TO BE HANDICAPED NOW OR LATER

When we first got to Salt Lake City, we thought we would be able to walk everywhere we needed to go.  However, the first day we found that our training was going to be in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building - the farthest from our apartment.

We all gathered outside of our apartment to walk over together, so no one would get lost.  Fortunately, we had a generous sister who stuck with us the entire time - while everyone else left us in their dust.

Arnold has come a long way with his physical therapy, and so we had hoped that he would be able to withstand the rigors of all the walking we would be required to do.  However, in the high altitude of Salt Lake City, it quickly became apparent that his legs were not going to hold him up for the entire distance.  Eventually, we were able to make it to our destination, but JoAnn was very nervous that Arnold was going to go down several times on the way.

She mentioned it to one of the sisters in the training when they asked if there were any physical problems that would necessitate us sitting at the front of the class to hear better.  JoAnn told her about Arnold's difficult walk.

A short time later, this sweet sister came and got JoAnn.  She had made us an appointment with the doctor (there is a free clinic right there on the floor we were on) for that afternoon.  He filled out the paperwork for Arnold to get a handicap parking placard.  There was no charge for the visit.  The Elder in charge of parking issued us a temporary parking permit so we could park closer until we got our handicap permit.

We got the address of the nearest DMV off of the internet and were going to go after training.  We were touring the Church History Library and "happened" to run into this sister (this was quite a ways from where she worked.  She asked if we were going to the DMV.  We told her where we were going and she said, "Oh No, that one isn't the right one."  She then told us the directions to another DMV, a little farther away.

After training, we drove to the right DMV and amazingly enough were called up to the window immediately after we signed in.  I know, that is possibly a DMV first.  The worker looked at our paperwork, commented on our mission, and right then and there issued us 2 handicap parking placards - no charge.  We were worried we would have to register our car in Utah and get Utah driver's licenses, but none of that happened.

 

We drove away with our placard, giving thanks for the Lord's tender mercies.