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Last night I had the great pleasure of gathering together with other members of my community to fill and haul and place sand bags in an effort to keep flooding water from damaging the many homes it threatened. I was hanging out with some people from my singles ward when the elders quorum president, who happens to be a friend, recieved a call informing him that one of the girls in our ward needed quick assistance from as many people as possible to try to protect her home from the steadily rising water, and since we were already gathered together we all loaded into cars and made our way to her neighborhood. The sudden flooding was actually a result of a heavy dose of Spring snowfall that we recieved a few weeks ago. It covered the mountains, and then when the temperatures hit the high eighties and nineties this week it all melted very quickly and ran down into our little valley. On top of that, we also had a quick onset of very heavy rain just hours before we heard about the flooding. I have to say, I have never been witness to an actual flood, or really anything like it, so I was shocked and amazed at the amount of water that was pouring out of the canals and nearby creeks. The street on which our fellow ward member lived was already knee deep in water and sadly there wasn't much else we could do for her than had already been done. But there was still a lot of work to do elsewhere. We began by hauling sand bags from one of the many trucks that were out (You'd be surprised just how many trucks there are in a small town Utah community. Love it.) and lining them accross the street in an attempt to redirect the coursing water to a drain on the corner. When we had done all we could there our gaggle of wet, sandy volunteers loaded back into the car and made our way to a spot near the rodeo grounds to actually fill and tie the sand bags so that there would be enough for the people still placing them. The work was dirty and hard, but we barely noticed with the high spirits of so many happy service-givers. We worked late into the night shoveling and tieing and loading the sand bags that would hopefully prevent the kind of serious flooding that had already afflicted several homes in the area. By the time 1:30am rolled around I was exhausted and very sore, but so grateful to be a part of what we accomplished.

It's things like this that not only remind me how much I love living here, with such a tight knit community of truly great and selfless people, but also how incredibly lucky and blessed I am. My home was untouched by the flood waters. At the end of the night I came into a safe clean house and was able to climb into my own warm bed in my own room and just sleep. How blessed I am to have a home. How blessed I am to have my family so near, who loves and cares for me and whom I love as well. How blessed am I to be a part of a ward family who understands the importance of friendship and service. People who love the Gospel and live its teachings. How blessed am I to live on God's beautiful, miraculous, living earth, with it's many wonders. Truly, I am so blessed to be a daughter of my Heavenly Father, and to have the great opportunity to be here, now, a member of His chuch, trying as much as I can to live the teachings of my Savior. It shouldn't take a flood to remember these things, and really, it didn't. I am humbled every day and filled with gratitude for the wonderful life I lead. And even in the face of tragedy and loss, I am grateful for the opportunities I have to serve my fellow men and rally together with friends and neighbors in defense of our little community. It is so good to be, and feel completely and inescapably, at home.