Missionary Journal

England (January 2010)

January Week 1 (beginning 28 December)

The computer at church still isn’t working, so Walt spent most of today (Monday) at the Chapel phoning people (the Solihull IT guy and Dell) to get a handle on the issues. Unfortunately, as of today, it looks like the MLS (official church systems used in the UK) isn’t working but the entire computer has done a “melt-down.” As I said in my last blog, he needs to get the system up and running so tithing settlement checks and outgoing checks can get into Solihull by the 31st. Other than laundry, Walt spent the day and part of the evening at the chapel. The weather is cold – sunny in the morning, with darkening skies in the afternoon, and rain in the evening.

Tuesday was District Meeting and Walt received some discs for the computer that were given to Elder Mysyk (our District Leader) to give to us. That meant as soon as we got home, Walt changed his clothes and left for the chapel. He came home for dinner and then went right back. Unfortunately, the discs we were given weren’t the “restore” discs Walt really needed. While he was at the chapel working, I spent time on my Gospel Doctrine lesson.

Wednesday was much the same, with Walt waiting for the Royal Mail to come. Fortunately, he got a package from Solihull and off he went to the chapel. He had to “break” into President’s desk to get some cables (not as bad as it sounds – President is in Bristol with his wife visiting a daughter and Walt was able to get in without hurting the desk). He didn’t get home until late this evening, but at least he had the operating system restored and had started restoring software packages. He had also gotten MLS loaded and two weeks’ worth of data into that system. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do a “send and receive” to get the data to Solihull. When he got home, he called Solihull again and was told they would reset the system for Weymouth in the morning. I was home working on Gospel Doctrine, Primary Sharing Time, and a quiz I was asked to do for New Years’ Eve. I also did the bulletin and worked on putting topics on the First Quarter 2010 Speaker’s Listing so I can get it off to our Music Director to assign hymns for that period.

Thursday (the 31st) was the last day to get everything working. Walt was up and out early to get the data transmitted and the remainder of the software installed. He came home in time to get dinner and get some split pea soup in the crockpot for this evening’s party.

The party started at 9:00 pm. We didn’t get there until about 9:30 pm and the natives were getting restless since the quiz was a major portion of the party. I really had fun working on it. I was asked to do this quiz on the 2000-2009 decade. Since we were in England, I needed to get some information on what happened here in the eight years we weren’t here. Thank goodness for the internet. I got much more information than I needed – 25 questions, 40 points possible. The scores were: 28, 27, 24, and 21. Let’s see how you do:

I’ll give you the answers later.

The questions with the little loudspeakers are audio clips (fairly short). If I can’t get them embedded in the blog, I’ll put them in the e-mail. While we did the quiz, we ate. You can see the two tables in the back right corner filled with food of all kinds.

After we did the quiz we played some games:

Forfeit – Same as for the Christmas Social.

Janga

Then we watched the fireworks and countdown to midnight on BBC News 4 on my computer. Fortunately the chapel has wireless internet.

We left at 12:30 am after doing a little cleaning up – they had poppers (with strings of crape paper and confetti) they did at midnight; it does make for a bit of a mess (especially in the chapel which is also the multi-purpose room).

Friday morning we both slept in late, but as it was New Year’s Day we weren’t at all worried about seeing folks. Since we’ve visited everybody in the Branch so many times, we are thinking about seeing President Martin (the Stake President) and offering our help to clean up the ward lists (in the other stake units). President Shamo spoke to us at Thanksgiving about a program he wants to put in place this year: “English as a Second Language.” He would use the three couples in our Group (Bristol, Plymouth, and Poole zones) to go out and teach the stakes in the England London South Mission how to apply the Church ESL program and use it as a missionary tool. If that starts soon, we will be quite busy along with our callings in the branch. We still have many we want and need to visit monthly, but not enough to keep us constantly busy.

Saturday we did some shopping and visiting, then home to have dinner and make sure we are ready for Sunday.

President Crew of the Stake Presidency was in attendance at Sacrament Meeting and the Stake Business for the day was to release Walt as Second Counselor and then call him as First Counselor and Paul Dadds as Second Counselor in the Branch Presidency. They will constitute an interesting Branch Presidency. President’s very spiritual, Walt is pretty good at “by the book,” and Paul is unbelievably creative – fair well rounded presidency. When we were speaking before Walt was set apart, President Crew told everybody that President Shamo assured the Stake Presidency that we would be in Weymouth through the end of our mission. Good!! I do love it here.

Also, for any of you who have not taken advantage of the new OLD TESTAMENT Visual Resource DVDs, they are great. I have already taken great advantage of the video and pictures for my lesson (This is My Work and My Glory). They’re not very expensive and contain pictures, video clips, talks, etc., to help with studying the Old Testament. I took this right off the video clip “I Am a Child of God.” If you can’t tell, it’s Moses after he was taken up to a high mountain to meet God. Before this picture, he is dressed in multiple colors, his face is dirty, and he certainly doesn’t look anywhere as neat as he does in this picture. If they are all like this, they are very well done and will be a real pleasure to use.

January Week 2

Monday was “P” day, I had my hair appointment, went shopping, and we did several loads of washing. Walt also worked with e-mails he had gotten from two elders (not the Elders but Elder’s Quorum members) who had been asked to leave their respective homes. We also received an e-mail from the Mission Office that we are having a Mission Conference at the Crawley Stake Building, having lunch at the Temple cafeteria, and then attending a session at the London Temple on Wednesday. The whole mission – that means over 150 missionaries!!

It has been very cold this week and it has been rumored we are expecting some snow. It’s Tuesday and this morning was District Meeting. Also, since the Elders are expecting to make transfers at the conference tomorrow in London, they were contacted this morning regarding January transfers. Fortunately, our Elders are staying here for another six weeks. They have some baptisms coming up and will now be here for them. It was the last District Meeting with Elder Mysyk as District Leader. Here is a picture of my guys: (left to right) Elders Trevisan, Marchione, Mysyk, Rodriquez, and Reimers.

In the afternoon and evening I was at Sister Webb’s helping her get ready to move. She especially requested that I dismantle her late husband’s office (computer, etc.). The only problem is that I’m not a hardware person – just a decent software user. However, I took everything apart and kept the wires attached to their pertinent pieces of equipment. He had an office setup very similar to mine at home. Later that evening we got a call from Elder Mysyk (who was being transferred and on the road toward London) saying start at least an hour earlier than expected because the roads were abysmal.

Very early Wednesday morning (about 12:30 pm) we received a phone call from the Mission Office that due to adverse weather in and around London, they were calling off the Mission Conference.

The Elders were also told that today (Wednesday) would be their “P” day. Unfortunately, since the weather was so cold, the Library had closed and they couldn’t use the computers to e-mail their families. Therefore, they came to our home and used ours. If they sit on the couch next to each other and each use one of our computers they are following mission rules. Walt is taking down our poor little pathetic Christmas tree. Wednesday evening we fed the Elders (roast, roasted potatoes, fresh steamed broccoli and carrots, and chocolate cake with custard). It had been suggested that we stay inside and out of cars as much as possible; so we worked on lessons and Walt had a meeting with President Chasteauneuf.

Thursday dawned bright, clear, and sunny – and freezing. However, if you had to pick a day this time of year to move, this was the day. We picked up the Elders and headed over to Webb’s on Portland Island.

Here we are waiting for the Van to arrive.

Markus Kagi (our High Priest Group Leader) is a kitchen fitter/installer and just bought a new van and was having rails and shelving put in the van on Friday. That meant we had a large van that you could stand up in and would take some big-time furniture.

One of the first really big things we tried to move was the sofa. As you can see, Markus and Ron Colvill couldn’t get it through the front door. Unfortunately, the way to the back sliding glass doors was blocked by all the boxes, etc., we had been stacking there.

Therefore, Melanie, Carol, and I started moving the boxes over to the side. That’s the sliding door at the back of the picture. Next I asked Walt if he would take the non-sliding door off its track so we had the entire opening to get the sofas out through. I thought Bev was going to faint when he took it off. I guess they don’t ever do that in England??? Fortunately, it was as easy to put back on as to take off.

Bev was planning on making sausage and bacon sandwiches for lunch for the crew. Unfortuntely, they unhooked and moved her gas cooker (stove). She plucked up her courage and asked the neighbors to cook the meat for her. In this picture you can see the last of the sandwiches (they were packed 3-high). You can see Walt sitting on a box (wonder what was in it?)

One of the last things out was a “wine rack.” We teased Bev about it and she told us she kept soft drinks in it for her family. We said, “Sure.” Bev really is a good sport. Here she is clowning around showing me a bottle of squash (really sweet, yucky stuff you add to water to give it flavor). I told her not to worry, I wouldn’t tell anybody – I’d just put in in my blog.

The last things we moved were live plants. We made three van loads to the house and the plants and some fragile things in the back of our car. I took this picture over my shoulder. It is good to see Bev laughing – she hasn’t laughed much since her husband died in December.

 

I also tried to get a picture of Carol who was behind lots of green.

When we got to the new house (I’d been at the old house all day) everything was as you would expect – boxes all over and some disarray. I know everybody was tired and wanted to get done as quickly as possible.

As we were leaving Bev’s new home, we promised we would bring dinner over at 6:00. We got home and just about dropped in our tracks. I’m nowhere near as young as you need to be to do this type of work. However, Walt put together chicken noodle soup and I made cornbread and at 5:30 we headed for President Chasteauneuf’s for a minute and then to Bev’s.

What a shock when we got there!! I left a room filled with boxes and came back to this. Bev said that knowing dinner was coming made getting things arranged much easier. Her kitchen was still in boxes but the lounge was almost spotless (just needed some vacuuming). Actually, there was a reason for this. Bev had carpeting laid last week, but when the lorry (truck) got to her new house, the roll for the lounge was missing. They were coming to install the carpeting at 9:30 the next morning. We ate dinner with them and then left for home.

Friday we were out visiting folks and stopped by Bev’s to make sure everything was OK. She already had the kitchen organized. What a WOMAN!

Saturday was a few visits and then home to finish off my Gospel Doctrine lesson.

Sunday we were at church at 8:30 am so that Walt could attend a presidency meeting. My class went well, and I attended Relief Society – I wanted to see how the first lesson in the Gospel Principles Manual would be taught. Sister Melanie Drinkwater did a superb job of giving that lesson – I didn’t realize she was the teacher. I sat down next to her before Relief Society started and she asked if I was staying (I’m usually in Primary). I said, “Yes, I want to see how this lesson is being taught – I wouldn’t like to give it myself.” Then she told me she was teaching it and wasn’t worried until I said something. Oh, Boy!! Talk about negative support.

After church we had Munch and Mingle. I only got one picture. I was too busy mingling. This was one day (we got home at 4:30 pm).

So much for now. I’ll post tomorrow. Love to all, Jackie

Note:  I didn't post then and haven't posted for quit a while.  I have the remaining weeks of January journal completed and will post that in a few days.  I can't believe how busy we are and some things just get postponed.  Love again, Jackie