A typical day....NOT a typical week

My comments this week are more about the story you are about to hear told by Hermana Brightman. In our “underground network” we call Texas Dallas Mission Moms, we have been able to piece together a full account of what transpired last Friday.

car through the front of the church

Driving lesson gone bad

First, I was on fb and came across this picture. Whoa! I thought, that is a sight you don’t see everyday…then I read where this occurred, the Plano building where my sweet Hermana Brightman attends meetings. Okay, heart attack time. Then I read a post from a momma who is in the same area, the report, no one was seriously injured (what?! Did you see that car??) So, breathe a sigh of relief. Then in email Monday I find their district (a small group of missionaries in the same general area) was there for a meeting at the time! Tender mercies!! I will add more information after the email.

Hermana Brightman’s email from 4 May 2015

Hey Everybody!!!

So after seeing Hermana Fish's mom post her "Day in the life" email, Mom requested that I do something similar.

So here's a typical over view of what Hermana Pollock and do from day to day.

6:20 am- Wake up, pray, and get ready to work out

6:30 am- Work out, either in the gym at our apartment complex or for a walk around the park across the street

7 am- Come back, eat breakfast, and get ready

8 am- Personal study, preparing our minds for what our investigators, members, and contacts need

9 am- Companion study-- role plays and lesson plans.

10 am- Language study (or Wed and Fridays teaching english class)

11 am- 12 week new missionary training

12 pm- lunch

1-5 pm- proselyting, teaching lessons, visiting less active members, contacting

5 pm- Dinner with a member

6-9 pm- proselyting, teaching lessons, visiting less active members, contacting

9 pm- Back to the apartment and plan for the next day

9:30 pm- get ready for bed

10:30 pm- lights out

But this was not a typical week.

For example, we taught the plano first ward young women in a mini MTC with Sister Taylor. That was SO much fun!

And then on Friday, when we were having district meeting, a car crashed into the church. Yep. Through the double glass doors. We were standing up at the front of the primary room and heard the tires squeal, saw the glass fly, heard the crash and felt the building shake. Nobody was hurt more than just a couple scratches and an ambulance, a firetruck, 4 cop cars, a tow truck, and 3 hours later the glass was all cleaned up and we headed back out to teach.

Other than that, the week was pretty uneventful. Oh! And the person that crashed was a less active who ended up coming back to church on sunday. Something that could have been a tragedy turned into a manifestation of the hand of God and something that changed at least one life!

.....yep... that's pretty much it for this week, folks!

Con Amor,

Hermana Brightman

So her companion shared the story with a few more details included, but the same feeling of being genuinely happy they were there to help. That is my sweet Hermana Boo Brightman! She has the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known. She is an amazing person!! 

Hermana Pollock standing against the wall of the room where they were meeting. 

Glass down one of the hallways

The boarded up door after clean up. 

Story from Hermana Pollock (Hermana Brightman’s companion)

“We were there!!!!! We were in the building having our weekly District Meeting, we had JUST started. We had done the opening song, said the prayer and Hermana Brightman and I were standing up in front to start an activity were we report on our area's progress when BLAST! We see glass fly down the hallway through the doorway we were facing and feel the whole building shake. Smoke is in the building, glass is everywhere and a white Toyota is halfway in the building! We were having the meeting in the Primary room and the car flew through the glass doors between our room and the Relief Society room. SO CLOSE! But there was a cinderblock church wall between us and it. So the story is that a young adult member of the Chinese group was teaching his mom how to drive in the parking lot. She rounded a corner and he told her to brake, but instead of braking she punched the gas and flew up, over the handicap parking sign, barely missed a huge tree and smashed through the door! Crazy stuff...the Elders and us went running out into the hallway, saw we had to exit the other side, ran around the building and quickly ran to see if they were ok. We called 911 and Elder Cheatham and McBride kept talking to them, making sure they could feel extremities and were conscious. The operator gave us permission to get them out of the car so we did, making sure they put it in neutral and turned it off first. About 4 Police cars, a fire truck and an ambulance showed up shortly to the scene and talked with the boy, he translated for his mom. They declined going to the hospital , they only had minor cuts on their faces and sore necks from the airbags that deployed. We waited for the stake presidency and the branch president to show up, and then we helped clean up all the glass and mess inside the church, before they started taking out the door frame and boarding it up. We cleaned for 3 hours, finding glass shards that had shot down all 3 hallways over 50 feet! We vacuumed probably 3-4 times over! But everyone (the building managers) were SO thankful we were there and had been there when it happened. The craziest part about all this is that we WEREN'T going to be there...we had planned to have the meeting 2 days before, but because of their lack of miles to come down to Plano, our district leader Elder Evans and his companion Elder McBride asked if we could move it Friday. Divine intervention that some of the Lord's servants were in his house when more of his children needed them to be there. There was NO ONE else at the building that day... they could not have gotten out of the car by themselves and shortly after getting out, the son's phone completely died! They couldn't have even called 911... it was a miracle! So that's my story of the time a car crashed into a church building on my mission!”

And on P-day, they got some time to relax at top golf!

Fun times!