[1/22/2014] Week 46: Silver Lining

Well, obviously MLK day had all the libraries closed on Monday. As for yesterday, our only excuse for not emailing is that we were crazy busy. And even now, my time is limited.

The Twin Sisters

I would have you all know that things are still wonderful. I am still alive and well. I still love being here.

I will just relate one experience, from this morning actually:

Well, actually, it starts with last night during our daily planning session. We were trying to figure out how we were going to fit emailing into our schedule today (it is in the missionary handbook to email our families every week), and we decided to start personal study at 7:00 (usually starts at 8:00), forgo companionship study, and take an hour to report numbers and email at the Blaine public library before attending district meeting down in Ferndale at 10:30. Well, we set out for the library at 8:00 only to discover that it wouldn't even open until 10:00am. So we drove back to our apartment to finish up studies only to be flagged down on the way home by a lady, Autumn, standing next to her car with its hood up. Of course, we pulled right over and discovered she needed a jump. For whatever reason, missionary cars don't carry jumper cables, but we knew of a member, Brother Wilkett, just around the corner who could lend us his. So we called him up, he offered his jumper cables, and we left Autumn and returned in a jiffy to jump her car. Though her battery terminals were hideously corroded, her Dodge Neon started right up with a little help from the ever-faithful Toyota Corolla. She thanked us profusely - as she had important tests to make up for several classes today - and we told her how much we just love to help. And then we told her that the best way we've found to help people is to share with them our special message about Jesus Christ and asked her if we could share it with her and her family. Her response? "Sure, does Friday afternoon work? That's when my husband will be home, so he can listen too." Apparently, back in Tacoma, they received a lot of help from missionaries when they moved. Classic.

Moral of the story: Heavenly Father blesses you and really does drop investigators into your lap if you're doing what's right.

And we still had time for companionship study before district meeting! Bonus points!

So actually, the reason we didn't have time to email yesterday was that we had to drive down to Mill Creek to exchange our car (2012 Ford Fusion with a cracked rear bumper) for the Corolla earlier mentioned, so that the Fusion could be repaired. So if we hadn't backed into the fence post last month, we wouldn't have met Autumn! Now, I'm not suggesting that the God of all the earth made us damage the car, but I am saying He will make the best of our circumstances, though dim they may sometimes be. #silverlining

I love y'all!

Elder Martin

Mount Baker and The Twin Sisters

PS: Just a little eye candy from the great state of Washington! The bigger one is Mt. Baker, and I'm not sure about the three smaller peaks grouped together. For some reason, though, they remind of James and the Giant Peach? Who knows why?