A letter from a blessed mother in Canada

{I truly wanted to hear from Elder Call today as I am leaving tomorrow for Girls Camp for the rest of the week (no cell service, etc up the mountain). As a blessed answer to prayer I received the following... There truly are angels on earth and this mama is one of them!! Two emails corresponing with her below as well, have a tissue handy!!! }

Dear Missionary Families,

I had the wonderful and humbling experience of working with your sons and daughters last week doing flood clean up in High River. We went out as a group with Mormon Helping Hands. They brought in the missionaries from all over Calgary and Airdrie to help the other volunteers that have been going out to clean up. This is the Zone from the North Stake in Calgary.  After one particular experience that we had about a simple prayer ( I shared that story under one of the pictures), I told them that they needed to make sure and write home about it. They told me that they had not been able to email home for 2 1/2 weeks. I have a son out on a mission and if I had to wait 2 1/2 weeks to hear from him that would be no fun at all. So I gathered all of your email addresses from them so that I could send these pictures to you.

One Elder wanted me to let his mom know that he is still alive...but I can’t remember which one it was. So I will just say that they are all alive and well! My son and I had a great day serving with these wonderful missionaries. It was the highlight of our week helping the flood victims in High River.

Our crew before we went to High River to clean up. We are nice and clean!!!

 {ELDER CALL IN BACK MIDDLE}

Sister Sagers and Sister Alsup

Our first job was hauling debris from the gutted basement to the front yard and throwing it into the bins. This is a father and son from my ward in Okotoks.

Elder Bosse, Elder Asay, Elder Reese, Elder Lloyd and Elder Bell                               
Elder Short and Elder Call {RIGHT THERE IN THE FRONT HELPING OUT!!}

 Hauling furniture and drywall from the back yard.                                              
Bins line the streets for residents to throw their damaged belongings into.

                                                       

Riding in the back of the truck to our next job.  {not my favorite thing!!}
This is what the walking paths look like now.

The Railroad track in town is all twisted. Parts of the earth under the tracks was washed away.

{THE DEVASTAION IS INCREDIBLE!!!}

 Tree trunks, debris and boats were tossed around during the flash flooding in High River.

 The train bridge is full of tree trunks, branches and dirt.  

This family lost their home in the Slave Lake Fire. They came down to High River to hand out gift cards to the families affected by the flooding {SO SWEET!}                                                                                                              

 

This is what we hauled up from Walter’s Basement. This was the neighbour across the street.

This is what most front lawn’s look like now.

The missionaries didn’t bring a lunch for the day. Some of them only had water and a few granola bars. We still had a lot of work to do in Walter’s house. When they told me that they didn’t have any food I told them that I had heard that people come around with food for the volunteers. I told them that we needed to say a prayer that a van will drive down our street with food for them. Elder Short said that he would say the prayer because he was the hungriest. He offered a sweet prayer of gratitude for the opportunity we had to serve and then said : “and maybe if you could send a food truck down our street we would really appreciate that”. I had one granola bar that I offered to an Elder while we waited and I said: “ This will be like the loaves and the fishes Elders, loaves and fishes. Some were doubting that a truck would come. Bishop Gregson who was with us said that he would go get these missionaries some food and I told him that we had said a prayer for a food truck to come by. Within a few minutes this family drove down the street with coolers filled with sandwiches, fruit, veggies, cookies and cold drinks. One missionary immediately said that we needed to say a prayer of gratitude , which we did. Then they walked over to get some much needed food. I told this young family that we had prayed for them to come and how grateful we were that they drove down our street. Another van pulled up behind them and I went to talk to the lady to ask her if she was with this other van. She was the grandmother of the young boys. She had told us that she was not affected by the flood and that she wanted to give to those who were helping. She told me that she was supposed to go down another street and for “some” reason took a wrong turn and ended up coming down our street. I told her that we prayed for her to come with food for these missionaries. It was quite a humbling experience. We were all physically and spiritually fed! The funny part of this story is that after this van came within half an hour 3 more people came with food. One Elder then turned to Elder Short and said: “You are the one who prayed for this Elder Short...come and eat the food.” One Elder also asked if it would be wrong to pray for a slurpee truck to come by! I said that we should probably just pray for food!  And at the very end of our work day another gentleman came down our street and handed out subway sandwiches to everyone. All the missionaries were taught a simple lesson about prayer.
    {WHAT AN AMAZING STORY!! LOVE IT}

Elder Asay, Elder Lloyd, Elder Bell, Elder Reese, Elder Tolman  Elder Murray with one of the other vans that came by with food.

 This is Walter. It was his house that we were cleaning up. He lost his wife to a brain aneurism 6 months ago. She made porcelain dolls and teddy bears. This box was filled with her miniature bear collection that she made- all with moving parts. We recovered it from the pile so that he could clean and restore them. He was so grateful for the help that our team gave. At first when he came to his home he looked completely devastated. At the end of the job I asked him how he was doing. He said: “I am doing better. I can deal with this now.”  :(

Some of his belongings that we tried to salvage.  

This is my son Justin. He loved working with the missionaries.  Everything is covered in sludge.  His brother is out serving a mission in Bolivia right now.  {ELDER CALL ON THE BACK DECK!}

 Elder ? ( I can’t read his name tag)  and Elder Short  

  Sister Alsup ripping out drywall.

                                      

It was tough work but we managed to get it all done.                                           

 This used to be Walter’s wife’s craft room.

 We had to completely gut his basement.                                                   

 We used sleds to haul the debris up the stairs.

                                                                                                                                    
Sister Alsup and Sister Sager

One of our team members working hard. This is how dark it was working in the basement.

{THAT'S MY BOY.....TWO THUMBS UP!!!}

All done for the day! Our wonderful group of missionaries, Walter and other volunteers.

{ELDER CALL THIRD FROM BACK RIGHT}

They had to wear these suits home since they were so dirty! I know one of these missionaries is Elder Short..but I am not sure who the other one is. If you are a parent of this other missionary could you let me know who it is.

Thanks for sharing your missionaries. They are doing great and their service in High River was greatly appreciated.

Tamara Grigor {blessed angel on earth, so thankful for her!! I immediatly emailed her a huge email (below) and she sent one back BE READY FOR TEARS!!! WHAT A SPIRITUAL DAY FOR ME!!!}

{my email sent to her.....see her reply below mine....have a tissue handy!!}

Dear Sister Grigor,

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR YOUR EMAIL!!! It was a HUGE BLESSING for me!!! It was an answer to prayer like no other!!! Usually I am feeling great having our son our on a mission, but for some reason today I have had a few tears missing him. I also head out to Girls Camp tomorrow (my last year as the Stake Girls Camp director!) and won't be back until Saturday. So I was hoping and praying to hear even a little something from him today before I head out tomorrow for the week (with no cell service, etc at all up the mountain).

So to get your email brought me to tears AGAIN!!! THANK YOU with all my heart for the time you took to get each of their email addresses, pictures, names, etc... I cannot thank you enough for that sweetest gesture of love. You will never know how much it has meant to me.

Elder Call is our son (he's the one on the deck with two thumbs up! and also in the first photo in the very back, and in the front of a driveway as well). The damage there is so very sad. It is incredible the amount of damage that has been done. On a much smaller scale, we had a dike (water retention wall) break in our hometown earlier this year. It flooded / damaged 24 homes (nothing compared to what you are experiencing), but Spencer was still here then and was able to provide several weeks of service doing exactly what he is doing there....ripping off sheetrock, unloading basements full of muck, etc... 

The spiritual story of praying for food brought tears to my eyes and my voice cracked as I read it to the family as well. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for being a "missionary mom" to all of these Elders and Sisters today. You are a gem of all gems and I will be forever thankful to you for the time and love you have offered to my son, myself, and our family!!

One day, even if it's the hereafter, you WILL get a big HUG from ME!!

Love from one missionary mom to another,

Amy Call

Missionary Mom to Elder Spencer Call Calgary Canada Mission 

{Her reply to me....if you read this Sister Grigor, I hope you don't mind!!!}

Amy,

Oh DEAR!! Your email got the tears rolling down my cheek. Our son down in Bolivia was having internet troubles this morning and lost his whole email before he could send it out.  He managed to send a few lines out to say that the internet was giving him grief. I didn’t feel sad because I knew that all of these missionaries and their families haven’t been able to communicate properly for the past few weeks. I sent out the email to all of the families and then this afternoon up popped my son's email that he thought he lost. So my feelings are truly tender for you today! You will have to ask your son when you get the chance to email but I am pretty sure he was the one who suggested that we offer the prayer of gratitude once that first food van arrived. He was a trooper and worked so hard all day. He has a very gentle personality. It was a treat being around these young missionaries. Your son had a big smile on his face all day. No matter what the circumstance!

I’m sending you a big hug from one missionary mom to another! I did feel like the “mom” of the group on Wednesdayand it was the best feeling!

Have a great time at camp. Your son is in good hands up here serving faithfully and helping those who so desperately need it.

Tamara

 {SHE'S AN ANGEL ON EARTH, that's for sure!! THANK YOU TAMARA!!!!}

Our emails continued.....

I sent another one back to her and she sent the following to me.....

Amy,

 

For whatever reason your emails have really touched my heart today. I have shed tears ( sobbed actually!!) each time that I have read your emails to me. I can see where your son gets his sweet, gentle nature and a spirit that can lift others! I don’t mind at all that you put the emails and pictures up on the blog. I noticed when I clicked on the blog that the pictures don’t show up.  Do you want me to send the pictures in jpeg format so that you can add them to the blog? Just in case you are wondering which one is me in the group pictures- this is a picture of me and my son Justin after our day in High River. And the other picture is the night our son Tyler was set apart as a missionary.

 

 Tamara, the sweet missionary mom that I "met" today and will be forever grateful for with her amazing family!!!

Thank you for all the kind things you said about me. That brightened my day and made me feel so great. I love you too Sister Call! I was rewarded in so many ways by working along side your son.

Thanks again!

 

Tamara