Royal Wedding Bells!

Cheers to all!

This was a great week to be part of the Britain culture. First of all, the weather could not have been better. We had high 60’s every day without a drop of rain, and mostly sunny. Today we will be in the 70’s! The mood of the people is generally happier on weeks like this, and the flowers are blooming. Some, no doubt, have begun worrying about a drought this year, but as for me . . . I’m tickled pink. I was able to get out and walk after work nearly every day, which is good for my body and soul. The only negatives . . . the birds are chirping at 3:30am right outside our bedroom window, but nothing that a set of cheap Delta Airlines earplugs didn’t solve, and the sun is up by 4am and my body thinks it’s time to wake up.

Royal Cream Tea!

The hype leading up to the Royal Wedding yesterday was fun. It was the chatter everywhere. We held a Royal Cream Tea for our lunch on Friday in celebration, complete with tuna and corn, egg salad, and coronation chicken sandwiches. We had fresh British fruit that I could have eaten all day, scones with clotted cream and strawberries, and teacakes to top it off. The table was decorated with British flags, faces of Harry and Meghan on sticks, and British crowns. It was really REALLY fun to be here on this side of things. No one here seems to love Harry’s new wife, the American, and if Harry were in line for the throne “the Queen would have had more to say about the wedding,” but most were respectful about what they said about Meghan in front of the American missionary couple. Most.

Since so many were home watching the wedding on Saturday, it was a perfect day to see the sights again. We chose to go to the National Arboretum in the Cotswolds. There were so many beautiful old trees and bushes of beautiful flowers like magnolias and every breed of rhododendrons you could think of and a few more. Last night was the annual event to support the families of Chernobyl at the church. Everyone filled me in on the wedding, and we watched some of it on YouTube right there at the church. I do love YouTube! Wasn’t Meghan’s dress stunningly elegant? That seemed to be the talk of the evening, that and how composed and lovely Meghan’s mum was. We had the best of both worlds yesterday . . . sightseeing and wedding, thanks to modern technology.

A lovely day at the National Arboretum in the Cotswolds

Speaking of modern technology, and to let you know what Public Affairs does at times, we were sitting at the computer on Friday a little after 4pm waiting for the live broadcast to be shown on mormonnewsroom.org of the meeting between President Nelson and the new head of the NAACP, when emails began coming in from Area Seventies and Public Affairs headquarters . . . a fake website that looked just like Mormon Newsroom was out where a fake transcript of the meeting between the two leaders had been posted, (before it even happened) making the Mormons look really bad and President Nelson supposedly apologizing for the mistreatment of Blacks by Mormons over the past several decades. This all happened before the meeting even took place! Oh . . . the lengths people will go to in order to mock religion. So sad. Those kinds of things keep us on our toes.

I can’t remember if I mentioned this before, but a few weeks ago a meeting was held at the office where we were told that the Church had decided to sell the office building we are in. It is sad for everyone that works there, but the building is very under utilized and on prime property that will sell for millions, so we see why they have decided it is best. Most everyone that works there is being moved to under utilized churches. Whether that will work for Public Affairs, we are not sure yet. And talk about timing . . . I received a phone call this week from our landlord that he is likely selling our flat. So this week we begin the search for a new home for the office and a new flat for future missionary couples, likely not in Solihull. I highly doubt the actual moves will take place while we are here, but we want to do the best we can for future couples coming. Right now we have by far the nicest place to live of ANY missionary in the area, and it will be sad to lose it.

Family Shout Out: Congratulations to our 9-year-old Alexa for achieving an ‘Outstanding’ rating at her piano competition yesterday. Woohoo! We are so proud of you. And congratulations to Luke for catching two 22” kokanee at Strawberry Reservoir over the weekend! Them there’s some big fish! And, a shout out to Nathan for two golds in his latest Taekwondo competition. So many fun things happening!

We love you! We miss you! Until next week . . .

Ron and Marie