Missionary Journal England

August Wks 3-4 2009)

August Wk 3
This week was a really good week for contacting folks. I was feeling good and ready to work. We managed to make up a fair amount toward our goal that we had missed due to my bought with the flu from the last two weeks. We contacted 37 families and individuals.

Monday through Wednesday this week was Weymouth Carnival with the finale on Wednesday. We headed toward the Esplanade about 4:30 so that we could get a seat to see the parade. The Red Arrows (the UK version of the Blue Angels) were putting on a demonstration at the beach. As we were driving into town and parking the car we could see the Red Arrows doing their thing.

They ended just as we got to the Esplanade and we walked a ways down to get some pictures of the crowd. When we came to Weymouth this winter, I bought a postcard with a picture of a crowded beach that was titled Weymouth. I couldn’t believe that this sleepy little town would have that many people on the beach. Boy, was I ever surprised when I saw the crowds at the beach – much more than on the postcard. Those are all bodies (even warm ones, I think).

I took some more just to make sure you weren’t missing the crowds.

This was the crowd on the Esplanade waiting for the parade to begin. It was like this all along the street for two or three miles.

As we were waiting for the parade to start I noticed this darling little blonde girl with a large snake toy waiting with her parents for the parade. I couldn’t resist taking a picture.

The last two years I’m told the parade has become Safety conscious – no mechanized floats or automobiles. Anyone can walk or ride in the parade as long as it is peddled or pushed or walked. We had majorettes (4 or 5 groups) and a group of “Major Wrecks.”

This was the best and cutest group (in white and green) – they had little ones as young as 3 in the group.

These are the “Major Wrecks” and they were really good. The reason I especially caught this guy was that he looks very much like one of our missionaries (Elder Smith).

Since Weymouth is a port city, we had a lot of undersea types appear in the parade: Obviously, we had seahorses, fish of all kinds, sharks, octopuses, etc.

Dragons and interesting bicycles.

We had the knights and MC (jester) from Lulworth Castle in the parade, plus a whole lot of people dressed up in costumes.

Toward the end of the parade, we had two “women” traveling on shopping carts (not grocery carts). These are those 2-wheeled Segways and they were the hit of the parade. Real fun!

After the parade we headed home. After dark Walt got me up out of my chair where I was working on my Gospel Doctrine lesson and had me come outdoors where he was shining a flashlight at something that looked like a tribble (Star Trek) but not quite as soft. It was a hedgehog that was trying to hide under my geraniums.

August Wk 4
Walt hasn’t been feeling very well this week – looks like he got my flu. We made several visits to folks this week and fortunately he was feeling well enough for the Senior Missionary Couple Temple Conference that was held in London this Friday and Saturday, 28-29 August.

On Friday we checked into the accommodation centre at the London Temple about 4:00 pm. At 5:00 or so after a 5-hour drive to London (normally it is about a 3-hour drive but this weekend is a bank holiday weekend), we got into the Mission Office “Big” Van and other cars and drove 10 minutes to the Peacock Pub where we had a lovely dinner. We didn’t have a big table so we sat in smaller groups nearby. Walt and I sat with the Trevors who are working at the National Archives microfilming Crimea Pensioners Records (i.e., soldiers who fought in the war in Crimea) for Family History. Anyway, as we were speaking with the Trevors, they mentioned they had been on two previous missions. The first was in Victoria, British Columbia (what a wonderful place to serve a mission) and then they had just recently finished a Family History Mission in Salt Lake. Sister Trevor is originally from Scotland and Elder Trevor from England; however, they have been living in Phoenix AZ for the last 20 years (you wouldn’t know it from their accents). After listening carefully and putting two and two together, I asked Sister Trevor if they had met another couple on a Family History Mission named Fran and Don Phillips (Walt’s sister and brother-in-law). She said they had and that Fran and Don had invited them to dinner when we they first arrived in the mission field and they were worrying about Don’s ear and hoped everything was good for the Phillips. It is a very, very small world.

After dinner, we went back and met in the assembly chapel at the temple for a chapel session with the Temple President and Matron. Then we did a session and went to bed as quickly as we could get due to being very tired.

At 7:30 the next morning, we met for a continental breakfast of bagels, fresh fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, and honeydew), orange juice, and milk. Then we had a wonderful welcome by Sister Shamo who is very knowledgeable about Church History. Checkout at the Accommodations was at 9:00 am and then back to conference at 9:15. The presentations were great (one on the National Archives, one on “Working with Leaders in Wards and Branches” [we were happy to know we had already done most of the things they were suggesting], and then some discussion on what is needed to ensure we not only are effective as senior missionaries but enjoy our service. It was disheartening to hear that there were senior missionary couples that were not well accepted by the units they were supporting. The statistic was that 39 to 50% of the senior missionaries world-wide are unhappy for one reason or another. We’ve been so well accepted and integrated into the branch that I was very surprised (it is going to be VERY hard to leave Weymouth Branch). We had one sister missonary in tears just thinking about what was said.

At about 1:00 pm we dismissed and migrated over to the Temple Cafeteria for lunch. It is always a treat (remember 5-star chef). I had lentil soup and ham, lamb, and roasted potatoes. Then for dessert I had a lovely little mound of chocolate covered cream puffs (profiteroles) with hot fudge sauce and whipped cream. Everything’s better with chocolate.

After that we rolled out of the cafeteria and got in the car and went to Hever Castle on a field trip with the rest of the senior missionaries. Hever Castle, in Kent, England(in the village of Hever), was the seat of the Boleyn family. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century and converted into a manor in 1462 by Geoffrey Boleyn, who served as Lord Mayor of the City of London. Hever Castle was Anne Boleyn’s childhood home, and provided a backdrop for her courtship with Henry VIII, whom she married in 1533.

Hever Castle is a lovely fortified manor house with a double moat, real drawbridge, both a yew and a water maze, and topiary gardens.

Here is my favorite topiary – the PIG. The topiaries lined the road up to the castle.

If you look closely, you will see the bird in the foreground with a bunny rabbit on the right and a hippo on the left in the background.

This is the inner courtyard as you walk through the gatehouse.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures inside the castle. The rooms were pretty realistic. The Henry VII bedroom had a ceiling from the 15th century and the remaining portions were from the 16th century. The furniture was lovely and if not Tudor, very old and very well kept or restored.

After touring through the castle for an hour or so, we came outside and I took several pictures of the castle from the other side. Here you can see the inner most moat and drawbridge.

This little garden area is titled “The Tudor Chess Set.” The pieces don’t move, but all are there in this lovely garden setting.

After this we started meandering out toward the car.

Here you can see my favorite guy waiting for me while I bought a guidebook. They seem to be my major purchases when we are traveling.

We bid good-bye to the other missionaries and headed off to Costco (there aren’t any nearby so we wait and do our shopping when we are in London; the closest to us is Bristol which is about two hours north of us).

By the way, Monday (24 August) Walt took and passed his theory and hazard perception tests for his UK driver’s license. We can only drive on our US licenses for 1 year. He still needs to take the driving test and has a date for early October. I’ve been hassling him since we only have until 15 December for him to get his driver’s license or we will be walking everywhere.

Bye for now. Jackie