TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

I made another batch of carrot cakes.   This will be the last for awhile.  The last deliveries for awhile.  By the time I had finished them and topped them with that sweet cream-cheese icing, it was dark.  (Remember that it is dark here by 4, and nearly dark at 3:00)  We drove to the three we delivered, and mostly did well at finding our way around.  U-turns really are discouraged and we don't want to get another ticket, so when we overshoot a destination, we invariably end up going around blocks that aren't made to go around.   But it all turned out well and we had some nice visits.  One of our sweet young women (who is the newest member) is a researcher at Oxford Brooks.  She has a PhD.  She has deep abiding faith in the Lord and accepts life as it comes.  She is from Dominican Republic.  She was going to be a speaker at the "Why I Believe" fireside this coming Sunday evening at 6, but she is on quarantine in her ho...

 It has been another fine day of Zoom meetings, beginning with our own ward sacrament meeting.  The speakers were a young couple from America.  He is doing post-doctoral work at Oxford in Mathematics and they plan on being here for several years.  They each spoke about gratitude, and their talks were excellent.  He talked about some quotes from Joseph Smith and the idea of being grateful for ALL things.  How difficult that is!  And yet how amazing in the blessings derived. She started with a children's book (young mothers do that even in Oxford!) about Elmer the Elephant, who helped all of the complaining elephants around him change their perspective and found gratitude for their own circumstances.  She went on from there to give an excellent talk.  And see....I remember it!  Children's books often are the best place to find life's lessons. We watched the Crowley Stake Conference - a stake south of London - and not ours.  Dave and D...

 We delivered more little cakes today.  But we walked for most, and that was a good thing.  It was marvelously cool - 48 degrees.  We bundled up and off we went through the streets of this fair city.  It was crowded today.  Probably because it is Saturday and people just wanted to get out.  But there were a lot of crowds, people standing in groups and close together.  They were happy. The BBC said today that Boris Johnson will probably keep us on the tier system until Easter Monday.  That is a sobering thought.  April 5 is Easter Monday.  The tier we were in just before lockdown was Tier 2, which means nothing much changes.  No intermixing of households, no meeting in groups even outside (apparently few got the memo on that for today), but nearly all businesses will be open, and we can meet - following COVID guidelines for church. I think we will just have to get very creative.  If we are really truly going to be on househ...

 This week has been so full and fulfilling and tiring that we haven't been taking walks!  We have had a Zoom meeting every day.  Today's was the last of the 3-day mission training meetings with Elder Kospichke.  He is from Germany and is called to work with Europe, which he loves.  We loved listening to him!  He spoke every day for at least 2 hours, in training sessions.  He taught and then asked for feedback, taught and then asked for questions and feedback the entire time. We loved how he taught from the scriptures.  He has a deep understanding of the scriptures.  He took us to specific scriptures - depending on what the question was and then opened them up to us.  His wife taught as well.  She is marvelous!  She has a beautiful German accent, a voice that drops down in her throat from time to time, energetic, enthusiastic and funny.  They are a cute couple. Today I did some more baking and then we delivered cakes to 8 Y...

 The day has not been a typical Thanksgiving, but it has nevertheless been full of Thanksgiving.  Today marks the end of the week that President Nelson asked us to us this week to post a gratitude journal.  I have been very thoughtful as I have composed my feelings about each day's blessings.  In fact it has taken a fair amount of time just to think about and write. What is interesting though is the promise he gave. “To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you.” I have felt so much more grateful this week as I have pondered the many sweet blessings the Lord has given us, mostly in the form of other people....

 I looked back today to see what we were doing last year at this time.  We were fully into preparing for Thanksgiving.  We were hoping to have twenty or twenty one there, but were astounded when 27 showed up!  Actually it was 25 + SK and me.   Isn't it amazing how we go about our daily lives fully expecting tomorrow to be as predictable as we make it?  A second can make all the difference.  We have been humbled these last weeks to watch and pray for Ally, our granddaughter and the daughter of Derek and Heather.  She was in a terrible  roll-over accident which resulted in the deaths of two of her friends, wonderful young men.  She was badly bruised, with a concussion and a huge gash on her forehead, but she is alive.  And we are grateful for that, even as we mourn the loss of her friends. There was that second....when the driver lost control as the car seemed to began to skate as if on ice.  They described it as hydroplanin...

 Today is our young friend Veer's birthday.  She was baptized about a year ago, and we adore her.  She has been tremendously busy lately with her studies and has had to back off most of the Family Home Evenings and Institute nights.  We understand.  Uni - as everyone calls it is difficult, and at this time of year very time-consuming. We drove over and delivered a small cake to her and a card.  We called when we got close and she came out to the car.  She looks happy and that makes us happy.   We had a mission Zoom call this evening.  Dave said that the word on the street is that the lockdown will - indeed - end on December 2.  But we will go back into the tier system again.  If that is the case, Oxford had just begun tier 2, which means no intermixing of households.  We might as well be on lockdown!  But the good news is that churches will be open, as will businesses, museums and non-essential shops.  That will ...

 Life seems more and more quiet here.  We spent the better part of the morning indoors, going out in the afternoon for a walk.  SK says it has to be over 50 degrees in order for him to want to go outside.  We walk along the streets and see other pedestrians, bicyclists and people in cars.  For the most part though things are pretty deserted.  Our mall (a 10 minute walk) is almost eerie.  We walk past shops with Christmas decorations lit up and huge screens playing fashion videos, well-tended plants outside of upscale restaurants and cafes, brightly lit displays of merchandise, and others that are sadly permanently closed.  On door after door there are the polite apologies for being closed, with a promise that they will be back. Teens haunt the mall, sitting around looking at their telephones, older people like us stroll through for exercise, and mothers pushing strollers amble by, probably happy for the chance to be out.  Even the quaint litt...

 The Sabbath Day.  It was a beautiful day, and passed leisurely yet steadily, as it slipped into the past.  We participated (Zoom one and all) in our Oxford 1st Ward Sacrament Meeting, the meeting for new members and investigators with our young missionaries and finally Lia and Ed's Sacrament Meeting where they were the speakers. Every meeting was inspiring.  Two our our YSAs spoke in our meeting here. They spoke about "COVID and the Gospel" - of all topics. They both took a different perspective, yet each was thought-provoking.  Adam compared our time right now with Moroni's, beginning with listing the trials Moroni endured  - before revealing that he was speaking about him.  His wife Madeline began with the Hoffman painting "Christ and the Rich Young Ruler."  She said at one point "Jesus's journey through mortal life was riddled with loneliness, quoting from Isaiah 53.  3  He is  a despised  and rejected of  men; a man o...

The good news is that I haven't had a headache since tossing out the lilies, and I will make sure that I never have a close encounter with another one.  That is cause to celebrate. It has been another day of twilight.  The sun never managed to put in much of an appearance.  We didn't go for a walk until three, and the entire walk felt like the sun would settle beneath the horizon any moment.  We agreed that we would go for 20 minutes, since that is the minimum for good health and we do want to be healthy We found our way to another stretch of the Thames River, and instead of looping back, we ended up going out of our way to find a bridge to get us back.  We were never lost.  We knew exactly where we were, but we were not too keen on swimming across the river in 50 degree weather. I'm certain these pictures are all beginning to look alike to you, but this river just warms my heart - wherever it goes in the city.  There are homes and apartment buildings ...

 On our walk of well over 3 miles today, we discovered another beautiful path along tributaries of the Thames.  Tree-lined and dotted with swans and colorful ducks, the small river lazily swirled past stately old houses with sloping yards down to the shoreline.  Many had small docks and decks with everything from swings to very small houses perched atop.  All up and down the river there were boats, houseboats or barges.  They are long and narrow and sit low in the water.  They are completely enclosed and sport curtains at the windows, garden plants sitting in pots atop and occupants inside. We walked along the path for some time, enjoying all the sights until hunger got the best of us.  We turned around and retraced our steps along the water....which was just as enjoyable as the first time.  We are astonished at how many lovely walks there are here.  I know Oxford is not unique.  Copenhagen was much the same, but without all of the many ...

 Our great outing today was a trip to the local grocery store, where we discovered "Giant Watermelons."  SK laughed all the way to the checkout, and even chuckled about it on the way home.  Of course he had to take pictures.   It is about the size of a small soccer ball and looks much larger in the picture even than it is. We had a lovely planning meeting with our YSW reps this evening.  Kristina is a brilliant math student working on her PhD.  She is very sensible as you might imagine, looking at everything with logic and common sense.  She is lovely and has a delightful laugh.  She speaks beautiful proper English and is trying to help me with my pronunciations....slow going!  Harry (Americans pronounce this name Hairy, rhyming with Berry, but Brits make it sound so much classier - the H is softer, the a is pronounced like the a in lard, and the r is said way to the back of your throat.) is a handsome young man recently returned from a ...

 SK and I have had a good day here at home.  I just can't escape the feeling that I should be doing more, doing better, doing something.  I have delivered some cookies, but in this time of the virus, I am unsure whether they are be welcome.  Some people are very concerned about catching it, and I wouldn't want to worry anyone. This COVID fatigue is real.  We are basically free to move around outside and to do a little bit of shopping and essential travel.  The city is quiet, and we reach out to each other via the internet and telephone.  Isolation is a terrible thing, and I can't imagine what it must feel like to those who live alone.   In December we hope to help the YSAs organize to pair up with older people who live alone and reach out to them through the internet, to get to know them and to help them feel less isolated.   Heaven knows it will be just as good for the young people as for the older ones.  But it will require o...

 We didn't take our umbrellas on our walk today.  What's the point?  It wasn't raining, but the air was so heavy with water droplets that it was a little like walking through a light shower.  They just hang in the air.  It was a beautiful walk!  I so love this weather.  We were both bundled up, so the cold and damp didn't deter us. We didn't go out until three, and it was already twilight.  The sun set at 4:11, but it takes a while to fully dip below the horizon.  It begins its descent early in the afternoon.  It reminds me of C.S. Lewis's account in "The Great Divorce" where he describes a bus ride from hell to heaven.  People at the bus stop were living in a perpetual twilight.   It is a cozy feeling - twilight, but I don't think I would want to live in it permanently. We walked to the post office, where for the first time ever here, we waited less than 3 minutes!  There has always been a long line.  But everyw...

 The ticket came today.  SK was sure that he would get one over a week ago, when we delivered a meal to our new friends.  We followed the directions to get back to our place, and the GPS took us right downtown on what is a walking street, except for cabs and buses.  And once you bumble onto the street, there is no getting off until you have gone the full length (about half a mile).  We felt pretty sheepish hobnobbing with all the large buses and cabs. In fact, it reminded me of a slapstick movie we went to when we were dating, "The Great Race."  The villains (Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk) who are participating in the great race get lost in Paris and end up clunkety clunking down the steps of the Montemartre.  They try to look like this is a routine drive in France.  Very slapstick, but vey funny. As I mention several days ago, the ticket was issued by the Oxford authorities to the owner of the car (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), h...

According to the Collins Dictionary.......Lockdown is the word of the year. In case that sentence doesn't have enough information for you, here is the link to the article: https://www.aol.com/collins-dictionary-names-lockdown-word-130522228.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFSnqxCeBMp3VVBFgOVA6mpfTk44Fa0epcmJGl06pD38o3Z23sB-UG5WcSlxWo-tvtAkZpTcuv-r76hVpuK-Wd6pntaYV5svoj1f-F8zk8WYwRawUWUFOTv3XY-asv3v_PS1YsIe8UU4GESoOSj-H6SgmtZakPUSrN0UEAPtJxHx A new phenomenon has hit.  It is called Zoom Fatigue.  You probably saw this coming.  It is, as you can imagine - a weariness of tuning in to internet meetings. Zoom meetings are a brilliant invention.  They save an enormous amount of money and time just considering travel.  If I had attended all of the meetings in person today that I tuned into on my computer, there would have been 3 hours travel time....and the attendant cost in petrol. Zoom meetings - it wou...