Give Said the Little Stream

Week #15

What a week. Hopefully I'll dry out sometime next month.

I did hear Colorado made national headlines, but it obviously wasn't Lafayette. We've had rain here, but only a couple people in our ward had to leave their homes or had any trouble at all. Bishop Poulson's house is on top of a hill so we haven't had any problems at all. We even sleep with the window open.

We have spent most of the week in P-day clothes ripping up carpets, cleaning basements, digging trenches and sandbagging. I never had my camera with me, but Elder Yarman got some pretty great pictures. I'll see if I can get some. 

The worst flooding has been in Boulder, so our whole zone has spent the last three days down there helping whoever we can find. Saturday and Sunday were spent largely in one very large house just moving all of their furniture and carpet out. Twenty-two missionaries wading through a basement with water up to the mid-calf carrying waterlogged couches, bookcases, sounds systems, mattresses and computers is an impressive thing to see. Especially when they're capable of ripping out an entire basement in twenty minutes. I'm pretty sure it was more impressive than Ammon chopping off all those arms. If there's ever a book chronicling the missionary work of the last dispensation, we should be in it.

We also got to make a pretty awesome promise to a recent convert earlier this week. She's been having a lot of financial trouble and we asked her if she had paid any tithing since her baptism and she said no. We taught her that the Lord will bless us when we pay, and even when we have next to nothing, we should pay 10% of next to nothing. One of the things they told us in the MTC is that we have jurisdiction over our areas and that we can receive revelation and even prophecy as directed by the Spirit. I am sure that this was one of those times. Both Elder Yarman and I were impressed to tell her that if she set aside 10% of her next paycheck (which should arrive today), she would be able to take care of herself and her brother, pay her son a debt of $700, and meet all of her other needs if she would pay tithing. It was something I wasn't really sure that I could promise something that specific, but when I started to explain that we could make these kinds of promises, Elder Yarman picked up and continued with the exact same thing I was going to say. Neither of us has ever had an experience like that and we are both very excited to see how it turns out. 

I think those are the stories we really have for this week. Lots of mud, water, service, and soreness, but I'm loving it. Also, two more people from my MTC district got their visas this week and will be going to Brazil on the 30th. I am getting just a little bit excited about mine.

Love you all,

Elder Dickson