Our Mission's 41st Week

Another strange week has come and gone.  We list it as strange simply because things were so common and routine before and now we don't know what we will be doing from week to week.

Paul's camera is still acting up.  Most of the time the lights don't work and he still doesn't know if his images are acceptable or if they have too much blue in them. A lot of the time the two of us simply go up stairs and do family history, prepare for classes, work on projects for our leader, or simply goof off.  We expect that to change for at least one of us.

You might ask why only one of us.  The documents that we are now digitizing need to be done on a "cradle".  That's a camera that protects the back/spine of a book.  To lay the book flat on a table or desk would break the spine.  The archive has requested that this not be done.  We have two good cameras that are attached to cradles and Paul's bad camera that is attached to a cradle.  We have two other cameras that are table top or desk top cameras, both currently assigned to the ladies including Annie.  Unless we find some flat documents or more cameras or transfer one of the couples, we will always have periods of time where there will not be a lot of work.

So, that is the camera work story for this past week.

Recognize Wet Tourist?

Senior Missionaries (see upper left)

Oxford University

Oxford University - Gardens

Aside from that work, we continue to help others with their family history.  We did have kind of a special outing with the senior missionaries.  We spent Friday at Oxford and saw a lot of the city and quite a bit of the University.  Oxford is steeped in tradition and the school is world renown.  It is said to be the second oldest university in Europe.  We learned that the university system here is not at all like the American system.  Here you apply for a college within the university and you meet once or twice a week with your professor in small groups of three or four.  You then go off and study and then meet together next week.  You are tested along the way and if you do well in your exams, you graduate. 

Harry Potter's Hall

Tea at Potter Hall

Harry Potter Hall

Cheshire Cat's Tree

Alice in Wonderland Door

We spent time going around the city as well as the university.  As a city, Oxford has two LDS wards.  It also has quite a bit to do with the Harry Potter movies and Alice in Wonderland.  We saw several of the sites that were used either in the filming of the movie or were used as models for sets that were created elsewhere.  We were hosted at the university by one of the employees who just happens to be the LDS Bishop of one of the Oxford wards.

Oxford University Scholar

Oxford University Want-to-be

By the way, did we mention that it rained all day.  Our traveling, touring, etc, were all done on foot and in the rain.  Yes, we were quite wet.  It also rained most of the day on Saturday.

We spent Saturday cleaning, grocery shopping, and we traveled into London and saw an art exhibition that was hosted by our friends the Badens.  The art was interesting, but we enjoyed the market at London Bridge as much as we enjoyed the exhibit.  We also enjoyed being with the Badens.  They are great people and we continue to pray that Paul Baden will find an interest in the Church so they can be an eternal family.

Today is Sunday and we always enjoy our Church meetings and being with the saints.  We helped several people with their family history today and Annie taught the Relief Society lesson.  Following Church today we had two families over for dinner.  We are also assigned to home teach them.  Annie prepared a wonderful meal and then we all talked about our favorite conference talk.  We really enjoyed the time together.  Sister Goodlet also informed us that she is pregnant.  They have tried for some time to get pregnant and they are looking forward to the arrival of the their first child in April.

 

 

Sunday Dinner with Goodlets and David Mason

Our stake president was visiting our ward today for his last time.  He is an American that has ties to Utah -- the Salt Lake area and the Vernal area.  His name is Judd.  He has served for about 8 1/2 years and is being released next Sunday.  Guess that means that Stake Conference is next Sunday.  That should be interesting for us to get to Stake Conference. 

We are in the Staines Stake and we attend the Staines Ward which is the stake center for the Staines Stake.  However, the stake center will not hold the stake it is quite a small building and although it is ideally located for public transportation, there is no property for us to build on.  So, we will travel to Reading and use their nice, large stake center for our stake conference. Maybe they'll announce something more next week about buildings, etc.

That's about it for another week. 

We'll close by telling you how much we miss you all.  It is just about unbearable to think of the coming holidays and how important families are and to know that we will not have any of our families here.  Guess we'll have to simply rely on the love we feel from each of you and to stay busy.  Rest assured that we are happy to be about the Lord's work, but we dearly love you all and miss the contact of having you all near us.

Our testimonies are firm in the faith.  We know that God lives.  We know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  We read it everyday.  We know that we have a prophet that leads and guides this great Church. 

Love to you all,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Smart, Annie and Paul