JANUARY 19, 2010 TUESDAY

Our normal P-day was yesterday, but we were at our zone conference all day so we used today as our P-day. We took our time getting up and then I took an hour walk in the cold foggy morning. We planned on doing this and still work at getting organized in the morning and then in the afternoon ride some buses around to kind of get the lay of the land, so to speak. We’re down to the little things like putting up hooks for our clothes, kitchen hot mitts and other things and for wash cloths in the bathroom. We still had some carpet left over that we brought with us so we used a piece to put around and in front of the toilet and also in front of the bathroom sink. The floor in the bathroom is ceramic tile and it’s very cold on the feet. The carpet makes it much more comfortable. We moved a desk into the spare bedroom and brought a patio table up from the basement and put it in the living room. We put a couple of hooks inside the clothes closet to hang keys on.

As we were in the middle of doing this we got a distress call from Charlotte. Yesterday she spent her first day as a missionary in the mission home and, since everything was new to her, she went home at the end of the day absolutely overwhelmed. She was in tears on the phone and asked if she could come and spend some time with us. Of course we told her to come and while she was on the way, we tried to finish what we were doing. By the time she got here we mostly were finished and could spend the time with her that she needed. She poured out her heart about all the things she would be responsible for and that she felt she wouldn’t be able to measure up. She felt the whole world was on her shoulders and, if she messed up, it would come to an end. We gave her encouragement and told her the Lord knew what he was doing when she was called and He would help her to learn the things she needed to learn, including English. She just had to have faith and have a little patience with herself and that she couldn’t learn it all in one day. We discovered she hadn’t eaten for two days and that could have been part of the problem. We cooked her some lunch and before we left to go exploring, the computer guy rang our doorbell. He explained the conduit for running wires was full and so he couldn’t bring a computer cable from the basement to our apartment on the third floor. He said the next option was to try to set up a wireless router in the basement and see if it had a strong enough signal for us to use it. He said he needed to find a specific card or router that was compatible with this older system and that it would probably take a few days to do it. So, we hope to have internet within a few days. It’s kind of been tough being in a new area and also be cut off from the people we know and love and also not be able to use it to find addresses.

Then we went out exploring by riding buses from one end of the route to the other. We were able to make round trips on buses #1, #5 and #8 before it got dark. We ended up back at the bahnhof and we waited with her about a half hour until her train came. She felt a lot better for the visit and, we hope, has renewed faith that she can accomplish what she needs to do. We are sure our friends, the Doyles and the Kroffs, can empathize with her, too. But, we know the Lord qualifies those whom he calls. Ganz bestimmt! We all have feelings of inadequacy when we begin something new and, perhaps that’s a good thing. It keeps us humble and relying on the Lord for His help. She has only been a member for just under a year so this has been quite a stretch for her. She asked if there comes a time or an age when one doesn’t have to have a calling anymore and could just rest or can one say “no.” She said it half serious and half in jest, but she’s a trooper and will do just fine.

The tender mercy for today is that Charlotte has enough confidence in us to be able to discuss her feelings and gain strength from the confidence we have in her to be able to fulfill the requirements of her calling.