Who's gonna drive you home tonight

This is the story of the mighty Thor. Thor the Jeep. Thor is my first car that I've purchased with my own money. Did I mention that I haven't had a car of my own since I went to college the first time in 2010? Well, I was pretty excited to buy him. I felt pretty adult-ish. Yeah. Adulting. So much fun.

When I named him Thor, I didn't know how much the following story would resemble the plot of a certain Marvel film. My roommate suggested the name, and hey, it's big and red and strong and old and such.

Earlier this summer, my mom decided to send my youngest sister out to this side of the country to visit me and then we'd drive up to Idaho to visit our middle sister and her husband. We had a wonderful adventure plan. My middle sister lives about four hours away, and we planned on going to Yellowstone and simply having a wonderful western adventure together. Well, I drove the hour to the airport, and my car was getting a little overheated. I had to wait more than two hours to pick up my sister due to flight delays and her status as an unaccompanied minor. I figured the two plus hours would suffice to cool down my Thor. 

So when I finally had my sister, we went on our merry way to Idaho.

We didn't get very far.

Twenty minutes later, my car was overheating again. So I pulled over to the side of the interstate. We waited a while, and then tried to start the car again. But Thor wasn't having it. Remember the part where I said my family is on the other side of the country? Yeah. Help. (In hindsight I don't know why I didn't call my one of my roommates... probably that dumb thing called pride.) Eventually some guy in a tiny little Mazda pulled over, tried to help and ended up towing my huge car to the next town, where he had a mechanic friend. That was probably the most scary thing of my life. Waaaaay scarier than the time I moved to Europe to live with a family I'd never met. I was terrified that something would go wrong and I would crush his pint-sized car or kill his engine or run into something else or or or... yeah. You get the picture. Itty bitty convertible Mazda pulling my (literally) one-ton vehicle at highway speed. So many things could have gone wrong.

This all took place in the evening, so of course the shop was closed. My sister and I slept in the back of my Jeep. In the morning, the mechanics looked at my engine. My sister and I had walked to a store in search of AC, and when I got the phone call from the mechanic, I nearly had a full-on panic attack. The repairs would take more money than I had in my bank account, and my newly-attained first credit card has a super low limit. I had no choice but to call my daddy for help. This goes against every fiber of my very independent being. Don't get the wrong idea, I love my parents and I know that they would do anything for me, but I just wanted to be able to take care of things like a grown-up, and I know my parents don't have tons of money. Anyways, my dad was a superhero and took care of everything from the other side of the country. 

Meanwhile, I had gotten in contact with my Idaho sister. Plans were changed, and they came down to meet us in Utah, since there wasn't really a way for us to get there anymore. We left my car at the shop an hour north of home and had a very different adventure than the one planned. 

So it turned out that Thor needed a new engine. It took about two weeks for them to find a decent engine and replace it. I had my roommate take me up to where it was, and the mechanics took it on one last test run and discovered that the engine was no good. So they gave me a loaner car and we went back home.

Two more weeks and three engines later, I finally had Thor back in my hands. I still feel bad for the mechanics and all the frustration and bad engines they had to buy and put in and take out. Poor guys.

If you're familiar with the Marvel movie, there are parallels. Like how Thor thought he was invincible. Then he did something that was kind of dumb and was banished to a far away place and had to go through significant changes in order to come home. 

Although this certainly isn't what I or my bank account wanted, I learned a ton. First, know what your car is capable of and check the temperature gauge (everybody told me he was in great shape and would make it to Idaho. They didn't know there was a tiny crack in the engine block.). But even more importantly, I was able to draw a connection to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I was able to experience what it is like to be in situation that you can't get out of on your own. I had no way of paying for what I'd done - for unknowing totaling my precious car - and couldn't even get home. I had to call on my father for help, knowing full well that it would take ages to be able to pay him back from my meager college student earnings, if he even let me pay him back in entirety. This situation reminds me of how we, as mortals, sometimes get ourselves into spiritual situations we can't get out of without our Savior's help. I know that if we call on Him, He can help us get back home to our Father and pay for our mistakes. And for that I am eternally grateful. 

Caught in a landslide

Lately, my roommate and I have been thinking about how to save the world.

Actually, we just want to help the refugees. But alas, here we are at college, and, let's face it, there aren't too many refugees running around campus. I haven't seen a single one! There are no camps, no apartments full of foreigners like I saw in Europe. We still want to help, even though we are poor college students stuck in the United States.

So we began to research. And research some more. Even during class (oops, did I just post that for the world to see?). And what have we found?

Nothing.

You either have to be there or have money to donate.

When we found out that the German ambassador was coming to our campus this week to give a little speech, we jumped on the opportunity. Germany has taken on over a million refugees in the past year, so we hoped the Honorable Peter Wittig could help us in our quest. When I got to ask him a question- you know this must be of great importance to me if I got up the nerve to talk to someone about it- this is what he said:
"There really isn't much you can do from over here. Mostly you can just be friends with refugees when you find one and help them integrate into American society so they don't make mini Syrian communities, which would isolate them."
K thanks for not really helping...

His wife was a little more helpful. She said that a lot of people offer language tutoring online to help with integration. Both my roommate and I are bilingual, so we thought this would be a great way to help from over here. Turns out, not so many people do that, especially as volunteers.

I cannot even put into words how frustrated we were about how little people, especially Americans, are doing about this crisis.

I had an idea yesterday while I was reading the Good Word. I am at a university where many people are bilingual. And if they aren't bilingual, they at least speak English, which is much more widespread among Europeans than Arabic. So why don't we set up a website where people can volunteer to help refugees learn whatever language they need via Skype? Once it's set up, we could get in contact with the refugees through city governments and schools. It's not a huge time or monetary commitment, but yet we can make a difference, even from the other side of the world. We can use our skills to bless all of God's children and make this difficult transition a tiny bit easier.

Who's with me?

PS. Here's the gem that started it all:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/refuge-from-the-storm?lang=eng