This morning. Clawson, me, wheeler, byington

mmmmmmmm peanut butter

Flooding in the road. CRAZY!!!

after running to the car in that storm.

Hey! Want to know something weird. This is my second to last email home. agghhhhh!!!!! Its starting to really sink in but i think i'm still in denial Your last 2 weeks you get to call whoever you want and invite them to your lil farewell fireside and stuff, so its been so much fun to talk with people from past areas and it really feels good when they remember you. I had a couple people who forgot, and that hurt, haha, but they said it was just on the tip of their tongue. Riiiiiiiiggghhhht. But its fun. That fireside is going to be PACKED cuz i invited a lot of people, and there's about 20 other people going home with me. Last Monday after i emailed this HUGE storm came in. We were in the mall at the time and when we got to the exit we could see all of the hail and stuff outside. There was about 10 people standing in the entrance just looking out and holding their shopping bags. It was funny. We stood with the and looked out with them in awe. I asked Elder Byington, "Do you remember where the car is?" "No." "Sweet." "Let's go." Then we opened the door and ran out screaming into the rain. All four of us were soaked instantly. it was a blast. The hail was about marble sized, but it didn't hurt. Supposedly other parts of the city had GOLF BALL sized hail. LOTS of car damage. But we were ok. Water was FLOWING in torrents down the street. There was so much water flowing through the sewers that we saw a geyser coming out of a manhole cover and then we saw the cover blow off!! Then, it was over 30 minutes later, in typical southern alberta fashion. Supposedly back in Strathmore 3 tornadoes touched down in the county! And when we got home i discovered that our bedroom window was open, and our window faces east, where the storm came from... SO yeah, my bed was soaked, Elder Wheeler's was totally dry. I threw my bedding in the washer and the turned on some fans to dry everything off, and that worked. There was a couple more storms throughout the week but luckily we didn't get caught in any of them while outside.

I made guacamole with some avocados that the Bartolozzi's gave us, it was really good.

My last zone conference was Tuesday, it was great. The Archibald's gave great trainings on how to really be a good missionary,we revamped some mission programs, and i had to give my farewell testimony. At lunch we always sing to the relief society sisters who prepared our meal, and we sing 'Army of Helaman' but change the words, like, "and we are now the Lord's Missionaries...
and stuff. I love it. Halfway through i realized that its our last time doing it and my voice started cracking. I was arm in arm with a couple buddies, and one of em looks over and goes, Dude, you are going to BAWL. You're gonna WEEP. When it came time for the testimony we went up on the stand and while i waited for my turn my knees were bouncing like crazy. Then While i was at the pulpit my whole body was shaking and i couldn't control it. People told me that i was gripping the pulpit like it was going to float away. It was really hard because that time is like the beginning of the end. I spoke a lot on how i was grateful for every second of my mission and stuff. I got decently emotional, but no tears, take that Elder Elkins!!! But when i sat down my eyes welled up and spilled over a bit. I love my mission. It was a way powerful zone conference, and a bunch of my favorite people were there so i got to be around them, that was great. A couple people thanked me for my testimony and said its what they needed to hear and that felt really good.

Sunday was interesting. One of the speakers went for 30 minutes, so we went 15 minutes over and i wanted to pull my hair out. BAHHHHH!!!!! Then we went out to the native branch and while we were pulling into the parking lot of the chapel, the gas light turned on. And we were 50 km from home, but had to drive an extra 45 to go to an appt. basically 100 km to go, on not that much gas. We thought the Lord would rather have us doing his work than stuck on the side of the road so we tried to gas up in Gleichen. The gas station was closed. SO we drove to Standard to meet the an awesome family, the Sommerfeldts. They tried to help us get gas, but they're gas station in that town was closed too. At this point the car said it had 7 km to go, and we had to go 40. We had to get back for some appointments so i told Bro. Sommerfeldt we'd call if anything happened and we took off. I told Elder Wheeler to say a prayer and he laughed and was like, yeah. But then i said, No, for real, say one now. so he said one. We drove going 80 km/h (45 mph), supposedly the most fuel efficient speed, the whole way, A/C turned off, knuckles white on the wheel. We made it, our next appointment gave us a little gas from a jerry can and it was enough to last us the night. We looked at the data display and it said there was 4 km left. We were SO watched over. Wonderful little miracle, that's fo sho. Next time i think I'll try and look at the gas gauge more... :)

Oh, a couple drunk natives came to church out at the branch, and one of them, before lunch was served, kept asking us to help him out, so i said, I'll play you some music! He said ok, so i played A poor wayfaring man of grief, I need thee every hour, and nearer my God to thee. Somewhere in that time, his possibly drunk friend came and started talking to him, and the guy goes, "shhhhh he's playing my song!" It was funny. He kept asking us to help him out and Elder Wheeler said, "Silver and gold have i none, but such as i have, i give thee." It was really funny. Hooray for drunk people.

We spent this morning with Elder Byington and Clawson and Byington got his ukulele back from a previous area so i spent most of the time playing that and was reminded how much i love it! So awesome. Well, i love you all, and I'll talk to you again fro the last time on TUESDAY!!!! love you mucho!

Elder Crippen