Flooding

hello my family and my friends!

well, this has been an interesting week indeed. first of all, I'll let you all know that i am totally safe from flooding, although Gympie is getting hit pretty hard. we are affected a bit, in that there are a few bridges between south side, which is where we live, and the other side, which is where the rest of town is- all the shops and the library and stuff. and the last bridge went under water last night. so we're stuck on south side. however, we saw it coming, and we prepared, and bought extra food and supplies, and whatnot, so we're all good. plus lots of the members live on this side of the river, so we have a good support network. and yes, all the rumors you have heard about the flooding in northern QLD are true. the area that is covered by water is bigger than Germany and France combined- or more than the entire state of texas. Emerald was hit pretty hard. the missionaries there were evacuated, but the water only came like 2 or 3 inches over the floor for them, and they are living out at the Watene's place which is like a little island right now. so as far as i know, the people that i know in Emerald and Rocky are alright, but there is heaps of clean up to do. as far as i know, no one has been evacuated out of home in Gympie YET, but we'll see. right now, the river is 17.3 metres deep, as compared to it's usual 2 or 3. so its REALLY flooded. we've been taking heaps of photos and video, so it will be well documented. ANYWAY, this week has been fun. i met most of the members from the visits we did and also because there was a wedding that we were meant to help at, for a few members of the ward. so i met lots of people. then sunday they asked me to speak for 5 minutes by way of introduction, even though only like half the ward showed up because of the floods. but then the second speaker didn't show up, so they asked me to try and make it a bit longer, like 7 minutes- i tried to do it, but i just couldn't keep it that short... haha JUST kidding, i think i barely made 3 minutes, but it was all good, because the third speaker had a long talk. and it was really good. we also did a few hours tracting in the rain, because it pretty much rained non-stop all day every day. oh, and just for you geographically confused people, Gympie is only 2 hours north of brisbane, as compared to the 15 hours emerald is away from Brisbane. and we had to drive to district meeting on a thursday, which is an hour's drive on the crappiest highway i have ever driven on. and then on the way back, it was also pouring rain. so i could barely see, and i had to keep up with traffic, which was still doing like 90, and i wanted to cry. it stressed me out a bit, but we made it home safe, and i was smashed. it tired me out. so that was fun. then we also had 2 lessons this week. one was with a younger couple called Cameron and Naomi, and they were really good, and they were planning coming to church but they weren't able to because of the floods, so that was o.k., but they are also reading and praying about the book of Mormon, which is good. we also had a lesson with a lady called Celine, who was very receptive, and invited us back next week, and committed to read and pray about the book of Mormon. so things are going well on the proselyting part of things. anyway, that's pretty much the week. oh and mum, you're right, the post and trucks cant get in or out of Gympie, the main hwy is closed, so ya... it'll be a little while before any mail comes through. anyway my time runs short. but it is going well for me, so don't worry! we're safe, and we're still able to work. life is good. :D ok I love you guys so much!

love,

Elder Tayler Christensen