Missionary Journal

England (April Wk 5 and May Wk 1 2009)

Saturday, 25 April 2009
Today was dedicated to making sure all lessons (Sunday School and Relief Society) were ready for tomorrow, and preparing the bulletin and making a large pan of lemon bars for tomorrow’s baptism.

Today, we cut up the remainder of the leg of lamb I cooked last week and made a shepherd’s pie (meat, vegetables, and sauce covered by browned mashed potatoes). It was mighty tasty, and we needed to eat up the remainder of the lamb. We’d already had it for several meals (including sandwiches).

Sunday, 26 April 2009
Today I taught another combined class for Gospel Doctrine (adults and YSA). The Branch Presidency still hasn’t called a Gospel Doctrine teacher for the adults. Discussion was quite good and we ended just right on time.

Walt told me that I won’t get the new members (Dave Smith and Will Quick plus any other YSA they want to sit in on a Gospel Essentials class) in my YSA class, which takes the majority of my students. I won’t be surprised if I don’t get to teach the combined class for good.

Relief Society went well today (although I didn’t seem to get the class materials cut back enough to complete my whole lesson). Is that a surprise to anybody?

At 1:30 pm, after all meetings were over and the food had been arranged on the tables in the overflow (Relief Society) room, we started the baptismal service for William Henry Quick. Here are some pictures taken just before the baptism:

Left to Right: Elder Ellsworth, Will Quick; Dave Smith (Dave was baptized a few weeks ago and will baptize Will [who is a very good friend of and was brought into the church by Dave]), and Elder Crockett (who confirmed Will).

This picture is friends and family. Left to right: (Emily, Tim MaKay, Alex Hall (who did the talk on The Holy Ghost), Will, Dave, Katey McKay (who pronounces it McKai and did the talk on Baptism), Daisy McKay, and Glenda McKay (who pronounces it McKay and did the food).

Monday, 27 April 2009
Today was “P” day for us but not for the Elders (due to transfers being this week). However, we did have the Elders over for a pancake breakfast (complete with syrup and English bacon and eggs) this morning, which I obviously didn’t get any pictures of.

Since it was dreary, we didn’t go anywhere except to get the laundry dried. I worked on my Sunday School lesson and holed up in my duvet and chair.

Tuesday, 28 April 2009
This morning was District Meeting. We went over President Kimball’s "Pride" talk that I discussed the first week in March. After the meeting was over and since it was the last District Meeting before transfers, they clowned around quite a bit. Elders Khuse and Harding bought some very cheap fake facial hair. We took many pictures, but here are the best.

Elders Khuse and Harding are in the white shirts. Elder Khuse has red head and Elder Harding has dark hair.

Here are the four missionaries in our District (excluding Walt and I). I couldn’t get Walt to put on a mustache (they got a grey one especially for him).

Left to Right: Elder Crockett, Elder Ellsworth, Elder Khuse, and Elder Harding.

This picture is just of our Elders. Of course, I’m partial.

This evening was the “Visiting Teaching Awards Ceremony.” It was done very nicely with pre-ceremony cocktails and nibbles (sparkling apple juice and nuts and crisps [crisps are anything like potato chips, corn chips, etc.). Then we had a lovely awards ceremony with awards given to each and every visiting teaching companionship. I got a special award, as you can see, for visiting almost everybody.

Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Today was visiting members in Dorchester. We had a very interesting visit (if you can call it that). We arrived at the home of an older gentleman that we hadn’t contacted in person previously, rang the doorbell, and waited. He came to the door (which had a glassed-in vestibule outside), took one look at our badges, put up his hands as if to ward off something dangerous, and saying, “No. No.”, backed back through the door and closed it (probably locked it too). So far, we’ve been very well received most of the time and this was something of a shock. I’ve never been looked at quite like that before. Scary!!

Shortly after this visit, we saw some flowers as we were slowly driving down a road (it was getting on for going-home time and traffic was slow). It was Dorchester Park. We saw a place to park and got out of the car. This is a close up of the flowers we saw.

The park was very nice with two children’s play grounds (one for very little ones and another for older children), tennis courts, and paths to walk on. They also had a little café and a clock tower.

They had some very interesting trees; ones that I have no idea what they are. The gardeners told us the first tree is called a Lime Tree. I have no idea why since it certainly isn’t a citrus tree. ???

The next looks like a pine, but I don’t think it is. If somebody knows, please let me know. It’s a little hard to see since there is a bigger tree exactly behind it.

Tonight is Welfare and Branch Council which we attend. It starts at 7:30 pm and ends about 9:00 or 9:30 pm. Makes it a long day. The Elders came over so Elder Ellsworth could say goodbye (he is being transferred to Bideford which is down the coast even further west than we are). We are going to miss him; he’s been here all the time we have (even met us at the door when we arrived).

Thursday, 30 April 2009
We plan to see a few folks in Weymouth today. As of right now, I have just completed my Primary Sharing Time for this week and Walt is putting together goulash with a pot roast I bought last week (a new recipe). We’ll see tonight.

I found a Jeopardy template that can be used and changed for any subject and topics. Mine is for Week 1 of May and is on:






Here is what the Jeopardy board looks like. If anyone is interested, let me know and I will e-mail it to them. If you don’t make any changes, the hyperlinks are all in place and ready to go.

As we were traveling around I finally managed to get a picture of the school patrol (crossing guard). It must be a country or county-wide edict. The police, the paramedics and the ambulance drivers, and the school patrol all wear the same bilious colors. When it is raining, they even wear pants to match.

Walt has a Melchizedek Priesthood leadership meeting this evening. I’m kind of looking forward to having an evening ALL ALONE. We are doing quite well with the togetherness, but in this small flat, alone is nice sometimes.

Saturday, 02 May 2009
Today we had another convert baptism, Reef Haddlesey. He is so cute and I’ve come to know him from working in Primary on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. We returned from seeing people about 4:00 pm and had a request from the Elders for a pan of brownies. So, I got busy and made up a 9X13” pan of brownies (lots of chocolate chips) with fudge frosting. Here are the men in the family. That’s Reef in white, next to him is Jazz (who is a member), Phillip, and then Dr. Haddlesey (almost) in the dark jacket. Dr. Haddlesey told me he was about 6 days from getting his PhD in Medieval Architecture. Wow!

The white pants Reef is wearing is a cute story: The topic for Sharing Time in Primary for May is “Baptism is the First Ordinance of the Gospel.” Fiona Payne who is the 2nd Counselor in the Primary does the Sharing Time for the Sunbeams and had already pulled her presentation together (she is a mechanical engineer who designs helicopters). When Walt and I got to the chapel Reef was wearing a pair of white pants that were a little too big in the waist and at least 1.5 feet too long. The Elders told me that was the only little pair they could find (they were right; there weren’t any smaller – at least in the cupboard). As Fiona and I were talking about Primary the coming Sunday she took me down to the Primary Room and showed me how she had set up to do Sharing Time and there, hanging up, were a large white dress, a small white dress, a large white shirt, a small white shirt, a pair of large white pants, and (you knew it) a pair of small white pants (all washed and ironed beautifully). It didn’t take me 30 seconds to go, “Oh my goodness, those must be the pants the Elders were looking for.” Well, as you can see, he has got the right pants on. The baptism went well, and he was just beaming. His confirmation will be tomorrow at church.

As we were having refreshments, Sisters Glenda McKay and Fiona Payne asked if I wanted to come over to Fiona’s house (her husband was playing in a band at a wedding that evening [he is a teacher]) and scrapbook with them. I said I didn’t scrapbook, but I would come over and watch and talk. We probably got over to Fiona’s about 8:00 pm, but I didn’t get home until slightly after midnight (probably not mission rules). We didn’t do any scrapbooking, but did make a birthday card for someone Glenda and Fiona know. It took 3 of us 45 minutes and a lot of laughter to get it made. It actually looked pretty good when we were finished.

Sunday, 03 May 2009
Everything went quite well today for me. Sunday School was a breeze and the Primary seemed to have a great time with Jeopardy. We came home (after Walt got all his “clerky” things done including taking the tithing packet to the bank) at about 3:30 pm. As we were coming past the beach from the bank, it was jam packed with people. I can’t wait until June and school is out (this place will be wall-to-wall people and I won’t want to go downtown at all). With my late night last night and fasting today, we pulled together dinner quite rapidly and then I was really ready for bed. I started my Sunday School lesson for next week and finally quit for lack of conscious thought.

I will post this for now. My love to all and Happy Mother’s Day!