So this week was really pretty crazy. We ended up helping a lot of people! So if you haven't heard, madison wisconsin is almost underwater, jk. But there has been a ton of rain, especially last Monday was super scary. We didn't see any of the actual flooding but some other missionaries in our area did and it sounded pretty crazy. we also saw a lot of pictures of it. So one of the members of the ward had his car flooded... like totally destroyed the car, and that is pretty much it for the ward members. The majority of people have little to no damage, but there are some areas that got wrecked. So we went to help out cleaning up on Thursday and we helped this family whose basement was flooded up to the ceiling. So their fridge was turned upside down, their was nothing that was in the basement that was really even worth trying to keep. The houses all down the block had very severe damage and it was pretty scary to see. We were able to help with clean up, and then sandbagging for preparation for the rain that's supposed to come this week. We are safe, our apartment is on pretty high ground and we aren't too worried about it, but there is a lot of other people who are struggling. So it has been a blast to be able to be a part of helping with that, but the missionary efforts in the area are growing a lot as well! We have been blessed to be able to continue to teach Son! He is reading the Book of Mormon almost every day and just waiting for the answer to come. We really don't know what all we can do right now to help him until he gets the answer. Also we were able to meet a lot of people on the streets! There are finally some people moving in to campus, and that has been really helpful for us, because that means that there are people walking around all the time to talk to. Before it was a little scary not knowing if anyone was even going to be there when we were planning, but now that people are moving in there are a lot more people to talk to, and a lot more people in turn are ready to hear our message! We have had a really succesful week finding, now it is a matter of following up with them!
So another interesting thing that was said this week about the floods, one of the Elders in our district goes "I know we always joke about baptizing nations, but I don't think we need to worry about that anymore, God is doing it for us" I just about died laughing. It is so true though, there has been so much rain. So the rest of the week was pretty much a normal week of work, we also had our interviews with President Williams, and that was exciting! It always is, but this one was extremely good! I enjoy being around President Williams and learning from him. We were also blessed with finding 2 new people to teach this week, their names are Ariel and Lexie(well that is their American names) They are from China and have been in the US for about a week now... so that was interesting! They really have no ideas of what God is, or what he is supposed to be, or anything about him at all really. So we had a good lesson about learning who God is, and how to pray to him so we know he is there. It was super hard to teach because they speak English, but not the greatest, and we don't speak chinese so that doesn't help much. It was good though! So then on Sunday we had a ton of people at the ward because there are a lot of new students moving in, it is pretty cool to get to know them and help them out the best that we can! It has been really good this last couple weeks to be able to work with the ward a lot more than I have in any of my other areas, and we are starting to see the mindset of the members change to where they actually want to do missionary work!
Well I hope you have a wonderful week. Good luck with school starting for those who have it, and hope the rest of you enjoyed the summer! Here comes fall!
Elder Reynolds
