TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

We were up late last night - nothing unusual about that, but we were up very early this morning - and that is unusual.  Normally, 7:30 to 8:30 is the time we get up and get moving.  Today it was 5:45 - which is almost the time I go to bed sometimes! (just kidding)  But it felt like we had just gotten to sleep. What moved us to awaken at that indecent hour?  A trip to London to meet with the entire mission and be trained by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Presidency of the Seventy.  Everyone was excited to attend. SK got a break today; we took the train.  With the whole mission there (well over 200 missionaries) there would have been no place to park the car.  When SK and I first took the train into London, about five months ago, we went into the station on the day we wanted to go, and to our dismay, had to pay nearly a hundred dollars to ride, and that was with the senior discount! We have been somewhat reluctant to ride the train since, although oth...

It has been just a little over two weeks since our Christmas package arrived from our children.  We took the two canvases immediately into a framer to have them stretched and framed.  Today we picked them up! We are so happy with them!  I will be excited to see what everyone has to say about them.  We will go to IKEA this week to look for a frame for the Rembrandt.  I am hoping that they will have a nice one because that print is awesome and the colors are amazing. Merry Christmas to all - and to all a goodnight.

We awakened to snow this morning!  At first glance it looked like rain.  But on closer inspection, it was falling more slowly.  Within a half hour, the little snow flakes were replaced by large wet snowflakes wafting lightly to the ground where they immediately melted.  It was magical. It had stopped by 9:30, which is when we left to walk to a treasure of a little museum not far from here to see "Young Rembrandt" - a special exhibit covering the first ten years of his career.  It was spectacular.  Rembrandt is one of my favorites.  He had a gift for not only capturing the appearance of an individual, but their inner person as well.  He was fascinated with elderly people and portrayed them with great empathy. His use of light throughout his career is legendary and I loved to see how that developed from the time he first started painting, and throughout his lengthy career.  There were a lot of self-portraits in the exhibit, and in those...

At some point today, Erin, Melissa, our Gilbert Arizona Relief Society President, and our Gilbert Arizona Elder's Quorum President let us know that our dear friend Gary West has passed away.  Ahhh, the inexpressible sadness that accompanies that announcement.  He and his wife Carol are two of the bravest and best people I know.  They would both chafe at such a declaration.  They have fought side by side for 15 years as Gary has battled overwhelming odds - trying to beat the cancer that just finally got the better of him.  Gary has endured incredible pain of so many varieties.  The cancer was never simple, and the many side-effects of treatment appeared at times to be as terrifying as the cancer.  He fought to stay.  He struggled through lengthy times of horrifying illness, and horrifying treatments, blindness and who knows what else.  Through it all, his faith in the Savior has never wavered. Carol - bless Carol, so steadfast and capabl...

What are we celebrating? Wellllll....One of our YSAs contacted us this afternoon with the astonishing message that today is a great occasion, and thus cause for celebrating.  It is known as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.  Shrove Tuesday, as Wikipedia describes it is:   the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), celebrated in some Christian countries by consuming pancakes; the last day of "fat eating" or "gorging" before the fasting period of Lent. Throwing ourselves into the spirit of the day,  we declared it pancake night, and we truly gorged.  Berklee made the pancake batter and cooked  them up.  They were at least 6 inches across and thick and delicious.  We topped them with buttermilk syrup and whipped cream.  We had other toppings, but they all seemed to prefer that particular combination. They were better than most desserts....well they were dessert!  We had nine YSAs here. Earlier in the day we inspe...

Mondays - have always been my favorite day of the week.  It is a re-freshing day.  It is a day to start again at everything. Mondays here in Oxford are a little bit different.  From the moment I get up until I drop into bed in the evening, I am thinking, planning and executing THE MEAL.  It is not difficult, and in fact I kind of enjoy it.  The young people are amazing to help me, and they are doing it more these days.  They come into the kitchen and chop vegetables and help cook. They are also good to help clean up. It just takes so much of my focus.  We do our shopping for the fresh food, we prepare dishes throughout the day (desserts and other things that can be made ahead), and just spend our time moving toward that evening meal. Today I was almost lost, because that focus wasn't there.  I didn't fix a meal.  I didn't serve a meal.  I went to the wedding shower of our Institute teacher at the Bishop's home.  All women in...

In the 1st Ward today, an 11-year-old boy gave a talk that was one of he best sacrament meeting talks I have ever heard.  He got up to speak and his head just barely cleared the podium.  He is small and has a shock of dark hair topping a cute slightly freckled face. It will be several years yet before his voice deepens.  He had his written talk, and he read most of it, but he was familiar enough with it that he looked up often and it seemed as if he was speaking from his heart. He began with a quote from Nephi in 2 Nephi 25:29, where Nephi prophesies about the future and then tells us how to worship the Savior. How? this boy asked us. He went on to answer his own question.  Nephi says "with all our might."  The boy then asked how that is done. He cited the story of the converts in the Congo who threw all of their idols into a massive waterfall where they were unrecoverable.  The boy said that when we worship the Savior with all our might, that mea...

Today was a serious preparation day.  We have a list of about 50 or 60 individuals whose records are in the Oxford 1st Ward and who haven't been to meetings for a long time.  Our goal is to contact each one and invite them to come back and enjoy the spiritual strength given by ward members in our Sunday meetings....to partake of the Sacrament and to in turn strengthen others in their testimony of the Savior. We spent considerable time today going over the lists, sorting out the ones we will contact, deciding how best to make that contact, whether by phone, email or a visit in person.  We don't want to pester anyone, but we do want to invite. There are several people who are 60 and older and we know nothing about them, but they are the ones who have no phone number or email listed.  There must be at least 20 to 25 visits that we will be making in the next month.  I am excited to do that.  There are about another 15 who are under 30, our YSA target grou...

Off early - again.  Maybe I could get used to this.  Fortunately both yesterday and today the traffic was light and getting to both apartments was almost a slam dunk (except for the roundabout exits that were closed - causing a detour of unknown distances). The young men we visited were handsome, shined up and ready for the day....just like their flats.  After leaving each companionship in their apartments, SK was just a little emotional as he said, "They are good kids."  I was just too tired to bake last night and so didn't take them any homemade items (something I really like to do), so SK put together a goody bag of treat candy that we buy from Costco to have on hand for the YSAs.  It comes out of our own personal budget so we feel fine about doing that. Later in the day we walked over to a local lighting shop to pick up some light bulbs for one of the apartments.  We walked by a charity shop, and were drawn in by their display of DVDs....

Have I mentioned that I am happy NOT to be a young missionary?  They get up at 6:29 every morning and have a regimen of exercise and study, and by the time we see them at 9, they are already well into their day.  When we see them at 9 to do flat inspections, we also are well into our day, since I have to get up at 6 in order to be ready to be out the door at 7:15.  I don't have a terribly difficult time getting up.....it's staying awake all day that is the kicker.  SK is doing great at driving these days and when we take off on these road trips, I invariably fall asleep for a portion of the travel.  Something about being comfortable, the motion of the car and being old.  But that sleep is sweet.  We inspected three flats today.  All of them were clean and tidy, and the only admonishing we did in any of them was encourage them to try to manage the clutter a little better.  Sometimes though, their youth, kindness, earnestness and goodness j...

I was up early enough to bake some "Death by Chocolate" cupcakes and organize everything for lunch with the young missionaries.  Fortunately, Monday's night's well-attended dinner of chili/hot dogs left us with enough chili to feed the missionaries lunch today.  I still had vegetables left for a green salad, and I figured who would mind left-overs if there was chocolate at the end of the meal? I worked on that until they came at 10:30, and then I sat down with them to participate in the meeting.  SK walked to the store to get fresh bread, which is always a good idea with young people.  If you run out of everything else, they are always happy with bread, butter and jam. We had a good meeting, and afterward we all sat together at the table and ate lunch.  They are cute young people, and I always get more a sense of their youth when the meeting is over and they are sitting together over a meal.  They are good young people. After they left, I needed to r...

We got up this morning and prepared for our meeting with the area directors over YSA couples.  It was a Zoom meeting, where all of the couples from Europe and beyond called in to the directors in Germany.  They could see all of us on their screen....tiny squares within the larger square of the screen. We each introduced ourselves briefly.  There was a couple from India!  It sounds like the program is going very well over there.  There was a couple sitting in a room with what looked like a cross-stitched landscape of Denmark behind them.  It was Denmark.  They are serving up north on Jutland, part of the mainland attached to Germany. A few more couples introduced themselves, and then a couple in a flat that looked heart-achingly familiar....they are serving in Copenhagen Denmark.  After the hour and a half meeting was over, we had all of 30 seconds to converse with them.  SK asked them if the flowers he had planted when we were there were ...

It wasn't that I was nervous really.  I didn't for one moment entertain the thought that we would be evicted from this flat.  But I did feel that our good name was at stake....I could just imagine the report mailed to the mission office for everyone to read:  "Madsen flat in Oxford deemed uninhabitable due to extreme neglect." At the very least, I imagined a person with white gloves and a magnifying glass sauntering from room to room, assiduously checking each item off the list, sniffing, tsking, and generally looking down his nose at these American tenants. We waited until 10:00 for the person(s) to show up.  Finally, feeling a strong need to get started on this evening's meal and also wanting to mail a package, I set out on foot to accomplish as much as I could, while SK stayed home to face the music, so to speak. I got everything done that I could without him - SK being the one who carries the most groceries.  I was in the grocery store when he called t...

Whew! Here I am again on a Sunday evening wondering what happened to the week, and wondering what the best course of action is with the new week starting tomorrow.  It is shaping up to be a busy one. To begin with, someone will be coming to our flat in the morning (or any time throughout the day) to "inspect" it.  It will be interesting to see what they look at, what they may be concerned with, if they are nice, how long they take and what their recommendations will be.  I hope they don't recommend that we be summarily thrown out! I've become quite attached to this place, and now that we will soon have some fine art gracing the walls, I am fond of the idea of staying for another 13 months. Church was fantastic....all meetings.  With such a small pool of speakers in this community, how does it happen that every week is just so faith-filled and faith-promoting?  As is our habit, we attended both Sacrament meetings and the 1st Ward's Sunday School class....

We set out again to B and Q (a very good facsimile of Home Depot back in Arizona) to return the curtains we purchased last week, and to buy some more in a different length.  We got them for the young elders apartment which is about 50 miles from here and usually an hour and a half to two hours drive. We needed to inspect their apartment anyway, but I wanted to hang the curtains that day.  The lady in the store said it would be easy....the iron on tape is included, so you measure, iron and hang.  Easy.  They were far too long, and we took them back.  We found ones that are almost perfect in length, but they didn't have them in stock, so I came home to order them online, and none of the stores seem to have them. You have no idea how many times I've thought, "If only my dear friend Kate were here!"  Kate would know in a snap what color and how many and how long.  If you know me, you know I don't have curtains in my home. So I am a little lost here....

How ironic.  We received notice today from the mission office that our apartment management company will be by on Monday (the busiest day of our week) to inspect our flat.  Yes, we inspected two this week, and will be doing four next week and two the week after.  We will compliment them on what they are doing well and we will make suggestions about how they can do better. Next week, someone will come through and - well, who knows what they will look for!  As soon as I read that today, I kind of went into overdrive.  I try to keep this place clean and orderly because there are always people coming in, but somehow, having someone come in who owns it and wants to make sure it is being well-taken care of....that makes me a trifle nervous.  And the worst thing?  They will submit the report to the mission office.  I can see it now.  "That Madsen couple don't know how to take care of a flat!" "We'll have to evict." "The flat is a disaster." ...

We left our flat way too early for my taste this morning, heading out to go south to Farnborough.  Forty-eight miles, supposedly an hour and twenty minute drive.  We got into some heavy stop and go traffic and it was closer to 2 hours before we got there. We inspected the two young sisters' flat, which was beautifully clean and organized.  They are cute sisters.  They had been in London yesterday for zone conference and excitedly shared all they had heard and been taught.  They had their notes out and were very cute to repeat some great messages from President Checketts.  I hardly ever talk to him when he isn't dealing with numerous issues in the mission and in the middle of at least one or two crises, and planning the next gathering....all at the same time.  It must be that he and Deb are in a constant state of stress.  But he has cleared the half-way mark.  I wonder if he knows how highly he is esteemed by these young missionaries, who ...