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Poor people need cars to


AtlanticMike

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Ha ha ha, did that title make you want to look? I thought it would. Anyhoo, I thought I would tell you guys a story of one of my most favorite things to do that's faith promoting  since I was totally rejected by the moderators today in the social hall, kind of a redemption of sorts I guess. Moderators, I love you guys🥰🥰🥰😁!!! Ok, here goes. 10 years ago my bishop asked me if I would sell him an old Toyota Camry I had sitting in my back yard because one of the elderly women in our ward had her car brake down and while she was waiting for a toe truck someone rear ended her and totaled her car. She's on a fixed income and has absolutely no extra cash so he was going to buy it for her using fast offerings because she was getting upset that someone had to pick her up to go to church. Well the car was nice but old,with a lot of miles and I just didn't feel right giving it to him or her in bad shape so I had someone fix it up and I transferred the title over to her before the next Sunday. No fast offerings involved in the deal. It felt really good so I started buying inexpensive mechanic specials automobiles off of craigslist usually between $200 to $800 and fixing them up for people who need them. I've become quite the mechanic thanks to you tube. In the past 10 years the bishop/bishops and I have given members 5 cars. The last one was really special. The bishop had put up a family of 3 in a hotel for 2 weeks, they were taken the discussions and coming to church on sunday. Obviously, they had absolutely no money that's why he was putting them up in a hotel. But one of the coolest experiences I've ever had was when we took the car over to them, the bishop was driving my truck and I was driving the car we were giving them and when I pulled up the guy started balling, absolutely balling. We thought he was just extremely happy, which he was, but the car I bought was his dad's car, I bought his dad's car just 1 week earlier, fixed it up so he could have it. Apparently he hadn't talked to his family forever and you could see the raw emotion just pouring down his face. Sad to say but after we left the dmv we never saw them again. Some of my best experiences in life have come from helping people who have less than a pot to piss in. I honestly think charity can cheer you up more than any medical drug ever invented. Have you guys ever had really cool bishops that go out of their way to help the less fortunate? How'd I do moderators??🥰

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drive? ;)

So true on what you said here, that was the best!

I love my LDS life with stories similar. One about the cars is that my husband at the time years ago, was the Elders Quorum President in the ward, and a single mom needed a car badly. Well, there was a guy who worked for a Toyota dealership and he found a used car in good shape that they bought for this woman. They were super excited to surprise her with it. But I guess she wasn't happy about it, since it didn't have four doors, haha. If I remember right, they found her another that fit her needs. That sorta knocked their enthusiasm down a bit at first but it was a fun experience to remember for my husband. 

I'm sure those you helped out with were very happy. 

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Yes, I love my life to. I feel fortunate in being able to help people like this. One of the best reasons I've found for doing service work like this is how it helps my kids. When I work on the cars I buy, I always have one of my kids help me. If Its something I'm trying to figure out I always  let them find the path we're going to take, that could be watching a you tube video or googling a solution. I'm thinking of starting a charity to expand this service to others. 

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4 hours ago, Mike Livingston said:

Yes, I love my life to. I feel fortunate in being able to help people like this. One of the best reasons I've found for doing service work like this is how it helps my kids. When I work on the cars I buy, I always have one of my kids help me. If Its something I'm trying to figure out I always  let them find the path we're going to take, that could be watching a you tube video or googling a solution. I'm thinking of starting a charity to expand this service to others. 

It is a wonderful idea, both that you have been doing it and thinking about expanding to a charity. 

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5 hours ago, Tacenda said:

drive? ;)

So true on what you said here, that was the best!

I love my LDS life with stories similar. One about the cars is that my husband at the time years ago, was the Elders Quorum President in the ward, and a single mom needed a car badly. Well, there was a guy who worked for a Toyota dealership and he found a used car in good shape that they bought for this woman. They were super excited to surprise her with it. But I guess she wasn't happy about it, since it didn't have four doors, haha. If I remember right, they found her another that fit her needs. That sorta knocked their enthusiasm down a bit at first but it was a fun experience to remember for my husband. 

I'm sure those you helped out with were very happy. 

Thank you and I like your story, I hadn't heard anyone also doing the same that's awesome. Maybe it more prevalent than I thought for bishops/elders quorum presidents.

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33 minutes ago, Mike Livingston said:

Thank you and I like your story, I hadn't heard anyone also doing the same that's awesome. Maybe it more prevalent than I thought for bishops/elders quorum presidents.

A very good friend of mine manages a dealership. He recently bought a single mom a car that had been traded in when the ward was getting her set up.

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17 hours ago, Mike Livingston said:

How'd I do moderators?

Your persistence is an inspiration. 

What I really like about the virgins and lamps parable is that the virgins w/o oil showed up anyway. They defied the expectation that we must be flawless on arrival and brought the best selves they had. They understood that to have a better 'next time', there has to be a 'this time'.

(Unfortunately, the parable goes off the rails from there. It infers that virgins received eternal, negative consequence for making the sort of mistake that wisdom-building requires.)

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2 hours ago, Chum said:

Your persistence is an inspiration. 

What I really like about the virgins and lamps parable is that the virgins w/o oil showed up anyway. They defied the expectation that we must be flawless on arrival and brought the best selves they had. They understood that to have a better 'next time', there has to be a 'this time'.

(Unfortunately, the parable goes off the rails from there. It infers that virgins received eternal, negative consequence for making the sort of mistake that wisdom-building requires.)

Made me laugh, but the parable wasn't trying to teach that particular principle you are referring to. :D 

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I've been in two wards where this was regularly done (one in which it served as a several month project for the scouts to learn mechanics), and in my SE community there is a full charity that does it with donated cars from the community, about 50 a year, last I heard.

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4 hours ago, Chum said:

Your persistence is an inspiration. 

What I really like about the virgins and lamps parable is that the virgins w/o oil showed up anyway. They defied the expectation that we must be flawless on arrival and brought the best selves they had. They understood that to have a better 'next time', there has to be a 'this time'.

(Unfortunately, the parable goes off the rails from there. It infers that virgins received eternal, negative consequence for making the sort of mistake that wisdom-building requires.)

That is why I prefer the interpretation they were bridesmaids waiting to celebrate the arrival of the groom and escort him to the bride because there would be other weddings for them where they could get it right (plus what groom ever made the bride wait at the gate/doorway? that never made sense to me).

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2 hours ago, Stargazer said:

Made me laugh, but the parable wasn't trying to teach that particular principle you are referring to. :D 

Likening scriptures is about getting the meaning God wants us to get out of the scripture, not just what everyone else gets imo. 

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19 hours ago, juliann said:

A very good friend of mine manages a dealership. He recently bought a single mom a car that had been traded in when the ward was getting her set up.

Yes, cant do much these days without transportation and public transportation is a scary thing. Your own wheels give you freedom. How naive I am to think me and few bishops are the only ones doing this. Thank you for responding 

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