Catching Up From the Past Couple of Weeks

It has been one week today since we arrove in England.  We are really enjoying our time here.  We have a lovely flat that overlooks the Thames.

 

  Two days ago we saw a cruise ship coming up the river and then it got close to the side and a little tug boat came up along side of it and they hooked a large cable from the ship to the boat and the little tug boat pulled on the big ship and turned it around so it could sail back out to sea.  It was very interesting to watch.  One group disembarked and then later on that afternoon, it sailed back out to sea with a new group.  We have seen two cruise ships so far.  All day and all night there are ships & boats sailing up and down the Thames.

August is a vacation month, so we haven't had much to do.  Our bishop has been in Utah and won't be back until Tues.  Church has been run the High Priest's Group Leader and Elder's Quorum President.  We have a very friendly ward, but it's very small.  We have a beautiful chapel. 

There are 35 new missionaries coming into our mission this Wed.  We had a District Meeting last Tues. and out of ten missionaries (not counting us) there were nine countries represented--Brazil (Rio) He looks like he belongs to the Tirrells, South Africa, Malaysia, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, England, & the US (Salt Lake & Las Vegas) & then us of course.  It was very interesting to see all these missionaries speaking English with different accents.  They were awesome missionaries.  We really enjoyed being with them.  Two were Sister Missionaries--England & Las Vegas.

We work under the direction of the bishop and since he is out of town, it's been frustrating for us.  Hopefully we will be able to meet with him this week and get a sense of what he wants us to do.  We have been to a recently re-activated sister's home for dinner with her four boys.  That was interesting.  She cooked a good meal.  She's had a 30 year vacation from church and about a year ago decided to come back.  She has two boys that are 24 and 21 from her first marriage & three from the second--14, 13, & 10.  The 13 yr old is interested.
She taught RS last week and did a fine job.  I played the piano.  In fact I played it in Sacrament as well.  Their only pianist has a broken hand.

Well since we haven't had any direction we have been familiarizing ourselves with the town.  It's a cute town.  We don't have a car, so we've been walking everywhere.  We didn't have a fridge until Thursday--what a blessing they are.  Our little fridge is smaller than our dishwasher at home--about the same height, but narrower.  Butt--it has a freezer the same size on the bottom.  Well there's not as much room in the freezer because of the motor, but it's so nice.  Tonight I cooked "Cafe' Rio" for the Elders.  One is from Salt Lake & the other Brazil.  They loved it!!!  Our Brazillian Elder ate two burritos and then had a large plate of rice & beans.  I couldn't make the dressing as there aren't any tomatillos here and no Hidden Valley Ranch, but everything else tasted very good.

We have been shopping everyday getting things for the flat and food of course.  It's looking cozy, but very different from an English flat.  We don't have much stuff, but it's very comfortable.  I'll send pictures as soon as we get wi-fi.  This has been hard to not have internet service.  We get it Friday.  Nothing happens fast here. 

Bye for now.