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
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