Who left the hose running?

So………can’t write much…..trying to keep my head above water…….computer is floating on a table……not safe………hard to breath………gurgle…..gasp….I love you!………………………………………………………………………..

Okay I’m kidding…..but things are pretty crazy in Calgary right now! Our baptism got moved back to hopefully this weekend. We couldn’t do the interview because of the flood and Ruth lives at a low side of town. The district leader couldn’t make it there from his apartment because so many of the streets were flooded and closed. Plus, the Calgary transit is down and Ruth’s friend that is giving a talk needs the handicap bus to pick her up to go places. So everything should be fine for this weekend as long as Calgary transit gets back up and running! I still can’t believe all that’s been going on. My companion and I were driving in downtown where the power was out and streets were flooded on our left and right and it was just a ghost town! Everyone in the downtown portion of the city has been evacuated and the streets are filled with water. The city went from thousands of people crowding the streets and going every which way…to a tumble weed bouncing around…We had to evacuate the mandarin speaking missionaries in the zone because there apartment is in the main part of the city. Our place is a little bit out of the way. We have the two overflowing rivers on either side of us but we’re some what safely in the middle. On Friday is when the flood really got bad and people were walking places and cars were going under water and bridges were being closed and the main evacuations started in the city. My companion and I were out trying to make sure the zone was all okay and staying safe and smart. We stopped at some old school diner for lunch and it was such a memorable experience. It was one of those classic places where the workers have been there forever and the owner just scowled at us because “we’re Mormons and not the regulars”. So there were all these different hitchhikers, truck drivers and different people there and the place was decorated super old school, with James Dean posters and Marilyn Monroe and stuff. Plus the 50’s and 60’s music playing and the waiter serving us coffee even though we asked for water! haha It was closing down and workers were leaving even though they were still serving a few people. It was just crazy and an eery feeling like we were in a movie. But yeah, we’re safe for now and will be doing a lot of clean up help when the water starts to recede. The city is taking care of all the immediate service and help right now since the flood is still happening and they need to get power turned back on and clean water to people and such. We should be busting out the helping hands shirts in the stake this week though! I’m safe though!…no one has said that our water in contaminated yet….but it definitely smells like a dirty river….so we’re boiling it just in case! It’s supposed to rain some more this week but hopefully will subside towards the middle of the week.

Other than that, nothing too crazy has happened this week! Missionaries in different areas outside of our zone had to be evacuated as well and stay at the mission home and stuff. The only comparable flood that Calgary has seen was in 2005 and caused around 300 million dollars in damage….they already estimate that this one has far exceeded that cost. The stampede is supposed to happen next month but the saddle dome is up to the tenth row in water and the stampede grounds are under water…so that will be interesting! They say the show must go on!!!

I love you and hope that you can get some moisture back at home! I could use some money to maybe get some bottled water if you have any….please and thank you!

 

 

 

“By the way,

you look unbelievably beautiful tonight. You’re practically glowing. Maybe it’s the lighting.” Fantastic Mr. Fox

The quote for this week’s letter is referring to the picture of you and Jess mom! And you’ll have to watch the beginning of Fantastic Mr. Fox to truly appreciate the quote and the humor in it.:) It’s in like the first 5 minutes of the movie so you could just watch to there and then stop:)haha But it’s pretty much my favorite movie ever, so I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to watch the whole thing!haha Congratulations Jessie!!!!! That’s such exciting news! I’m sure that Utah is very excited that they landed you to play for them! It’s going to be a lot of fun to make it to some of your games when I’m home!

Well I’m glad that dad was able to get my letter and enjoy it. I’ll just be grouping the information for both of you into this one email for convenience purposes…just so dad understands why I’m not responding to his email address. I hope it was a great Father’s day for him!

The rest of the family sounds like they’re enjoying summer and being themselves! Trav and Aust stay in touch and it sounds like they’re both doing great. I hope that things go smoothly on the farm this week!

The 22nd is still a go for this weekend! We gave Ruth a church tour this week and it was pretty sweet! The stake center that has the font is an older building but is HUGE and unique! It was fun to go through it with her and explain the different rooms and church terminology. The baptismal font is SO cool as well!!! The newer church buildings are all pretty much the same and have the same looking fonts. This one has a unique set up that is so beautiful! I’m excited for this weekend and entering the water with an investigator for the first time!

Stake conference was a lot of fun and very spiritual. We had Elder Dungin and Elder Johnson visiting from the 70 for the change in the stake presidency. It was really cool to hear from them and feel there spirit fill the building. It’s always fun to hear from the general authorities because you gain such a greater understanding that they’re real people but also that they magnify and bring power to their calling that they’ve been set apart to. There was a lot of humour in their talks on both Saturday and Sunday but also a great sense of seriousness for their underlying message that they were giving. It was pretty humorous when Elder Johnson’s phone went off while he was talking and at the exact time when he was saying how we shouldn’t think we’re living wrong when everything doesn’t go right in our lives. He then references when another authority had his phone go off while giving a talk and he tossed it to his wife on the second row and said “If it’s Elder Packer then tell him I’m busy!”

Life is good in the city though! I love the work that we have going right now! We taught a few crazy people this week and ended up dropping our investigator with the memory problems…because we evaluated that he just wasn’t retaining as much info to continue progressing…but he’s still a great guy that really wishes that he could remember better! We also taught a jamaican lady that is so amazing! She’s so intelligent and knows the bible so well! She really enjoys what we teach and is going to be such a fun person to teach. We taught lesson 1 and it went REALLY well. We’ll be teaching the plan of salvation next and I look forward to it!

I love you and hope that everything goes well this week!

“When I get where I’m going, On the far side of the sky,

the first thing that I’m gonna do Is spread my wings and fly. I’m gonna land beside a lion and run my fingers through his mane, or I might find out what it’s like to ride a drop of rain.”

I guess I chose this lyric today (from Brad Paisley) because it’s the only lyric that I could dig from my memory at this time that involves rain…..and it’s a REALLY good song. Very religious. But yeah, RAIN has been the story of my life this last week! Overcast skies and lots of moisture! It’s been good…but I’m glad that the sun is out and shining today!!!

Our investigator Ruth is still doing amazing and is progressing in her knowledge of the gospel daily. It’s been a lot of fun to teach her and see her eyes light up with each bit of new information that resonates with her. We continued to teach her the commandments this week and helped her understand how God answers our prayers. The visual resources that we have are such a blessing in this day and age! This generation of people is so much more enticed by audio visual and brief, powerful messages. We are able to use Mormon messages that we have on dvd to back up our teachings and make it more visual for those we are teaching. It also gives people the opportunity to hear from and see living apostles and our beloved prophet giving us relevant guidance in these latter days. We are able to use Elder Bednar’s three part Mormon message on “patterns of light” which helps people to understand the very basics of revelation and how God speaks to us. Anyways, she’s doing great!

We ran into a Native man outside the liquor store this week and had a good little convo with him. He mentioned how he was devoted to finding religion on that day and that when he saw us walking towards him that we were an answer to his search. He seemed sincere and sober at the time….but when we tried to visit with him the next day he didn’t answer his phone and his address was faulty….gotta love the natives around here:)

I had one of those experiences this week where you learn best by your mistakes…..I can honestly say that I NEVER want it to happen again….I really am embarrassed to even tell you about it…..It’s probably one of the stupidest things that I’ve done on my mission so far!!!!!…….Are you nervous yet? good:)

So I was being a genius this week (seriously) and was turning our washroom into a steam room for my suits. I hung them up on the curtain rod and had the shower on hot for 15 minutes, shut it off and closed the door. I also had done a load of whites and the vent to our drier goes directly into our washroom! So I had the drier going at the same time to add to the heat and humidity! I went to bed and thought that everything would be great in the morning….I was PARTIALLY right. I went in the washroom and was amazed to see how great my suits looked!…then I opened the drier to get a white shirt…and it looked like Aspyn had some how gotten a hold of my shirts and drawn all over them with pen!!!!…Then I realized that I had left my good pen in the pocket of one of my shirts….ALL of my shirts were covered in pen marks….I’ve done my best to fix them…I’m glad that I had this trial to learn to always check your pockets before putting things in the washer and drier:)

Thanks for all the pics and updates! I love when you send pics! LOVE it!!!!!