My friend, Sarah (who I was roommates with at BYU) came to visit this past week. It started off pretty hectic--I stayed up late finishing laundry and then woke up early to make sure everything was put away. I went to jump in the shower....no hot water. My thermometer was barely reading 80. COOOOLD! I was a bit freaked out about that....thank goodness the kids had taken baths the night before. But me? No, and I needed one. So after a very quick and very cold shower, I called the maintenance people. The lady taking calls was extremely sympathetic towards us and decided that this was urgent. A dude came within the hour...which was a good thing, cause it was about that time that I needed to leave and high tail it to the airport to pick Sarah up. After hustling all the kids into the car, we were ready to go.....but when I went to turn the car on, the engine just kept rolling over and not starting. Needless to say, I was almost in tears and freaking out. My van hasn't EVER given me problems. And of all days it decides to start? Yeah, whatever! I remembered when I visited Sarah a few years ago, one of her friends always had to pump the gas pedal before starting her car. I tried to do that--and it worked! A quick prayer of thanks and we were off to walmart to pick up a lei. But when we got out of walmart, the car wouldn't start again. I tried pumping the gas again...nothing. Again with the gas pedal....nothing. A quick and desparate prayer to Heavenly Father and pumping the pedal....turned on. Whew! We went straight to the airport and arrived 30 min early. I went ahead and parked, but stayed in the car. I turned it off but kept turning it back on every 2-3 min to make sure it didn't die on me. Ugh. I decided we should go and wait for Sarah in the airport when we had about 15 min before her flight was due. It was a good thing too, since apparently it had landed just a couple minutes before! Julia met Sarah at the door and gave her a lei of stars. Miraculously, my car started for the way home. I explained to Sarah (who was very easy going about it all) and we agreed that I should drop my car off at the Firestone on post to have it checked out. Just as I was about to pull out of the drive way, Elder and Sister Webster pulled up. These missionaries are sent here to work with the military members on the island (it's a military relations mission). Especially the families of deployed soldiers. Elder Webster said he couldn't shake the feeling that they needed to check on me. :) He took a look under the hood and was concerned with how my battery was connected. He volunteered to follow us to Firestone to make sure we got there ok (I tried to show him the funky noise my car was making when I tried to start it up--of course, my engine turned on JUST FINE then. Go figure. Actually, we figured it did cause it was all warmed up from the drive to the airport and back). So we all went to Firestone and Elder Webster told the guy at the desk what he thought was wrong with the van. They said they could fix that no problem(the diagnostic dude was gone and wouldn't be back til the next day). But they were backed up, so they'd call me when the van was ready. After much thanks to the missionaries (and trying to convince them that we'd be ok walking back home) we headed back.
About 2 hours later, they called to say that the battery was running low and they could put a new one in. I agreed. Then they called back within 30 min to say it was ready. We walked back (the kids weren't exactly happy with me at this point...it was probably a mile and a half walk both ways). The van started right up. :):):):) More prayers of thanks were given. What a relief! I felt so bad--my van not working when Sarah first gets here....I was thinking of renting a car just so that we could go around the island. But thank goodness for answered prayers and those who are willing to listen to the Spirit and be answers to prayers. :)
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