Just when we thought things were slowing down, they revved right back up this week. We only worked four days this week and still put in our 40+ hours.
Monday we had a very long day in London attending Parliament. We were privileged to hear Elder Holland speak at a meeting with Barnoness Nicholson of Winterbourne at her annual semimar. Elder and Sister Kearon were there as well as Sister Sharon Eubank. It was all about Freedom of Religion and helping the Yazidis in Iraq. LDS Charities have teamed up with the Barnoness and her foundation, AMAR, to provide not only physical necessities to this displaced and mistreated group of refuges, but also spiritual and mental support. I learned so much. The more you know, the harder it is to stand by and do nothing. I told Ron, “we need to throw ourselves into something like this.” He agreed. We had just a few minor responsibilities at the seminar. We were there mostly to make sure seats were full. Attending Parliament was one thing we hadn’t yet done on our mission. It was a great experience and we were so appreciative of the opportunity.
Early Tuesday morning we worked to choose and caption photos from the event and get the story on Mormon Newsroom. It can be a daunting task to pick the ten best photos from about 400 that were taken. Malcolm wrote the story . . . I chose and captioned photos. Here’s the link if you are interested.
Wednesday – Happy 4th of July! American missionaries get the day off! We spent the day in preparation for our 4th of July Celebration that evening with the only other American family in the ward and the two sister missionaries from Idaho. The hamburgers were cooked under the broiler in the oven, but the American buns from Costco, baked beans, fruit, chips, potato salad, pasta salad, and strawberry shortcake made it almost seem like we were home. And what do you do when you can’t celebrate with proper fireworks? You celebrate with lots of red, white, and blue balloons and lots of bubbles. Celebrating the holiday here in Britain could be a little awkward, but the British are very kind and several neighbors expressed their ‘Happy 4th’ to us. God bless America and our freedom!
Thursday Elder Holland was in Scotland presenting a replica of what has become known as “The David O McKay stone’ to a museum in Stirling, Scotland. Malcolm attended, and we stayed back to receive the photos from the photographer so that again, we could post to Mormon Newsroom asap. I had pre-written the story, so we were able to get it all ready for posting that night. It was another very late night. Here is the link to this one also.
Friday I spent most of the day going through photos of both events and sending nice ones to Opinion Leaders who were in attendance. They really like that, and the Church earns brownie points. By Friday evening when we arrived home, we were in awe of how fast the week had gone by.
Two foods I really wanted to learn to make before coming home were proper scones (my absolute favourite food here) and Traditional English Trifle. Yesterday we went over to the Wills at lunchtime, ordered some Papa John’s pizza, then Chris taught me the secret to making the best custard for trifle, Jeannie showed me how to put it all together, and I made my first batch of real scones under her watchful eye. They turned out soooo good! We had Creamed Tea (dinner) consisting of ham, cucumber, and egg sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, fresh fruit, and trifle for dessert. Oh my goodness we ate like royalty. Then we watched the World Cup, England winning over Sweden, and cheered as if we were British. Since it is hot and everyone has every window and door open to catch any bit of moving air they can, when England scored, screams of delight could be heard from all over. It was so fun. We’ve already made plans for Wednesday’s semi finals. Hoorah for England!
Speaking of the heat, Church was almost unbearable today. The Primary children were not the least bit interested in singing or sharing time, even when bribed with candy. We were absolutely melting. There has still been no rain, temperatures in the 80’s, with no air conditioning. We continue to pray for rain. The new mission president and his wife and 16-year-old daughter came to our church today. It was so nice to meet President and Sister Hughes and Alexa. We were able to have a short meeting with them after Sacrament Meeting. They have sacrificed so much to answer this call. They will be fabulous.
We were invited to have dinner at our Bishop’s home this afternoon . We love the Fakatou family enjoy their spirit, their faith, their commitment, and just their Tongan lifestyle. Because the Bishop has struggled lately so much with gout, they have recently become vegetarians. Today, we were vegetarians too. Just today. J
Many of you have asked . . . we arrive home Thursday, August 2 at 1:00pm on Delta. Three weeks. It seems unreal. We will be speaking in church on Sunday, August 12 at 11am, 615 North Flint Street. We look forward to seeing you all after we return.
Thank you for your continued love and support. We have felt your prayers sustain us and bless us. We love our USA family and friends!
Ta
Elder and Sister Partridge
A special hand-written note from Elder Holland:
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