Calgary skyline

Calgary skyline

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Better Start Building an Arc...


June 26, 2013


Hello family and friends! I haven't been able to email because of the nasty flood that has swept through Calgary. So, I get to email in a dumpy, sketchy, smelly, computer lounge. Fun!

As you (hopefully) have already heard, Calgary has been experiencing lots of rain and overflowing rivers. It all happened on Friday. We got a call Friday morning from one of the YSA members in the area, Amber. She's awesome about keeping us updated on situations such as this. She explained to us that Calgary is in a critical state of emergency, citywide. I knew that it has been raining for days and days without any sign of stopping, but I didn't know that it could make the rivers that surround the area to overflow the way they did. The whole downtown was evacuated and so was a couple other towns. There was so much water! I have never seen anything like it except at Niagara Falls, that's how intense it was. Luckily, we live on a hill, which is in no way of danger, in the case of floods.

We went out of our apartment to check out the "damage". We got a really good look from the top of the hill, where we live, since the Bow River is on the bottom of the hill. Wow, what a sight! There was so much water going through that river; it was unbelievable. Over 200,000 people lost their homes and are now homeless. What a terrible thing. On the Indian Reserves it was totally wiped out--absolutely everything gone. We have already done a clothing drive for those people, hopefully we can be of some more service soon.

We should be getting some service assignments from church headquarters very soon. Maybe, just maybe, I'll get to wear those famous "Mormon Helping Hands" shirts. That would be so cool! The Church is just waiting for the rivers to recede, then they will take action. Exciting to see what is going to happen. :)

Now in terms of missionary work... Sunday we got a referral from a ward member, about her sister in-law. So, we wrote her name down, and planned on stopping by her place on Monday night. On the way to P-day, we got a text from the referral office in Salt Lake, giving us the same referral. We took that as a sign that we needed to see her ASAP! So, Monday night we stopped by. We knocked, and knocked... and knocked some more. No answer. Despite the 100+ mosquitoes that were swarming us at the door, I had the prompting to WAIT. Finally the door started to open and we met Margii. She is a wonderful older lady, who is so interested in the Gospel. She has a lot of health issues, that is why it took her awhile for her to answer the door. We had a good chat with her, set an appointment up for the following day (Tuesday).

We met with her last night, it was a great first lesson. She has been so prepared by the Lord to receive the Gospel at this time. While we were there she said she couldn't put down the Book of Mormon. WOW! This blew me away. She also said she already knows that it is true. So, I extended the baptismal invitation and she said, without hesitation, "Of course I do!" It was awesome! She is on date to be baptized July 13th. I know that she has been waiting to hear this "good news" for years. I am so blessed to be able to be the one, along with E. Bickmore, to share it with her.

All-in-all, a great week. The flood did not impede His work and it should be hastening it even more. :) I love this Gospel, I love sharing it with the people of Canada, and I love how Heavenly Father lets me do it. I am loving my two years serving the Lord. God Bless!

Love,
Elder Browning

P.S. I won’t be able to email on Monday, since it will be Canada Day! My first Canada Day experience. So I should be emailing on Tuesday.



Flooding in Calgary





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