And The Rains Descended, and the Floods Came!


 This week has had both the good and the bad. First, the bad. There was a massive flood in the communities around Valencia here in Spain. It is part of our mission, and about a 2-hour drive from Barcelona. They said that they got almost two years worth of rain within a very short time. It was horrible for the people there. I saw videos on the news of cars being washed away. Some streets had almost 3 meters of water running through them. They are still finding bodies in cars. Cars were stacked up like wood (as you can see). We are blessed that the missionaries in the affected areas are all safe and sound. Although, they had some close calls. Two sisters were at the chapel when the excitement started and opened the the garage to leave, and water came rushing in. Luckily there are upper floors in the chapel building, and so they were able to take refuge there until the next morning. Another set of sisters were visiting a member of the stake presidency when things started and tried to walk home really quick only to find themselves waist-deep and had to stop at another member's house who took them in. There were also a couple of Elders who narrowly missed being caught in the floods. Of course the power was knocked out, bridges were damaged, and infrastructure took a beating. President Heckmann was at a mission leaders conference in Malta and so it fell on the Assistants to manage things. They just "happened" to already be in Valencia on exchanges, and were fantastic checking with all the missionaries to make sure everyone was safe and secure, and managing the urgent needs there. That was a huge "tender mercy". The Lord knows where His missionaries are, and He makes sure they're cared for. This experience also shows me that we can see miracles from the Lord even in the worst of circumstances.

Now for the good stuff. In Spain, they don't do much with halloween, but the day after is more of a celebration for them. Most places are closed the day after Halloween, but we were lucky enough to be able to go eat sushi at our favorite restaurant even though they ended up charging us dinner rates rather than lunch rates because they were open special. Because of the holiday they didn't have institute on Friday like they normally would. They decided to put on a dance for the Single Adults. The YSA missionaries still did a dinner for them, and it was pretty wild. We went and helped, and so we were pretty wiped out by the time we went home Friday night. Saturday we "helped" some sister missionaries assemble an IKEA bunk-bed. By "helped" I mean we got there just in time for them to disappear to go to an appointment, while we worked for about 3 hours putting the dumb thing together, and then showed up at the end. IKEA loves to send you a box of toothpicks, some hex keys, and some instructions, so that you can build furniture out of it! I won't be doing that again if I can help it.

The really good stuff is that we had a baptism today. The assistants have been teaching a girl named Luisa, and we've been sitting in on the discussions because they can't teach a single sister by themselves. We've really seen the change that the Gospel has made in her life, and the happy glow that seems to surround her now. This has really helped us to keep our focus on why we're here in the first place. It was a sweet experience.

We're slowly becoming more confident in our individual responsibilities and I'm not quite so close to curling up in the fetal position under my desk as I was at first. The Lord is certainly helping me, and Brenda is handling phone calls like "our fridge just died", or "we need new toilet seats" like a pro. I am even getting better at getting driving here. We know that the work of the Lord is vital, and we're excited to be a part of it.

We love you all, and hope that this month of "Thanksgiving" will be a time for you to reflect on the many blessings that Heavenly Father has given you. He really is there, and He really is in the details of our lives. All we have to do is look for Him there, and you will find Him. Until next week, we send you all of our love!


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