2-13-2011
We are in England! I have to pinch myself! Actually that may be the best way to keep myself awake, as well. The airport at Atlanta was huge–the equivalent of about four English towns, a dozen villages and four or five hamlets all put together. Our missionary badges got us several waves and well wishes from members passing by. A young couple with three cute little girls in a stroller came to our gate area. The parents, especially the father were so gentle and sweet with the girls that I wanted to compliment them. As I approached, I thought I saw the telltale lines on garments through the mom’s white shirt. Sure enough, as I began to visit with them, he asked, “Are you coming or going?” Mom was from England and he had lived there his teenage years, had served his mission in Leeds, had married and was now in the process of moving his family to Arizona or all places! They were headed back to England to settle some visas issues and hoped to be back in Arizona in March. I was so proud of them to be such good examples of parenting.
Our flight over went well; we flew up the eastern seaboard and saw the big city lights all the way. Then darkness and over the pond we went. When the sun rose Wed. Morning it was nothing but clouds. When the flight map indicated we were over Ireland, I said a prayer that I could catch a glimpse of Ireland for Jonah who has “a thing” about Ireland. Sure enough, the clouds became patchy for about a minute before closing again until about 500 feet above Manchester, and I was able to see the beautiful green and lakes of Ireland.
We were warmly received by the senior missionaries we are replacing (The Dredges) and then by President and his wife (the Bullocks). President took us aside and spent 20 minutes getting to know us and then explained that in addition to our doing reactivation work in the Warrington Ward, he wants both of us cross trained in everything that goes on in the mission office. Specifically he wants Jim to be the mission vehicle manager and the apartment locator/inspector. He wants us to head up a new initiative wherein we will receive daily e-mail addresses of all new investigators to whom we will then send selected clips from Mormon.Org and other church sources----in an effort to combat the negative stuff they find on line about the church. President was warm, accepting and very positive about the senior couples that have served for him.
Our week has been spent in settling in to a temporary apartment (we will take over the Dredge’s flat when they depart in two weeks), stocking the place with staples, and then going each day to the mission office and receiving on-the-job training. It has been challenging and exciting.
In England everything is familiar but different. It is fun, intriguing and at times puzzling. They have electricity here but the electrical outlets won’t accept US plugs. Even if they did, the power is 220 not 110. The lights in the flat come on gradually, so at first the light is very dim, but they gradually strengthen in brightness. The front door has no doorknob. It is unlocked with two different keys. The same with the backdoor. We are struggling in adjusting to the money terminology (Dollars vs Pounds) the temperature nomenclature (Centigrade vs Fahrenheit), and the time differential(7 hours). Everything else is a bit smaller here—the fridge, the stove, the sink, the washer. There are no clothes drawers for putting away clothing and no closets for hanging coats. There are a few shelves to stack things on but most are a bit impractical as they are six and seven feet above the floor. The wood floors are mostly bare and I miss having a bookcase. It all takes adjusting to.
For Jim the big challenge so far has been driving. He writes: The cars are different (i.e. you work the gear with the left hand, not the right; it won’t start unless the gear shift is in neutral and you have your foot on the brake), driving on the left side of the road takes getting used to—because of this your greatest threat of being hit comes from cars coming from the right, not the left. However the biggest danger is roundabouts. This place is overrun with them. There is an entire etiquette about entering and leaving roundabouts that I’m still in a mist about. I approach each one with chattering teeth, heart palpitations and the shakes. President Campbell’s blessing promising that we would return safely from our mission has new meaning for me now.
I am charmed with the beautiful green color everywhere. Moss grows everywhere on trees and block walls, and the hedges are tall and dense. I can only imagine what it will look like in the spring and summer, and I’ve heard the fall is glorious. The names here are a source of constant delight–hamlets, villages, towns, and cities. One passes from village to village every mile or two, so one is never quite certain where one is! Road names are rarely marked–called Knutsford road if one is heading toward Knutsford or Macclesfield Road is one is heading that way. I especially like the “tractors turning” roadsign on our way home and the Dun Cow something-or-other which I believe might be an eatery. Some houses are set quite close to the road and others are back and include lovely grounds. Most are rather old and absolutely charming. Our office building is plenty modern and at the end of the day I walk twenty-five yards out the door and up to a beautiful old manor where I leave the day’s post (mail.) I feel like I’m living in a BBC special when I do it.
Jim (Elder Hinton) failed to mention the best feature of our apartment: the heated towel rack in the bathroom. That first night I would have readily exchanged it for a heated toilet seat, but now that Jim has got the heat working more energetically, the toilet seat issue isn’t quite so bad. The heat is gas, and those radiator pipes give off such a racket of tinkings and poppings and even bangings that I am awakened several times in the night certain that we are going to cause all the flats (four) in our row to go up in a gigantic gas explosion before the night is over. Let me assure you that we do have a carbon monoxide sensor which will always be plugged in. Our clothes washer/dryer has now been working on our first load of laundry for 2 hours and fifteen minutes and we have no idea whatever where it is in its cycle. We are having such fun!
Saturday we made several abortive attempts to get to a particular store and finally just decided to make a dry run to our chapel. We found it in good order; it took us almost 45 minutes (Sunday it only took just over 30) and we felt quite proud of ourselves. We did get some groceries at a very large Tesco that was near to the church. I was very sad to see they only have one brand of popcorn and not much of that. But it was sweet to bring one little three-pack home and have some of my favorite treat.
Today we were introduced to our home ward. The people make us feel very welcome. I even fumbled through “For All the Saints” in Relief Society. (Dad kept his talents hidden and decided against volunteering in a pianist-less priesthood meeting.) Dad calculated there were about seventy in attendance and we were told several key people were sick. We attended the Gospel Essentials class where three recent converts are being taught very effectively by an enthusiastic ward mission leader. Our bishop is a young fellow who is also very supportive of missionary work. He gave us a list of ten folks he would like us to visit in the next couple of weeks and has invited us to his home to meet his family on Wed. We are enthusiastic about moving into the Dredge’s flat across the street when they leave in two weeks because it is a comfortable little place and they will leave lots of groceries, utensils etc., but that still leaves us twenty-five or thirty miles from our ward members which, at $9/gal gas may be a bit expensive. We shall see.
2-19-2011
This week was our time to join with and become acquainted with everyone in the mission. Over three days we had contact with all 130 or so elders/sisters/couples. First came an evening dinner at the mission home, hosted by President and Sister Bullock, for just the senior couples of the mission. We said good-bye to the Dredges and another couple who have been the medical advisors for all of England. We were welcomed along with the Gregsons, the local couple who has stepped up to be the full time office couple. It’s kind of funnv that she was fearful that I would be a high-powered office manager type and I was fearful of the same thing about her. We are both novices with the computer and like to write ourselves step-by-step instructions and we will get along just fine. The dinner was delicious with baked chicken, scalloped potatoes, asparagus, greens with fruit (with a poppyseed dressing I haven’t been able to find here), rolls and ice cream with berries and homemade brownies and sugar cookies.
We so enjoyed meeting these fine folks several of whom are on their second missions. One couple even brought us an electrical converter box so that we now can use outlets upstairs and downstairs without having to move our only converter. Yeah! We enjoyed making some connections with each. For example, Bro/Sis Allen come from Gresham, Oregon. Bro. Allen was an orthodontist who knew Leslie’s Uncle Max Holbrook and Uncle Max sold his dental practice to one of Bro. Allen’s sons. As we stood around the kitchen Pres. Bullock informed us that he had learned the identity of the new mission president a couple of days before and that he would be announcing it the new day at the first of the two zone conferences. There was considerable interest in that announcement, but he refused to bite when some tried to tease the identity out of him. President and Sister Bullock are probably ten years younger than we are. Sister Bullock is warm and kind. We were immediately drawn to her. President is also very welcoming and gracious but as we met in zones conferences this week it is apparent that he is a directive leader who takes charge, sets the tone and expects obedience. During one of his presentations at zone conference I leaned over to a senior sister next to me, that had previously served a couple mission in Russia. I asked how her previous mission compared to this mission. “Oh, this is an outstanding mission,” was her response, “much better organized, efficient and directed than our previous mission, and it is all due to the Bullocks.” Unfortunately the Bullocks finish their mission in June. It was announced at zone conference that they will be replaced by an Englishman, a former stake president from within our mission. That announcement was made during our zone conferences this week and caught the elders totally by surprise. I guess he is a popular fellow and very good with the youth, so there may be a change in tone in the mission.
Zone conferences, like we had this week, bring all the elders/sister together for a time of instruction, coordination and testimony bearing. It is a real spiritual high. With so many elders/sisters together we found it impossible to remember everyone, but elders were understanding and accepting. We came here expecting all the missionaries to be from the United States and thus to speak ourlanguage and without accent. We found probably a third of the missionaries have come from all over the world (Germany, Armenia, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Scotland, England, Italy, Spain, El Salvador, China, Russia, New Zealand, Trinadad/Tobago, Philippines, Canada, Australia, etc.). Needless to say most have accents and some of them are very strong . As hard as it is to understand them in person, it is much more challenging to talk to them over the phone. A highlight was meeting Elder Darrow from Peoria, Arizona. His blonde hair, fair complection, blue eyes, and good size, mark him among all these smaller and darker elders. As a zone leader he conducted a training session for our zone. He began by saying that the demonstration he and his companion were going to give was the perfect way in which the mission wanted this lesson to be taught, so he advised the elders pay close attention. At first I thought, “Whoa, that is quite a lead in, saying that you are going to give the ‘perfect’ presentation.” But he and his companion then proceeded to give a 10 minute, word perfect and impressive lesson in teaching the principles of that lesson. Later he was called out of the audience of elders to spontaneously teach a 3 minute lesson using a passage from the Book of Mormon addressing one of what Preach My Gospel refers to as Questions of the Soul. With an engaging smile on his face he strode to the podium, picked up the BofM and effortlessly answered his question with power and conviction. He is an elder of which the Rose Valley Ward can be very proud.
We spent time this week visiting ward members in our Warrington Ward. We had no idea where we were, where we were going or how to get from house to house. We relied entirely on the voice of “Honeysuckle” from our TomTom. Like the Liahona we were guided through the maze of streets and houses to eventually successfully find each of our objectives. Not all the folks were home, but some were and we met some good ones, including a sweet single lady in her fifties who had gone through some tough times and found our visit a bright light in her day. She kept repeating that she couldn’t believe that we would come to visit her. We hope to see her in church Sunday.
We walked into some questionable areas looking for these ward members. We are too dumb to know which ones are scary. Hope we don’t get into trouble. We have since learned that after dark many folks just don’t answer their doors. In fact, between the months of November and March, they hardly see their neighbors because they come and go before daylight and after dark and just hunker down in their houses when they get home. There are so many expressions here that our super delightful office sister uses that tickle me so. For instance everything we through away goes “in the bin.” Instead of “back and forth,” it is “back and to.” Makes sense. I am going to start recording her expressions ala Prof. Doolittle.
Had a great phone call today from Charlotte Evans. We will definitely get together by June if not before. She was so understanding of all the adjustments we are making and was very comforting and encouraging. She said Harold and Kitty Tenney are coming over in June so that is when we will all get together unless they/we can’t wait.
At zone conference we were introduced and then given responsibility to track a couple of new initiatives in the mission. One is just that missionaries can now text, but only to set and confirm appts. and not more than 5-8 times a day. We will be checking phone records to make certain no missionaries are abusing the privilege. President also wants to start a program wherein we will send investigators a couple of e-mails each week with links to Church websites where they can get positive messages about the Church. Guess who gets to compile and keep current the e-mail list and choose the video messages. We will also be responsible for finding and contracting for flats, along with our other office duties, and we want to spend two or three days a week in our ward area visiting ALL members to activate, and encourage in a family mission plan. The challenge is that different folks are coming to us wanting to hand off to us what has been part of THEIR job, and they don’t know what others are expecting of us, so we are wondering just when we are to clean the apt. and have a p-halfday! We will work it out; it is nice to be needed.
Highlights for me from zone conference were Sr. Bullock’s story, the ZL training, the Questions of the Soul exercise wherein fifteen or so missionaries were randomly picked along with one of the questions. They were to advance to the stand, pick up the BofM and give a 2-3 minute lesson on that question using the proper scripture from the Book. They were amazing. The last highlight was the singing of the song “Jerusalem.” I didn’t think I knew it, but realized it is sung in Chariots of Fire. The words are from a William Blake poem based on the legend that Jesus came to Britain with his uncle Joseph of Arimathaea while still a youth. This song is practically a national anthem here and is sung at all rugby games, etc. If these people only knew what they are singing! Wonderful words brought tears: “And did those feet in ancient time/walk upon England’s mountains green?/And was the Holy lamb of God/on England’s pleasant pastures seen?/And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills?/And was Jerusalem builded here among these dark satanic mills? (2) Bring me my bow of burning gold/ bring me my arrows of desire!/Bring me my spear!/O clouds unfold:/bring me my chariot of fire!/I will not cease from mental fight;/nor shall my sword sleep in my hand/Till we have built Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land.” This anthem has been sung for years by missionaries in the England Manchester Mission and possibly in other English missions. Right up there with “Called to Serve” as a song of commitment here in England.
