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."
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Bonaire? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Bonaire in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez