Gratitude for the Little Things
You never really know how much you appreciate something until that thing is taken away. For us, this week, we are extremely grateful for water. For almost a week we were without water in our apartment. The leaking water heater got so bad, that the water to the whole apartment needed to be shut off until we could replace it. That replacement finally happened on Friday. In the meantime, we got to see just how much we appreciate water, and how much we rely on it always being there at the turn of a knob. We showered and did our laundry at the office. To flush the toilets, we had to fill a bucket with water and dump it down. Where did the water come from you ask? There is a public faucet a block away where we would go and fill up some 8 liter water bottles to take home so that we could brush out teeth, wash our faces, and flush the toilets. We felt kind of like homeless people filling up the water bottles and lugging them back to the apartment. It got even more complicated when, on Wednesday morning, I went to get more water, and the faucet was dry! Good thing that there is another one a couple of blocks away that I could go to.
We thought they were going to fix it on Tuesday, as we had an appointment for 4:30 in the afternoon for them to show up. Well, one guy showed up, took a few pictures, asked a couple of questions and then started to leave. Brenda stopped him, and I asked him when they were going to be back. His response was "maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after." Then, he left. Turns out that it was neither, and so we were thrilled when they called us on Thursday afternoon to tell us that Friday at 10:00 they were going to be there. We stayed home from work on Friday. I just stayed in my workout clothes determined to wait until I could shower in my own apartment. I started to get a little nervous around 11:00 when they hadn't yet shown up! However, they did get there a little later, and within a couple of hours they had it fixed. 😎 That first shower was GLORIOUS!
To add to the fun, this week was transfer week. We were supposed to get 11 missionaries with 5 going home. We ended up losing 5 and only getting 1. The rest are all visa waiting. The president had to close some areas, and do a lot of rearranging so as to not have to close others. The one missionary that we did get, Sister Firth, is the grand-niece of a dear friend of ours from Virginia, Uta Jenkins. It was fun to send her a photo of her niece with her new companion. It is often amazing just how small the world really is.
On Monday night President and Sister Heckmann invited us to family home evening with them. It turns out that Sister Heckmann's birthday is the same day as mine, but that with transfers, we would have to celebrate a little early. They are wonderful, and it was fun to play some games with them, and just enjoy the evening.
It is wonderful to watch the work go forward. A little over a month ago, we were informed that the owner of the apartment that we have in Tarragona wants to live in it, and so they informed us that we needed to vacate. It was concerning because Tarragona is a popular city, and finding apartments is tricky business for our property manager. The apartment had 4 sisters in it leading up to this transfer, so we have been worried about having to close down a major city because of not having living accomodations for the missionaries. However, the Lord knows our need, and we got a call on Friday that they found one and asked if we could come and check it out. Tarragona is a little over an hour away, and so Brenda and I decided to take our P-day and drive down there to check it out. It was raining, and we thought that we left in plenty of time. However, the was a major wreck on the freeway and traffic came to a stop. It took us about 45 minutes to go about 3 kilometers, and so we were late, but no worries. The apartment looks good, the sisters will have a place to live, and the work of the Lord goes on. He lets us worry a little, but He always comes through.
We were able to get back from Tarragona in time to finish the laundry and call the family. This whole WhatsApp video calling thing has been a marvelous blessing for us. It warms the heart to see the faces and hear the voices of those we love each week. If we didn't have that it would be really tough, kind of like not having running water in your home only worse!😬
Yes, there are a few challenges, but we know that we are right where we are supposed to be, and the Lord has been blessing us with His tender mercies all over the place. This week Sister Fernandez who went with us to Germany was being transferred away from Barcelona, and left the sweetest card for us, and a beautiful note saying how grateful she is for knowing us, and especially Brenda. These wonderful servants of the Lord have captured our hearts, and although they can sometimes make us a little crazy, we love them dearly.
We lost 2 of our office elders this transfer, and so we are going to get to know and love two more even while we miss the two that left. This transition is always hard, and we know that we will have to go through it many times in the time that we have left. The assistant that left us, Elder Peery is opening a city named Blanes that has never had missionaries in it. He is going to be amazing there. They formed a group in there because the members had a really long way to travel to get to church. Now they have missionaries there, the church rented space for them to meet on "Sundays only" in a gym. President Heckmann drove there to see their first meeting, and we were told that they had 52 people show up today! Again, the work goes forward, and we are grateful to be a part of it.
We miss you all, and hope that you have a wonderful week. Please know that you are loved!
Comments
Post a Comment