Moved, Again

Yesterday, I went back to my old apartment and helped Samuel move out.

Samuel was much harder to move out. Not in moving his belongings, but in finding him a new place to stay.  He's working two jobs right now, but he's still not making very good money.  Even with the ward promising to support him by paying part of his rent, he couldn't find anything that he qualified for, since most places have income requirements as part of the application.  Add to that the fact that his family is up for an interview with the American embassy next month to be granted approval to move here, he also needed a place that could quickly adjust to having an additional three people in it.  Things were looking bleak when the week before he had to be out, he found an apartment that is large enough to accommodate having his family, doesn't require an income check as part of the application, and is affordable with the ward's help and -- and this is important -- comes with a roommate.  Samuel did some coordinating with his fellow countrymen and found someone that was willing to be his roommate on the condition that he'll move out when Samuel's family is approved to move here.  The lease is in Samuel's name this time, so that will help his renter's history for the future, too.

With the details finally worked out, we still had to move him.  When I moved, I rented a U-Haul so I could get everything in one vehicle.  Samuel didn't have that option, so we simply used some pickups that ward members had.  Unfortunately, it was forecast to rain hard that day.  Thankfully, it rained hard in the afternoon and by the time we got to the scheduled time for the move, the skies were clear.

The move went very quickly.  Samuel and I shared a one bedroom apartment, with nearly all of his stuff crammed into the dinning room.  I mostly just went through to make sure that he didn't leave anything behind.  Good thing I did, because he left behind several things.  I also went through and did some basic cleaning to help the apartment staff out.

As I was finishing up, Mark (who had stayed behind to help) told me that before I approached Samuel to be my roommate, that he had thought of the same plan, but we were already planning on Samuel moving in before he could bring it up to me.  I took that as further confirmation that our time as roommates was divinely inspired.  Mark also pointed out that having Samuel there was a benefit to me as well, since I had my portion of the rent lowered.  I agreed and pointed out that having someone in the apartment that likes to talk was probably good for me during my bouts of unemployment since it often helped me feel less depressed by being forced to talk to someone -- it's not that I didn't like Samuel, it's just that being unemployed was very depressing and when I get depressed, I tend to shut down and turn inward; having him around helped with that.

So, I wish Samuel the best.  We were roommates much longer than either of us planned on, but it all happened the way it was supposed to.  Good luck, 'mate.