Our angels at work - again

3 September 2015

Tuesday we went to Tirana to take the sister missionaries for transfers, pick up the mail, shop, have John's hearing aids adjusted, go to high council meeting - the usual.  In the middle of the afternoon, we got a phone call from our landlady.  Eli speaks English, but all Albanians are hard to understand on the phone.  She breathlessly asked, "Are you OK?"  Yes,  Why?  "Something...something...Gas...just wanted to make sure you are OK."  A few minutes later she called again. "something...something...fire department...able to break into your apartment...balcony...something something...only the balcony."  So we called the elders to go to our apartment and find out what was going on.  They called back and said that the propane gas tank on our balcony had exploded.  They said it was like a bomb.  There was shrapnel and glass and firemen everywhere.  But inside, our apartment is just fine.  When we got home about midnight, the landlady had cleaned up all the mess.  The balcony door was broken and wouldn't close.  There are holes in the 8"-thick concrete wall.  Almost everything that was on the balcony is shredded.  We can't use the stove, but that is the only thing we use propane for.  The whole 6-story apartment building stinks.  But generally everything is fine.  The landlord replaced the balcony doors right away.  He thinks maybe we could get along without the stove, but I may have to make some rumbles about that.    We have met a couple of people staying in hotels along the bay.  They said they heard a loud explosion and thought a bomb had gone off somewhere.  The balcony faces south, and it has been really hot, so the landlord thinks the tank go so hot it just exploded.  Just another day in paradise.  My mother always made us clean the house before we went anywhere in case there was an accident and the Relief Society (or firemen) had to come in.  She was right.

Things I am grateful for:

1.  We went to Tirana that day.

2.  I had not been doing any cooking.

3.  I did not decide to finally clean around that rusty gas tank.

4.  My laundry was not drying on the balcony.

5.  I did not pick that day to enjoy the sunshine.

6.  It wasn't my fault.

Until the next near-death experience.

Motra Larson