Bullocks of Lake Oswego: Breaking in our rubber boots

At last, we get to wear our rubber boots.

It has rained and rained. We are set to visit families in Cow Dam a couple of evenings with the young elders. I am full of anticipation.

Lots of the church members live in Cow Dam which is a area of New Amsterdam, where we live.

The area is scattered with randomly-placed small wooden shacks that are built high above the ground on posts or stilts, many about the size of one small bedroom. Few have electricity or inside plumbing. Outhouses dot the area. Here's a sample of how the houses look...

There are mud puddles, swampy areas and trenches to be avoided as you walk down the muddy pathways in the dark. When the heavy rains pour, there are swamps and mud everywhere you want to walk!

Some places, a few scraps of lumber lie in the mud for you to walk on so you don’t have to just step in all the gushy mud.

Or, a long narrow elevated board, or group of boards, have been placed to help you cross the swampy areas that surround the houses. I always hold my breath crossing these boards until I make it to the front step.

Learning our way around the Cow Dam area is a challenge, without any signs, numbers, lights or significant landmarks. The elders seem to know their way as if they had played in the area since they were little kids. We are watching our every step as we blindly follow them through the night.

We usually meet the elders somewhere in the middle of Cow Dam to begin our night of visiting. We are becoming confident enough of finding our way, at least to our meeting place, even through the darkness.

Our eyes are getting accustomed to walking in the dark. We don’t seem to need our flashlights even though there are almost no lights, only the faint flicker of gas lanterns in a few of the windows we pass.

We are to meet them at Jade’s little house that is deep in this area…a 40 minute walk from our apartment. We are proud of ourselves when we finally make it to her house without getting lost and are glad we have prayed for safety before we started our trek.

(Do you remember Jade? Here she is with her little boy, Travis, on her bike when she stopped by our place for a visit.)

Every person we meet in the darkness feels like a threat and a possible danger and we pass a number of others, walkers and bikers, as we walk these muddy trails. We walk fast and try to be calm and unafraid. I can’t help but be a bit nervous.

As we pass a group of men loitering and talking, Burt says to me, “Now you remember, if anything bad happens, you just run home as fast as you can, and I’ll try to take care of the rest!” I realize he is nervous, too!

Before we enter each home, we remove our muddy boots. Inside one dim light barely gives light to the living room. It is a gas lantern or a single light that is somehow hooked up to a car battery. We can see bodies but faces are barely distinguishable. The rooms are almost totally dark. Each family we visit, the setup is the same.

We have family home evenings in the dark, give missionary lessons in the dark, sing songs in the dark, eat a meal with one family in the dark, play games in the dark, and kneel together on the hard wooden floor for prayer in the dark. My flashlight goes on each time we sing so I can see the words in my small hymnbook.

We meet with a newly baptized elderly couple. The husband is 83. The wife is my age but seems 15 years older. Their house is the tiniest, riskiest and darkest one we’ve ever visited. One of the posts that the house is setting on is leaning badly. I am confident that when it collapses, the house will collapse, also!

The stairs leading to the front door are unevenly spaced with a huge step near the top. Inside, the floor is slanted and as I sit on the old, old couch, I wonder if we will to tumble to the ground with the house at any moment.

This couple is very worried because their 10 year old grandson has run away from their home…again. He has been gone 10 days. We sing a hymn and pray with them that he will return and as we leave, I hold tight to the banister as I carefully climb back down the risky staircase.

We have family home evening with Jade and her husband and baby, teach a lesson on baptism to a couple who are waiting for their birth certificates so they can marry and be baptized, ...and have family home evening with Terry and Sharmala that have just been legally married so they can be baptized next week.

(Terry and Sharmala on their wedding day. What is Elder Hyde doing during such a special moment?)

As we leave each home, I am hugged and kissed on the cheek and thanked for coming. I, too, am so thankful that I have come for I feel so much happiness being with these precious families. I am especially happy that we are able to bring to them something that will bring light into their lives…lives that are filled with so much darkness. We are bringing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We teach them of spiritual truths, and now as I think of it, I am wondering if the darkness isn’t to our advantage. Our minds cannot be cluttered and distracted by the things of this world…because we can’t see any of them! It doesn’t seem to matter what I am wearing or if I have mud on my skirt, if my hair is not as I’d like it to be, or if the furniture I am sitting on isn’t all clean and new.

I can’t even see the cockroaches that I know are hiding under the couch cushions where I am sitting.

Most of all, I have almost forgotten that my light skin doesn’t match the dark color of theirs. To me, we are all just Heavenly Fathers kids trying hard to be good kids and to help others to do the same.

I’d have to say that my very favorite part of our mission is visiting in the homes of these humble families. I see them trying so hard to learn and live the gospel. I just want to take them all “under my wing” as my mother used to say. I want them all to be my children so I can take care of them, buy food for them so they have plenty to eat, teach them and help their lives to be better.

By the time we arrive back to our apartment at the end of our nights of visiting, our knee-high rubber boots are caked with mud and the bottom of my skirt and Elder Bullock’s pants are spattered with mud.

And we realize that our house is as dark as those we visited. Our whole street is dark. We don’t have any power either. We are experiencing another blackout, which is a daily occurrence for us.