Sister Heather Crofts

September 24, 2018

The Island of Myrtle Beach

Hola hola y'all,

I hope you have had a wonderful week. This week in Myrtle Beach has honestly been nuts. We have been trying to get our heads all back on straight and get going!!

We came home and got straight to work and visited lots of people, tons of people were still gone from the evacuation. We visited lots and we tried to get involved and help people that needed it.

The hurricane didn't do too much damage in Myrtle. We were so so so blessed. We got to help people clean up tree limbs and fix their yards. One day, we were in North Myrtle close to the members the Selphs. We went service knocking and brought their two cute daughters. They helped us for hours and it was awesome. So little did this Utahn know that the worst part of the hurricane, usually comes afterwards. Myrtle Beach is being cut off from the rest of the state because of the flooding. Conway is practically underwater. EVERYTHING is flooded. Look up all the Conway flooding. They are our neighbors and lots of the flooding is in our area. It's really really sad. The Wakama River has overflown and destroyed hundreds of homes. There really is nothing you can do to stop the floods. They have built some dams and they have evacuated thousands of people. A couple years ago South Carolina had horrible floods from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence is going to be even worse and flood even further. The next couple weeks we will have lots and lots of ways to serve. On Saturday, the ward went to a neighborhood in Socastee and we filled sand bags and put them all around the edges of people’s homes. We are barricading their houses from the floods. That was a lot of work. Who knew sand was so heavy? It was awesome though because just about half the ward came out to help. We almost had too many hands!!! Please please keep all the people here in your prayers.

Esmeralda's baptism got moved to this upcoming Saturday. She is so excited. She went out and bought a dress and she has everything ready. Her family has been less active for a long time and she is honestly the key to their hearts and coming back to church. We love the Ramirez family. We were over at their house last night and Ruby made sopes. She mentioned how when she offers people her food it is because she loves them, and she wants them to eat and eat and eat. That is exactly what we did!! It was so much food but she had just talked about a horrible story when someone denied her food. WE ATE A TON. We left happy, and a little fatter. :))

A really cool experience that we had this week was sacrament meeting. This wasn't your average sacrament meeting. They cancelled church throughout the stake because the flooding put too many people at risk and they wanted everyone to go out and serve. Bishop ended up holding sacrament meeting for a few families in the ward in his home. Wow. That was a really sacred experience. There was only about 20 of us, they blessed the sacrament, bishop gave a short message, and the spirit was palpable. It made me think of all the early saints and the places in the world that didn't have church buildings. It just made me reflect on how sacred the gospel is to me and just how important it is for each of us. I am kinda having a hard time and Bishop caught onto it. (I don't know if I've mentioned that Bishop is our best friend. He is so in tune with the Spirit and he feels like a 2nd dad to me. I have adopted them as my family.) He just talked to me and lifted my spirits so much. Sunday was a huge answer to my prayers. I know that God loves each of us and he is aware of every ache in our heart. He wants to uplift us. Sometimes we get to be on the receiving end and sometimes God uses us as instruments in his hands. I love the gospel. It is flawless. I love my Savior and couldn't do anything without him. I know there is no way closer to him, than through service. We are trying to teach normally, but we are also doing a lot of finding through service. I love Myrtle Beach.

Also I forgot to mention, next week we have P-day on Wednesday Oct 3. We have transfers on the 4th. It's probable that I am leaving so don't send anything else here. Please let everyone know.

Los quiero mucho!!!!!!

Hermana Crofts