Week ending 20 January 2013

January is 2/3s over and it seems like it just started.  They say time flies when you are having fun. We must be having lots of fun then.

This was a super busy week.  President and Sister Brown and the Assistants were gone all week and we were left the part of meeting and greeting Senior couples coming and going.  We had a new couple (Wilsons) from Canada that arrived Tuesday morning and another couple (Hamblin’s) moving from Ireland to Galashiels, Scotland to finish their last 6 months of their mission. We (the sisters and Bill and I) fixed dinner for them and visited.   We got home a little after 8:00. 

The next morning we sent the Hamblin’s off to Galashiels to find out from the Stapleton’s what they had been doing there.  Then in the afternoon the Stapleton’s came to the mission home and we again fixed a meal for the 8 of us and visited.  The next morning both couples took off for Ireland which was home for the Stapleton’s and where the Wilsons will be serving in the Hamblin’s place.  This was another 12 hour day.

So now for the miracle.  In the first part on December I gave notice of our closing the flat the Stapleton’s were living in because they were finishing their mission and going home.  A few days later President Brown came to me and said they had decided to send the Hamblin’s from Ireland to Scotland to finish their mission and we would need to keep the flat in Galashiels. I called the letting agent as quickly as I could and asked if it would still be available.  She said it would be.  I then proceeded to ask her if we could use the same lease and continue it on a month to month basis.  That was a “no” since the couple had signed their own lease.  Since that time we have all the leases read by me and I try to get the letting agent to make any changes that I think our legal advisor would like.  Then I send the lease to our legal advisor in Solihull, England.  The lease must have the tenant as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Our legal advisor reads it and lets me know of other changes that are needed or gives them to the one signing our leases there. They then send them back to me to finish getting them in place and the missionaries moved in.

Karen who was the letting agent for this company said she didn’t do company leases, but could draw up one like the Stapleton’s had signed.  I called our legal advisor and told him the situation.  He got Karen’s phone number and said he would visit with her on how much better it would be having it in the Church’s name. A few days later he informed me that he had sent her a copy of a lease the church likes to use and Karen was taking it to her legal advisor.  It was getting closer and closer the Christmas time when the one who signs our lease would be away for the holidays until the 7^th of January.

The answer came back that the landlady had been advised not to go with the company lease.  NOW WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO!  Time was passing quickly.  Christmas came and went and I still didn’t have a place for the Hamblin’s to live.

Elder Turley (our legal advisor) then talked to the landlady, for he could see no reason why they would not go with our lease.  More days passed.  She still said no. On Friday the 11^th after I had gone home, Elder Turley sent a message that if I really liked the flat and the letting agent, for this one time only we could go with the couple signing their own lease like it had been done in the past, but he wanted to read the lease before they signed it.  Monday I came back to this message and immediately contacted Karen and told her.  She said she would go to work on it and send me and Elder Turley a copy of it before the day was through.  This was two days before the Hamblin’s were to move in. Tuesday morning she sent it to Elder Turley who told her what needed changed.  Tuesday night a copy was sent to me to have the Hamblin’s read before going to sign it the next morning at 10:30.

 Wednesday at 10:30 they met with Karen and signed the lease.  It was a six month lease signed on the 16^th of January and goes to the 16^th of July which is the day the Hamblin’s have at this time as their release date.  Six months is the shortest lease available.  Heavenly Father answered my prayers that day.

Friday we spent getting another flat closed by going back and removing furniture we had moved in to accommodate the 2 elders, and planned on cleaning it better.  We had the 2 elders with us to help.  We surprised the Landlady who was there cleaning and said we didn’t need to clean, they would just deduct it from our deposit.  We said we could remove the extra bed and chair for her and move the other furniture back to where it belonged and she agreed with that.  She hardly spoke to us and when we left we felt that we would lose the deposit.  About an hour later the letting agent emailed and said the landlady had called and felt that we should get our whole deposit back--another miracle!  Had we called and told them we were going over they would have told us no and we would have lost the deposit.  We spent most of the day out of the office with details with flats like going over the inventory on the new flat, buying a new stove, chair cushions, and finding a home for the furniture we had removed.  It was really quite a fun day. Not what you think you would be doing on a mission is it?

We have had more snow the last few days than we have had all the rest of the time we have been here and yet right now we only have about an inch to an inch and a half on the ground.  We live across the street from a golf course that is very hilly.  We have had the golf course covered with people of all age’s sleigh riding the last two days. We wouldn’t think we had enough snow to do it, but they are sure having lots of fun. 

 

 

One of our neighbors was clever and created this small animal out of snow.

 

And this picture is taken from our bedroom window looking out to the parking lot.