Sweet

 Have I mentioned that we start every day with a prayer with all the missionaries in our zone?  Twelve of us together on a Messenger Video Chat.  They pray earnestly for help in finding people who are looking for God in their lives.  I love these young people!  It is a sweet way to start the day.

Please forgive me for all the pictures today.  We walked about 2 1/2 miles and I just couldn't quit snapping pictures!  So many beautiful old buildings and so many lovely richly green fields with stately trees.  Of course the pictures don't do any of the areas justice, but I have to try.

Can you see SK in the doorway?

SK spent a good portion of this day trying to get some insurance matters resolved.  It is all very difficult to conduct any kind of business when you are not in the country.  It is compounded by the fact that our phones (with mission sim cards) cannot call long distance - never mind the outrageous cost - but they are not set to call outside of England.  So he used Magic Jack, which is better than nothing.  But the quality is often bad, and our call shows up as a call from Arizona.

Before anyone is willing to change anything for us they want us to be in the U.S.  SK keeps trying to explain, but it isn't working.  

I have begun organizing the office, trying to decide what to throw away (there are a lot of papers from senior missionaries ten years ago) and what to keep. I'm organizing books and files.  Then there is the matter of - ahem - a few souvenirs that I have been packing away in one of our large suitcases.  I guess I will just have get rid of many of our clothes when we leave!

I also worked on a book for Elder Bricknell who will be gone by next Tuesday morning.  Lia asked me a long time ago what the Oxford University motto is.  She saw it on one of my pictures.  It is in Latin.  I looked it up and was floored to find out that it is "The Lord is my light."  Fancy that.  I am surprised that it hasn't been changed.  It is a beautiful motto.

So we purchased several little blank books with this motto on, and I inscribed his name and the university motto.  It isn't much, but it will make a good souvenir of his time spent here.  He is an excellent missionary who has worked hard.  I am sadly out of practice with a metal nib, and I only had one shot because there is only one real front page in this little book.  

Elder Bricknell is on the right.

The spelling is all correct, but the calligraphy could use some work.  Thankfully, I am certain he will not be too discerning.

We had a morning call with the missionaries and then a game night this evening.  We do enjoy them.

A couple of times a week, we sit down and watch an episode of "Lewis."  We watched one this evening.  It was Season 8, an episode titled "Entry Wounds."  It's a murder mystery and lasts around an hour and a half.  We love it because they film here in Oxford.  Today they were on St. Thomas Street, and walked right past the Brewery.  You could see our backyard castle in the background!  Almost every place they were filmed walking outside, we have walked in the last month.  It is such a treat.  If you want to see Oxford the way we are seeing it, watch any episode, but that one is the best so far!

We stopped at a little cafe that we have wanted to try since first we came.  We could only step inside and place an order and then outside. The sandwiches were only 4 pounds or $6 each, which is really reasonable!  And we got a dessert that was sheer heaven....orange, lemon and lime cake.  It was saturated in those juices.

I don't think our walk was enough to burn the calories in two bites of this cake!  But it was a sweet way to end our day.