Fasting, prayer, and a little bit of faith

About a month ago Neal and I made our first major purchase as a married couple: a 2002 red Toyota Corolla.  We thought it was a great deal!  When we test drove the car, it drove great and we couldn't seem to find any problems with it.  It has a few miles on it, but for a commuter car and with the reputation Toyota's have, we didn't mind too much.  The only other problem was that the check engine light came on while we were driving it.  We told our car salesman, Mark at The Right Ride in Loveland (good dealership by the way) that we'd take it, as long as they fixed whatever was causing the check engine light to come on.  Mark took it to his mechanic right away.  They diagnosed it as a bad O2 sensor, and said they'd have it fixed the next day.  Ten days later, after finding a loan, we officially purchased the car.

Neal picked it up on a Thursday and immediately noticed something was wrong.  The biggest problem was that the car wasn't accelerating correctly.  We decided we'd give it a few days driving around because the car hadn't been driven for over a week, and if it wasn't better, we'd call Mark.  Well, it didn't get better and the check engine light came back on.  We took the car in to Mark, and he sent it back over to his mechanic to diagnose the problem.  We were told that it was the cadalydic (sp?) converter: the other possibility that would set of the check engine light for the code it was reading.  So, we replaced the converter, not a big deal.

Got the car back about three days later, and it still wasn't fixed.  It was better, but not fixed.  About a week and a half ago, we took the car back into the mechanic because the check engine light was on AGAIN.  After having the car for a week, they finally figured out the problem was with the O2 sensor that they put in to replace the old one.  We told them to replace the part; we didn't have much of a choice...we need a second car with both of us working.

When we left the temple this morning, Neal had a message from the mechanic.  Our car was fixed and ready to be paid for and picked up.  We were worried though.  The mechanic said the part was at least twice the price of the original part (apparently Toyotas don't like after-market parts...it has to be a Toyota brand).  The total bill came up to be $250 after the refund for the original replacement part and labor.  We stressed out BIG time.  A $250 bill is not exactly what we needed right now.  But, we had been praying for days and Neal had fasted that everything would work out.

We called Mark and explained to him what was going on.  At first, he refused to pay more than half of the part - he said if he paid more than that, he would be losing money on the sale.  I told him we understood and hung up the phone.  We were lost.  We didn't know what to do.  After much discussion, we decided to stop by the dealership on our way home, and give it one last shot before we went to the mechanic.  I don't know how he did it, but Neal gave an irrefutable argument, and Mark agreed to pay for the ENTIRE repair.

As we were driving to the mechanic to pick up our car, I was on the verge of tears.  I told Neal how grateful I was that he fasted on Sunday for this specific problem.  He looked at me and said, "Not to mention the fact that I was praying the entire way down 287 (from south Longmont to south Loveland) that we would know what to say and that everything would work out and that Mark would understand where we were coming from!"  What a wonderful husband!  I would have never thought to pray for that - I was too wrapped up in the fact that we were facing a $250 repair that we really shouldn't have to pay for!

Moral of the story: fasting and prayer work when you put your faith behind them.  Heavenly Father is always mindful of us, and of our situations.  He will never ever let us go into a battle by ourselves, and as long as we are always grateful, He will always bless us with tender mercies.  How grateful I am for that!

PS.  If you're looking for a new/used car, go to The Right Ride in south Loveland.  Mark and Nickle really are nice people, and we have had only good dealings with them!