Leaning Bookstore in Canterbury
Dear Family and Friends,

    Things are going well and we are very busy.  I thought that I would write on Sunday afternoon and then it slid to Monday.  Now it is Tuesday evening for this week!!  

      Sundays are so busy and so very good.  We are meeting the most wonderful people!  Some very humble, others financially well-to-do. Some are brilliant, others have great challenges, most very hard working, all trying to figure out life, most are happy. 

     Mondays are getting very busy as well.  We prepare for Family Home Evening at our house by getting games ready, fixing food, trying to follow a US recipe using UK products and measurements, prayerfully preparing a lesson, etc.  Tuesday has become our Preparation Day.  We are very thankful for our nice little dryer that does a great job.  Unlike the US dryers, the clothes do not come out hot but just warm but still dry.  Anyway..... Here was our week!

    Monday Sept 19 we rode our bikes for exercise.  We love our old squeaky mountain bikes! Seriously, I have never heard louder squeals from brakes anywhere and that is even after we replaced the brake pads.  We came home and started to make bread using a Camie and Ben recipe. Very easy!   But for other things, I am glad we have two small grocery stores within a 5 minute walk.  The bread was great!  We had the Young Missionary Sisters over for dinner and then they did some of their paper work and phone calling while we prepared for FHE.

    When the Young Adults arrived we played games, ate popcorn and fresh bread with peanut butter and honey. All four missionaries where there for a short time. Dan and Katie stayed until after 10pm just visiting with us.  Dan is a great guy who rides the scooter.  He is the only member of the church in his family and comes from a Jewish background.  He is going to fix us some Jewish treats in two weeks.  Katie is a returned missionary who is just bubbly and great fun!  We really enjoy them.

   Tuesday, we walked uptown to High Street to the NatWest bank branch for an appointment.  We succeeded in getting a UK Bank Account and a Debit Card!  Yippee!!  It is a little crazy because you cannot get a bank account without a verified address and utility bills in your name.  You cannot rent (let) a home or sign up for utilities without a bank account. So round and round they go.  Since the home and utilities are in the church's name, it was a challenge for us.  They finally accepted our Internet contract as a utility bill and gave us the account.  Mom found a kitchen store like Williams and Sonoma back in Utah.  She was so excited!  On the way home we walked to the Watford FC (Football Club) stadium.  Later we made our weekly trip to Costco getting refreshments for tomorrows YSA Institute registration.  Dad spent quite a bit of time working on a proposal for the stake.  We are setting up to coordinate the stake YSA program.

    Wednesday, we enjoyed a longer than usual bike ride along the Canal.  We passed several locks and lots of house boats.  The are very narrow and very long. We met with out YSA students for Institute that evening.  Kids from only two wards out of five arrived.  We had our scheduled meeting with the Stake Presidency after Institute.  They are awesome! They accepted our suggestions and proposal which made us thankful and excited.  They started a second Institute class in Wembley for the three wards that are closer in toward London.  That will be a real blessing for those wards!  We were directed to spend most of our efforts in those three wards.  After the meeting, we met with the YSA and played games.

    Thursday, we were off to London on the Tube to the British Museum.  They had a special exhibit about two Egyptian cities that were buried in the sea when the ground settled.  The ruins were really neat and showed a heavy Greek presence in Egypt.  We next zoomed off for a tour of the High Gate cemetery.  What an adventure!!  It all looked like Disney's Haunted house for real.  Lead caskets bulging at the seams, above and below ground burials, Great trees and vines growing everywhere!  Very strange headstones none of which were level.  We learned about grave robbers, strange customs, disease around the church burial yards, etc. etc.  We saw the tomb of Karl Marx.   Next off to Covent Gardens for an English meat pie.  I really like those!  Back to the Tube for the ride home.  It costs us about $15 each for the Tube for the day.

    Friday, we decided to drive down to Canterbury to see the Cathedral.  They welcomed us inside for free because we were clergy.  BEAUTIFUL building! WOW.  It has been a christian church since 497 AD.  Each end of the building is a different style but beautiful!  Learned the story of Thomas Becker.  The building is like the Vatican for the Church of England.  Great Stained glass windows.  We caught a walking tour of Canterbury and learned a bunch!  Lots of damage in WWII since they are close to Dover and the east coast.  We saw some fun leaning buildings and unique construction.  A three story house would have each upper story larger than the one below it.  Very fun. I want to go back and do some more exploring.  We found a great restaurant recommended by Rick Steves and had some great meat pies!!

     Saturday we wanted to try out a possible YSA adventure so we took the tube into Hyde Park and rented bikes.  We rode on every trail that will allow bikes in Hyde Park.  We saw it ALL including the lakes, (with a swimming race going on), fountains, Kensington Palace, horse paths, Prince Albert's gold statue, and lots of open space. Very fun.

     Sunday, we visited Hayes Ward.  A very unique two story building on a very small lot.  They have a two level parking garage that covers every inch of the back property.  We visited Primary and visited with their YSA.  Wonderful humble ward.  They had a munch and mingle after church for everyone.  Good soup, great people!  We had met some of the people at other events so it was good to see them again.  That evening we went to the Watford Stake center to see a rebroadcast of the General Women's conference.  It was great!!  The messages were spot on for today's challenges.  We visited with the sisters and really enjoyed the evening.  Dad was the ONLY man in the meeting. We ate some great cakes including carrot cake and Mandarin Orange cakes.  We were stuffed!

     We are spending lots of time on the computer, setting up events, working on agendas, communicating with members, and just checking in.  We are scheduled into November for YSA events each week.  Fun!!

     May the Lord Bless you and Keep you Safe.  I agree with Parker's scripture for the week.  Jacob 4:10.  Check it out.

Love you all very much!

Dad and Mom

                                            Biking in Hyde Park!

                                            Hyde Park and Kensington Palace

                                             BlackFriar Pub in London

                                             Sketching on the River Thames.

                                            Sister Baron and Good Friend and Artist Willamarie

                                            Canterbury Cathedral.. Beautiful!!

Red fox in our neighborhood.

Just a quick note and some pictures...
     We returned home late after Institute Registration and pulled in to park the car in front of our house when a beautiful red fox walked down the sidewalk in front of us.  He turned down a little lane just 50 feet from our house.  I did not remember that foxes were still around England but in thinking about it, it makes perfect sense.  I later learned that the London area has an estimated 30,000 wild red fox wandering the green spaces.  It appears that they avoid people and larger animals but love to chase and eat the rats that they find. We did see a large rat run across the bike trail a day or two before.
    We are excited to have a rat hunter in the neighborhood but will think twice about leaving the back door open from now on.  We don't worry about a fox but do worry about a rat.
    Lots of Love!   Clark and Joyce, Mom and Dad,  Elder and Sister Baron

Adventures of the Week! Sept. 20, 2016

Family and Friends,

     We have enjoyed this past week.  We have a goal with the missionaries of reading the Book of Mormon by Christmas so we are listening to and discussing three chapters each day.  We love working with our missionaries and members!

     Here is an update of the week!

Tuesday, Sept 13th was a beautiful day so we did laundry.  We filled our back "garden" with clothes lines and hung out about half of our things!  Our little washer does a good job and spins things out almost dry. The repairman came and fixed the door on our dishwasher so we are back in business without propping the door closed each time we use it.  We got some "line" for our Bosch weed trimmer so we cleaned up the back garden and parking area.  Our neighbor does not do anything with their yard ("garden" in British English) so we weed wacked their parking area as well.

    The Sisters set up an appointment to teach an investigator in our home but something came up and he cancelled. We saw both the Elders and Sisters teaching in downtown Watford today.  They are so dedicated and are working hard.  Their parents should be proud of them!  We love our missionaries!!

Wednesday, we first went on a new explore on our bikes along the canal and Croxley Green.  Beautiful, old countryside. Mom had an appointment to get her hair cut so we drove into town.  She had a great experience with professional people who really took good care of her!  Dad had a totally opposite experience.  We have not seen any salons that would cater to men so dad went looking for a barber.  He found one just down the street and went in.  A very nice tall man welcomed him, had him sit down and asked about how he wanted his hair.  Dad asked for a trim.  The barber smiled and got everything ready.  When dad saw the clippers he thought they were going to trim up the edges but no the barber cut a stripe from his neck clear to the top of his head!  A huge clump of gray hair fell to the floor!  It is now too late to turn back! When all was done, dad has a very British hair cut with short hair everywhere but on top.  Oh My.  Hair grows.  Dad said that the difference between a bad haircut and good haircut sometimes is "two weeks".

   We gave some items to a charity shop and looked for a condenser clothes dryer because we know that the fabulous weather will end soon.  After some chasing in heavy traffic, we found a reconditioned one for 110 pounds plus they deliver for free.  Sold!

    Later, we took the tube to Wembley to watch a football (soccer) game between the Tottenham Spurs and Monaco!  Wonderful stadium!  Tons ("tonnes" in British english) of fans.  It is a very nice modern stadium reported to be the largest in England.  They set an attendance record of about 85,000 home town fans for the game.  Since the Spurs did not do very well and lost 2-1 and Monaco did not bring any fans with them, the crowd was reasonable and just loud.  We had been warned that soccer crowds can get out of hand so we watched carefully around us.  Everything was great and we enjoyed the game.  It was a beautiful stadium.  We had great seats on the side toward one goal and about half way up the levels in the "Club" sections.   When the game was almost over we decided to leave early.  About 20,000 fans had the same idea.  The crowd was controlled well with many police and security people.  Some police were on horseback and others carried signs to control the flow of the crowds.  There were thousands of people trying to get to the tube and train stations but they controlled the flow well.  We made it home about midnight.

   Thursday we spent in London at the Camden market.  We tried to find a shop to find mom the perfect raincoat using the address but were unsuccessful.  We did find the most unique "food court" of fresh food from many different cultures.

   We made our way to "Blackfriars" tube stop, took pictures of the black friar, and walked across the bridge on the River Thames to the Tate Modern museum.  We saw an exhibit of Georgia O'Keefe that was awesome.  We bought a membership in the Tate so we can go back to exhibits whenever we are in London.

    Friday it rained heavily all morning!  Thunder and lightning all night!  There was some flooding and a passenger train derailed just north of Watford.  We rode the tube into London Hyde Park for a Missionary Zone conference at the chapel.  We were soaked even though we had our umbrellas.  We had two missionary zones there so about 40 missionaries were present.  It was a great series of meetings and lunch.  We LOVE being with the missionaries.  We visited with many Senior couples.  We are working on a stake self reliance seminar for November and we are rounding up presenters and ideas.  Some of the office couples are soon leaving to go home so we said our goodbyes.

    After the conference, we went shopping for rain coats because it became obvious that the ones we have are not water proof.  Tons of people.  Mom was loving the five story John Lewis store.  Dad was tired of crowds and shopping.

    We later discovered that our umbrella had soaked things in mom's purse including her sketchbook and red Canon camera.  We have been drying both.  The sketchbook is still not quite dry but is okay.  The camera however does not work.  Dad opened it up and tried to dry everything out but sadly the lens will not open.  Bummer!

    Saturday we drove to Northampton to a YSA convention.  It took a long time to get there because of the traffic.  We had a number of YSA from Watford Stake in attendance.  We met with Elder and Sister Powers who have just arrived to serve with the YSA in Northampton.  We got some got some good ideas for future conferences and activities.  It is so very hard to get the young adults together because of the distances and schedules so this was a very nice event.  We talked to the YSA rep who planned it and learned some good lessons.  They had activities like a bounce house (trampolines), a lazer tag activity, and an excellent well planned treasure hunt.  They had an excellent service project with the stake Relief Society and a committee who did all the meals for the group.

    We stopped at IKEA in Milton Keyes on the way home.  Everything takes so much time!!  We arrived home and mom fixed us a great supper.  The local Elders called as soon as we were finished to remind us of a dinner appointment with a local family from Germany.  We learned that they forgot to tell us about the appointment.  We hurried and ran over to the members house to eat a second supper.  Good German food of meat and potatoes.  The family consisted of the grandmother who fixed the meal, the mother who is finishing her education as an attorney, and her five year old son.  They are so sweet and are working hard to prepare for the future.  The mom is so blessed to have her mother staying with her to help with her son until she finishes her schooling!

      Sunday, we started early to drive to Aylesbury to meet with the Bishop at 9am.  He is an awesome man who is doing a great job.  They are organized just exactly like the church suggests!  We had a great meeting and met many of the ward members.  They have a large YSA group who mostly have callings in the ward.  The ward is very small with some wonderful people.  Much of the strength of the ward appears to be in their young adults.  We spoke in Sacrament meeting, met with the YSA during Sunday School, and attended Priesthood and Relief Society.  They had about about 10 or 12 Melchizedek priesthood holders in Priesthood meeting.

       Well, that was our week!   We love working with the people.  We love the missionaries.  We love listening to the Book Of Mormon and learning about Christ.  We don't love the traffic and driving on the left side with narrow roads and crazy drivers everywhere.

       We know we have a Heavenly Father who is watching over us!  Our prayers are being answered.  We love and miss our family but we know they are growing and being blessed in our absence.  We will go forward with Faith!!

Dad and Mom

Dear Family and Friends,

     Each week is so full of fun, rewarding, and interesting experiences.  Today is Tuesday and we are waiting at home for the repairman to come and fix the dishwasher (third try to get it repaired).  We are catching up on some emails and preparing for some YSA events.

    On Monday, Sept 5^th we held our first Family Home Evening (FHE) with the stake young adults.  We invited the missionaries as well.  We had 10 young adults, four missionaries, and us so we had a full house.  It was a fun evening with games, treats, and a lesson on Prayer.  We played some “Minute to Win It” games and got some great participation from the YSA.  We had Aylesbury and Watford wards represented.  The Aylesbury young adults drove for 40 minutes to get here.  One young man named Daniel drove his motor scooter.  Great fun, good experience!

    Tuesday was Transfer prep day for the missionaries.  We invited four missionaries and a newly baptized member young man, Clement, over for a Waffle lunch with strawberries, bananas, eggs, and whipped cream.  We had a great visit!  The missionaries enjoy being here and letting their hair down.  They stayed for hours, took a nap on the couch, and we visited.  Like being grandparents to missionaries.

    Wednesday,  We power walked to the Tube station about 8 minutes away then rode into west London to the Kew (pronounced “Q”) gardens.  They are located in a fun area and were beautiful!!   It is a world heritage site and has the largest and oldest collection of rare plants that we have ever seen. They had an interesting Beehive sculpture, very old green houses, and a huge variety of trees, flowers, and plants.  We saw the world’s oldest potted plant (a palm) that was planted in the 1600’s.  Many of the plants were brought to the estate in the 1700 and 1800’s.  Beautiful redwoods, hundreds of palm varieties, water lilies, bamboo, roses, orchids, etc. etc.  Wonderful!!s  Google it for more info!  Jill would LOVE this place!

Thursday we visited IKEA to get some shelves for under the stairs.  We also hung a clothes line in the backyard (Garden), and hung out our sheets.  We had a great bike ride along the canal where we saw many narrow houseboats and hand operated locks.  We are preparing lessons and plans for FHE, the Stake YSA activities, a Sunday School YSA class, and brainstorming how to help the other wards in the stake.

Friday we visited Cambridge and Elder Brad and Sister Vicki Jackman who are serving there.  We took a walk around the center of town, saw the chapel of Kings College, and many of the Cambridge colleges.  We took a shallow boat up and down the canal with a guide who moved the boat using a long pole pushing on the canal bottom.  It is called punting.  Relaxing and beautiful.  Jackman’s home was very nice and located in a great area.  It is an old three bedroom one bath two story home.  It has three old fireplaces that you would not dare use for fear of burning the place down.  When it rains, the water comes through a hole in the wall of the kitchen behind the cabinets and fills one drawer with water.  Beautiful, fun home!  Brad and Vicki shared ideas and suggestions with us about how to work with the YSA kids.

Saturday, We again traveled into London (one hour train ride) for a conference at the Hyde Park Chapel where we heard from Elder and Sister Zwick, a member of the 70’s for over 20 years.  He and his wife gave wonderful talks!  They have had such wonderful worldwide experiences with the gospel.  President and Sister Stevens also talked and did an awesome job!  They are wonderful people!

We then met Elder Ken and Sister Marlene Matheson and took a fun Uber ride with them to Buckingham Palace which is only open two months of the year while the Queen is in Scotland for the “Heat of the Summer”.  The Matheson’s are serving in Germany at the church area office but have visited 20 countries as part of their assignment.  It was fun to be with old friends for a bit.  We saw an exhibit of the Queens robes, gowns, dresses, and hats as part of the tour of the palace.  Marlene is a costume designer and worked on the costumes for the Hill Cumorah Pageant for years.  She really enjoyed the exhibits.  The rooms were marvelous.  We even saw the Queens RollsRoyce! 

We then walked around the palace grounds to Trafalgar square and St. Martin’s church.  We ate in a café in the crypt/basement of the church.  Good food and great company!  We learned so much from the Mathesons and enjoyed their company.  We rode the tube back to Euston Station where we divided up to travel home.

Sunday, we visited the Enfield Ward which is about 40 minutes away to the east.  They have a very young Bishop, about 85 in attendance at Sacrament meeting, and a very culturally diverse ward.  There was a great spirit in the ward.  Many ward members just returned from Holiday.  They traveled all around the globe and told stories from Australia, Samoa, and the US.   We met wonderful young single adults and learned about their needs and challenges. 

We returned to Watford just in time for the Stake YSA committee meeting at the home of Tom and Jade Beisinger.  They are wonderful people!!  They live just outside of Watford and have a lovely large home with beautiful gardens.  They have a special needs YSA girl and a wonderful family.  Tom is from California and wore a Park City tee shirt which made we laugh.  We met Amy the YSA President and Martin who are both from Aylesbury.  Impressive, wonderful people.  We planned some activities, and discussed what needs to be done to improve the YSA program in the Stake.  We will be preparing a workshop on Self-reliance and finances to be given in November.

Lastly we met with Bishop Manning who is a full time Church Education System (CES) employee who teaches a very successful Seminary and Institute program in the stakes in this part of England.  Good man who is serving as a Bishop for the second time.  They hold Institute each Wednesday at the Watford Stake Center.  We will attend each week and help organize treats and things. 

Monday, we prepared for FHE and took care of some odds and ends.  Earlier we were thinking about the gospel topic for the meeting and felt that we should talk about the Temple.  We had three kids come to FHE and had a great time!  Daniel rode his scooter with full helmet and leathers.  He is the only member in his family.  He is working full time.  Katie is a returned missionary and came for her second time.  She is bubbly and awesome and is looking to get a better job in an office setting. Her family lived on a canal boat for 9 years.   Shamyne is from Zimbabwe and very fun!  We discovered that they are all interested in Family History and Daniel and Shamyne are called as Family History specialists but have kind of stopped working in the calls.  They were excited to talk about the temple and family history!  Tender Mercy.  Awesome, fun meeting!  We enjoy working with these young people!

Well, that’s it for this week.  Have a great day!

We know that we are helping in a righteous cause and enjoy working with the YSA and Missionaries.  We have met some wonderful people.

The church and gospel of Christ helps people become better and happier.  We are glad to be part of it.

We have a testimony of this work.  Jesus Christ is our Savior.  He can and will help us as we ask in prayer for that help and comfort.  The gospel is true.  God does answer prayers.  He loves us and wants to help us.  

Love you all!  Until next week,

Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma, Clark and Joyce.

Ward BBQ times two.

Greeting from England!

Things are going well and we are very busy.  No sitting around watching the grass grow for us!  We are enjoying England and love working with the people.

So… Starting from Last Sunday..

   Sunday August 28^th.   We drove to the neighboring town of Wembley.  They have a famous Stadium there which is really cool!  The chapel is in a residential area just a couple of streets from the stadium.  The chapel is a compact two story building with Offices and classrooms on the bottom floor and a large open room and a kitchen on the second floor.  The multipurpose room has a stage on one end and a stand with podium and organ set into a notch on one side.  The benches or pews have wheels so they can be moved around as needed.

   The ward was wonderful!  Very multicultural with some of the missionaries and a couple of others being the only Caucasians.  There were 22 nations represented in the ward. The missionaries were from South Africa, USA, and France.  The spirit in their meetings were wonderful.  The Bishop is a wonderful shorter balding black man with bright gold teeth.  He was so willing, humble, kind, and loving.  He and his wife just had twins plus he has three others.  He drives a grey Mercedes just like Dad’s but with only seats for five.  He makes two trips to church to shuttle the family! He had us get up and introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies.  We could really feel Heavenly Father’s love in that meeting.  It is a small ward but everyone was so happy and excited to be there!!  We met most of the members who were in attendance.

   After the meeting, we visited the Senior Sister missionaries, Sister Wallace and Sister Jackson who help with the Wembley ward.  We had a chance to share dinner with them and four young adults from the ward.  Two returned missionaries, one young man (18 years) who is struggling a little in school (six foot tall 280 pounds), and one Young Adult who is learning a trade in construction.  He is having problems getting a job.  Very friendly young man who can tell you everything about different models of cars. 

   Monday, after exercising, we were off to Wembley again for the ward BBQ.  The party was to start a noon and go until 4pm.  We arrived just before noon (Elder Baron has a funny thing about being on time!) and found the Bishopric cooking three large grills full of meat.  The Bishop told us that he tells everyone to be there at noon so he can eat starting at 1pm.  Sounds like Mormon Standard time.  By 1pm there were people everywhere!  What a party!  They cooked chicken wings, chicken breasts, hamburgers, sausages, and ribs.  The ward members brought salads, rice dishes, Fruit, cakes, 15 kinds of drinks, chips, etc. etc.  They played games and visited. We met a cute 5 year old black girl named Joyce.  Everyone called her “Joycie”.  Even members from the two adjacent wards were in attendance.  Eight Young Missionaries there.  About a dozen YSA kids from Wembley and Hayes.  What a beautiful loving group of people! Amazing!

   We left about 3:30pm after Elder Baron had to try all the different meat dishes!  We found a parking spot, bought a small transformer for the home phone and walked to explore the Wembley Stadium.  Huge!  We plan to catch a football (soccer) game there sometime.  Returning home, we joined our Elders in a dinner appointment with a young mother, Anna Marie.  Mom helped prepare the food while dad entertained the missionaries with stories.  Good humble, hard working people who have their priorities straight!  Anna Marie asked Dad to give her a blessing which he was happy to do.  She is doing an internship as an attorney.

  Tuesday, we went for a walk, exploring bike trails around our part of town.  We are looking for two bikes for exercise and transportation without parking problems.  We have about decided that we need to order new ones and sell them before we return home.  We invited the Young Sisters over for a waffle supper.  They were so very happy but were praying for some help.  They both asked Elder Baron to give them blessings for health issues and comfort.  Of course, we were happy to help!  They are working so hard and are so very sweet and loving.  They have additional responsibilities as “Sister Training Leaders”.  It is like being a Zone Leader as an Elder.  We suggested that they leave their bikes with us and we would give them a ride home and they jumped at the chance!  We love missionaries!

     Wednesday,  we found two used bikes for sale in the neighborhood so we called and then walked over.  We met a cute little lady with two older bikes with flat tires (or tyres in England).  While Dad checked them over and pumped up the tires, I visited with her.  Her husband is the Church of England Minister in the area.  The bikes worked very well considering their age so we purchased each for 35 pounds.  She gave us three bike locks, three helmets, two bike pumps, and two bike lights along with the bikes.  The bike sizes are just right and the gears work well.  Dad reworked the bikes and we cleaned our house.  We replaced the brake pads and seats (we found one for 5 pounds and another one at a discount TK Maxx store!).

    Thursday, We got up early and walked to the tube station to catch the 8:40am train.  After two transfers we arrived at Westminster Abbey and Parliament.   We took a guided tour which was excellent!  We toured the House of Lords (like the US Senate) and the House of Commons (Representatives).  It was interesting to learn of their system of government and the history of sharing power with parliament and the King or Queen.

After the tour, we went to Westminster Arms Pub for some British Fish and Chips! We then took the Rick Steves walking tour to Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait gallery. Lastly we stopped at the mission office, picked up a printer, took care of some business, and visited the office missionaries who will be released soon.

   Friday, we took a great bike ride around the canal, park, and a golf course.  Then we were off to Wembley again for a Missionary zone meeting.  Twenty young missionaries brainstorming and learning.  Sisters Wallace and Jackson baked bread and served hot bread, jam, peanut butter, and honey.  It was a hit!

Saturday,  Another great bike ride on the biking trails (500+ year old trails).  After we got cleaned up we were off to the Watford ward BBQ.  Again we were on time and no ward members.  The church owns lots of land around the chapel with grass, extra parking, and a wilderness area that goes down to the Grand Canal.  The canal  runs from London to the North of England  and is part of a network of 2000+ miles of canals.  It has mostly cute narrow house boats on it now.  They have many locks that are hand operated.  The church has a fire pit area where they cooked burgers and sausage.  Fun treats and good people.  Very different from the BBQ earlier in the week but still good with good people.

   That evening we traveled to a Poundland store (Dollar Store) to buy treasures for YSA games and treats.  Fun!! We even found ping pong balls on half price!  They escorted us out of the John Lewis store at 7:30pm so they could close!

   That’s all for this week!

We love our family and miss you all very much!  We are really getting to love the dry humor, honest answers, and loving nature of the British people.  We love the diversity of cultures and the wonderful adventures we are having.  We do not love the driving and roads but we are doing okay!

Doing business with the government and stores can be a challenge and very time consuming but all is working out!  Our dishwasher broke a week ago but Dad put a temporary fix on it using a mop handle so we are getting along just fine!

   Love you all!!

Mom n Dad,  Joyce and Clark, Grandma and Grandpa Baron, Elder and Sister Baron.