on the way to the first meeting, we were going to drop some supplies off to one of the elders in the hospital diane mentioned last week. got a call that he was being released later that morning so to go directly to the meeting. about an hour into the first meeting, we left to pick up the elders from the hospital, got them lunch and put them on a bus for home, waited at the station for another 30 minutes or so to pick up a beautiful, new missionary arriving from pakistan (i love greeting the new ones!). took her back to the meeting to meet up with her two new companions and found out one of them had possibly been exposed to a rabid dog and the doctor at the meeting felt she should get the rabies shots as a preventative measure! just a side note ... can you imagine being the girl 'fresh off the boat' from pakistan and having that be one of your first encounters? but i digress! ... so, we took the three sisters to drop her luggage at her new apartment but first had to stop and pick up a mattress for her to sleep on (a 3" foam pad - which, by the way, is what diane and i sleep on as well), shoved it into the van, then we were off again. let me also say, the neighborhood roads here were NOT built for cars, let alone a large hyundai passenger van, so that was an adventure unto itself! people outside the cars are often necessary to help navigate the turns and ALWAYS used to guide backing up. anyway, we get lunch for the three sisters and then take them to the hospital to begin her series of three rabies shots. we are running behind at this point and had to leave them on their own with instructions of who to see and how to proceed. feeling confident that they were capable of handling it themselves we left and began the 90 minute drive to the next meeting. about 20 minutes into the drive, as we were getting on the winding mountain highway, the car begin making a horrible grinding noise - which is NEVER good! we pulled off into a gas station that had a sign for 'mechanic on duty 24/7'. we felt so blessed! well, apparently he was on PHONE duty, 24/7! they got on the phone to the mechanic and he suggested it was probably the brakes (it OBVIOUSLY was not). needless to say we decided to turn around, miss the meeting and get as close to home as we could before the car blew up or did whatever it was going to do!
we felt badly because we had mail and money for about 40+ missionaries that hadn't had supplies for a month, but we had no choice. the good news was we were able to make it back to the hospital, which was a good place to leave the car until someone could come look at it, and check in with the young sisters and see that they were being taken care of. we were rescued by two of the office elders who came and moved everything out of our van into a truck and they drove us back to the office where we could make arrangements with the area vehicle department in manila to come pick up the car. since they were coming for one, they decided to come for two! we lost our toyota corolla as well! the couple before us had backed into a pole which misaligned the trunk latch so we haven't really been able to use it since we've been here (you never knew whether you'd be able to close it if you opened it!). the only car we had left has had a dead battery for 2 months so we had to call on someone else to come handle that! and as he said ... 'unfortunately, you can't just go to costco, buy one and have it installed while you shop'! he got it taken care of the next day though and even brought the office krispy kreme doughnuts! yes folks! we discovered they have krispy kreme here!
well, we lived to face yet another day of no printer for sister epperson, ants, ants, ants, and even more ants (they are crawling on me and my computer as i speak), which we spray to get rid of for a day, but then the apartment smells like bug spray (which is actually an improvement over the sewage smell), and of course, our beloved brown-outs! we were too busy this day to take pictures but i will leave you with one from that night ...
in case you can't quite make it out, this is diane in a brown-out!
i am learning that even when nothing goes according to schedule, i am able to smile and be at peace because i know God has a plan. the mundane happenings of real life can sometimes get all of us down but when i try to rely on the Lord and allow things to happen in His time, i know the needful things will take care of themselves. it's true for all of us. one little p.s.... lauren, christian and my two angels, madeleine and stella, are in denver visiting cameron as i write tonight. my heart hurts a little that i can't be there because there is no greater joy in my life than being with them. i know i am where i am supposed to be though and that makes it ok. i'm so grateful for all my family and friends that just make my life better. i love you all so much.
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