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Saturday, October 10, 2015

Dyra

Greetings from sunny Bonaire!

One Sunday afternoon Elder Vander Veur and I were taking a nap in our bedroom with the door closed, and the air conditioner on. I heard a noise and when I turned around  there were Dyra and Yally in our bedroom and there we were in our underwear!  They had come to visit. and we had left the door unlocked.

Yally - 3yrs., and Myra - 5yrs.are Ellie's (the landlord's) children.  And Dyra -6-yrs. is their friend from the branch...all my little Primary children. 
   

Today - Sunday- We had visitors again. In Primary Dyra told me she was coming to play with Myra and they were going to visit me - so I had warning. 

I heard the clickkity clakking of plastic high heeled slippers as two little princesses -Anna, from Frozen and Cinderella came to my door.


I unlocked the door and invited them to come in and take a seat. I offered them some refreshment, they requested marshmallows, and we chatted. They told me they were going to the ball. Then Dyra talked about Hans,the prince from Frozen, who really wasn't nice and was just pretending to be nice and how he didn't say his prayers!

In Primary that day we had been talking about faith and the Jaradites and how they prayed for help.. Maybe if  Hans had said his prayers he wouldn't have been such a stinker!

Friday, October 2, 2015

Finally...New Car!

Greetings from Sunny Bonaire!

When we arrived on the Island in January the couple we replaced, the Bawdens, said that we would be getting  a replacement car for the 2008 Toyota. It had bad tires, the doors were broken, there was a squeaking sound when we braked, there was body damage, it leaked oil, and one of the tires had a slow leak, the air conditioning worked some of the time but it only started to cool by the time  we arrived at our destination.

Luckily we were able to drive both Mission Presidents around in the old car, which may have stepped up the process which, at that, still took 6 months.

The first week here we had a flat tire and only by a miracle and prayer did we get the corroded wheel off by the help of a big strong stranger who happened by and stopped to help us.... and who we never saw again after the morning we gave him some cookies. 

From then on the car was an adventure each week. We had 6 flat tires over the next 5 months, one of the tires had a slow leak,so we had to fill the tire up every other day - because they said don't buy new tires or spend any more money on the car since we were getting a new one. 

Elder Vander Veur became very proficient at changing tires in his missionary clothes, jacking the car up, emptying the trunk to get the spare, laying under the car, taking the flat to Tio Looy's then back again for the repaired tire, he got so good at it he could do it in the dark!...which he did one night. 

Then the battery failed when we were on an outing to the Salt Pans with the Elders.  After we had stopped several passersby and I walked down the road knocking on doors looking for a good Samaritan along the beach with no luck. Then we all prayed one by one and when we opened our eyes, Ramon, a member drove up to help us!  a miracle because we hadn't talked to him, just left a message.  

Next, one of the tires got a big bubble so that tire and the slow leak tire had to be replaced for safety.

We did research and visited the 3 car dealerships on the island to find a car the church would like. They actually only wanted to consider Toyota or Honda (no Honda dealerships on the island)

On July 30th, 2015 the day we had been looking forward to for so long finally came! We went down to the Toyota Dealership and picked up our brand new Toyota Corolla. It is a lovely bronze shiny color, has automatic locks, automatic windows, a key-less ignition and the air conditioner works almost instantly! It is better than our car at home!

We share our pretty new car with the 5 other missionaries here on the island. 2 Elders and 3 Sisters and I give them all the same talk as they drive off in our lovely new chariot. "I want you to treat this car with all the love and respect you would give your mother, girlfriend, or sweet heart. BE CAREFUL! and no eating and only water in the new car."