No Fortune Cookie!!!!

 "What a revoltin' development!" was what my dad would have said.  

Tonight's Family Home evening was fantastic.  So fun.  Everyone got their favorite Chinese take-out meal and we all sat on the zoom call eating our food and talking.  We had a great turn-out.  And it was delightful to see them all visit and enjoy themselves.  They are all very busy right now with their studies.

The delivery service that seems to be most trusted and cover the most territory is "Deliveroo."  We see them on bicycles, motorbikes and occasionally in cars.  They all have a distinctive aqua-colored insulated box attached to their person or their bikes.  In some instances there is no delivery charge and in some it is 2 pounds.  And online, we are told that any tips are 100% the property of the delivery person.

It is perhaps one of the few businesses that is thriving, but it is also helping restaurants stay afloat.  

We ordered Thai food - rather than Chinese.  There are no Panda Express outlets here, where you can spend $6 and get enough food to fill you.  Everything here is a fair amount more.  It was our first experience with any kind of oriental food in England, and I must say it was a bit of a disappointment.  Perhaps it is because we love the thai food we get in Gilbert, and this was a dim echo of what we remember as wonderful food.

Not only that, but they didn't serve fortune cookies!  I must confess that I have been vey disappointed with any and all of the fortune cookies we have been receiving in Arizona for the last 10 years or more.  I know I could do better at making up fortunes.  The worst is when they just give you a platitude.  Where's the fun in getting a fortune cookie that doesn't predict your good fortune?

We listened to one of the young adults share something of her family heritage from China.  She told us about traditions, foods, clothes, and other fun facts.  Then we all followed Kristina through an origami project.  That was easily the best part of the evening.  The three young men were hilarious.  It clearly wasn't something they had ever spent time on, and all that folding and unfolding just didn't intrigue them - at all.

Earlier in the day, I made a batch of cookies.  We took some to a young adult and a family.  SK is only too happy to eat the rest....they are white chocolate almond and his all-time favorite cookies.  

The news from Boris Johnson (PM) today was that March 8 schools will start back up....giving parents all kinds of mixed emotions.  By month's end, they will allow up to 6 people to meet outside but no more than two families or bubbles.  It will be sometime in April before barbers and hairdressers will be allowed to open.  Restaurants will come in sometime in April as well as other non-essential businesses.

It's fascinating.  I think we are more use to the young adults now in some ways than when everything is open and vibrant.  Over and over again, people (ward members, ward leaders, missionaries and young adults) have expressed that just the idea of our being here provides people with a sense that everything is OK.  I'm grateful that they feel that way, because there are some days when I feel pretty useless.

Happily, I haven't felt that way for awhile because we are keeping so busy.  Somewhere in the world, there is someone opening a fortune cookie with a platitude ot that effect.

Comments

Lia said…
You will do great and useful things in a foreign land.

Lucky numbers: 1 17 49 8 26 44

洗手間在哪裡 Where is the bathroom?
February 22, 2021 at 3:50 PM
melissa said…
Haha!! Lia, what a fortune!!
February 24, 2021 at 6:06 AM
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