Houses Built on Sand & Visit with Elder Pickard

November 13, 2012

Dear Familia,

Sorry this is a day late, pseudo-holidays you know.  Well I will just start by answering Mom's questions:

We do have power now, we got it back on Saturday. We moved back up to Lynbrook last Wednesday for the nor'easter and had been living up there. Ironically enough, when we found out that our pad had power back on Saturday we decided to stay in Lynbrook that night and just go back in the morning. Lynbrook lost power that night. We aren't really sure why. But that gave us all a good laugh. With food we have been doing alright. We got in with one dinner appointment with the Lynbrook missionaries and the grocery store had a sale on Progresso soups (4 for $6, normally $2.79 a can) so we got a few of those. Went to fast food a couple of times. Things are slowly coming back up in Rockaway so our area should be back to normal in about a week or so.

The people around here are generally very grateful for us. We haven't really had too many chances to share our beliefs but we always end with a prayer that the people will be very open when life gets back to normal.

This past week has been more of the same as far as service goes. We are starting to get more into gutting the basements now, most places have been pumped and cleared out all the junk by now, so we go in and take out all the drywall and insulation and then knock out all of the non load-bearing walls. That's fun stuff, I'm a big fan of crowbars. We went out to Roxbury for a couple days this week down right on the beach. Met a lot of cool people there. A family bought us all big rubber boots to go down into flooded basements with which was really nice. Normally missionaries can't even get into these neighborhoods cause they're all gated so that is opening up a lot of good work. There is a lot of damage down there because a lot of these houses were literally built on the sand. Much more literally than the Jungle like I talked about this week. We went into one guy's basement to figure out the damage for him and there was about three or four inches of water and then a bunch of sand under it. So we went out and told him that a bunch of sand must have come in through the window and he told us that we were mistaken, his house has no foundation, it is just built right into the beach. He said if not for his heavy tile floors, the water would have pulled his house off its supports. That is similar to a lot of houses down there. Maybe all these Irish Catholics should read the bible a little more. Or just go to primary. Because the houses on the sand wash away.

Our members are all doing pretty well. We haven't had a chance to talk to very many of them but church attendance was better than I expected. We had to leave straight to go back to service after we took the sacrament but they all looked to be doing well.

Our address is 20-02 Seagirt Blvd. We are in Wavecrest, which is a gated apartment complex with security so there isn't much crime there. Besides we are on the fifth floor and nobody is going to climb five flights of dark stairways to rob someone. There are also cops all over the place, otherwise crime would have been much worse out here. It is farther away from the main part of Rockaway where the looting is happening. It is more dangerous to be out because of all the dark traffic lights and crazy New York drivers while it is pitch black outside. But ya we usually get some good studies in at night, play some board games.

I have no idea what the German newspaper is that I said interviewed us. I said that more as a joke, but who knows, maybe Houston will stumble across it. And I haven't taken very many pictures, I have been kind of scared to take my camera with me to do service. A lot of chances to break it. Now that most of the water is gone I can probably start bringing it though.

But ya this weekend we had a big group of members and missionaries from other areas come in. On Saturday I did work with James [Pickard] for a few hours so that was a lot of fun to catch back up on things. When these big groups come in we almost become more like supervisors. They just put a companionship of local missionaries with a group of about ten people and we guide them to a house and show them what to do and then just kind of help out as needed. It is really nice because I am started to take a beating. Sounds like we are slowly phasing back into proselyting coming up here so that will be nice. For the next couple of weeks it will just be visiting members or people we were already teaching. But we need the slow down here. I love the service but our bodies can only take so much.

That snowstorm brought in three or four inches of snow but it all melted the next day. There have also been a ton of clothing drives out here. President Calderwood's home stake in Virginia sent up 6 semis full of clothing and they let the missionaries take first picks of it. So those extra clothes you sent are kind of unnecessary now except for the shoes. But that's alright. All of these clothes I picked up I am probably just trashing as soon as service is done so that will clear up some room. These shoes I have now are doing good work though. Yesterday we were just knocking out walls and this woman had wood paneling over everything to take out so there were a lot of nails on the ground. I had 5 different boards get stuck in my shoe but the soles of these Air Force 25s are so thick that only one nail got through the shoe and not by enough to break skin. Shame I will have to trash them after all is said and done. They just smell strongly of moldy basement and stagnant seawater from Jamaica Bay. Don't think I will be able to save them. Speaking of mold, most of these basements are getting a nice thick layer of it by this time. The final step of everything we do is go through and spray every square inch of those basements with bleach. That's a pretty fun job too.

Well I think that's about it for today,

Love you all,

Elder Pearce