Comments from Bloggers or a tribute to the Lynn sisters.

Comments on a Blog or a Good Day for the Lynn Sisters

Cool about Diana's sister. If she is anything like Diana she is a peach.
and later she wrote
I tell you Marie your stay in England reminds me of a Lucy and Ethel episode 😄😄😄 I am tired just following your email. Sounds like your days are full.  You keep me entertained during your whole email. 
Enjoy your updates ❤️ Leatrice
Leatrice Dewey – Arizona

 And here's one for "it's a small world."  When I was at BYU as an English major, Karen Lynn (before she was Davidson) taught in the English department.  I remember her as such a lovely and engaging person.  I was so happy to see a picture of her because I have totally lost track of her.
Chrissy Hartvigsen – Rexburg

 And now you will see that Karen is indeed an author.  What wit see has!  mcp

Well, Marie, please remember that I suggested you take notes for a
book of short stories.  Or maybe all your experiences sound more like a sitcom.  Reality TV would reject this chain of events because it sounds too contrived.
        Each one of these issues might be called a dead end, except they're not really dead ends, because each one somehow intersects with another path that leads to more of the same.  I don't think you are suspicious characters, but the money-laundering red tape, leaving you with no bank account, almost leaves you without an identity.  It's good to hear that things seem to be resolved. Up until this point, you've been serving a third-world mission right in one of the centers of civilization.
       You have at least enough material already for three chapters or three episodes. The first episode could fade out with a split screen of Brad attempting email contact while shivering in the dark basement (with some forlorn bird sounds outside), while Marie arranges the packets of Ranch Dressing mix in the lonely little kitchen upstairs. 
        The hairspray in the fire alarm (an example of something too
far-fetched for any reality TV series) could wait until episode 2.
Karen Lynn Davidson -- Salt Lake City 

PS. I told Karen that we had all this ranch dressing mix in our suitcase because we were told you could not buy it here.  You can, but it is not Chiz's!  mcp

Next Paula added:
Karen totally pegged you! You could title your show/book "Mission Misadventures." These things always seem to happen to you! Obviously, The Lord knows you two can not only handle these things ( no bank?!), but handle them with good humor (oops, humour)!
Paula Criman -- Missoula, Montana

Lessons from the Brits Week 4 June 1st to June 7th, 2014

I think you would say a mother is sinking when she cannot even spell her son’s name right.  Perhaps spell check did it for me or perhaps I am so proud of Brian for being a brain that I cannot tell the difference.  What a joy it is to tell someone you are Brian Parkinson’s mother and have them immediately tell you how smart he is.  Truly, Brian my Brain, I am very proud of you.

Words:
Pants                     Underwear
Trousers              Outer Pants
 Pinch                    Steal or take without permission

1.  Injured Bread
It is nearly impossible to get up Sunday morning.  Brad took the first go of it and I got a few more minutes.  I was showered and dressed and just ready to put my make up on.  You guessed it – the fire alarm went off.  I grabbed some make up and my scriptures and we head out the door.  We are standing outside the door when a man that only speaks French runs to the desk yelling, “My wife, my wife.  She injured the bread!”   We all laughed but there wasn’t much we could do.  Finally someone showed up that could turn it off.  I just put on my makeup in the window and waited for church.  Curley’s took us to church since the van was full.  It was another wonderful meeting.  Our temple president is an outstanding speaker. 
After church we went to Mulholland’s for chili.  She is sure a good cook but they are being way too nice for us.   We took a lemon cake we bought from Costco.  All too soon it was time for another meeting.  Good grief!  I am not sure I can keep up with all this religion.  Yes, I can if it is this good.  Brother Beer, our security man, told the story of him coming up through the police department and war which made him believe there could be no God, and then discovering our church and his conversion.  It was a lovely meeting.  So finally we go home, try to call and get a couple of people and finally drop off to a very desirable sleep.

Since I didn't have pictures for this week I will add some of the temple grounds.

This is the Lodge where most of the temple missionaries live.

We should be able to move in there the end of July.

2.  Another try, yellow round things, & putting in the extra table leaf for dinner.
My body goes into complete shock.  We woke up and just laid there.  The Testco bus doesn’t leave till 10 and we truly do not have another church meeting.  We go to the Testco place and try again to get our internet.  He assures us this will work.  We buy a few little things and try our first fish and chips.  Okay!  I guess we are really lucky because most fish and chips have the skin on and this place does not.  Hurray for that!
And guess what I bought -- a tennis ball.  I still have no idea where a court is or how to get there if I did, but I own and can hold and bounce a little yellow tennis ball.  It is wonderful.  I take it outside and bounce it all over. 
Mulholland’s are excited about our Costco hot dogs so we put in the spare table leaf to expand the table and have dinner for 4. (That is a joke!!!!)   It was a zoo.  We laughed that the best sitting arrangement would be to have one person sitting in the bathroom.  The men have to sit on foot atamans.   The table cannot even hold 4 plates so we have to get up and down for everything we want.  Oh well, it was yummy.  I made a peach cobbler and they brought ice cream so it was like heaven.
Then they had us over for Family Home Evening.  We read this article about a man’s dream after he had been praying about doing temple work.  It was very interesting indeed.  Then she served a chocolate mousse that was to die for. 
And the internet did not work L.

Grandpa favorite treat in Utah!

Look what Grandpa found in Testco!

 

3.  We have to stop meeting like this!
Tuesday is rather ordinary.  We get up and exercise, fix lunch and a pack lunch for the temple and walk our 50 steps the temple.  Amazing!  Things go very well and then we are home.  We go down to our basement room and try emailing and calling people to see about our bank account and our insurance.  The time difference is 7 hours for 3 kids and 8 hours for the other and it is just hard to get hold of people.  And of course I am down there watching the computer screen to tell me when a point is made in the French Open. 

If you strain your eyes, that is my walking along the Temple yard path.

4.  Best made plans of wives and friends!
I get up extra early and really try to help out.  We exercise and eat and then get ready for the temple.  I put on his favorite dress and really make a fuss.  We are assigned to lead an instruction session together and that is great.   Then I asked about his other assignments; isn’t he doing sealings?  (Explanation:  as we believe in baptisms for the dead, we also believe that you can be married and sealed for time and all eternity for your ancestors as well.)  “No,” he says.  Oh, I thought you were.  I head for help.  Elder Mulholland said he will go replace Brad and the door and recommend desk (where people show their recommends as they enter the temple) and tell Brad to go to sealings.  Then I run up to sealings to tell them my great plan.  They finished all that needed done for the day so they closed up.  My heart just sank.  I went and explained my sorrow to Sister Murdock so she went with me to the front desk.
I walk up to Brad and say my day was just completely ruined. “What happened now?” Brad asked.  All my plans just feel through, they just closed sealings.  “So?”  Sister Murdock said it would have been a very nice to do sealings.  “Oh!”  I really wanted to do sealings, I say!  Sister Murdock adds that it would have been a really good day to do sealings, a really good day!  Brad gets this strange look on his face, starts to blush and raises his arm to check his watch.  “I forgot our anniversary!  Dang you Lee!”  Brad exclaimed.  (Lee Sutton was there once when Brad forgot and has been calling Brad when he can find us to remind Brad of his anniversary.)  We all laughed! 
My plan was to have the sealer after finishing a marriage (sealing)  tell Brad to kiss the bride for their 45^th anniversary! 
We finished our shift and went home and immediately called Lee.  He was actually there and we had a great chat and lots of laughs.  He said he wrote the date on a check and said he hoped Brad would remember since he didn’t know how to find him.

I needed an anniversary picture and it has been almost a year since we traveled

to Snowflake, Arizona to take our beloved Navajo children through the

temple to be sealed for time and all eternity.

This way I had our Curley children last week and our Logan children this week.

5.  A Complete Human Being!!!!!
Today we go to a different Testco.  As we went down to catch the van, Brad steps over and asked for the mail with the ‘not this again look.’  MAIL, we have mail.  Out bank cards have come.  We are real people.  We also got our National Health Cards and we got selected for a special bowel screening.  Yeepee!!!  (WRONG)  But we are ecstatic about the cards.  Then we head to Testco.  We try to take back our last attempt at internet and you have to do it at the original Testco.  (Not just this Woolworths but all Woolworths)  Our faces drop and we explain how many things we have tried.  The clerk said well you can do this which won’t be too much extra.  We will do it.  We buy it and hold our breath.
We buy a few groceries and head to the van.  We get home and try our new internet and it starts to work but perhaps needs charging.  Off we go to the temple, complete our shift and when we get home we actually have internet in our room, we have a bank account number, and the insurance emailed us that we were all accepted and they would send us the sign in from.  (Okay side note on the bank cards.   They sent us a pin number to activate our cards.  We were to peel off this strip and hold it on a piece of white paper and read the 4 numbers.  We did and couldn’t see a thing.  We held it to the light.  Nothing.  We got a different paper and a different light and still nothing.  Finally we looked at the other side of the strip we had peel off laying on our sheets and there were 4 big, bold numbers staring at us.)
At any rate we were so excited we started answering emails and checking French Open scores and just had a ball. We can even call from our room!    Happy Anniversary one day late!

The pond on the grounds.

 

 

6.   Wonderful Youth!
We jumped up to internet and the entire world at our fingertips.  We get the email on our insurance and fax it back downstairs.  The clerk here at the accommodations center didn’t like the fax numbers she gave him so he called and told her they had made a mess of the numbers.  I laughed at that.  We exercise and headed for the temple.  The YSA (Young Single Adults) of England had been holding a big conference and retreat.  They were doing a lot of baptisms for the dead and ended with as many as held recommends doing a Friday evening session.  One hundred and twenty-six showed up.  We held an extra session for them and everyone worked very late to get it all accomplished.  It felt wonderful!

Flowers along the pathway.

7.  I CAN DO THIS – BACKWARDS!
Yicks!  They said I was good enough to do the clothing and till on my own, even on a Saturday.  I did make one mistake but found a way around it.  It wasn’t our busiest Saturday so all went rather well.  I didn’t balance exactly right but then I have to remember the morning shift did the first half of the day so they could have made the mistake as well.  At least I tried to convince me of that. 
The shift is over and we are a bit tired.  Mulhollands were as tired as us but we knew that we needed to stay awake so we went over and just talked.  Brad and Brian decided to take the car out and let Brad drive.  They both came back a little frazzled.  Brad was hugging the road a little too much to the left and the roads are so narrow that Brian held his breath a few times.  Brad said it is impossible to shift gears with his left hand and turn on the turn signal with the left hand at the same time.   They decided that Brad will drive us to church tomorrow.  After all, the Lord would bless you trying to go to church.  RIGHT?

Brad backwards experience!

If Brad gets a car, I should too.  I choose this one!

It matches my outfit.

And Eric, we finally met someone that watches Top Gear.

He was from Memphis, Tennessee. 

And there you have week 4 and what an amazing week it was.  WAHOOOO!!!  I have a tennis ball and internet and a bank account and car insurance.  We celebrated our 45^th Anniversary in Jolly ol’ England spending the entire day at the temple.  I must say we are blessed indeed!

Our love and prayers, prayers, prayers!

The temple is heaven on earth!

Be Strong.

E/S Parkinson

 

Lessons from the Brits! Week 3 May 24th to May 31st, 2014

Goodness!  I thought I was a relatively religious person, but I have now gone to church or the temple for 13 straight days.  I wish Uncle Antone Romney were here because he could set me straight.  The first time I met Uncle Antone Romney (Marion G. Romney’s brother [Marion served in the 1^st presidency of the church]) he was sitting in the corner when he looked up and said, “Damn it to Hell!”  Aunt Gretta gasped and said, “Antone what are you doing?”  He answered, “I was just feeling so spiritual that I thought I should ground myself before I was translated!  I dearly loved that man!!!!

Words for the week:
hob                        cook top on your stove
pop socks            Knee high stockings
squash                  sugared drink concentrate
bonnet                 car hood

1.  Connections and measuring spoons.
The alarm went off way too early.  I could not believe that I was getting up to head out to church again.  Church was again a very nice experience.  Sister Marsh taught the Sunday School lesson and used the experience of how a lady from California now in Nebraska served a mission in Tanzania with a boy from Idaho and is now serving in London with the Idaho boy’s parents.  Then everyone else told their crazy connections and how the church is the common link.  So right on cue this lady comes up and asked if I was from Idaho.  Yes.  “Oh,” she grabbed me hugging and crying and said, “I am Florence Bowman’s friend.”  We bonded immediately.  That was so much fun.
After church we fixed a sandwich and then actually put a meal in the oven.  It was our first real cooked meal.  It was quite good.  Then I needed to make our treat for the ‘hi and bye.’  Okay, I found a bowl, but then I couldn’t find a pan so we called and borrowed one.  Then I found the measuring spoons but there were no measuring cups.  I wondered what to do but we borrowed again. The butter was not in cubes but I guessed rather well. Then the oven is in centigrade so I didn’t know how hot to bake the cake.  It was a miracle and  I was a bit late but the cake turned out pretty good.
No one was leaving for a bye but they had Brown’s and us do our ‘hi’.  I talked about our 4 children and 11 grandchildren and just a comment or two about Brad and my time was up.   Brad took way more time than he should of and talked 100% about me.  I was rather embarrassed.
So we were beat and then they announced there was another meeting talking about the building and rebuilding of the London Temple.  It was great but boy were we exhausted.

Florence Bowman's dear friend, Joyce Osborn,
 she activated in 1991.
(Notice my lovely sweater)

2.  Bank Holiday = Working Temple
England has what they call bank holiday’s every so often on Monday and this was our first.  When it is a bank holiday we open the temple but only one shift works.  I am not sure that I mentioned that there is an A shift and a B shift.  We took Anderson’s spot (but not place) on the B shift and it was B shift’s turn to work the holiday.  Brad was to open the temple so he headed over early.  Then he calls in a panic because he thought I had missed prayer meeting.  I hadn’t but I was up and dressed by the time we figured it all out, so I just went on over.
It was a pretty busy day for us.  There are people on my list who are not members of our church and do not know what goes on in the temple other than what they saw at the Gilbert Temple Open House.  When you come into the temple, the first thing we do is to change in all white clothing.  We have the clothing for sale in our distribution centers and online, but some people would rather just rent it.  We do charge a small fee to cover the cost of buying the clothing and washing and caring for the clothing.  My new job is to learn to run the till and make change in English money.   English money is in £20, £10, £5 paper money.  There is no £1 paper money.  The do have a £2 coin that looks like a Canadian toonie. It is silver outside and gold inside.   The £1 is a gold coin a bit bigger than a nickel.  Then there is a 50 pence silver coin about the size of our 50 cent piece but with octagonal sides.  Next is a 20 pence piece that is about our nickel size but again with octagonal sides.  They have a 10 pence piece that is about the size of our quarter.  Next is a 5 pence piece which may even be a bit smaller than our dime.  They also have a penny which looks likes our, copper and all.  They also have a 2 pence piece which is copper and a bit bigger than their 10 pence piece.    If I get yelled at one more time for saying dollars, dimes, nickels and cents I may explode.  That was my main job Monday and it went rather well.
I pulled out a few cans Anderson’s left us and made a tuna casserole.  Boy was it good.  It was so good Brad decided to give some to Sister Marsh since she took such good care of Neil in Africa.

Here is a front and back of everything but the ten pence.

From left to right is £2, £1, 50p. 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, 1p

 

3.  Emails and Calls and Up & Down We Go.
Tuesday was a rather ordinary day.  Things went basically well until we came home.  Brad was bound and determined to get something going with insurance.  We still can’t call or email from our flat so we go down to the basement room.  We get an email and need a picture of something.  We come up to our flat (3^rd floor) take a picture or get out a record and then back to the basement.  Sometimes we need to go to the car and get a picture.  Anyhow it seemed like a long night.  We finally gave up and watched ‘Cast Away’ on our computer.

 

4.  40 – 60 – 93
We got up and made it to the temple early.  I was supposed to give the spiritual thought in prayer meeting but the temple president, President Johnson, trumped me.  They announced today that one of the B shift couples is moving to the A shift to be the Shift Coordinators (the couples that organizes us in our jobs and duties).  I got a headache and had to run home for a pill but handled it just fine.  That afternoon we went out to walk and Brian Mulholland told us about the exercise room in the Lodge.  We went over to have a look and did a little there.  They were collecting money for a young temple worker that is getting married so they came to pick up our donation.  I lost it.  We looked forever.  It was our last English money because we can’t get our bank account yet.  Then I was doing the wash and it just looked awful.  I had washed everything before and it had been fine.  Well, the washing machine has 2 temperatures: 40 and 60 degrees centigrade.  I hit the 60.  The screen showed 93 but I thought that was telling me how much 60 degrees centigrade would be in Fahrenheit.  It was not.  Somehow there is another temperature that I was not aware of and I washed my whites with 2 pair of white athletic socks that have black heels (which I have washed twice before here) and the entire wash was a bit green, a couple of articles covered in green spots and a sweater so out of form that it is a complete goner.  I was just sick.  I rewashed everything in Mulholland’s bleach and all but a couple of things are going to be fine, but it was a very long and sad night.  But I found the five pounds the next morning!

 

My lovely sweater after 93 degrees Centigrade

5.  No address – no bank—no internet—no car insurance!
We had a great day at the temple and then headed to East Grinstead in the temple van.  We went straight to the bank because we still had not heard a word from the bank.  Sure enough, we were denied.  That is super weird because our friends here applied two days ago and already got their confirmation in the mail and they  were randomly selected for a terrorists watch.  It is now 3 weeks for us.  They said the main problem was that we did not live at a registered post address.  We think the problem came when the temple letter of introduction for us listed our address as 36 Accommodation Center and not just London Temple.  Evidently, no one living at #36 has every applied for an address and so the back cannot trust us.  We got it all taken care of and they assured us it would be fixed in a day or two.  I mentioned that the first day we were told there was a problem with our address and she would fix it but it was all a mute point because we were not getting approved there and then.  ‘Can we deposit our money?’  ‘No!’  ‘Can we change some money?’  ‘No!’   ‘Can we withdraw some money from our American bank?’  ‘No!’  By the time I left, I was very sad.  We saw President Johnson on the sidewalk and explained our plot.  He wanted to take us in his bank and get us an account but we didn’t have time and our bank had assured us it would be fixed in a couple of days.  As we were walking we passed a window that had some cell phones and I asked if we could get internet there.  No, another store that was too far away.  Then I saw a Boots store where- believe it or not, it is a type of drug store.  I asked if we could buy Brad a razor there.  No, this one was just an optical Boots.  We didn’t have time to go to the other store.  President Johnson looked very sad for us.  We caught the van to Sainsbury’s, bought our groceries and headed home.  As we were carrying in our bags, President Johnson walks out and sticks a razor in Brad’s bag.  That was very thoughtful and rather cute.  I mean it was lovely.  And by the way, the ATM at Sainsbury’s let us withdraw English money with no problem.  We now at least have a pound in our pocket.
That night the Curley’s came home teaching.  It is rather amazing that we had a Curley family on the Rez and now a Curley family in London.  How lovely but their pale white faces and blond hair just seem all wrong.

Our gift razor from President Johnson :)

And Annette Rick's Soap!
Do you like my mirror holder and my toothbrush holder?

 

The English Curley's (Grant and Margaret)

 

The Navajo Curley's : Kelsey, Kenya, Kayla, Grace, President Marvin and McKay 

 

6.  Curley tails and Wishes come true.
Friday had an amazing start – Brad gave the spiritual thought in prayer meeting and he was wonderful.  It was on loving kindness.  The day started out rather normal but had a few twist s and turns.  I started out in one area and was called to help in clothing.  Then I went back and was called to the nursery.  A family had come to see their brother sealed and the babysitter they arranged had fell through so we took her baby and 3 year old.  Sister Basten (English Sister) came to help.  She taught us a little English Tale.
“Do you know how the little pig got his curly tail?
“The lightning cracked, the thunder roared,
“The land was just a crackin’.
“The little pig curled up his tail,
“And ran to save his bacon!”
The parents came so I returned to be asked to go to laundry.  Somewhere during the day I helped a dear sister that was very emotional.  I heard her say that she needed to be finished by 3:00 PM so she could be with her son doing baptisms for the dead. 
After our shift, Brad sent me out to take a picture of our license plate for another attempt at getting insurance.  As I was returning, I saw this mother with her son, a daughter and her husband.  I asked if this was the group that had done baptisms for the dead.  “Well, our son did and his father baptized him, but his sister is too young.”  (You need to be 12 years old to do baptisms for the dead.)  I said that I had a granddaughter in the US that would love to play with her.  “Well, we are actually from the US.”  Really, where?  “Spanish Fork.”  Wow, what brings you to England?  “Our son was granted a ‘Make a Wish’ and he chose to bring his family to England.  His first desire was to come to the temple to do baptisms and next we are going to a soccer game.  Isn’t he a wonderful son?”  The hugest lump ever choked somewhere between my heart and my throat but I keep my smile and congratulated him and hoped they would have a wonderful time and wished them all the best.  I took a pix.  The next day I told President Johnson and he asked me to get the details so they can write it up for the temple historian book.  Neil is trying to find them to help me with that.

I promise I wrote their names down but I lost them.  Help Neil!
They are the Berger Family from Spanish Fork Utah 

7.  Inconceivable !
So Saturday comes.  Wowsie!  Our sixth straight day and this one seems to be a truly busy Saturday.  There are people everywhere.  We have every part of the temple functioning to near full capacity.  One point I should make is that this is the first day of nice weather as it rained nearly every other morning.  That point is soon to be a blessing.
 So, I decided I might like a sweater on and I go to the locker room to put on my sweater.  Low and behold, the fire alarm goes off.  REALLY!  I say!  REALLY!  Sister Strong is with me and she says we have to evacuate.  The entire temple I say. “ Sure enough.”   She finished putting on her white dress but still had on her red shoes and off we go.  Door after door is opening and people in all white clothing are pouring out into the parking lot.  It really was a beautiful sight.  We had wet youth in their white coveralls from the baptistery and hundreds of people in their white dresses and suits all standing against the back drop of the flowers and the green grasses of the temple yard.  As we are all standing outside, people are coming in car after car.  Two huge buses drove in and were trying to back around it all to park.  If the fire truck had come, it could have never got in.   It seemed to take a very long time; which was only about 35 minutes to determine that a youth doing baptisms for the dead had sprayed hair spray into the fire alarm so this whole ordeal was a prank.  Finally the temple was given the okay to let people back in.  We all started where we left off which meant that some were on the 3^rd floor.  Since the elevators turn off, there were some that had to be carried back.  Let us just say it was quite the experience.
Brad and I were just about to lead an instruction session.  That is a wonderful experience which is rather calm and yet extremely uplifting.  Well, they decided to combine our session with another one and have the other people lead it so we were free.  FREE did I say?  I have no idea where Brad went but they told me to go to baptistery.  When the youth are baptized we give them a heavy white coveralls and some white underclothing.  Then they get a big white towel as they get out of the water and another white towel to shower with.  Plus each name needs to be taken upstairs to be recorded.  I start by walking the names upstairs (19 stairs) and stand and watch as they are recorded and stamped.  Then I head back downstairs and collect a pile of towels and take them to the washer.  We need to separate the towels from the coveralls and underclothing and then start filling the washers.  After they are washed we take them to the dryers and after that we fold them and return them to their proper place.  So guess what I do all day.  I do the stairs and record and then head for the towels and the machines.  Then back to the stairs and back to the towels.  It only last about 4 hours so I guess I am lucky.
Curley’s told us they would take us to Costco so they pick us up immediately after our shift.  If it wouldn’t have been Costco I would have cancelled.  I was way too tired to shop.  We head to Costco which is about 25 minutes away.   Curley’s are not members so we don’t know where anything is but we do our best in our limited time.  It feels good to get some familiar items.  We have to top off our experience with a Costco hotdog!   Brother Curley has a turkey sandwich and she has mango slush.
We rush back to New Chapel and unload our food and rush back to the car to head to conference.  Seriously, another church meeting?  It was a very nice meeting but I wonder how my tired old body is staying awake.  Finally home and rest.

So there you have it; another week in England.  Not much has changed: we still do not have a bank account, internet or car insurance.  We are still in our little squeeze as Steve Biddulph calls it.  The Brown’s got to move but our place isn’t ready yet.  (Yes Anderson’s – they are in the beloved 13)  When do we move – they will not say. We still have not found a tennis court.  On a brighter side we have been cooking and loving our good food.  The temple work is wonderful but at times most exciting and others very exhausting.  We have made wonderful friends and love them dearly.

Till we meet again,

Temples bond heaven and earth!

Our love,

E/S Parkinson

Lessons from the Brits – Week 2 May 18 to May 24, 2014

 Everyone jokes about the language and rightfully so.  There are many times that we just look and nod or politely laugh and have no idea what they were talking about.  If they talk loud enough and slow enough we get most of what they say, but there are many expressions and words that are throwing us for a lope.
½  10                                      10:30
Tick --                                    Check mark
Rota --                                   Sshhedule
Sshhedule --                        Schedule
Musical item --                   Musical number
Lovely --                               Nice, pretty, well done, taste good  etc., etc,. etc.
Cheers --                             Thanks
I will fill in more as we learn them.

1..Stuck Pig and Impossible Connections
 Brad showered and got ready for church first.  All the sudden I hear all these comments about having a stuck pig.  Brad was told not to bring a razor because they use 220 electrical circuits.  His old one was going dead so he tried to shave with my leg razor.  He took a good size chunk of his chin off and bled and bled.  We didn’t have a great band aid so he went to church looking pretty funny.
Sunday was our first day at church in England.  We are taking the van to the Crawley Ward.  It is quite a drive.  I think we go by 2 golf courses but not too many people are playing.  The church was wonderful. 
A return missionary spoke on forgiveness and was wonderful.  The high councilman was also fabulous.  And the musical item was so beautiful.  Both the Relief Society and Sunday School lessons were great so it was indeed a lovely Sunday.
As we were getting out of the van I saw a Sister Marsh getting out with us.  I told her that my son had served with a Brother/Sister Marsh on his mission in Africa.  “Where?” she said as she flipped around.  Tanzania.  “When?”  1995.  “That was me!  Who?”  Elder Neil Parkinson, the one with the hurt knee.  “That was me and my husband and we took him to the pool every day.”  Hurry and get your husband and I will take a picture of us to send to him.  “I am sorry to say that my husband is now gone after we served 6 missions, but I am here serving my 7th^th!”   Who would have ever believed such a story?
 Then the Christensen’s from Utah had both us and Brown’s over together for a Sunday roast dinner with the best chocolate cake in the world.  Oh my goodness, did we eat.  We tried to call some kids but didn’t do so well.
That night they had a fireside where one of the mission presidency spoke.  It was very nice, opps, lovely.

Daphne Marsh at 78 on her 7th mission!

 

Brad without part of his chin.  The beautiful band aid is missing.

 

2.  Happy 44^th Birthday Brain! 
Monday is our day off and a store called Testco has a free bus come buy and pick you up.  We jumped on and headed to town.  We thought we could get our internet there, but that did not work.  Everything seems to be centered around a bank account or a 3 year line of credit in Britain.  We bought a bit of food and headed home.
We found a letter from Anderson’s that explained where everything they left us was storied.  We went over and through the things and carried what we thought was most needed back to our flat.  We tried to get organized and settled and find out how to do things but really it was not a very productive day.

3.  Plugs and Switches
We got up and fixed our little breakfast and had a bit of a drink of milk.  YUCK!  It was completely warm.  Brad said he had been turning down the fridge everyday but it wasn’t getting colder.  We were down on our knees looking at it when Brad peeked over the counter and saw this little switch that said fridge.  We clicked it, a red light showed itself and the fridge turned on.  We had turned it off Saturday during the fire alarm and didn’t realize we needed to turn it back on.  Now we have a fridge full of warm food.  Tuesday was our first work day at the temple and basically it went very well.  There are 2 shifts: the early shifts works from 8:30ish to 2ish.  The late shift works from 2ish to 9ish.  We are on the late shift but you change every week.  There is much to do and much to learn but we plan on being up for the task.  We have great trainers and just hope their patience holds up with us.  Amazing how sandwiches are taking the place of the Taco Bus and 5 Guys.

 

We now check to see the light is on.  There is one for the cooktop also.

 

4. Walking with the Traffic!
 Wednesday Brian Mulholland showed us the way to walk to Lingfield to the Dr. office and fill out our forms there for British medical care.  (Sorry Florence, we didn’t stop for biscuits)  That was a bit of a pretty walk but those roads are way to narrow and cars are going way too fast so very close to you.  Also, I noticed an interesting comparison in our 2 missions.  The Rez has no address but the Brits have very few house numbers – they just name their houses.  So it would be Meadow House on West Park Road.  Cute! Then we got cleaned up and to the temple for another great day.  (Wish I could learn to enjoy being quiet.)

5.  You don’t want our money?
Thursday we started with shopping and it was great fun.  We also went to the Barclay’s Bank to try to set up a bank account.  They will do nothing on the spot over here because they are so fearful of money laundering.  They said they would get back to us in a few days.  We did what we could and then bought the rest of our food.  We may actually eat something besides sandwiches this week.  Thursday was another great day at the temple.  We had a family come in from all over the world as they had been in the military most of their lives.  Their daughter just finished a mission in Thailand and the family came and did baptisms for the dead.  Afterwards, I helped with the laundry and it must have put me in the mood because I came home and did our laundry as well.  Bit of a late night.

Our cute razor from President Johnson.
The soap is handmade from Annette (Turtle) Ricks!

6. Tip toe through the flowers!
I have not been mentioning that most mornings we get up and walk the temple grounds.  There are 30 acres of the most beautiful flowers and bushes and ponds and grass that touches your knees if they let it grow.  That is another comparison to the Rez.  England rains almost every day and the pour Rez has been in a drought for over 40 years.  And we don’t tip toe, but I needed a starter.
Anyhow, we had a lovely walk and then got ready for the temple.  It was a wonderful day with lots to do so it was another late night.

Brad with a Hydrangea Tree.  So Beautiful.

President Johnson was quite tickled that we even exercise in white!

Marie amidst the beautiful flowers.

 

7.  Ready or Not – It is Saturday!
All we have heard is watch out for Saturdays because it is so much busier.  That was true but it was not their busiest Saturday so we made it rather well.  Interesting how personalities seem to be the same all over the world.  Some people get along better and some people clash better.  Rather interesting when you are in the middle of it.  (I sure wonder what Anderson’s are thinking as they read this.)
We start at 10 am on Saturday and end at 5 pm. I had worked in clothing, the kitchen and the laundry so  I said we should go out to eat but we were too tired to walk and we can’t get insurance until we have a bank account and we can’t get a bank account until they do our credit check and all this and that – so we just fixed taco’s.
Every other Saturday night they show movies in the lounge and Mulholland’s talked Brad into going.  It was “Follow Me Boys” and Brad made it through it just fine.

So another week is over.  Wow, that makes 2 whole weeks.  Our mission is now 1/39^th over.  Humm!!!??
Perhaps am I a bit homesick?  No, I am a LOT homesick. Where is my family?  Where is my beautiful SPACIOUS home on the butte? (that I use to think was small)  Where are my friends?   Where are their tennis courts?  When do I get internet and when can we drive our car?  Well, truthfully, I am not that excited to drive our car but Brad has resolved that he can do it.  We may practice some night late at night.  I guess you realize that even the roundabouts go the wrong way and the gear shift is on the wrong side as well.  Oh my!

We love you and dearly miss you.  Which means emails cheer my day!

We believe the Church is True!

Always and forever,

E/S Parkinson

 

Lessons learned from the Brits – Week 1 May 11 to May 17, 2014

 

1.  Sunday – Good-bye and Hello!
We were at our son Neil’s house in Layton, Utah, and our daughter Katie and her fam had driven up to spend the weekend as well.  Katie got up and fixed cinnamon rolls and Neil and Becca added all the fixings for the greatest Mother’s Day Brunch ever.  They all gave us darling candy cards that were really cute.  Then to church where Katie and her fam left right after Sacrament Meeting.  All too soon, Neil drove us and our baggage to SLC where we checked into the Radisson. 
One of our dear friends from Mesa, Diana (and Ron) Roskuski, have a rather famous sister in SLC -- Karen Lynn Davidson.  She is a wonderful musician and has written our favorite hymn; “Each Life that Touches Ours for Good,” and the entire book explaining all the hymns and several other books as well.  She came over and picked us up and we went to her condo.  What a delight!  Amazing how fast friendships can be made.  That was a very fun visit.

Ty and Gus had already gone to primary but here is Luke, Katie,

Olivia, Ryan, Neil and Becca.  Good - Bye!

Grandpa reading his card.

 

Grandma's card with Gusser!

 

Grandpa's card with Ty.

Can you see Gus -- isn't it hilarious?

Karen Lynn Davidson, Diana's sister.

Notice my badges, one from the church, the other from Diana!

I had to add a picture of Ron (we call him Just Right) and Diana. 
This is a selfie in the shirts we gave them.

 

2.  Monday – We are not alone!
At 8:00 AM we meet at the Salt Lake Temple for a 3 day training for our mission.  There were 16 couples there going all over the world.  Not only were we not alone but Brad saw another Rexburgite, Gaylen Ball there with his wife heading for Hong Kong.  There were 2 couples going to the Hong Kong Temple, 2 couples going to the Boston Temple, 2 couples going to the London Temple, 1 couple going to the Manhattan Temple, 1 couple to the Washington DC Temple, 1 couple to the Atlanta Temple, 1 couple to Freiburg, Germany Temple, 1 couple to the Oaxaca, Mexico Temple, 2 couples to the Guatemala Temple, 1 to the Panama Temple, 1 to the Ecuador Temple, and 1 to the Paraguay Temple.
Fabulous day with lots of new friends.  That night we met 2 of Brad’s old mission companions with their wives for dinner and what fun that was.  Great, great friendships that have lasted now for nearly 50 years.

Karla and Reed Beecher, your truly, and Annette and Dean Burgess.

3.  Tuesday – How much wonderful can a person absorb?
Again, our day at the temple was fabulous.  I should mention that our instructors were President and Sister Walker.  She is the Hinckley’s oldest daughter and has her mother’s wit.  What a wonderful and very pleasant experience we had.
That night we met old friends from the Rez, Sam and Terry Roberts, for just a short minute but we sure can tell the quick stories and do we ever laugh.  Mission friendships do last forever!
Then a very tired couple went home to rest and ponder.

4.  Wednesday – Is it really over?
It was indeed another very special day in the SLC Temple.  We love the Walker’s and will forever be grateful for their insight and instruction.  I can tell you that our instruction was all focused on loving kindness.
Neil brought his little fam and we went to Big H for hamburgers and root beer.  They came back to the room and we talked and played for a few more minutes.  Then there was a very short walk to the elevator (soon to be lift) and as the doors shut 2 little boys started screaming a descending goodbye.  It was so cute it almost didn’t hurt.  That is one huge almost!

5. Thursday – Which flight plan should we follow?
We received our 4^th flight plan on Wednesday so we didn’t really have a lot of faith in what we were doing.  We showed up at the desk at 8:30 where a wonderful Korean man looked at 2 couples and a single man’s luggage for quite some time and then somehow got it all packed in the shuttle.  He had never heard of the airlines the Hong Kong couple was using so that was quite exciting trying to get them delivered.  Come to find out, they ended up back at the motel and were going to try again tomorrow.
We made it to our gate but I lost my soap and mouse.  L  Then we waited and waited for the flight.  It was a minus flight to Las Vegas as we gained an hour for a 50 minute flight.  Good sleep.  Then a 5 hour sit in Vegas.  Not so good.  Finally we boarded the biggest airplane we have ever been on; the Virgin Atlantic 747 airbus.  It was huge; and so nice.  They had stockings, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste and ear plugs, and a blanket and pillow for us.  There were tons of free movies and free games.  We played golf and this time I could beat Brad.  The planes was 95% full or more and bless our little hearts, we got to sit in front of the nonstop screaming baby.  Nice try on the ear plugs but they didn’t work that well.

 

Elder Parkinson, Sister Parkinson, Sister Brown, Elder Brown.
He is smiling a bit more because he just got a pedicure!

Our plane arrives!

6. Friday – Really, for real! 
We landed at Gatwick Airport at 10:30 AM.  Brother Atkins picked us up.  We got all the baggage for us and Bob and Barbara Brown and headed to our new home.  Really?  Are the roads that narrow for real?  Why are all the people driving so fast?  How long is it before we get use to people on the wrong side of the road?  Is there ever a full mile without 3 turns in it?  I had been told that people who do not get car sick in USA will here and now I believe it.  Good grief, it was only a 6 mile ride and I was exhausted.  We were so excited about buying Anderson’s car but all the sudden Brad hit his head and said, “What have I done?”
The next surprise was our little flat.  How small can it be?  Wowsie!  This is small.  Our bedroom consists of 2 six foot bunk beds.  Our living room consists of 50’ by 88” space with 2 chairs with foot stools, 2 small dressers and 2 small closets in the main room.  There is a table apx 2’ square to eat on.  When one goes in for a bite, the other needs to lean back or you would hit heads.  One kitchen wall has a stove and oven and a sink with 4 drawers.  The other wall has a microwave with cupboards down the wall.  A note said there were chicken sandwiches in the fridge.  We didn’t see a fridge.  President Crosslands opened one of the cupboards and ta-da there was a fridge down there on one side and a freezer on the other.  The bathroom has me in a bit of shock.  It is a tight little narrow way with a sink, toilet, shower on the right and a door at the back.  There is a big handle on the door that says push to open.  One little push and wahoo – you are now exposed to the outside world.  The shower opens from two sides and closes at the corner.  The shower isn’t as small as I expected but rather unique I must say.
We unpacked the best we could, laid down for a quick nap without a crying baby, showered and met the grocery van at 3:15.  Mulholland’s from Calgary took us and the Brown’s to the grocery store.  This store is for this and this store is for that.  Where is Costco?  It is about 20 miles away so we will get there another day.  We shopped at Sainsbury’s and Sister Mulholland could tell who needed help and grabbed my hand and told me what to buy.  We got special credit cards for England but not a card worked.  Mulholland’s had to pay for our groceries.  How embarrassing is that?  Oh, and the grocery stores do not have bags for you so Mulholland’s had bags for us as well.  Food and supplies and we headed home.  We put up our food in a new found fridge (glad we didn’t buy much) and then Mulhollland’s had us to a wonderful yummy dinner and told us more of the info for living there.  We ate and chatted and then headed home. We may not know much about this new home of our’s but we know we are in a bit of heaven.  The Temple is right out our window and it just glows in the night.  The grounds are so full of green and color that you feel like you are in a painting.  This may be a very interesting 18 months indeed.

The Kitchen and Dining Room!

 

The Bedroom!

The Living Room!  

The luggage vs the cupboards. 

Where is the fridge?

 

Fridge Found!

 

The Bathroom!

 

Entering Mulholland's Flat at Manor House.

The door is a bit too short!

 

Our night light.  No joke, this is from our bedroom window!

7.  Twin beds, headaches, burnt toast and heaven!
I woke up around midnight with a head ache that just kept growing.  At 2:30 we decided to push the beds together so Brad could put his hand on my neck.  That took a little doing but it was worth it.  Around 6:30 I finally fell  to sleep.  All of the sudden the most horrid sound started screaming.  The fire alarm went off and we couldn’t tell what we had done wrong.  We were unplugging everything and turning off all the little electrical switches.  I had pillows over my ears just crying with the pain of the headache and noise.  Then we smelled burnt toast and realized that someone else had burnt their toast and set it off.  It was not a good alarm clock.
We got showered and headed to the temple.  President Johnson and President Crosslands set us apart as temple workers.  (Explanation – we believe that when you receive a calling in our church, you are set apart by those holding the authority to do so and as they do, they give you a priesthood blessing to help you with your calling.)  We have had many spiritual experiences in our lives, but Brad’s blessing was one of the top experiences of our lives.  We shall not forget that experience.  We then toured the beautiful temple and met many of our new co-workers.  People from all over the world all giving up so much to come and help serve the Lord and their fellow man in this wonderful work.  I hope heaven is this beautiful and has this many nice people. 
We ate the rest of our chicken sandwich, took too long of a nap, walked around the grounds and met lots more people, found our car keys, drove our car around the parking lot and couldn’t stay on the left side, got on the internet in the reading room and finally went to bed in our new little flat in a country far, far away.

Our first week held many new experiences for us.  We learned how it feels to always be on the wrong side.  We learned where to find the little fridge.  We learned to never turn the water on hot or you will scald yourselves.  We learned to never turn on the water full blast or you will be in the next room.  We learned how to love all over again, new people, new places, new beauty.  We learned how much our Heavenly Father loves us and knows us personally. 

With much humbleness, love and thanks to all,

We Believe!

E/S Parkinson