A New Home and Life in Apache Junction

October has been a whirlwind of a month. We knew our lease would be up by the end of the month. We didn’t know how much they were going to raise the prices of our rent, but it turned out to be by $200, and $400 if we went month to month. We were like okay. It didn’t phase us, it just caught us by surprise, since we are good tenants, always paying on time, and they raise it by 100s of dollars.

So, we took the question to the temple. We didn’t know what answer we were going to get. However, after going, we both felt that it was clear that we were going to have to move for one, and that God had a place for us. So we have been searching and searching and finally applying and applying. We also felt that God wanted us to save money in our new place. We saw some apartments in Apache Junction that were really cheap, but they had multiple offers on them and it didn’t seem like move in would be eminent. However, for some reason, only the Lord really knows, Apache Junction seemed like the place that we were going to want to move to and the place for us. We still looked in places around Mesa and Phoenix, but AJ felt like it would be the place.

All the while, our move out date was creeping up on us slowly but surely. We had told Desert Jewel that we would move out on the 29th of October. But we were having no luck in finding a place. The tension was palpable.

Sarah and I did see a $900 place in Apache Junction and we applied and the apartment managers told us that they wanted us to see the place. This was the Thursday or Friday before our move out date. I had to go look at the apartment by myself. Unfortunately, it was not the nicest looking place out there. The surroundings were not inviting. It reminded me of Grand Ave in Mesa. In fact, there was a grand avenue right next to the street the apartment was on (Ocotillo). Not only that, but it wasn’t what was advertised. However, the apartment managers, Larry, told me that they had two other nicer and somewhat bigger apartments available and he showed me them with his Wife Dani.

As he took me to this next place, I was inspired by the surroundings, looking at the great Lost Dutchman state park from my car windows approaching as we got closer to the apartment. These apartments are still cheaper than what we are paying now, they are just much smaller, but looking at the neighborhood, and the cleanliness of the place: it just seemed right.

Sarah was not as convinced as I was when I got home. Not only that, but move in would be the week after, or in two days from the time that this post gets published.

I told her we needed to go to the temple. So the next day we went, but when we got there, the feeling was one that wasn’t FOR the temple. I did my best to listen to Sarah’s concerns because she was truly acting like a child that needed comforting, and I was getting frustrated. But we talked and we came to the conclusion that we needed to go to the apartment in Apache Junction that day so she could see it for herself, even though Lost Dutchman Realty were not available to give us a tour of the place.

We decided on the ride that we would test the Lord, like Gideon did with the fleece. We didn’t tell each other what our personal fleece was, so as not to spoil it. Mine was two-fold: that we would bump into one of our neighbors and talk with them. There was a black man that was checking his mail, but not at first, so I didn’t know if we’d see anyone. We were peering into the windows at the time. The second one was that, after going to the church we would be going to, that we’d see someone and talk to them and they’d be nice. And we did! There were women bringing in Pie in church dress. We offered to help. We also went to the bathroom. We found out that they were at the church for an adult session of Stake Conference, where the 4 month old Stake Presidency were giving talks. We were also invited to go. But I’ll get to that later.

Sarah’s fleece was that she’d see a butterfly. While she didn’t see a butterfly at the apartment complex, she did see a complex called Mariposa… and had a big butterfly on the wall.

We decided to go to the stake conference. Eat pie. Learn about spiritual nourishment. And talk to a Mexican family that actually belong to ward that we’re probably going to be in, plus the wife is actually the Relief Society president of the Ironwood Ward. The Vera Family. It was really cool.

And if the butterfly wasn’t enough, at church in our ward in Summit Point sang Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd which talks about traveling east in to the desert. Which is what Brother Vera said that Apache Junction was.

Anyways, we measured our apartment on Monday and came out with the schematics of how it’s going to look. We extended our stay at Desert Jewel one more week and we’re moving out on Saturday with the help of our ward. We’re getting the keys to our new place on Friday.