On the Road Again

 I was so taken yesterday by the thought of celebrating those who mother, that I didn't even think about it being Pi Day until the evening --- too late to do much about it.  I told Kristina, one of our young adult reps that we ought to have pie today to mark that special day, especially since she and her fiancee are both majoring in math.  I repeated it again today to them in Family Home Evening.  Kristina explained to me that they don't celebrate Pi day here in England....it doesn't really work.

I know I must have looked blank, and then she reminded me that the English speak and write dates with the day first, month second and year third.  In America, my birthday would be 01/17/49, but in England it is 17/01/49.  So there is no Pi Day since the fourteenth is expressed as 14/3/21!  I knew that, but it just didn't occur to me.

Have you ever had a night when you just couldn't sleep?  Last night was like that for me.  I was relaxed and lying in bed for most of the night, but sleep just never came.  My mind was working overtime about so many things, none of which were stressful, and some of which were kind of exciting or happy.  I finally got up at 5 to get ready for the day.  


We left home about 6:40 to pick up our elders.  We drove to Reading where we left Elder Watford with the Reading Elders, until he gets a new companion on Friday.  By then, most of the newest missionaries will have completed their isolation and ready to go to work.  But by week's end, there will be more new missionaries, a happy event for sure.  Some will be brand new in the mission field, and straight from MTC training.  Others will come from American temporary assignments (some up to a year) like New Mexico or North Carolina or Orem - like Lauren.  I've met a few of them, and they are good strong missionaries who have been faithfully waiting and serving until they would be able to serve in their original assignment.

We continued into London to the mission office where we said our goodbyes to Elder Bricknell.  He is such a great young man.  We will miss him here.  But one thing we have learned is that the Lord will send us wonderful new missionaries and the work will go forward.  We snapped some pictures with him, and then hurried upstairs to say a quick hello to Dave and Deb.  Dave was deep into meetings but Deb spent some time with us.  

Living dangerously - We took our masks off and stood closer than 6 feet!


We left fairly soon after we got there so we could get home and bake some cookies to deliver for Family Home Evening.  That kind of took up the remainder of our day.  A quick dinner before Family Home Evening at 7.  We watched Lion King with several young adults.  I enjoyed it as much as the first time.

SK was mumbling about how silly it is to watch while everyone was watching...."That isn't getting together!"  he says.  But the truth is, it was very nice.  We watched together on Zoom, turned off the pictures of us and left the speakers on so that we could all make comments while we were watching.  I've got to admit it was about as good as it gets as far as watching a movie together.  It was fun to hear their giggles and their observations about what was happening in the film.

I am a little sad to say goodbye to these young people. Sister Dundon is also leaving tomorrow, and has been here in Oxford since we returned from Arizona - six months ago.  She has been an awesome missionary, who went to Ecuador on her mission, returned to England because of the pandemic, and was reassigned to our mission.  We have had a fair amount of time with her and her companion and I am certain they will be much needed and used in their home wards.

We had a zoom meeting at 9, and now I am fading fast. It has all been good.  

Comments

Lia said…
What? No pi day in England? Sheesh. At first I thought, well, they can celebrate it on April 31st! But...there is no April 31st. I'm sort of forlorn on their behalf.
March 15, 2021 at 10:18 PM
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