane Ike made land fall in Galveston. You can see the water level across the canal close to the top of the bulk heads. Our prayers go out to those up North who didn't fare out so well.
