It is awesome to see the community pull together and help each other out.

Hi everyone! How have you been? It's been a great week. Biggest news? We have an investigator on date! Renee has accepted the date of March 29th to be baptized. We are so excited for her. She has a son who is 11. He got baptized a few years ago and he has been such a support for her. When we extended the commitment to be baptized he freaked out and got so excited. Renee was nervous but he was pumped for her. The lesson was awesome and the spirit was so strong. She has been set a date a couple times in the past and backed out but this time we will make sure she goes through with it. Please keep her in your prayers.

Well we also got to hear from Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That was awesome. He opened it up a little bit for questions that we could ask him. We also got to hear from Elder Maynes of the Seventy and Bishop Stephenson, the presiding bishop over the church. It was awesome. The talks were great and the things shared were very helpful. They talked mostly about finding people to teach and talking to everyone you see. It was really cool.

In addition to that it was Stake Conference yesterday. It was funny because they broadcasted it to High River and the connection was terrible. We missed pretty much the entire first half haha. The parts we did see were pretty much a slide show because the picture was so jumpy. The sound was off too. It was a wreck but it worked out in the end. We got to hear from Sister Nicholas and President. That was super cool. They are awesome. We also got to hear from Elder Maynes again. He is a great speaker. We were worried they were going to ask us to get up and speak when they sere trying to figure out what was wrong. Luckily they called on the Elders quorum president to talk about his meeting he had with Elder Nelson.

It has been a pretty good week to say the least. We have been busy like you couldn't believe. We are seriously going to move every person that lives in High River I swear. Because the weather has been so warm, the snow is melting and the rivers are thawed and flowing. People are already filling sand bags preparing for the worst. There is a fireside this weekend at the church, open to the community, about stress and anxiety and how we can deal with those. A professional therapist is coming in from Calgary to give it. Lots of people are getting nervous. We have helped some people who we know are going to freak out when spring and summer come. It's weird. Back home there is never a problem or scare like this. Regardless, there are still people who are stronger and better prepared.

We went to the United Church after Stake Conference and caught the last few minutes of the session. We were there to give the Pastor some of the fliers talking about the fireside so he could give some to his congregation. Right at the end of the session, he announced that three Elders with the Mormon Helping Hands from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were here and he told the people to go out and shake our hands and thank us for what we did after the flood. It was incredible seeing the response from the people. They were so grateful. I shook more hands there than any day at church. The people were so nice to us. They had tea and coffee after their service. The Pastor came up to us and told us there was also juice for us because he knew we didn't drink coffee or tea. It was so awesome. Next week he will be coming to church with us. He is such a nice guy.

As horrible as this flood was and as much of a hardship it was, the people in High River are so much more united because of it. The support we see here is incredible. There are organizations like Habitat for Humanity (we usually work with them once a week), Samaritans Purse, and others who help people rebuild their houses and basements and what not for free. They say they are going until the funds run out. It is awesome to see the community pull together and help each other out. The hearts of the people have been softened here for sure.

Well, tomorrow I hit three months. I can't believe it's been that long already. Time has flown by. If my mission keeps going like this I'll be home in no time. It's hard to believe. But there is still a great journey ahead of me and I am excited to see what's in store. If it is anything like what the last three months have been, then this will definitely be the best two years of my life. I can't wait.

I hope all is well back home. Take care until next week.

Elder Anderson

The Calgary skyline (Jake is about 45 minutes south of Calgary):