Its May its May…

Today is one of those beautiful Camelot type days that make you feel so happy to be alive! The sky is blue, sun is shining and the birds are singing. I am grateful for days like these. I know they are more enjoyable because of past days of rain wind and clouds! Love this day when I can take a deep breath and sit down at the computer to record the past busy week!

The first of last week we were moving kind of slow trying to recover and regroup from the Bristol YSA Convention. Tuesday was laundry, house cleaning and Costco day. Then we needed to come home and sit down for a few minutes to rest our weary bones. In the evening we went on a teach with the Elders. It was kind of cool because they were teaching Dlila from Belgium and Elder Marot from France, did a lot of the teaching in French and because I knew what they were talking about I could follow most of their conversation! It has been a long time since French class in college!

Wednesday we were in and out of a comatose state all day but were able to go to District meeting and then YSA meal in the evening. They YSA surprised Bill with a fun Birthday cake with candles and all. It was great! We needed to get home early though to get a good night’s sleep for the busy Thursday the next day.

Thursday morning we got up early and picked up Elder Davies and Elder Marot and drove to Basingstoke; took about 2 hours. We dropped Elder Marot off and picked up Elder Pulman and drove to President Millar’s house about 45 more min away. The Pres. and his wife served us Pizza and peaches with ice cream.

Then we parted ways. The reason we were on this errand is because Elder Davies and Elder Pulman who are best buds in Wales before their mission, both had earned the gold medal for the Duke of Edinburgh award which is quite prestigious. More so even than Eagle Scout. This day they were taking the train with Pres and Sister Millar to St James Palace to be awarded this award by Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh himself! They were in their missionary uniform with badges apparent hoping for some great missionary moments during the ceremony. Cool stuff! As far as our mission president was aware this is the first time in the mission that has taken place while missionaries are on their mission. President was very proud of these young men as he should be, it is quite a distinction and honor and a great representation for the church.

We now had about 6 or 7 hours to kill till they returned so we could reverse the trip and get everyone back safely where they belonged. We wanted to do something celebratory for Bill's birthday. We found an English Heritage sight about 10 miles away so decided to go visit it: Marble Hill House. We got there only to find out that in order to see inside the mansion it needed to be Sat or Sun, not Thursday. The grounds were beautiful though and we enjoyed walking around them. The house had been built by King George II for his mistress, it is on beautiful piece of land right on the Thames River.

Now we had about 4 hrs. or so left to amuse ourselves so we decided to go to a movie. We drove back to the town where Pres. And Sister Millar live to be closer for fetching the Elders at the end of the day. The only movie playing at that time of day that would fit our schedule was a new animated release called TARZAN. Gag! The animation and graphics were wonderful but the script must have been written by a 6^th grader. It was a combination of Tarzan, Star Wars, Jungle Book and even UP. I would not recommend it but we were the only ones in the theater and it was comfortable.

When the movie ended we had enough time to go out for Birthday dinner. We found a near by Mexican food restaurant and had a lovely meal. We finished just in time to meet them as they returned back to the president’s house. Now we had to travel another 3 hours reversing the trip to get everyone back home. We were tired when we walked into our flat.

Friday morning, we were not moving too fast but had already planned a trip to Portsmouth to celebrate Bill’s big day. It was a nice day, Sun with patches of rain. The wind was blowing pretty hard but the drive was fine, motor ways most of the way. Of course I could not stay awake, good thing that the driver could. We arrived in the afternoon with plenty of time for site seeking but we both had to nap for a while first since we were still experiencing 'convention lag'…

We drove down to the historic dock district and walked around the old fortresses and cannon mounts. It was still very windy so it felt pretty authentic. We had a very good dinner at a sea front historic pub/inn. 

Saturday we went back down to the historic docks and walked around in 30 mile an hour wind gusts! Our most favorite historic site was the HMS Victory: a 250 year old naval ship that Lord Nelson had been on in the battle of Trafalgar. We saw the spot on the deck where he received his mortal wounds. It had three decks of cannons. It was just fascinating. We loved it!

HMS Victory, Cannons, the great cabin, plaque marks where Nelson fell, the HMS Warrior 

We found a Chinese buffet for lunch and then headed home.  Portsmouth is a beautiful port city, a great place to see. We drove through lots of wind and sporadic rain showers to return home. We were ‘plum tuckered out’ when we got there. 

Sunday was American Mother’s day. Church was good. We got a new Bishop: Sigmund Geldenhuys a wonderful brother originally from South Africa. He is going to do a great job. We are very pleased. It turned out that he and his wife had previously been assigned to be High Council speakers for our ward so very appropriately they gave their first Sacrament meeting talks in their new role. 

A family from Wisconsin were attending our ward Sunday. After visiting with the dad a Matt Allen, I found out that he served a mission with our son David in Guatemala all those year ago. Small world in the church 

Adrian and Brenda Evans the Bristol Stake YSA advisers invited us to dinner in the afternoon. That was such a sweet gesture, it was a nice way to celebrate mother’s day away from family. The meal was great and the company was wonderful. We had such a nice time! 

fun trying on Adrian's father's police uniform

looks like Clouseau

At FHE we watched Elder Ballard’s CES broadcast and it was profound ! Good messages and nice company. I do have to admit however that the pancake with ice cream on top refreshments were a novelty!

Monday we ended up going to Bath to take Billie to lunch and stop by to visit two more YSA girls on the way home, Alice and Lucy! It was a very nice day. We ended up having to spend the evening finishing up the Monday P-day jobs that still needing to be done.

Tuesday up bright and early to pick of the Downend Sisters and drive to Poole for Tri-Zone Conference. Whew! Zone conference was great as always. It is still almost a breathtaking experience to sit in that room with those wonderful missionaries, truly the armies of Helaman!

The return trip was almost too pretty to describe. We kept driving in and out of spring showers. The sun was bright and low in the evening sky. Everything a brilliant color of green, washed clean by the rain and just as we were saying we wondered where the rainbows are, to one side of the car was the most brilliant, bright rainbow I have ever seen! It was full arch and filled the sky, it even had a shadow rainbow next to it. I could not help but think of the words of the Primary song:

“I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain, and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again. I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain. I want to be the best I can and live with God again.”

“I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away, and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day. I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain. I want to be the best I can and live with God again.”

How appropriate as we drove away from that gathering of young people who dedicate 18 months or 2 years of their lives to help others experience this joyful cleansing event in their lives! Truly humbling!

Now a conference thought from this morning's listening; President Monson:

Blame keeps wounds open. Only forgiveness heals.

Love you all, miss you so much and thank you for your Mother’s day wishes. It was great to talk to most of you. Dad thanks you for the B-day wishes. Have a good week and know that we pray for you every day!