Oh my goodness. Being a missionary is too good! So last Monday, it rained. Flooded actually. I have never seen rain like that in my entire life! Usually it takes us 30 minutes to get home from Brampton, but it took us an hour and a half! We had to do nightly planning in the car. Then when we got home that night, we had no power! Hahaha. I thought it was fun actually :) Writing in my journal and brushing my teeth by light of a flashlight. I was so grateful for that flashlight! Toronto was in a complete black out! It was insane :) But there were a ton of basements that flooded.
On Thursday night we got a call from the Elders that serve in the same ward as us, Elder Snelson and Elder Wilson. They said that we were needed to help out with a service project the next morning at 8am to help people who had flooded basements from the crazy rain storm on Monday. So we drove to Etobicoke on Saturday morning where we met about 20 other people. Most were full time missionaries and a few members from the Etobicoke ward. Sandra, the lady in charge handed us rubber boots, rubber gloves, and yellow "Mormon helping hands" vests. She informed us that we would be dealing with flooding from sewage backup, so what we were about to do wouldn't be pretty, but we needed to rip out carpet, take out chairs, and anything fabric that could have soaked in water because it's contaminated. We split up and went to work! The first house we went to was a lady in her ninties named Simona. Her husband died a few months ago and she told us that she had been crying for the past few days and had only slept maybe two hours a night since the flood on Monday. The smell in her home was terrible! I don't know how she has lived in it for the past week! Five days of sewage backup flooding mustiness and mold doesn't smell very good at all! We carried out rolls of dripping wet carpet, chairs, mattresses, blankets. Pretty much her whole basement. She was so grateful! We helped another man named Bob that could barely walk! Let alone carry things out of his basement! When it was around lunch time and everyone was waiting for pizzas that Sandra had ordered, Sister Sorensen, Elder Snelson, Elder Wilson, and I were just walking up and down the street looking for people who looked like they needed help. We passed a house with an old guy outside and we went over and started talking with him. He told us they had already been by and helped him, but we talked with him for a minute anyway. His name was Stan and he said, "I'm going to look up Mormons on the internet tonight and then I'm going to come to your church on Sunday." It was amazing to see how people reacted to so many young people ready and willing to help with smiles on their faces. It was such an incredible thing to be a part of! After we ate pizza for lunch, Sister Sorensen and I helped out at one last house. We asked the old man if he needed help and he said no because he was trying to save money. When we told him we were volunteers, he gratefully accepted. His daughter was around the side of the house next to the door to the downstairs entrance, and when she saw us coming and realized we were volunteers ready to help, she just started crying. Miracles happened that day. What an amazing day! I was super sore the next day from lifting and carrying things, but it was completely worth it!
Kashra got baptized yesterday!! It was quite possibly one of the happiest moments of my mission. I love her SO MUCH! She is a miracle. Kashra helped me understand that God loves us too much to let coincidences happen in our lives. He is in every detail. After Kashra's baptismal interview on Saturday night, we walked across the street and took a stroll around the temple and talked with her for a while. It was so peaceful. She is most definitely a kingdom builder! She means so much to me and I love her with all my heart! She bore her testimony after her baptism yesterday, and talked about faith. She talked about how last week she loved fast and testimony meeting! And that in one of the testimonies, someone talked about faith. So Kashra, went home and looked up faith onlds.org so she could learn more about it. She found a talk by Richard G. Scott and loved it! She shared her favorite quote in her testimony and then talked about how she has felt her faith growing in the past few weeks that we've been meeting with her and said that she is so excited to continue the growth of her faith. I just cried :) I felt so much love for Kashra in that moment and felt my Heavenly Father's love so strong in that moment. The Spirit was so completely tangible all day yesterday! It was truly incredible! Kashra's nonmember aunt and uncle that she lives with came to her baptism and her aunt hugged me and whispered thank you in my ear. She was wiping her eyes during the actual baptism. It was seriously one of the coolest moments of my life! I can't even describe it. All I know is that God loves us so personally and individually. It's a miracle.
I know our Heavenly Father is one hundred percent aware of every aspect of our lives. He loves us. He sent His Son. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He died for us. He lives for us. He lives.
Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. Have a fantastic week!
Love and prayers,
B
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