So the baptism actually happened this week! It probably couldn’t have been any more stressful for me but it made it so much more worth it!
We’ve been helping with the flood A LOT this last week. It’s been a pretty humbling experience to assist these people that have lost almost everything. We put on the helping hands vest several times this week and either went out with ward members or would just go to heavily effected areas and walk down the street looking to assist people. There are HUGE piles outside people’s home’s where they’ve thrown out demolished basements, walls, furniture and other random items. The dumpsters fill up really quick and so people just move stuff by the street. We’ve helped with every thing that you could possibly imagined. We’ve been a part of completely destroying basements and cleaning them out, to emptying muddy water from basements with buckets, to filling dumpsters with huge piles of garbage on the sides of roads. We’ve been able to meet a lot of non members and build up a respect and gratitude. We’re not aloud to proselyte when helping but if people ask questions then we can answer them. The community and Calgary in general has been amazingly supportive and helping with thousands of volunteers as well. It’s good to sport the bright yellow vests for helping hands because people will randomly thank us walking down the street and comment on how organized our group is. We definitely get muddy every time that we go out to help. The mud stinks because it’s just got everything from sewage, to river water to anything you could imagine in it. It makes thinks super heavy too! Like drywall….it is quite the sludge to try and remove. Anyways, I’ve LOVED getting to help people and be in service clothes so much. Downtown is pretty well drained but all the basements and stuff aren’t. It’s pretty funny though when we help people and they offer some food and beer….and it seems like EVERYONE smokes even though they’re doing back breaking work and it’s hard to breath! haha
We were out the morning of the baptism helping though! It was quite the change to the all white clothing that evening!
So as far as the stress of the baptism (the Lord was clearly humbling me because none of my other baptisms have had such problems) the day before the baptism we were out helping load dump trucks and I got a call from our ward mission leader. He told us that the lady that books the stake had double booked the building and that youth dinner would be happening right next to the font and it would be super loud. So we called Ruth to see if she could move it to a different time but her friend who was giving a talk and introduced her to the church needs the handi-bus and you have to book your rides more than a day in advance. So we were thinking we might just have to move the baptism back a week (even though we had the font booked first and the relief society booked it after because they were having a dinner for the youth because they were helping with flood cleanup instead of “treck” this year). Our ward mission leader called us back and said that he had good news because they did book it after us and knew that they had to be out of there by 6 o clock for our baptism and would be starting at 4:15. This was a huge relief.
So we moved to the relief society building around the room and everything was set up. Here’s where Brad Paisley’s song lyric comes in. We got a call from Ruth’s friend who needs the handi bus and she was supposed to be at the baptism at about 5:45 and it starts at 6….it was 6:05 and she hadn’t been picked up yet….and it would still be a 15 or 20 minute drive. PLUS the mission president shows up to this baptism! So we forged ahead with faith that her friend would get there soon and we did things a bit out of order but it ended up being a REALLY good meeting. Ruth’s friend showed up and gave an amazing talk and we were able finish about 15 minutes later than I usually would but it was a GREAT meeting. I loved it! And some sister missionaries in our zone had an investigator come!
Thank you SO much for the money in my account! It is greatly appreciated! I’ve had to eat out a lot more randomly and have just had random expenses with the flood and being out and about so much. I’m happy and healthy though! There’s a town out here called High River and they sit in a sort of gully and they are still under water. The water has no where to go and probably won’t be pumped out of there for another 6 weeks. That means that THOUSANDS of people won’t have homes because they’ll have to be demolished. Pretty sad…. The church has sent up SO many different disaster relief supplies though and it’s been amazing to see! Brand new chainsaws, shovels, pitch forks, pick axes, crow bars, masks, helmets, cleaning bucket and much more! Our church is amazing!
I love you so much!
Elder Colby F. Jorgensen 