Missionary Journal

England (April Wks 2, 3, and 4 2009)

Monday, 06 April 2009
Today was “P” day again and we took some walks even though the weather was cold and windy. Believe it or not, Sundays have been consistently the loveliest days of the week for most of the time we’ve been here.

These pictures were not taken in England. Delight babysat for the twins yesterday and sent me pictures this morning. I can’t resist putting their pictures on the blog. This is Conor the Barbarian (right).












This is King Cammeron (left).

Of course, I think they are uncommonly cute!! Although, I would really like to see them without the binkeys – between them and the helmet, it’s hard to see much of anything except the ears and eyes.

After looking at the pictures, Walt and I went over the Rodwell Trail to see where it goes. The Rodwell Trail starts not too awfully far from our flat and is one of quite a few walking trails in Weymouth. Remember, Weymouth is a tourist town during holidays and summers, so we have lots of beautiful trails to walk.

Not too hard to find out – it goes to the sea.

And then around to the Old Castle. You can see the castle on the promontory in the center of the picture.

On the way to the Old Castle we passed a yard where the daffodils were past their prime, but tulips were bursting forth.

Here is the Old Castle (really, really old and crumbling).








Here we are looking through the front door. You can’t really see it, but there was obviously a basement-type room which is now filled to the brim with foliage.

Here’s a picture of the castle from the side. You can see the depth of the windows (2 or 3 feet thick).

Now that we have the external hard drive, we spoke with Dell again today. Interestingly enough, the gentlemen (in India) that Walt spoke with seems to have managed to fix the issue. I’ve been working with the computer for about 24 hours and nothing has gone “boink” yet. We’ll see, but I have hope. If I don’t have to send it away for work, I at least have a large hard drive to put pictures on (forever and ever).

Tuesday, 07 April 2009
Today we visited active and less-active members in Weymouth (primarily the Preston and Littlemore areas). With the schedule we have going at the moment, we should be able to visit (maybe not see someone, but at least make contact with a note) every family in the Weymouth Branch every month. We met with a sister who asked us to teach her son’s partner (they are getting married in July in the branch building) and she is interested in the church, but doesn’t want to be taught by the Elders. Great, this is our first referral (well, we really aren’t here to work with investigators). Then we met with the most delightful elderly (88) gentleman. His wife died two years ago (after 64 years of marriage), and he is so very lonely. His son built a lovely extension on their home for their dad, and he has lived there since shortly before the death of his wife. He has been attending the Yeovil Ward meetings since they knew and loved his wife and he feels at home there. We have promised to see him often.

For those at church, Walt made me a concentration board for my Primary sharing time on the 3rd Sunday. All the advantages of home (well, most).

Wednesday, 08 April 2009
My laptop went “boink” again. We called India and after they looked into the computer, they decided we needed a new mother board. Fortunately, we didn’t have to pack up my computer and send it off. They are sending a technician to the house to take care of it. We’ll see what happens.

This evening the Primary put on a Family Home Evening Workshop for the branch. We were broken up into family organizations of about 10 each (no worry about real family bonds; just making sure the groups were relatively balanced). As a team we had to do a puzzle, look up scriptures and fill out missing words, and color a picture. Then, one at a time we had to find Easter eggs (made from heavy paper) that were hidden around the chapel (not in the chapel itself, but in all the other rooms). This took about an hour, then we had refreshments. It was quite fun. I like working with this Primary; they do fun things.

This picture shows (from left to right): Esther Kagi, Rosina Whitthread, Lizzie Whitthread, Rosie Walker, and Cody Levi (sitting at the end of the picture). Sister Ros Rowbotham, the Primary President is the lady in yellow.

Thursday, 09 April 2009
We had a wonderful Zone Meeting today with President Swinton. On the way home, we took pictures of the rapeseed fields (yellow beautifully spread among the green fields.

Here is a picture of rapeseed flowers. If

you don’t know already, rapeseed is what Canola oil is made from. I honestly thought the flowers were mustard, since they look very similar on a long stock.

Friday, 10 April 2009
Today started off a 4-day weekend for England (Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Easter Monday). We spent Friday and Saturday visiting folks. I’ve already told you about President Swinton’s challenge for us at Zone Conference to visit between 20 and 30 families each week. I told him when he suggested it that would mean we would visit every family in the branch each month. He thought that was a good idea. Therefore, to be obedient, we have been visiting from 20 to 25 families most weeks. We really made the Home Teaching statistics go up this last month. The other senior couple in our area visits 20 to 30 families each week (they have 300 less-active members in their ward boundaries and have no callings in the unit). Oh, well, we are getting it done and feel really quite good about it. Once thing about a 4-day weekend; we found a lot of people at home.

Saturday, 11 April 2009
Today there was a baptism of a child of record. Rosina Whitthread was baptized by her father and had a plethora of family visiting. Here she is with her father and her sister Lizzie in the pink sweater.

Monday and Tuesday, 13-14 April 2009
Tonight there is a farewell party for President and Sister Swinton in London. They are not leaving until the end of June, but this was the date chosen (I believe because of departing missionaries).

As we were getting ready to leave (about 10:00 am), we got a call from the Elders asking if they could come over and e-mail home because the library was closed (Easter Monday is an official bank holiday which means all government-sponsored organizations are closed). I fixed them lunch and they got to do their e-mailing. That is Elder Ellsworth in the sunglasses and Elder Crocket in the checked shirt. As you can see, we have both my laptop and Walt’s now; thanks to Delight.

We went through the beach area on the way out of town. The weather was warm (60-65˚F) and people were in the water and crowding the beach and Esplanade. I am starting to believe this will be a zoo in the summer.

We got to south London about 5:30 pm and tried to go to Costco (just one exit up from the exit we take to go to President Swinton’s home). After getting a little bit lost, we arrived at Costco 5 minutes after it closed. So, we went back to the right exit and on to the party.

It was very nice with all the senior missionaries in attendance. President and Sister Swinton are the couple right behind the Elder kneeling down in front (she's in the blue jacket and he is the only man on the front row).

That evening we went to the London Temple and stayed at the accommodations there. For £20 we got twin beds and linens, which was just fine.

The next morning we got up at 7:30 am, took showers, and headed over to the temple to do a session and initiatories. Then, to treat ourselves, we had lunch at the temple cafeteria. This is not a joke! The chef at the temple is from a 5-star restaurant. The food is great and the deserts are superb.

The flowers at the temple were gorgeous!! The daffodils and narcissus are about done, but the tulips and some other flowers are beautiful. These are some pictures I took on Tuesday morning before we left.

After lunch, we left the temple and headed back toward Costco, spending £114 and buying only things that didn’t have to be refrigerated or frozen since we had a 3-hour drive back to our flat. We did buy Skippy Super Chunk, towels, books, and other things. As you can see from the picture to the right, they have chicken bakes and hotdogs, but also have cottage pie and jacket potatoes on the menu. Oh, I was in heaven. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being in a Costco.

Wednesday, 15 April 2009
I spent most of today working on things for this coming Sunday. Last Sunday, the branch executive secretary asked Walt and I to speak this coming Sunday on Sacrifice. Fortunately, the topic was easy and I even managed to get in some missionary "rah rah." The issue was that on top of speaking in Sacrament, I was teaching a temporarily combined adult and YSA (young single adult) Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class (they released the teacher for the adult class and haven’t called another), and then doing Sharing Time in Primary. I’m going to try really hard not to let me schedule myself like that again. In addition, we also have a convert baptism on Saturday for which I am doing the program and making a cake.

Today a nice man came to fix my laptop. He replaced the mother board and it seems to be working quite nicely. We’ll see. The longest it was worked after being “tweaked” was about 2 or 3 days.

Thursday and Friday, 16-17 April 2009
We were out visiting people (Thursday was on Portland Island and Friday in Bridport and Burton Bradstock) and working on lessons when I was stationary.

Saturday, 18 April 2009
I got up, made a 13X9 pan of brownies and iced them with chocolate frosting, made the last changes to the program for the baptism, and finished up making handouts for the lessons and putting the finishing touches on a game of Concentration for Primary. The baptism started at 6:00 pm, but Walt and I were at the chapel by 4:30 pm to get the water in the font running (warm water).

Sister Jeanette Hobbs is 84 and was just a little nervous about getting dunked. She did very well and was certainly happy after it was all over. Here she is coming out of the chapel and going toward the baptismal font. That is Liz Trueman just behind here. Liz and I helped her get dressed in her whites and then dried and redressed after the baptism. Right behind Liz is Elder Ellsworth who baptized her (Elder Crockett confirmed her on Sunday).

This is a better picture of Elder Ellsworth and Sister Hobbs. She loves the Elders.

I was very thankful when I got home and finished everything I needed for tomorrow. I wasn’t at all sure I would get everything finished. I had managed to forget to run the baptismal programs earlier, and we had to go back to the flat and print them right before the baptism started.

Sunday, 19 April 2009
Well, with a lot of prayer for the Spirit and some real fun, I managed to get done everything I was supposed to do. I think everybody enjoyed the lessons and I was pleased (secretly) with myself too. However, after church, I came home, went to bed and slept for 4 hours, got up, had dinner, and worked for a little while on the my Relief Society and Sunday School lessons for this coming week, and went back to bed. I was exhausted!!

Monday, 20 April 2009
"P" Day again, and Walt got up fairly early this morning and mowed the lawns front and back. Interestingly enough, we have a piece of ground right out in front of the lawns up and around the neighborhood that the Council takes care of (Yah, sure). They haven’t mowed it and the weeds were more than a foot high. When Walt was mowing our lawn, he just mowed the piece of ground in front of our flat (it wasn’t very big and looked awful). One of the neighbors came over and said it was so American. We’re not sure if that was a complement or complaint?? Our little piece sure looks better. With all the rain, we have to mow at least every two weeks. By the way, the roses I planted are growing and I hope we might have some roses to pick this summer.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009
This morning was District Meeting. Elder Ellsworth did a lesson on Diligence. He quoted the Tree of Life Invitation to be the “man in white” who led Lehi to the Tree of Life and then quoted Alma 5:26 – “And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?” Then, he summed it all up with the comment: “We must be singing men in white.” Maybe that doesn’t include me. I’m usually the only female at Zone and District Meetings and I’m sure they don’t want me to sing.

Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Spring has definitely burst out in England. Everything is green and beautiful. As we have been visiting members I have had my camera ready to take pictures. This first picture is of a tree in flower on the road the Elders live on.

Next, we have a picture of a glorious rhododendron “tree.” It is higher than the house, as you can see, and just a burst of color.

This bush of yellow flowers is really pretty. I have absolutely no idea what it is, but it is all over yards here.

Thursday, 23 April 2009
Today was cloudy and cooler, so Walt took me over to Portland to get a picture of the tulips at Victoria Square. I wanted to get a picture when we on Portland Island earlier this week, but the sun was so bright; I couldn’t get the right light. It is interesting – the field of tulips looks mostly yellow, but there are as many red tulips and pink tulips each as there are yellow. It’s just that the yellow tulips are the tallest.

For this picture, Walt stood up on a post and took the picture down on it. We’re waiting to see if they have any irises. That’s one bulb plant we really haven’t seen yet.

After we took pictures of the tulips, we went about seeing more members and came back to our flat for lunch (and found that the linoleum man had been here). The flooring in the kitchen was press and stick linoleum floor tiles and was coming up. We complained, and the letting agency sent a man out to replace them. Unfortunately, it looks like he found wet underlayment by the sink and left everything as it was (roll of linoleum in the middle of the front room, along with the kitchen table and chairs; washing machine pulled out into the center of the kitchen, which is small enough as it is); and the detritus on the carpeting in the front room. I guess he will be back next week when he figures the underlayment is dry and complete the job. I’m really glad I don’t have anyone coming for dinner this week.

Friday, 24 April 2009
Today we went to Portesham to see Sister Joyce Nash. Portesham is a tiny village with many thatched houses and cottages. Wikipedia definition: “Thatching is the craft of covering a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes, and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is probably the oldest roofing material and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost, local vegetation. By contrast in some developed countries it is now the choice of well-to-do people who want their home to have a rustic look.” The thatching is about 1 foot thick covered with what looks like chicken wire. It does look rustic and seems to do the job.

After we saw Sister Nash we went to Bridport to see if Brother and Sister Ayles were home. They have the nicest home we’ve been in since we’ve been here. The garden is beautiful and very well kept and their home is spacious and lovely.

They have a clematis right next to the window you see at the left-hand side of the picture. We have been seeing them all around the last few days (bright pink flowers climbing over fences and trellises.

After we left the Ayles we went a few more miles into Lyme Regis (which reminds me of downtown Capitola with an Esplanade along the beach). The city is nicknamed the “Pearl of Dorset.” The town has a population of 4,406, 45% of whom are retired. We took a short walk through the Jane Austin Gardens – Yes, of course, I took pictures.
These are tulips (not sure what variety).

And these are wall flowers (the multi-color flowers) and blue bells. We’ve been told there is a village/town near here where the blue bell absolutely carpet the ground. If I can find it, I will take some pictures.

Next we walked along the esplanade and watched this guy on a surf board use a kite to go water skiing across the bay. It was quite windy, so he was just skimming across the tops of the waves; looked very cold to me.

If you look at the beach, there is no sand just the same pebbles we found at Chesil Beach. I’m not at all sure I would want to sun bathe on this beach (although the pebbles are worn smooth by the wave action). We’ll see what happens this summer (not that I plan to sun bathe; I was talking about tourists).

I’m going to put this on the blog since I have been derelict in getting postings going. Love you all. Jackie