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| Beautiful summer morning |
Last Wednesday
was post the blog day then off to YSA meal and I promise you it felt like a ‘you
know you are in England when….’ moment. We had corn beef hash meet pie, chips
and mushy peas. I can promise you that was a first! Love these adventures! As
always the company was great and we watched ‘The Lego Movie’ for the activity.
Fun times!
Thursday
July 24, Pioneer Day! Not much celebrating around here but we could not help
but reflect the important role this country played in the early days of this
church. We feel really blessed to be here where our dear ancestors embraced the
gospel and then migrated to Zion to strengthen the church. District
meeting also; this was our first meeting with new sisters and elders. Each of the companionship's except us, have one new companion. Elder
Darcy, our fearless leader, is training a new Elder from Bountiful Utah.
In the
evening we had Institute. I just love the way that Scott Balloch teaches. It was
just a wonderful lesson on the Godhead. It was very hot in that room but even
under such conditions we were given great food for thought, mostly for action.
It is summer time and many people are on holiday. I hope however that if you
are YSA and still here that you will put forth the effort to come and join with
us you will be spiritually fed and enjoy good friendships! You can even enjoy an occasional water gun fight.
Friday I
decided to pretend that I was just a civilian! I got up, went walking enjoying
the lovely surroundings without listening to anything on my iPod. I came back
and cleaned like a mad woman. Bill replanted some geraniums in our planter box
and then we went to dinner and a movie. We saw the movie ‘How to Train Your
Dragon 2’. We were very entertained and came home feeling refreshed and ready
to put our shoulder to the wheel and nose to the grindstone again!
Saturday we
were off to Bath and Chippenham for flat inspections. It was really great to see
the sister’s new flat. It is in such a good location and everything is clean
and sparkling. It is a bright cheery place and they actually have a working
shower! In their other flat they had to wash and rinse their long hair in the
bathtub with a bowl of water. The Zone
leaders flat not so much. What is it about 19 and 20 year old boys that makes
them completely oblivious to clutter, dust and dirty dishes? I was a little hard
on them and made them walk around with me lecturing them on what their living
quarters should look like to be conducive to the spirit of the Lord. It is there
job to inspect the district leader’s flats so they can in turn check the other elders in their district. Somehow it loses something in the
translation, or not, they do all seem to be in the same condition of upheaval!
On our way
home we saw a three wheel Reliant Robin pulling a trailer on the motorway. I felt like we
were in a Top Gear episode.
Sunday was a
lovely day. With all the doors opened up in the chapel we were comfortable and
enjoyed the meetings. The Young Women gave the Sacrament meeting program on charity and they did a wonderful job. I felt instructed and uplifted! There were
5 girls who spoke and the YW Presidency.
FHE ended up
with 9 YSA in attendance and Lorna taught the lesson on the 'Organization of the
Early Church'. It was very nice! Then we
all played Apples to Apples, well all but my companion. I discovered that I do
not think like a Young Single Adult British person. When the game was over I
was the only one who did not earn a single green card!!!
Monday
Costco day, not just any Costco day but Costco day with the Elders! We took
Elder Darcy and Elder Brinkerhoff. It is always fun to watch them try to agree
on what to get and count their ‘pence’ to make sure they can afford what they
need, and maybe even what they want.
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| Elder Darcy and Elder Brinkerhoff |
Monday evening Bill and I watched ‘On the Lord’s Errand’ for our family home evening.
That is the movie about President Monson’s life. If you have not seen it I
would recommend it. You can find it on the Mormon Channel.
Tuesday; Zone Conference. Would you believe that we actually found a route that allowed
us to by-pass Bath so that the trip to Poole was not as nerve wracking as usual,
at least the way there. We got to take the Downend sisters. We enjoyed their
company so much.
The conference was good. There are new APs and lots of new
leadership. That is kind of an interesting process to watch as they learn how
to pull off such a big event. As usual President Millar’s study class was
great. He has a marvelous knowledge of the scriptures and we learned some great
doctrinal insights into the meaning of Justification and Sanctification in
relationship to the baptismal covenant.
Wednesday again,
cleaning and shopping and blogging! Thursday we meet Bill’s sister and her family
in Ledbury to spend two days at church history sites. They then come home with
us and we get to be with them until next Thursday when they leave for London. We will spend one day with them there too. So excited!
With so many of our good friends gone home for the break I am very grateful that I can keep in touch with them through texting and FB messages. Modern technology is a good thing!
This week I
have felt strongly that those ties that I have to my eternal family are the
most important of all. We love being here in England working with wonderful people,
but we are temporary. We hope we can add something to someone’s life and leave
a some kind of legacy but we will be replaced by other missionary couples as
the work goes on. We will not ever be replaced as parents or grandparents of
our beautiful family. We will belong forever to our parents and brothers and
sisters. How thankful I am for that. I hope that I have become a better person
through serving this mission so my eternal influence with my family will
benefit them. Lindsey posted these great pictures of my beautiful mother-in-law
Colleen Preece. If I can be half as good an influence on my posterity as she is
I will be thankful!
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| GG and gang |
Love you
all!
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