A scary story

Meet our friend, the centipede. I know he looks harmless...even a little cuddly, but that is not the case! A bite from a centipede has been described by one victim as "worse then childbirth!" Centipedes are pretty wicked roommates, and this one became ours. I couldn't sleep one night, so I got up and walked BAREFOOTED to the front room. I turned on a light that cast a dim beam in the room. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dark, swishing shadow on the rug in the hallway where I had just been. Pretty soon the "shadow" moved! When each of those legs are in movement, that centipede is double in size and it can cover a lot of ground very quickly!

Now, I want to stop this story for a minute and bear you my testimony that Heavenly Father does, indeed watch over us. I want to put this story on rewind to share a couple of small miracles that took place before I noticed the centipede.

Miracle #1 We got sent to a mission where Elder Merrell, of necessity, has to do the grocery shopping. Yes, you read that correctly. The Grinch of Grocery shopping has become the Grocery shopper for the Merrells. I don't like it one bit and he's not too crazy about it, either. But he has never once complained about it. Like every other challenge he has faced in his life, he has jumped in with both feet and met it. Which was important to this story. Because we needed a mop. And that is...

Miracle #2: We needed a mop. The one we had was worn out. Many senior couples might have decided to make do for 18 months and save their money for more important purchases. (The senior missionary writing this story is just such a missionary) That is way miracle #1 needed to happen. Because Elder Merrell was doing the shopping, the mop was purchased.

Miracle #3: The mop was not put away! Knowing Elder Merrell, won't you all agree that this was perhaps the greatest miracle of the story? He- doesn't- leave- things- out. EVER! But he left the mop right next to the doorway leading into the hallway. For over a day. Unheard of. Truly a miracle.

Miracle #4: I did not step on the centipede when I passed through the hallway into the frontroom. It was a tiny hallway. It was a large centipede. It was dark.

That brings us back to the fast moving centipede on the hallway that is heading for our bedroom. And the mop. Which was right next to the hallway, in the perfect spot for me to grab and try to squash that centipede.

Only it didn't squash. We've since been told that they don't squash...not even by stepping hard on them...which I was certainly not going to do in my barefooted condition. Which brings me to...

Miracle #5: I was able to stop the centipede! He was still wriggling around and scaring the living daylights out of me, but he was stopped until Mike heard my sceams and came to the rescue. He didn't know whether to come out of the bedroom because I was yelling "You can't go in there". Once the mop handle changed hands, I thought we were safe, but Mike couldn't kill it either! I was looking all over for the poison they told us to kill stuff with, but none of it was made up. I finally got a can of roach spray and began spraying it...which caused it to wriggle all the harder...I thought I had given it some sort of super powers and that we were dead for sure.

But Mike kept a hold on the mop and eventually the centipede died.

We put it in a jar. I don't look too happy, do I?

You can't tell me miracles don't happen anymore. Elder Merrell and I lived through one.

One more funny P.S. to this story. When Elder Merrell sent this story out via e-mail, he could not get the pictures to load, so he sent it without the pictures. He sent the pictures in a later post, titled "Deceased roommate" When our friends, the Thamerts checked their e-mail a few days later, the second e-mail came up, first...and they were pretty worried about which one of us had passed away!