Rain, beautiful rain........!

This part of the country is finally getting some rain. It is truly an answer to the prayers of so many. Everything is looking so green and fresh as the pictures below show. These were shot from the north side of our building. As it turns out, there is a nice veranda that can be accessed by everyone in the building that looks out over the city. I especially like the one looking toward the downtown area.

I will start with some non-mission things that have involved some of my thoughts and efforts during the week. Our rental home in Lehi again has some wonderful tenants moving in, and, since we are losing our great tenants from one of our Miles City (MT) homes, I have been busy in my off duty moments screening prospective tenants as best as one can do when hundreds of miles away. Thank goodness for modern technology.  Other than this, my week was primarily involved with the tedious task of entering car inspection results into the system. This has to be done for each car one at a time which is time consuming enough, but it is especially so when I must also call the missionaries who have the particular car needing service or repair and arrange for the particular needed service revealed during the car inspection.

And speaking of cars; an unusual car turned up in our parking lot this past week. Wednesdays are the busiest days at the bishop’s storehouse during the week and so all people who work in the various Church offices in the building know this and everyone parks on the north side of the parking lot which frees up the south side of the lot for those coming to the bishop’s storehouse. This happened to also be a day when some workers from the local telephone/internet providers, Shaw Communications, were there to string a new line from their poles to the church offices. They wanted all vehicles cleared from one area of the parking lot while they were stringing wires. When I went outside to see which vehicles these might be, to my surprise, there sat a beautiful red Ferrari. Each of the offices was contacted to move their vehicles but no one claimed the Ferrari. Fearing that some car thief had possibly stashed the car there for a time, I went out and took pictures of the license plate, the VIN, etc. with a plan to inform the police if the car was still there later in the morning. The next time I looked out the car was gone but still no one knew anything about it. In any case, I couldn’t resist a vanity shot while the car was there. After all, I am a car guy! I think my knees would have a problem getting into and out of such a low-slung car, however. Do you know what sits in the back seat of a Ferrari? The engine!

Speaking of cars, this week I sold the Chevy Colorado truck we have had for a month, and I have a prospective buyer coming tomorrow who is very interested in the Dodge Caravan. Kathy and I also picked up two additional new Nissan Rogues early in the week. One of them has already gone south to Lethbridge and the Chevy Cruz it replaced is now sitting in the mission parking lot to be detailed and sold along with one other Cruz awaiting being sold. The latter car had been a loaner out to a pair of missionaries whose car had broken a timing chain which resulted in a total failure of the engine. It had to be towed to a Chevy dealer where they found a bent piston rod and some other damage. It could have been worse; sometimes when a timing chain or belt breaks, pistons are thrown through the side of an engine. Fortunately the Cruz was still under the 5-year drive train warranty so there was no charge for repairs. 

And now to the domestic front; we have bought a cherry tomato plant for our balcony so we will see how it goes. Since we have a south-facing apartment, it should do okay. We will keep you posted.

Yesterday we attended a baptism for a young man in his 20s who is Chinese and who was taught by our Mandarin speaking missionaries. The service was in the building where the Mandarin Branch meets and was done in Mandarin. Fortunately they have devices so we Anglos could each listen to the translation provided. It was a marvelous experience and was well attended by the Branch members.

Tonight we had the Elder and Sister Peppinger, a couple with whom we work in the mission office, here for dinner, and then we all went to a missionary fireside where President and Sister Miles were speaking. It has been a wonderful day.

We hope your week goes well. We love you all.

Evan & Kathy