Tender Mercies

We were just looking over our blogs and realized that it has been awhile since we noted the blessings we are receiving on our mission.   Just wanted to share one of our most recent.  Our apartment complex has a "Directiva".  It is her job to represent the tenants, take care of problems, and just be a manager.  She will often leave messages for the residents.  She loves to underline with red.  Since our command of the language is not very good, all the red makes us feel that some things are really important for us to know and whatever the problem is it must be your fault.  The problem is we just don't understand and Google translate is of moderate help.  The most recent message indicated that the water bill for the apartments had doubled. There is one bill that is divided among the tenants, so she was very concerned.  In her latest message, she indicated there would be a meeting we must attend.  We were worried, because that meant we could go to the meeting but not contribute or understand.  We asked around the office to see if there was anyone that would have time to go to the 8 pm meeting with us.  Unfortunately, it was a very busy night. 

Enter our knight in shining armor.  Brother Fernandez is our boss in the office.  He volunteered to come.  When we agreed, we didn't realize that he would have to take a taxi to be with us.  We tried to tell him not to worry about coming, but he would not hear of it.  He arrived and off we went to meet with her and the other tenants.  Unfortunately, there were only two other women who came to the meeting.  (We felt this meeting  would be a great way for us to get better acquainted with many of our neighbors.)  Well, the Lord knew who was supposed to go with us to the meeting.  Carlos was masterful as he joined in the discussion,  interpreted both sides, and added just the right amount of humor to have all of us smiling and feeling like we had been best friends, forever.  He even invited them to come to church with us on Sunday.  He did it so smoothly.  We need to take lessons.  We are learning that so often missionary work involves developing friendships first.  We hope this is a great first step. 

We wondered how the water bill could have been so high since one of our problems with the apartment was the lack of water pressure.  It had gotten so bad, that we literally just had a drip coming from the shower and also going into the washer.  We had already tried cleaning the shower head, cleaning the little filter we found in the back of the washer and cleaning the tap filters, without much success.  The Directiva, Carmen, asked if they might come to our apartment to see the problem. We had already shown her a video we took when we were in her apartment.  So everyone ended up at our house eating chocolates and continuing the discussion.  Well, amazingly enough,  we actually had water pressure.  Something changed. 

So, what exactly were the Tender Mercies:  The Lord sent us Carlos,  through him we were able to do a little missionary work,  we were able to develop a beautiful relationship with three very special women,  and not as important, but certainly very nice, we have water pressure.  

Speaking of missionary work, being in the office all day, we have to find other ways to share the gospel.  One of those ways is when we are in taxis.  Elder Cardon, one of the other senior missionaries, is a master at taxi approaches.  We are trying to be good students and learn from him.  He so naturally moves from "Where are you from?", "Tell me about your family", "Have you seen the Temple" to "We are missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints", "Families can be together forever" and any other subject he can squeeze in before we get to our destination.  We hope to be able to do as well as we improve our Spanish skills.