Working At the Missionary Home

Painting in the rain

I got the privilege of helping renovate one of the apartments at the missionary home! The major work started at about the same time as I got here, and it was quite a lot to do. Their apartment is one of four apartments at the house. Two of the apartments are for one of the other missionary couple in my congregation, and for the two special pioneer sisters in the Chinese group. (The last apartment belongs to the landlord, who is not in the truth.) The apartment that I got to help renovate had not been lived in for quite some time, and had fallen into general disrepair because the landlord didn't take care of it.

Repairing a security grille

The apartment was completely repainted, a new bathroom and kitchen were installed, some of the plumbing was redone, all the window shutters and window grilles were taken out to be painted/repaired because of rust, and air-conditioning units were installed. Basically, in about 3 months time, the apartment was rebuilt from the inside.  If only you could see how bad the place looked the first time I came in to help, and been able to compare what it looks like now. Night and day.

Working on the circuit breaker

I of course have no skills, just a willing spirit. Much of the technical work was done by some of the local brothers who have trade skills. In fact, early on in the project, a Spanish Brother and Sister from Texas flew out here for about a week and helped build and install most of the kitchen cabinets in the apartment.   Other local friends helped with the electrical wiring and installation, because much of it was out of order and new electrical connections were needed.

The work was finished this past weekend and we helped the Marshalls move into their (finally) completed apartment. It's such an awesome privilege to say I got to help with this, even though it was only a little bit.  The only thing I regret is not taking more pictures.  In fact, wish I had a picture of poor Bro Marshall jackhammering away in the bathroom to start the process of replacing the tile in there. He slaved away at it for hours with a bad drill and was melting in the heat. Least. Fun. Job. Ever. At least now whenever he has to go to the bathroom, he can look around and enjoy the fruitage of his hard work.