TheSecondTimeAroundEngland

 Our Zoom Sacrament Meeting this morning left me with a sense of wonder - a pleased sort of wonder.  In the announcements, the Bishop mentioned feeding our young missionaries - in this case, that means delivering a meal to them.  Then he added to remember them and the Madsens in our prayers.  In the opening prayer, that is exactly what was done.  They prayed for the missionaries and the Madsens!  What a sweet sense of gratitude that left within my heart.  Our Bishop, as well as most others in this ward are so very positive and reinforcing to everyone.  They are always so very kind. Look at this great article about Dave in the newest UK issue of the Liahona...we were with him at one of the stakes where he did this nearly a year and a half ago : We had Sacrament Meeting, Relief Society, our Missionary meeting for people new or returning, a Zoom call with our young adult reps and a Zoom call with the other young adult Senior Couples in the mission....

 We had another chilly day in Oxford.  We took a walk - just as fast as we could walk - for exercise and to run a couple of errands.  We walked through historic Oxford - the closest walk, as well as the most picturesque.  We never tire of the old iconic buildings here.  I'm not sure if I have ever shown you the shortcut views through the backyard castle. The old and the new(er) right next to each other in our backyard castle complex. In our drives, we often go into the suburbs.  The farther we get from the center of town where we live, the newer everything is.  By "new" I mean newer than 100 years.  We see a lot of row houses, where all the narrow houses share walls with houses on either side.   We go through little neighborhoods with houses all stuck together, and they have tiny yards that were probably originally meant to be beautiful little entryways into the homes, decorated with flowering shrubs and vines.  Now, they are mostly...

 Somehow the title expresses the security we feel.  We can face each new day as "just another day" because we know we have close to 170 of them ahead of us yet.  There is still time to do the things we want to do for all these amazing young people.  And COVID numbers are going down, so the lockdown should be easing up by month's end.  But there are still dire warnings that we can't let our guard down. It will get down to 25 degrees tonight.  And I can't seem to get warm.  I contacted the sisters to see if they got their heater fixed.  At last night's meeting with the stake president, they were both bundled up in their coats.  Fortunately, it is working.  Today on our walk of 2 miles, we never did warm up, and I held onto SK like my life depended on it.  He gave a little protection from the wind!  We passed our castle moat, which was still flowing rapidly, but with ice encrusted banks and icicles hanging from the bridges. We wen...

  Not much green outside our windows, but I love the view nevertheless.  The green is inside...I love these little houseplants. I awakened with great hopes of great accomplishments and some energy.  I dressed in sweats, studied for awhile, and then SK and I began to plan out our day.  I got a text from Deb asking if we were attending the interview training for our zone.  You would think I would have gotten this down by now.  I assumed that the missionaries in our zone were reporting to Dave today, and that it didn't involve us.  Wrong. After quickly sprucing up a few levels from sweats, I tuned in, not too late thankfully, and spent three hours in front of the computer again.  This was a marvelous meeting!  Dave and Deb both did some training.  Deb taught about prayer.  Several of the young missionaries quoted her later on.  She said, "Some of the most powerful experiences I have ever had have been on my knees in prayer." What ...

 I think today was the coldest yet this winter.  It got down to 24 degrees!  It hasn't been an issue for us since we have been indoors all day.   We had a mission leadership training meeting that lasted from 10 a.m. til 5 p.m.  Dave and Deb each trained on topics near and dear to them.  Most of the training was conducted by the young missionaries.  There is a great deal of accountability, and a high level of spirituality.   I loved the fact that several of our best Oxford missionaries are in mission leadership right now.  We feel very proud of them....not that we are responsible in even a small way for their great qualities, but much like grandparents are proud of their grandchildren.  In fact, we have kind of adopted two of them, and a couple of young adults.   If you watched "Why I Believe," or even just saw the so-called trailer, you saw a very excellent short video set to music, put together entirely by our young ...

 What a beautiful day it was today!  We hardly know how to react to the idea that we are here legitimately and will be through end of August.  But we are joyful.  I feel a renewed sense of energy. We began the day with fear and trembling for both us....it turned into giggling very quickly as I began THE HAIRCUT with the new clippers.  I draped SK in the shiny new cape, took a deep breath and began snipping away.  I set it on the longest setting, but it still seemed to cut it very short, and as you can see, I took a lot of hair off that head. It took me nearly 45 minutes to get it done.  I was timid and slow, but both of us are pleased enough with the outcome to let the haircut be.  What choice do we have?  I don't think barber shops will be open for at least another month or longer.  It could be a lot better, but it will get him through another month or two. Not the best haircut he has ever had, but the important thing is that he will no...

 When we received our mission call to the England London Mission, it was early 2019.  We were excited and grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord again, but now with Dave and Deb.  However, it wasn't long before we noticed that our visas, which someone in the church had applied for, expired on October 2, 2020.  We called it to the attention of the travel office, and were told that there was no way to rectify it, until three months before it expired,  Since that was a loooong way off, we put our worries on hold.   On September 9, 2019 we entered the MTC, and on September 21, we touched down in London.  By the end of the month we were comfortably settled in Oxford, and by the end of the year, we were more than delighted to be here.  We fell in love with Oxford, with the marvelous young adults, with the ward(s) members, and with the young missionaries.  We counted our blessings daily....and they were many. By January and February, we...