Today is Easter Sunday and as I sat in church, I listened to one of the speakers who is a woman with a young family. She discussed  her story of maintaining faith during difficult times. She was raised in Chiapas, Mexico. When she was young, a hurricane flooded all of her town. On Sunday her mom announced “We are going to church”. She said to her mom “the whole town is flooded, how can we go to church?”. Her mom told her, “On Sunday we go to church, that’s what we do!” When they got to church the congregation was flooded with saints. Her mother’s faith has given her strength during difficult times.  Her story reminds me of another woman I met a few years ago and her faithfulness.

 I live on the gulf coast and every spring and summer there are floods and hurricanes. In the recent past there was a bad rain storm north of Baton Rouge that caused the Mississippi River to flood in Baton Rouge. Shortly after the flood waters receded, we were asked by our church leaders to go and help muck houses. Our group got there on a Friday night. We got up early the next morning and worked all day Saturday helping two families.  On Sunday, all of us volunteers went to a brief sacrament meeting where we partook of the sacrament.  The governor of Louisiana and the mayor of Baton Rouge came to our sacrament meeting and spoke to all of us and expressed their appreciation for our time and work. After the meeting we went to another home that had been flooded and now partially mucked. I remember seeing a brand new car that had been flooded and stranded in the driveway. I was asked to muck a storage room in the back of the home. The storage room had been flooded to the very top. The woman who owned the home came by that Sunday morning and thanked us and told us she was headed to church.  She was experiencing a great trial and her faith still guided her to church. 

I am grateful for the faith and service of the people of the gulf coast. It takes a faithful community to help dig each other out of powerful storms. It’s the teachings of Christ that help us understand the importance of loving our neighbor.

Sincerely,

A man with a shovel