Wednesday, July 30, 2014

LONG HOT SUMMER...........

Yeah yeah I know, its not as hot as St George, but it has been unusually hot here. We have had a long streak of about 90 degree weather with 90% humidity. That may not sound bad, but we dont have air conditioning, and the buses, trains and subways can get downright swampy. We open most windows in our flat and have 2 fans going non-stop. Even the Brits, who crave hot weather, are starting to complain. Where is the rain??? It's actually only 79 degrees today, which is wonderful. 

If we turn one way from our flat, we might think we were in Instanbul, Mumbai, Africa or Baghdad.  If we turn the other way across the road, we have the beautiful Tooting Common -152 acres of beautiful grass, flowers, trees, lakes and wildlife.


Tooting Common

Tooting Lido is also across the road from us. It is the biggest swimming pool in all of Europe.  One lap in that pool would just about do us in!

We always stay busy with one thing or another. We have driven down to the Temple several times, and we usually take some single adult members with us.  It's great to spend time with these faithful members.  We have been teaching a Temple Prep class for Clapham Common Ward and Wandsworth Common Ward.  One of the couples that was in our class is getting married on August 9th, but in the Preston Temple, not the London Temple.  Preston is not in our mission.  After being invited to the wedding, we asked our Mission President for special permission to leave the mission and attend their wedding.  After requesting permission from our Regional Rep in Germany, he told us we could go.  Yipee!  We are so excited.  This young couple are going to be a great asset to our ward.  Plus, we are excited to head North to Sister Adams' home town, where we will stay for a few days.  Stay posted for some great pics as we travel up there through the Cotswolds and other picturesque areas.

We had the opportunity one P-Day a few weeks ago, to travel to Hartley Wintney to visit our old neighbor Dorothy Nolan's Goddaughter and family.  They live on a farm about an hour from here in a 400 year old farmhouse, and have several acres in a lovely rural setting. It was a lovely sunny day, except for a rainshower or two.

Hartley Wintney, as mentioned in a Jane Austen novel


We have been holding FHE here in our flat with YSA, SA and the other senior couple in our ward.  The last 2 times we had them all bring their laptops and we all got online and indexed.  After we got everyone trained and settled, we did some great indexing.  We both love it, and the others all had to admit that it is addicting.

We have discovered several ASDA stores around us, which is the UK version of WalMart.  Elder Adams loves WalMart, so he is thrilled that we now can enjoy ASDA.  We also discovered an Oriental Market next to ASDA where we can get real Chinese potstickers.  Mmmm so delicious.  With all the cream cakes and other English dainties, our waistlines are expanding.  Hopefully all our walking will counteract the effects of the treats.


Real potstickers

Elder Adams has been the only counselor in the Bishopric for several months, but a new counselor was just called on Sunday. Sister Adams teaches Relief Society, does the RS Newsletter, and is the Visiting Teaching Coordinator.  She was also just installed as the new Editor for the Senior Missionary Newsletter for the England London South Mission.  She was also asked to talk at the baptism this Saturday of a member who is coming back into the fold after having had their name removed from church records.  It should be a happy event.  

We went downtown to watch the Tour de France and got a front row spot after waiting there for 4 hours.  Obviously, we were confused as to when it was actually going to pass by, as we would not have waited 4 hours normally.  Elder Adams said it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it just happened to be our P Day.  We stood right below Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  Here's a video Elder Adams took.  (It may not work on a mobile device, but works on a laptop or desktop.)






We went to Kew Gardens for our monthly Senior Missionary Outing.  It is the most famous garden in the world with many venues including glasshouses, exotic rainforests, a Palace and the Princess of Wales Conservatory.  Also, we walked around acres and acres of beautiful gardens with the other Seniors.







Kew Palace

It turned out to be a lovely day after a few little rain sprinkles

Our Young Women had a Mexican Dinner fundraiser for camp, even though there is only one girl going from our ward.  We all helped set tables and decorate, and chop, chop, chop for a delicious dinner.  Mexican food is almost unheard of over here.  A good time was had by all. 

Elder Adams chop, chop, chopping (they assigned him the onions!)

One of our responsibilities is to clean up the ward list and find out who has moved and who is less active.  It is a time consuming job and requires lots of travel. We really enjoy it when we actually get to meet the people and have a good visit.  Several of the less actives have asked for blessings, and genuinely seem to enjoy our visits and invite us back.  We really love these folks here, all of them.

We had another opportunity to drive a missionary down to the mission office who was returning home to Spain.  We had a teary goodbye with the other Elders and Sisters before we loaded him and all his wordly goods into our car.  What great young people these missionaries are.

Missionaries from L to R: Australia, Netherlands, USA, Australia, Spain, Colombia, New Zealand, me, USA.  Happy in the work, but sad to see Elder Cantos going home

This blog has turned into a monthly event, sorry to say.  We get so busy and involved in all the missionary activities that it's hard to set aside the time it takes to compile this.  We are so happy in this work, we give thanks every day for this blessed opportunity.  Our assignment is MLS or member, leader support.  We feel really needed here, and we know the members really appreciate all the help we are able to give.  This is the Lord's work, building up His church, and there's no better way to spend our time. 

Cheerio until next time,
Love, Elder and Sister Adams