Next time you want to groan try laughing instead..... Elder Wirthlin



How about when your new used car of a month stops completely with no warning? The prognosis: Engine is completely dead. Cost to put in a new engine is way more than we paid for the car in the first place.



I can't say I laughed about this but I made myself laugh at other little things that went wrong the last few days. It did help. I also prayed for help to see the Lord's hand in this.



My silver linings in this trial:



It stopped in a small town that had phone coverage. i.e. I was able to call my husband on the cell phone instead of having to walk who knows how many miles with three kids in tow to a place where I could call.

It stopped before we really got on the way with our trip, but after I was packed and loaded. This made it so the trip was possible because of the packing but before the car had to get left somewhere far from home.

Two years of not having a car has showed us that we can travel with three kids on public transportation. (It may not be easy but it is possible). We used it for half of our trip.

A kind older gentleman stopped and tried to help me.

We were blessed by the kindess of different members who put us up for the night and helped us travel between the stake conference meetings.

I passed my test. A spiritual test. Actually two. Test One: I had been talking with investigators and members to find out if they would make the long trip to stake conference with the accompanying over night stays. Things had happened and where happening that made them feel it was too much effort. I listened but in my heart I thought, it is still worth it. Even with the trials still go. So when the car stopped I was put to the test, would I act as I felt one should? My first reactions were crying and thinking, there is no way. We won't catch the ferry we needed and to many things too hard with out a car for the next three days. Luckily conversing with a wise husband I was reminded that we have been doing it the hard way for a long time and could do it this weekend as well. And I determined to do the best I could. It worked and was a great weekend in many ways.

Test two: We have a three month insurance with buying the car. We aren't sure if it will cover this. I remembered how we had unknowingly let the coolant run way too low a few weeks before. I was worried that we had caused the engine problems. Then the insurance would say no way! But I knew I had to be honest. So we checked with the mechanic next time we talked. I am relieved, he does not believe that had anything to do with it. But I was honest. I would have taken the consequences even though it made me sick to my stomache thinking about it.

We were informed there is a lemon law of sorts and we could probably dump the car back to the owner and get the money back. We don't feel that is correct for this situation. He acted in good faith with no indication that it. We will swallow it and ask the Lord to help us through.

We were blessed to realize the complete goodness of some friends who we are becoming better friends with as they loaned us a car for a few weeks. We had a car for some significant events, but better yet we know we have true good solid friends here!

Leaving our friends car, we took our most recent long extensive traveling trip on public transportation. It is much easier to keep kids happy on a train than in their car seats sitting behind you while you are driving. And I didn't have to drive at all! I would have been the sole drivcr otherwise and I have been getting tension headaches when driving for long periods of time. (I am getting new glasses with sun clips to counter the winter light! So I hope that issue will be eliviated when we get our car back.)

Am I laughing? Maybe not, but I am definantly smiling when I see the downpour of blessings from this trial.