Week Fifty-Nine: The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Hello Everyone!

I don't really have pictures this week. Sorry.

But what I do have is stories!

So basically we started the week with no car. At all. So we walked to our area each day. It was far. One day I am certain we walked much more than 10k. But then it started raining. And we still had to walk. And then one evening, we had the wondrous news. There is a balm in Gilead. Or more precisely, a car available. So the car was delivered Thursday evening.

I had previously called the silver Chevy's we used in this area "Stripling warriors" for they had many wounds, and even at times fainted for loss of blood, nevertheless they did not perish. In fact they are all still around and fixable. And they also often ran on Faith.

The new Chevy we received also had received many wounds, yet it was stronger. and better. And White. So I call it Helaman.

Then Friday night it rained so much. Like so so much. Non-stop all through the night and Saturday morning. We had to drive to Queensdale to give a sister a blessing, then on the way back we got a flat tire, at a fuel station. So we went to put the spare on and lo and behold it too was flat. So we had to roll it to another fuel station (in the rain) to get filled up. Then we learned that new tire was broken, and needed to be repaired. Finally after much struggle we put it on the car only to learn that the rim was the wrong size. It didn't fit our car. So we called the Assistants to bring us a new tire. This week alone I have changed 2 tires over 5 times.

Then the fun in our area, there was a puddle that stretched over 30 feet. Then I drove through it. Fortunately it had been taught to me you should never stop in water because it can stall the engine. So I kept moving forward through it. The water was much deeper than we thought and actually got up to the windshield at one point (from the flow, not depth). When we got out the other side our car was filthy, and the license plat was half off and upside down. We went to Brother Madziro's and he washed our car for us despite our protests.

Later we then had to pick up the other elders to go to a baptism in Tafara, and in the process got the car dirty again. Remember I have said there is only one paved road through Eastview. I was going to take a side dirt road from that paved road, put to our amazement the ground was liquid. Our car sunk about a foot deep in the mud, and we were going downhill off the paved road. about 20 minutes later and with the help of about 20 bystanders, they lifted the car tires to put bricks under and I managed to reverse out. Again the car was filthy.

Pakaipa

But in the end the baptism went well, we were late, but our investigator was there on her own to be baptized so it all worked out.

And there has also been a lot of thunder and lightning. It is cool.

But despite all the trouble, the week went well. Our investigators came to church, they are repenting, and the Lord is blessing us.

I love you all. Have a wonderful week. The Lord is mindful of all.

-Elder Wilcken