Guess what? It's Raining...

11 June 2017

Rain, rain, and more rain, with a little reprieve. But mostly rain. One day we are opening up all the windows for fresh air, and the next we want to turn the radiators back on. The weather is so fickle.

How are our trusty family and friends! It’s so fun to hear from you. It’s really great when we hear from someone that we haven’t heard from since we left, especially if it’s to share some good news and keep in touch! As for bad news . . .we are still grateful to hear from you and add you to our ever-so-long prayer list.

9:56 pm and the photo isn't enhanced.
It's really this light outside!

This week was a slower week. Malcolm was out of the office Monday and Tuesday, which can mean more work sometimes and less work sometimes. Mostly when it’s more work, like fielding phone calls, etc. it falls on Ron. We had a little of that this week.

Wednesday mid-day Ron and I did updates on our computers, and it turns out the updates were bad and it shut down our computers completely. By Thursday quitting time Ron had his going, but Craig was still working on mine. I felt like my hands were missing. Thankfully I could still receive and send emails on my phone and Ipad, but was not able to get to any of my files. NOT GOOD!

Thursday was the big election here, called for by Prime Minister Teresa May unexpectedly. From results on Friday, things didn’t go as planned for Prime Minister May. She did not get the support for Brexit she wanted. However, the Members of Parliament who are our VIP’s and supportive of our Church were voted back in, and an upset in Scotland won the seat of MP for a member of our Church. We now have three members of our church who are Members of Parliament. So, first on my agenda Monday morning will be letters of congratulations and VIP invitations to the Pageant.

And again at 4:40 am it is getting
light again.

Friday we had an assignment down in Surrey, which is where the London Temple is, but we were on the other side of the county and about 50 miles away. We met with a young couple in their late thirties who are serving as Public Affairs Service Missionaries from home. Elder Matthews has some disabilities that prevent him from being employed, so he fills his time helping Public Affairs with a lot of the tracking and compiling of data for interfaith interaction. We took them lunch and had a nice meeting. I made that yummy Chicken and Pasta salad that I credit Francis Atkinson for the recipe. (Thank you Francis!) It’s still a favourite. But there isn’t such a thing as Kraft bottled dressing here, so I made my own Coleslaw dressing. My mom would be so proud of me! And they loved it. By the time we got back there wasn’t much time to go home before a Fireside at the church at 7 pm, so we went back to the office and worked on getting our computers back up and running, which we pretty much did. We will be ready to go Monday morning with a whole lot to do after being down.

The Fireside Friday evening was the Book of Mormon one I mentioned a couple of letters ago. Three missionary couples presented different topics. Ron’s was directed to the youth, of which there were two there (the Bishop’s children J) on how to make reading fun. He talked about comparing people in the Book of Mormon to some of our real life heros, and passed out schedules on how to read it in six months. (Thank you Pinterest!) He did a great job. My part was to bear my testimony on the Book of Mormon. I have such a testimony of how it blesses us when we read EVERY DAY, so that was easy. I talked about how it is in my regiment of things to do to get ready for the day and PUT ON MY ARMOR so I will be ready to face the challenges of the day.

1 – Read 10-30 minutes in the Book of Mormon
2 – Say my personal prayers
3 – Kneeling prayer with my companion at the breakfast table
4 – Last thing I do before I walk out the door – put on my missionary badge.

CHECK!

Friday morning I opened the wardrobe choose something to wear, and found myself just starring. I told Ron, “Every morning I open these doors and think that maybe something new or different will appear, but it doesn’t seem to happen.” I am getting pretty tired of the same old things. I call them my uniforms. So on Saturday I was determined to make some time do a little shopping and find myself a couple of summer outfits. So I did go over to the shops across from the office and found a couple of things, along with picking up a new wallet for Ron for an early Father’s Day gift.

Saturday we also did our morning chores, a little grocery shopping, took a walk, watched a little television, read, laundry, prepared my Primary singing time for the little darlings . . . pretty quiet, windy, rainy day. Neither of us ever mind a quiet, not so busy day.

Today when we arrived at church someone told us that there were visitors in the chapel who were looking for us. As it turns out, it was Brother and Sister Atkins who have lived near the Preston Temple for many years, born and raised here in the UK. Their son, Ben, and Alisha were friends in college at BYU Idaho. Ben flew Alisha over here twice, and she learned to love England and loved the Atkins family. We reached out to Ben when we arrived here after learning that he didn’t live too far from us. When Alisha knew the family, Brother Atkins was the Temple Recorder for the Preston Temple. He has since retired and they are now serving a mission at the London Temple as . . . .you guessed it, Temple Recorder (actually the assistant.) They had taken two days off from their mission responsibilities to help Ben get his house ready to sell, and for some strange reason chose our ward to attend today, (another coincidence) which wasn’t the closest ward to them at all. It was fun to finally meet them after all these years, and it was easy to see why Alisha loved them. We love them too.

We completed our day today by talking to ALL the kids minus the two son-in-laws and ALL the grandchildren. Hooray for Sundays! We also talk to Ron’s parents each Sunday, which has been wonderful. We are also looking forward to a visit from Kevin and Lori Park later this month.

Be happy, be grateful, and make the BEST choices each day. The three together will result in a great life. We love and appreciate you all and all the goodness you reflect. Thanks so much for your love and support.