First Week in England

We arrived in England on Annie's birthday, Tuesday.  We had set and objective to deal with jetlag of staying awake just as long as we could.  The reason for this is that we arrived at 10 am London time.  However, it was 3 am Utah time.


Farewell at SLC airport

We didn't get too much sleep on the plane, but we sure could have had we been able to sleep.  The plane was only about 1/4 full in a 275 seat capacity plane.  We both had three seats apiece to lay down. 

We flew from SLC to Las Vegas via Delta and somehow ended up with first class seats.  We had no problems with the amout of luggage that we had packed and they checked it all the way through to London.  We didn't have to touch our checked luggage in Vegas.  We next flew by British Air direct to London Gatwick.  Flight was great and we were met by the mission president and his assistants. 

We went immediately to the mission home which is situated on the temple grounds.  It was a cool but sunshinny day.  Once we had taken care of some business we were turned loose to rest and relax.  We ate our first meal in the basement of the temple, attended a session of the temple and later had dinner with two missionary couples -- the Carpenters, from Draper and the Kearls from Alberta, Canada.  We should probably mention that the temple session consisted of three sisters and us.  We were blessed to be the witness couple.

 

Finally it was time to go to bed and check emails.  We were put up in temple housing at the temple.  In that housing they have almost everything including washing facilities and a small family history room with two computers -- that's how we checked for emails.

We should probably also add that our son-in-law helped us get our phone service going so we could call our kids and grandkids.  We shut off the "radio" portion of our cell phone and installed google voice and groveip lite.  That enabled us to make calls anytime we have an internet connection.  We can also receive calls, voicemails, and texts on our regurlar number.

Early on Wednesday we were met by Chris Norton, our local supervisor relative to our records preservation.  Chris was ever so helpful.  We stopped at The National Archives (hereafter TNA) to see our work area and to meet some of the TNA staff.  We did some paper work for our flats (we say flats because we have a temporary flat until March 1 and then we move into a more permanent one and one that is closer to our work).  We also went grocery shopping, a real experience in and off itsself.  We applied for senior passes to ride the buses and underground train -- free for seniors but takes two to three weeks to get.  Chris had dinner with us on our first night and then went off to his hotel.  Forgot to say that we are the most ID'd people on the earth.  Check out all of our badges.

We spent the next two days working and learning our jobs at the TNA with Chris.  He taught us how to film in color, whereas we had learned how to capture images in black and white while we were in Salt Lake learning at the Church Office Building. 

We all worked together until about noon on Friday when Chris left to return to his home in northern England.  We worked until about 5 pm and then found our way back to our flat by taking buses.  We obviously made it home.

Saturday was P day (not pay day but preparation day).  We slept in a little and cleaned a little.  Then, like dedicated genealogists we went back to TNA to use the local family history centre (it's actually housed in the TNA, as the Church leases an area there).  We were brave and thought that we might try to walk there.  It took us about 40 minutes but we managed.  Annie got some experience looking for records of the Ward family in the records that were held at the FHC.  Again we walked back home and thought, "we can do this if the weather is good." 

That brings us to today, Sunday.  We were up bright and early and took a bus and then a train to Church.  We are assigned to the Staines Ward.  The bishop seemed like a real nice guy.  We met lots of nice people.  We were asked to make visits to lots of the less active members.  We asked if they were aware that we had no car.  We probably burst the bishop's bubble because he had all these great ideas for us and instead we are assigned to preserve records and are on foot.  We think he may have thought we were there just to help him and that he could use us fully.  Made us aware of all the work that there is to do here and how few workers there really are.  Forgot to say that they asked us to bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting, which we considered a great privilege.

Tomorrow starts our first work week.  We look forward to the work.  We hope that all is well with those wonderful family members and friends that we have left behind.  Rest assured that we will do our best to serve faithfully and to not let any of you or the Lord down.

Mom and Dad

ps Hope you enjoy the attached pictures including those that follow - the flat.