It's been a busy week. As far as church work goes, January and February can be mind-numbingly slow because everyone heads out of town for vacation (the members, not the missionaries!). We use this time to get other things accomplished.

For example, yesterday we (the three of us plus Matt and Mary Virginia) piled in the car and headed out of town to scout out locations for next year's missionary conference. We drove a couple hundred kilometers and visited several hotels. It was quite a fun day and we found the most AMAZING chicken couscous in this tiny town about an hour away.

Today we started the adventure of looking for a new apartment. Every year, our rent is increased by the rate of inflation. That means that an apartment that was quite affordable almost four years ago when we moved here is now in a completely different price category, not to mention the fact that the exchange rate plummeted within a month of signing our original lease! We love our neighborhood and hate to leave it but our support does NOT increase according to the rate of inflation every year, so now it's time to move.

Apartments here are individually owned so looking for an apartment means scouring the classified ads on the weekend and calling on the ones you like. You can also search the different real estate websites to find listings. Today we visited four different apartments. For most of them we just visited the realtor's office and signed out the keys. There were a couple that definitely seemed worthy of consideration. In the next couple of days we'll make a point to drive by them at night to see how the area seems after dark. Keep our apartment search in your prayers! We have a couple of months before our rent will increase so we're not in a huge rush but it would be nice if we could get it done before church life picks up again!