Monday, April 25, 2016 – Sweep & Mow, Painting, Rescue Marchello’s

Most of today fell into the “Routine” category. We started the day sweeping  & blowing sidewalks, scrubbing bird poop off of the sidewalks and more raking. The rest of the day I was on the mower. Carthage Jail Visitor’s Center sits on a whole city block so there is a lot of lawn to mow. 

While I was on the mower, Sis. Johnson painted the steps into the jail with “Caution Yellow” paint. Last week when she asked the building maintenance people for the paint, masking tape and brushes, they said no! Since we are “Grounds Keepers” and not on the “Building Maintenance” staff it isn’t our job. But . . . Sis. Johnson is a painter from WAY back and kept assuring the fellow over the paint department that she could do the job right. Then, to everyone’s surprise he gave in and gave her the materials she asked for.  Sis. Johnson is not only persistent; she’s a good painter too. Her painting job looks great.

 

This evening after the visitor’s center closed for the day, Elder Horlacher rang our door bell to tell us that a family, the Marchello’s, were in the parking lot and needed help. He & Sis. Horlacher had to leave for Nauvoo  for play practice and wanted to know if we could help them. Hey, we’re missionaries and that’s what missionaries do best, we help people.

It turned out the family was from Boise Idaho and either their battery was dead or the alternator was out.  After a trip to the tool shed for a hand full of wrenches I discovered that a 2007 Ford Focus doesn’t use standard wrenches so I was off to the tool shed, this time for metric wrenches. Then after a battle of wills, man against battery post clamp, we finally won and got the battery out. After some experimentation we finally decided it was a dead battery, not the alternator. Chandler (the son) and I headed for Keokuk, 20 miles to the west, to buy a new battery. 

After about 3 hours the new battery was installed and working nicely. Sis. Johnson invited the Marchello’s for dinner with us and they graciously accepted. We got to know the family very well, so well in fact, that we’re now “Friends” on Facebook!