Wednesday, March 9, 2011

My Shoes are Soaking Wet...

So... Findlay got lots of water last week. LOTS. Basements are still pumping out water and people are still calling us/Red Cross asking for help. This past week us four missionaries probably did 50+ hours of service (which didn't leave much time for teaching). We ripped out carpets, power washed houses and patios, bagged hundreds of sandbags, moved those sandbags, army crawled through crawl spaces with less than two feet of height (I was almost EATEN by wolf spider the size of a CAR!!! -I might be exaggerating a little bit!)... Lots and lots of service, but as missionaries we are called to serve. And the people of Findlay need(ed) us, so we're more than happy to help!

All day Monday the river was rising. By the evening time it started to fill streets and homes. Elder Haines and I were supposed to go to Cleveland that night for a Zone Leader Council meeting the following day (these happen once a month). It was going to be held in the School of Prophets and would probably have been an amazing Spiritual experience. My companion talked to our mission president about the floods and us coming to Cleveland and our mission president asked what we thought we should do. The decision was made to go to Cleveland and if the floods got bad we could call the missionaries in our Zone (in surrounding cities) and have them help. I felt uneasy about going. We were packing and I decided that I couldn't just leave Findlay while water was quickly filling the city. I called our mission president and told him that I felt we needed to stay and that we needed to call in some "back-up." He agreed and it was done. We had eight missionaries that night sandbagging like mad men! The next morning water was everywhere! Tuesday at noon the river/flooding peaked and started to go down. But since then we've had rain and snow that's been keeping the river high. Supposedly we're getting another big storm this week and flooding could happen again. Let's pray it doesn't! I'm glad we chose to stay rather than go to the meeting. We've been working side-by-side with red cross going to people that call us to clean there homes.

Speaking of people getting wet, Brad was baptized this last Saturday! We were so excited for him and he seemed to glow afterwards. Brad is in his 40's and lives with members of the church. He seemed to glow after his baptism! We'll continue to work with him although he already acts like a member of the church. He's such a great, humble guy! I'm glad that I've been able to help yet another child of God perform that saving ordinance so they can one day return to live with our Heavenly Father!

Well, I don't have much time. This morning we were helping people clean their basement that was about four feet full of water! Hopefully this week (physically) is a little bit easier. Wet carpet is heavy!!! Thank you for all your support and prayers! I couldn't do it without you guys! Stay safe! Choose the right! Read your scriptures!

Love, Elder David Dransfield

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