#39 Yes, Our 39th Week

Just when we thought that we'd said it all, another week comes and goes and we look back and think of all our blessings.

Perhaps our first blessing is our love for each other.  What would this time be like if we didn't have each other?  We have learned to rely on each other and every week that goes by we learn to rely more and more on one another as we observe each other's strengths.
 

Chipotle @ Wimbledon

This last week we celebrated our third anniversary as husband and wife.  Doesn't seem like two old people like us should only be married for three years.  We constantly tell our friends here that we are newly weds -- and maybe we are.  We didn't do a lot for our anniversary, but we did do a little.  We managed to change our bank account over here to a bank that we think really wants to serve us.  Following that we went out to dinner -- Mexican.  One of the people that we work with told us the best Mexican food around was Chipotle's.  We found out there was one near us and so we took about an hour's train ride to it and really enjoyed the food.  It reminded us of Cafe Rio.  We both had big burritos and we mean big.  We were able to finish them a couple of days later for lunch.

Anniversary Dinner

We took a train ride home thinking it might be a bit faster than the underground.  Wrong!  There was an emergency on the way home and the train stopped for an ambulance.  It was so delayed that after it started again, it decided to skip our station so it could make it to its final destination quicker.  Anyway it was a bit of a challenge to get home.

Frozen Yogurt

We thought we'd finish off the night by getting some gellato on the way home, but the place we wanted to go was closed.  So we found a frozen yogurt place and tried it out.  It was really good.  The two that were running it were from Los Angeles and Oregon.  Good yogurt!

Anniversary Dessert

Nice anniversary!






















On Tuesday, we finished reading the Book of Mormon.  Every morning we read together.  We love the Book of Mormon and its fantastic messages.  We were so excited that we started the very next day on reading it again.  We remarked specifically about how marvelous Moroni was as he continued to write not for anyone else but us.  Although he was completely alone and must have been quite down in his demeanor, he continued to add his marvelous thoughts for us.

Anyway, as we continued through the week, our digitizing continued to go slower and slower.  The end of another project will take place this coming week.  The conservation of the last few boxes of documents slowed down.  I don't think that there was a full days work for any of us on Thursday or Friday and there certainly won't be a full days work on Monday.  We'll have to see what comes with this new week.

We keep thinking that we ought to bite the bullet and make a trip to the Isle of Wight.  One of Paul's goals is to get back there and see if he can extend his mother's family.  The Isle of Wight is in  our mission!  It will take a day to get there and a couple of days to try to do the things we want to do..  We just need to decide if we can really get away that long and pay the price of making the trip.

Once again we enjoyed our Church experience today, at least most of it.  Had an interesting happening in the Gospel Essentials class today.  There was a discussion about temple and the marvelous experience to be had there.  One of the newer converts who had visited the temple but not actually been in it mentioned that he had a bad feeling when he went there.  He then began to belittle the experience and mentioned that he couldn't understand how all the good things that had been said about it could be true.  He ended up saying he was going back to his Catholicism and forget this Mormon stuff.  He go up and walked out of SS class.  There were some tense moments during this.  Paul did have a chance to shake his hand as he walked out of class.  We try to befriend all the investigators and new members.

Nevertheless, our Sabbath day general regenerates us and helps us to get ready for another week at the Archives.

Thanks for your prayers in our behalf.  Thanks for the love that we feel from all of you.  Thanks to Heavenly Father for having us be here and further His work.  The gospel is true and we love it as well as all of you.

Sincerely,

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

Swans Changing Color

American Tourists on Thames River Cruise

Week 38 in the Great Country of England

Not a lot of fan fare this week, but Paul was called upon 2 times to do his thing and talk about genealogy research and family history.  He did his usual every other week talk at The  National Archives. He shared information about "Parish Chests".  For most of us...that means the information stored in the chests at each parish, such as poor law records, records of illegitimate children, government orders of removal and so forth.

Annie has discovered the value of these records in her genealogy.  She found...

Upholland to Halsall. Order of removal of Fanny, wife of Henry Windus, sailor, and William their son QSP/2393/19 1797 24 Apr These documents are held at Lancashire Record Office .

Annie has discovered the value of these records in her genealogy.  This told her that her ancestor, Henry Windus, was originally from Halsall.  When a family could not afford to take care of themselves and needed help, they were forced to go back to their place of origin for help.

This also let her know that Henry was in the Navy.  She searched for him in the Navy records at The National Archives (the same place that we work).  Interesting stories were uncovered.  It will be told at the next Ward family reunion.  Hopefully we will have time to go to the Lancashire Record office and see the entire record before we go home.  Since it is not in our mission boundaries it will have to wait until we finish.

We had a senior missionary conference at the London Temple visitor's centre on Saturday.  We heard from our mission president and others.  One of the others was ....you guessed it....Elder Smart taught about using Family History as a proselyting tool. Annie has to remind him regularly how important it is to  share his talents.  He has been blessed with a huge talent in genealogy research, understanding and speaking.

Today, Sunday we found ourselves enjoying teaching classes and sharing with the members.  It is always a highlight for us.

This is an important time in the work of the Lord moving forward.  Now is when we all need to work together to share the gospel with our friends and acquaintances.

We love serving our Lord.  We know that this is God's work and He loves all of us.  The Church is true!!!!

Happy Birthday this week to Aaron (Stagg) and Eli.

Guess we should congratulate ourselves.  Tomorrow, Monday, is our third anniversary and our "hump day" (exactly half way through our mission -- we entered the MTC on January 21)

Love you all,
Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

bouquet of mushrooms on our church lawn

two strange people

                                              We love pictures from home.

CJ with his birthday gun

Thing 1 and Thing 2

 

 

37 Weeks and Still Digitizing

The title of this post pretty well says it all.  We're still at it and pretty much doing the same thing.

Having just returned from Church, we can truly say that attending our Sunday meetings is such a joy.  We love to meet with the members and investigators.  We love to think that we might be making some small change in someone's life.

New this week is our new Church callings/assignments.  This was a week wherein we began doing home teaching.  We have been assigned as partners.  We first set up appointments with the three families that we have.  One of them rooms with one of the couples so that means that we can often do "two for the price of one".  The other family is a single sister with two adult children at home and one of the two is somewhat mentally challenged.  We enjoyed the visits and this time around Annie gave the message from the Ensign and President Monson's "rescuing".  Next month Paul will do the message.  We sort of wish we had some of you with us over here.  The single sister needs some help with her kitchen floor it is wet and rotten and a large part of it needs replacing.  Guess this is a good opportunity to see if the members can rally round and help.

Our other assignment (should we say Paul's new calling) is the Sunday School.  Paul was sustained last week.  During the week the SS President called and told Paul that there are currently no SS teachers.  The President said he would teach the adult class if Paul would teach all the youth.  We don't have a lot of youth, but there are enough of them to have and older class and a younger class.  So, Annie offered to take the younger class if Paul would do the older class.  So, we both taught SS today and it looks like we'll be doing the same thing next Sunday.  Looks like the presidency needs to get going on some Sunday School teachers.

We look forward to another week of digitizing, working in the family history centre, and a chance to meet with the senior missionary couples on Saturday.

We love to hear from friends and family.  Thank you for your calls and your pictures, your "skypes" and your notes.  Again we love to know how things are going for you.

In closing, we would like to recognize Kathie and Matt who have an anniversary (#15) and Zoey who turns 7 this week.  Happy Birthday Zoey!

We love you all and miss you all so much.  We want you all to know that we have a strong testimony of the gospel.  It is the only way for anyone to be truly happy and we do so pray for each of you to be happy and healthy.

Love,

Mom and Dad, grandma and grandpa, Elder and Sister Smart, Annie and Paul

Our Baby Swans Turning White

The Powell's with Swans (Whoops, #2)

 

Tourist at Tower Bridge

School Kids in Uniform

School Kids in Uniform

  

Week 36 Really was Back to Normal

This week was one without too much fan fare.  We digitized, worked on our family history, helped in the London Family History Center, had a major grocery shopping day, and Paul got a haircut. Paul also did his Tuesday afternoon class at the Archives. 

Saturday night was exciting and different.  We made plans to attend a jazz concert that our dear friend Helen Baden was singing at.  We got out the trusty computer and did a journey plan program through the London public transportation system.  We noticed the bus route possibility, but it left us walking and making lots of turns  late Saturday night.   The  train route looked much more promising.  We had a very short walk at the end of the train ride with little possibility of getting lost.  All started out well.  We bused to our nearest train station in Richmond.  When we looked at the electronic schedule board, we noticed that our train said "please inquire".  In fact, nearly all the trains said "please inquire." We asked about it and they said we needed to take the train towards Kingston and get off at Twickenham and then take another train to Whitton (our destination).  This seemed fairly simple since we had extra time.  The train left almost immediately and we were on our way.  Twickenham was the first stop.

We got off and asked where to catch the train to Whitton.  They directed us to the other side of the track.  When we got there, the electronic sign said the train had been cancelled.  We asked again and found that there had been an accident (a man killed by a train) and the train would not be running.  The next train to travel there would not get us there on time.  They told us to go out and catch a bus to Whitton.  In looking at the bus route, we realized we would not know where to get off, nor where to walk to get to the concert.
We knew two other couples from  our Ward were going.  We had the phone # for one of them, called and no answer.  We then called the bishop's wife to get the other person's number.  We reached them and they told us to take a different bus than what the train station attendant told us, that took us toward their home.  We followed his directions and he even walked to meet us and we walked to their home. We rode to the concert with them.  Thanks for good members!

Helen sang beautifully.  She has an amazing voice.  It was a great concert with lots of interesting refreshments served.  Someone came to our table every few minutes each time with a tray of unique and different appetizer type of food.  Lots of fun!

Helen singing at her concert

Helen again

Another highlight of this week is listening to conference.  Such powerful words come from the pulpit.  We are listening to both of Saturday sessions this morning.  We will be connecting to the Priesthood session shortly and then watch the Sunday morning session, live at 5:00 this evening.  It is wonderful to be able to connect the computer to the TV and watch conference just like we were at home in Utah.  We particularly enjoyed Elder Bednar's talk about the "windows of heaven".  We hope that each of our families and our friends have experienced or will experience the wonderful blessings that Elder Bednar referred to in his talk.

Thanks for being such good people!  We love you all!  (According to Elder Nielsen's talk, the exclamation point has special meaning.)

Happy Birthday this week to CJ.

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