Okay, so we both know we are small-town kids, not sophisticated in big-city ways. But, we are still scratching our heads over our latest experience.
By the way, wasn’t Conference just wonderful? We were able to listen to all the talks, except for Elder Oaks. BUT we had a good excuse. Or at least a good story of why we didn’t get to listen to Elder Oaks. AND we are sticking to it.
You see, it all started out so swell. As we drove over to the Seattle North Stake House to listen to the last session of Conference, we came upon an old man who was stuck in the middle of a very, very busy road. He was frantically running around his Mercedes Benz, which had apparently stalled right in the middle of an intersection. In the true spirit of a missionary, I suggested (well, more like insisted) that we needed to help the stranded old man. Mike was fine with that, but, believe it or not, Mike was a little concerned about the situation.
You see, the road we were traveling on is called “Aurora,” aka, Highway 99. Except for maybe Interstate 5, Aurora is probably the fastest and busiest road in the Seattle area. Wandering out into the middle of a very busy, multi-lane street was not going to be easy. Anyway, we basically had to pull up onto a sidewalk and just leave our hazard lights flashing. I jumped out and just wanted to run out in the middle and help. However, Mike (being the more cautious and prudent of our missionary companionship), decided to pre-empt me and said “just hold on and I will go help.”
So, wading his way out to the middle, Mike made it to the stranded car. Just then Mike discovered the elderly gentleman was Vietnamese and could not speak English. He was visibly shaking.
Mike motioned he would push the car to get it out of the busy intersection. The old man nodded and we thought he understood. But Mike couldn’t get him to understand to get back into his car to steer and brake while Mike pushed. By that time another guy came and helped. They decided to push anyway while the old gentleman insisted on steering the car through the side window.
This created a slight problem. Once they turned the car, it was now facing a slight downhill slope. The car picked up speed. And now there was no one in the car to step on the brake. I yelled in vain to tell the elderly gentleman to GET IN THE CAR. But he was frozen, just holding onto the wheel. So, both the other guy and Mike, instead of pushing, now were desperately trying to hold onto the car and slow it down. Meanwhile, all the other cars starting honking and zooming by. You might say it was just a LITTLE bit crazy.
Just then I decided to complicate the situation. Somehow I got it into my head, I could help. Okay, maybe “help” is not quite the right word. Seeing their predicament, I somehow thought it best to put myself between the front of the rolling car and where it was heading. You know, kinda like Superman trying to stop a run away train. This of course, caused Mike to have just a little anxiety as he calmly (okay NOT so calmly) exclaimed, “What are you doing? Get out of the way!” He now pulled against the car with all his strength, seeing I would not make a very good car cushion.
I think we must have had a little divine intervention because somehow, someway, the other guy jumped into the passenger side door, and put on the brakes, just in time to avoid having me become a permanent piece of the front bumper.
But that was not all of the experience, oh no. We did get the car stopped and by that time, it was off of the busy “Aurora” street. But now it was blocking traffic on another street. This street was not quite so busy, so Mike tried once again to convince the little Vietnamese fellow that if he would just get into the car, since it was on a downhill slope, he could just coast it down a little ways to a spot that would be off the street.
However, he was really shaking at this time and just didn’t understand. Seeing the predicament the other guy volunteered to do it for him. It was at that moment, we should have taken a better assessment of the situation. We really should have thought this out just a little more. The other guy looked a little hard. Okay, he probably was, but we are missionaries. We try only to think the very best of people.
So Mike told him to simply drive the car down the hill to a parking lot and pull in. He agreed and off he went. However, instead of pulling into the parking lot, he just kept going. Now we could see he was trying to start the car. I exclaimed, “Hey, he is trying to steal the car!” Those thoughts had apparently also crossed Mike’s mind because he was already running after him.
Fortunately, the slope was not that steep. Mike soon caught him and asked while jogging beside the car, “What are you doing?” Seeing his predicament and seeing that the car would not start, the wanna- be-thief decided it best to pull over.
Once stopped, we still had a problem. We still needed to get the car off the street. The car was now on the flat and too heavy for Mike to push alone. So, Mike somehow got the wanna-be-thief out of the car and convinced him to help push the car off the road. He did. We finally got it off the street.
Just then the Vietnamese man had caught up to Mike and the thief. I went to get our own car. The Vietnamese man apparently did not realize what had just happened, because he just wanted to stay with his car. The wanna-be-thief was more than happy to just stay with the old man and let us leave. We couldn’t just leave the old man with the thief, but just what were we to do? We doubted the police would do anything under the circumstances. I said a quick silent prayer (and I think so did Mike.) Somehow we needed to convince the Vietnamese gentleman NOT to stay with the bad guy and just get into our car and we would take him home. Well, the Lord must have intervened and we were able to convince him.
Just to make things a little more dicey, the bad guy was now trying to convince the old man to leave his car doors unlocked and his hood open to “help cool off the engine.” Translation: “leave your car wide open so I can strip it while you are gone.” Anyway, somehow the Vietnamese guy finally started to see what game this guy was trying to play and he locked up his car. He then got into our car. He pointed which way to take him home.
As we dropped him off, he pointed to our missionary tags and he did his best to say “Christians?” - at least we think that is what he said. We smiled. He then did one of those slight bowing things and smiled. We departed and finally made it to the stake center just as Elder Oaks was finishing.
Other than almost helping someone steal a car, it was otherwise a beautiful weekend.
Here are some pictures to prove it:
By the way, wasn’t Conference just wonderful? We were able to listen to all the talks, except for Elder Oaks. BUT we had a good excuse. Or at least a good story of why we didn’t get to listen to Elder Oaks. AND we are sticking to it.
You see, it all started out so swell. As we drove over to the Seattle North Stake House to listen to the last session of Conference, we came upon an old man who was stuck in the middle of a very, very busy road. He was frantically running around his Mercedes Benz, which had apparently stalled right in the middle of an intersection. In the true spirit of a missionary, I suggested (well, more like insisted) that we needed to help the stranded old man. Mike was fine with that, but, believe it or not, Mike was a little concerned about the situation.
You see, the road we were traveling on is called “Aurora,” aka, Highway 99. Except for maybe Interstate 5, Aurora is probably the fastest and busiest road in the Seattle area. Wandering out into the middle of a very busy, multi-lane street was not going to be easy. Anyway, we basically had to pull up onto a sidewalk and just leave our hazard lights flashing. I jumped out and just wanted to run out in the middle and help. However, Mike (being the more cautious and prudent of our missionary companionship), decided to pre-empt me and said “just hold on and I will go help.”
So, wading his way out to the middle, Mike made it to the stranded car. Just then Mike discovered the elderly gentleman was Vietnamese and could not speak English. He was visibly shaking.
Mike motioned he would push the car to get it out of the busy intersection. The old man nodded and we thought he understood. But Mike couldn’t get him to understand to get back into his car to steer and brake while Mike pushed. By that time another guy came and helped. They decided to push anyway while the old gentleman insisted on steering the car through the side window.
This created a slight problem. Once they turned the car, it was now facing a slight downhill slope. The car picked up speed. And now there was no one in the car to step on the brake. I yelled in vain to tell the elderly gentleman to GET IN THE CAR. But he was frozen, just holding onto the wheel. So, both the other guy and Mike, instead of pushing, now were desperately trying to hold onto the car and slow it down. Meanwhile, all the other cars starting honking and zooming by. You might say it was just a LITTLE bit crazy.
Just then I decided to complicate the situation. Somehow I got it into my head, I could help. Okay, maybe “help” is not quite the right word. Seeing their predicament, I somehow thought it best to put myself between the front of the rolling car and where it was heading. You know, kinda like Superman trying to stop a run away train. This of course, caused Mike to have just a little anxiety as he calmly (okay NOT so calmly) exclaimed, “What are you doing? Get out of the way!” He now pulled against the car with all his strength, seeing I would not make a very good car cushion.
I think we must have had a little divine intervention because somehow, someway, the other guy jumped into the passenger side door, and put on the brakes, just in time to avoid having me become a permanent piece of the front bumper.
But that was not all of the experience, oh no. We did get the car stopped and by that time, it was off of the busy “Aurora” street. But now it was blocking traffic on another street. This street was not quite so busy, so Mike tried once again to convince the little Vietnamese fellow that if he would just get into the car, since it was on a downhill slope, he could just coast it down a little ways to a spot that would be off the street.
However, he was really shaking at this time and just didn’t understand. Seeing the predicament the other guy volunteered to do it for him. It was at that moment, we should have taken a better assessment of the situation. We really should have thought this out just a little more. The other guy looked a little hard. Okay, he probably was, but we are missionaries. We try only to think the very best of people.
So Mike told him to simply drive the car down the hill to a parking lot and pull in. He agreed and off he went. However, instead of pulling into the parking lot, he just kept going. Now we could see he was trying to start the car. I exclaimed, “Hey, he is trying to steal the car!” Those thoughts had apparently also crossed Mike’s mind because he was already running after him.
Fortunately, the slope was not that steep. Mike soon caught him and asked while jogging beside the car, “What are you doing?” Seeing his predicament and seeing that the car would not start, the wanna- be-thief decided it best to pull over.
Once stopped, we still had a problem. We still needed to get the car off the street. The car was now on the flat and too heavy for Mike to push alone. So, Mike somehow got the wanna-be-thief out of the car and convinced him to help push the car off the road. He did. We finally got it off the street.
Just then the Vietnamese man had caught up to Mike and the thief. I went to get our own car. The Vietnamese man apparently did not realize what had just happened, because he just wanted to stay with his car. The wanna-be-thief was more than happy to just stay with the old man and let us leave. We couldn’t just leave the old man with the thief, but just what were we to do? We doubted the police would do anything under the circumstances. I said a quick silent prayer (and I think so did Mike.) Somehow we needed to convince the Vietnamese gentleman NOT to stay with the bad guy and just get into our car and we would take him home. Well, the Lord must have intervened and we were able to convince him.
Just to make things a little more dicey, the bad guy was now trying to convince the old man to leave his car doors unlocked and his hood open to “help cool off the engine.” Translation: “leave your car wide open so I can strip it while you are gone.” Anyway, somehow the Vietnamese guy finally started to see what game this guy was trying to play and he locked up his car. He then got into our car. He pointed which way to take him home.
As we dropped him off, he pointed to our missionary tags and he did his best to say “Christians?” - at least we think that is what he said. We smiled. He then did one of those slight bowing things and smiled. We departed and finally made it to the stake center just as Elder Oaks was finishing.
Other than almost helping someone steal a car, it was otherwise a beautiful weekend.
Here are some pictures to prove it:
The cherry blossoms are now out, and the U-dub campus just looks amazing!
The above pictures are along what is known as the “Quad.”
Can you see Mount Ranier in the above picture faintly in the background behind the fountain?
And of course, what is Conference weekend without a GOOD barbeque with our students in their Bishop’s backyard?
Bishop Dale Jenkins (from Ucon, Idaho!) and his good wife Ann (formerly “Rockwood” from Iona, Idaho!) are just the best with having the students in their singles ward over for Saturday Conference and a good ole’ fashioned barbeque.
Well, from the BLOSSOM capital of the good old United States, we bid you adieu until we email again!
Love,
Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton
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