Somewhere between a small town and a big city

The story continues.

So we arrived. This "little town" is beautiful. It's not a little town though like they say. I mean come on so far I've seen multiple Target stores, Ross stores, Big 5s, and Lowe's. And they have a mall. And I sometimes use my GPS to find Walmart. They think their Walmart is small, which totally cracks me up. It's not a big city, but its a lot bigger then Rexburg (which in my opinion is the real small town, USA.)

Downtown Visalia

The next morning after we arrived we started the hunt for an apartment.We looked at Craig's list before we arrived and thought it would be easy to find a good little apartment that would fit in our budget, but it soon became apparent that we would have to do some digging. Almost everyone we met warned us about living in the "oval area" because of gangs etc. No wonder all the cheap and sometimes dumpy places were there. I don't know how much crime really goes on but it sure has a reputation and there are definitely run down looking areas. One place we found was a really cute little duplex that I loved- all wood floors, beautiful kitchen, and good price- but it smelled like cigarette smoke BAD. Like we would have left the house smelling like chain smokers. And I would have been kicked out of my internship. Maybe not. It was sad.

There were times in the process when Phil and I got pretty frustrated. I felt like we were lost little puppies looking for a home. And it was hot outside. My internship was still being worked out and Phil hadn't gotten his job yet. (Why did we come here again?) At least we were able to understand each other's frustrations and just let it go. We needed some help in our search so we called a Bishop. (And the heavens open, and the angels sing!)

Bishop Frost told us to just come on over to his house. When we pulled up he and his wife came out the front door to welcome us. They invited us in for dinner. Looking back at this moment I realize this is when we went from knowing 0 people in Visalia to knowing 2 of the best people in the world. Bishop and Sister Frost told us about the nice people who helped them out when they first came to Visalia for an internship. I suddenly felt like we had a lot in common. After hearing that Phil and I met in a kayaking class we got a very interesting story about their 10 day kayaking trip in Canada. And the bishop is training for an Olympic length triathlon! How cool are these people? We were invited to stay at their house for the night, and then invited to stay until we found a place. We were complete strangers- but they completely opened up their home to us (including their pool!)  These people are like saints in my book. I don't know how I could say enough good things about them- they are two of the most Christ-like people I have ever met. They fed us, told us all about Visalia, let us watch movies and fed us popcorn, and even gave us tables, appliances, and food when we found our place.We stayed over the weekend and then on Monday Sister Frost had an idea! She knew a nice LDS couple with a pool house just up the street! And low and behold, the nice couple said they would rent it out for $300 a month, no utilities. We feel so very blessed. And that is how we came to live in the cutest little house on Sol road.