TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

Today was all about tonight.  I just must be slow, because it took the better part of the day to get the dinner ready, and I was steadily working away.  I would occasionally sit down, but for the most part, that was my day.  I think it is because in an effort to save money, I do a lot of the food prep myself instead of buying it already chopped, grated or cooked.  My body is telling me that it was a long day! I don't really mind.  I think it is fun to cook for a little group of appreciative young people.  They seem to be so very grateful for a home cooked meal!  We served 14 tonight, and it would have been twenty one with the 4 missionaries and their investigators, but the investigators all cancelled when they realized we would be walking somewhere to hear about ways we can be of service in our community. I came up with what I thought was kind of a novel idea for a YSA dinner.  I have never been to a mac n' cheese restaurant in the U.S. but I ...

As will be our custom for the next seventeen months, we attended 2 wards.  The first one we attended is the 2nd Ward, and the second one we attended is the Oxford 1st Ward.  Is that just slightly confusing? The 2nd Ward is the smaller of the two, and today was their Primary program.  There were an even dozen children on the stand, and each one gave a short talk and all participated in the singing.  One of the teachers on the stand is a former bishop and now also a member of the stake high council.  The Primary President gave the introduction and bore a powerful testimony about the Savior's love for each of His children.  She remembered her sister's journal of long ago, when the sister was six years old.  Every Sunday she documented everything that happened in Primary - who said the prayers, what songs they sang, the title of the lesson.  And, she concluded, on every page of the journal came through clearly the love of her teachers and leaders an...

The weather forecast says it won't rain again until next week.  Isn't that amazing?  I have been enjoying the rain immensely, and especially being outside in it.  We have a pretty good umbrella that works well - if I hold it - at keeping us both mostly out of the rain.  And there is something so very charming about huddling close together under that little canopy and listening to the rain pelt away at us. We walked arm in arm tonight to the Ball.  Forget the Ball Gown and glass slippers, not only did my fairy godmother NOT appear to tap me with her magic wand and make me a princess, she also did not provide a carriage and white horses.  But I didn't mind.  I walked to the Ball through the city center with my Prince and it was delightful. I felt a bit like Jane Eyre, who put on her best gray dress for important occasions.  I put on my best black outfit, my sensible walking shoes and pearls, and away we went! The Ball was attended by 7...

We ventured today into the county where my ancestors were born, lived and died.  However, we weren't on a quest for family history.  Sometime in the future we will try to find some of our Shingleton/Checketts sites. Today, we drove to Berkshire Country, Reading to be exact where we have two elders serving.  That is where my Great Great Grandparents were married.  I want to look into that.  What a beautiful drive.  Look at the skies as we traveled! The elders live in a beautiful little apartment on the ground floor of an apartment building set off from the road a little bit.  We still thought it was beautiful, even though we did some serious bumbling in order to find it.  We put the address on the GPS in the car and managed to get to Reading without any problems. But then, we didn't have a specific enough address, and ended up on a dead-end road which was lined with parked cars on either side.  There was barely enoug...

Today is what missionaries call "Preparation Day," meaning that it is when you do everything that helps you prepare for the rest of the week, laundry, cleaning, shopping, etc.  So in that sense it was a preparation day for us....kind of. I did those things like cleaning and laundry and we did some shopping.  We drove the sister missionaries to some kind of fair, where they set up a booth and answered questions about the church.  They also gave away copies of The Book of Mormon.  It took an hour round trip in the morning and took an hour round trip in the afternoon, and the traffic was difficult, the roads very narrow in some places and bicycles and pedestrians everywhere!  Plus, cars would stop and semi-park in spots that weren't big enough to park in, and then we would have to wait our turn to circumnavigate around them....jumping into the middle of the road like you would jump into double dutch jump rope.  It was in Oxford, and it was ...

I love this mission!!!! We have so many wonderful opportunities to be with really really nice young people. This morning we had the district meeting in our apartment, with Elder Hill, Elder Tshindabo, Sister Porter and Sister Mattos.  Just like last week, they reverently conducted the meeting, demonstrated an aspect of teaching, reviewed last week's goals, set new ones for this week and taught a gospel concept.  The meeting ended with a wonderful motivational video by an ex NBA player.  I was even inspired. I served them lunch.  Dave and Deb admonished us to do what we could to strengthen them and help them do the work of the Lord.  We are in the unique position of having this apartment where not only the YSAs gather, but where the young missionaries meet weekly.  I decided that we will fix lunch for them each week after our meeting.  They are lucky to have one dinner appointment a week, and they are all hard workers.  So that is one t...

We began our missionary flat inspections today.  We started with the nearby sisters.  The sisters who have now trapped 7 or 8 mice.  I have been on the phone several times with various and sundry people from the management company and the landlord.  I'm telling you, things are no different here than home....it's just hard to get a fire lit under some people.  They claimed that a pest control company had been commissioned to rid the place of vermin, and they would be in touch either today or tomorrow.  I guess it will be tomorrow. We walked over this morning to their flat, a pleasant and fairly short walk.  It was gray and glorious with no chance of rain.  How do they know this?  Those clouds looked very threatening.  However, the forecast tomorrow is heavily in favor of precipitation. Their flat is above a little shop on a very busy area of the city.  In fact, from their living room window, you can look down on the town square a...