Four Weeks In - Zooming Away

 

Wednesday is District Council, which consists of all six of the Oxford Missionaries (including and SK and me) and two missionaries from Reading - about an hour away.  They call in over zoom, because the law says that we should have no more than 6 together at any given time, and they prefer that it be six people in your bubble (your closest group/family).  I think these young missionaries are in our bubble.

We had an instructive hour meeting and then ate lunch - which was baked spaghetti, green salad, rolls and a pizooki with a scoop of ice cream.  These young missionaries are always so grateful for food!  You have to admit, they are pretty cute.





After they left, we had about an hour before Riccardo came.  He is a young man who was baptized with three others last January.  We think he is a great young man, and unlike most of the others, he is not a student, but a teacher at another college in Oxford - not associated with Oxford proper.  He is here from another country.  We have prayed for him in nearly every prayer, hoping that with the COVID restrictions, he would remain firmly rooted in the gospel.  

He is reading The Book of Mormon daily, and I think that means a lot.  He has recently been through a bit of a heartbreak, but he is such a kind and wise young man, I think he will weather it well.  He stayed with us for well over 2 hours and we visited about all kinds of things.  We are grateful he came to see us.

This is Wednesday, so we also have online zoom Institute.  The lessons are so interesting, and we get to see and hear other YSAs from around the stake, not just Oxford.  There are also students tuning in from wherever they are in the world, which makes it doubly interesting.  

After Institute, we had the zoom mission call which lasted 45 minutes and now it is 10 p.m. and time to go to bed.  It seems like it has been a long day, and we are tired, but we are happy about the events of the day and have thoroughly enjoyed everything.

Today is the four-week mark of arriving in England.  Time just marches on, regardless of whether you are in lockdown or working at full-speed ahead.  It's possible that we have completed one twelfth of our time here, it is also possible that we may be going home in another few weeks.  We have no way of knowing when we will hear from the visa people, and what they will decide about granting us an extension of our visas.  They formally expire on October 2, but as I have mentioned before, we are fine staying until they make a judgment.

Last day of September!  I love September through December.  My absolute favorite time of the year.  October has to be the best month.  Rain, breezes, cool temperatures, Oxford, ah....it doesn't get any better than that.





Look at this!  We found it on one of our walks.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Master Teacher

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...
Read more

Going Home

  Fifteen missionaries are returning to their homes this week.  For this Saturday night zoom conference broadcast, each bore their testimony from their flats with their companions by their sides.  SK and I teared up many times as we listened to humble, sweet and strong testimonies.  It is easy to see the difference as they get close to their release date.  It they have been faithful, there is a maturity and a sweetness that is unexplainable. Here is a smattering of what was said: There is no growth in the comfort zone.  I am about to go home to my comfort zone...but it struck me that my old comfort zone is no longer comfortable for me.  I want to be in a growth zone. The early apostles did not succeed, but they knew we would. One elder quoted Dave's poem "If."  "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...Hold on...even through the hardest times."  "How can I accomplish these things?  Jesus Chr...
Read more

Shark!

Image
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 ...
Read more