Friday, December 09, 2016 – Warmer, Driving for Tree Limbs, Cleaning Zone 2, Elder Dalton Richards

Today was warmer by five degrees. When we went to work this morning the temperature was a balmy 23 degrees. It was warmer because of the cloud cover. In fact we even had intermittent snow flurries all morning.  The forecast said there was only a five percent chance of snow. It didn’t snow hard enough to accumulate anything but it was snow none the less. 

Our whole work day was taken up cleaning the ground and historic sites. We’ve been given 32 sites to regularly check for debris, downed limbs, and flowerbeds with frozen and dead plants. Today we finished Zone 1 of 4 and we even got a start on Zone 2 which we will clean next week.

 

At the Jonathan Browning Home and Gun Smith Shop we were greeted by Elder Rober. He is one of the missionaries assigned to give tours there today. I asked him what he does while he waits for guests to come and take tours. He said that he brings his laptop and connects to the mission’s on line “Teaching Center.” Missionaries can use the “Teaching Center” in both the Nauvoo and Carthage Visitor’s Centers.  But they can also use their own PC or Laptop anywhere they have a Wi-Fi signal.  He told me the story of a lady that contacted the church’s Chat room on line. She is from the small African country of Lesotho. I’ve never even heard of Lesotho before. The caller asked to receive a Book of Mormon. Elder Rober said “I’m going to do my best to see that she gets it.” He told me that once he handled a call from a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and he was able to get a Book of Mormon hand delivered there. Keep up the good work Elder Rober!

Again today we got to work with Elder Dalton Richards. He is one of FM’s service missionaries. His last day of his mission is next week. When we finished cleaning the flowerbeds at the Brick Yard he asked the Missionaries serving there if he could have ten Nauvoo Brick Yard bricks to take home with him. He plans to give them as Christmas gifts to his family members. Good plan Elder Richards and congratulations on your service here in the Illinois Nauvoo Mission.