Car Blessings

Tuesday I went to the church for the Relief Society meeting. I had a really good time learning about self defense. I've realized I'm not prepared should something happen. It is hard to learn to try and hurt someone else with everything that you've got. There was talk about doing another self-defense class for R.S. that would be more involved, with mats and stuff, so we can really go for it.

Anyway, as Shannon and I were leaving my car would not start. There was hardly a turn-over of the engine at all. And I had checked before we got out that none of the lights were on. So I went back in the church and Brother Boeck came out, I had jumper cables in the car and Sister Keefe was parked next to me so we hooked up to her car.

I got it started, and as Bro. Boeck undid the cables my car died again. Not a good sign. So we redid the jump and when we took of the cables this time it still worked. Shannon and I had hoped to stop at Walmart on the way home, now we just went straight home. It was dusk, but I didn't turn the lights on because I didn't want to use more of the battery than I needed to.

We made it home, Morgan and the boys were still outside and he could see that the dome lights were pulsing. We turned the car off and it didn't start again. Morgan is smart with cars so he knew that the alternator needed to be replaced.

So Wednesday I went to an auto shop and bought the alternator. Morgan came home early from work so he could change it out himself. I had to run to the shop two more times to get a tool and a belt that Morgan needed. But he was able to get it almost done before Shannon and I had to leave to Young Womens.

We got home and Morgan hooked up the jumper cables from the van to the car and we started it up. We left them hooked for a while then undid them, turned the car off and started again. It worked!

We wanted to let it recharge so Morgan and I took a drive to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone (that was my idea!) The great part was, that our "check engine" light has been on for over a year and it is no longer on. (The manual did not mention the alternator as a possible reason for it to come on) the car is shifting a lot better too.

So the car working better is a blessing, and we realized that this car has never stranded us anywhere. We have always had some sort of warning before we needed to do major work to it. We are just really grateful that even though it isn't the best of cars, it has been really good for us.

I just remembered another reason the timing of this was good. Friday morning is leaving with the van to go on a work retreat for the weekend. I would have had the car with the boys all weekend, and if it had broken done sometime then I would have been stranded without a way to church or anywhere.