6 Months!

I’ve covered the front desk a few times recently, with the important job of screening sketchy characters like this. 😅

Happy 6 month anniversary to us (on Aug 5th)! We spoke with senior missionary friends who have recently returned home and they reminded us that the days are long but the months are short. It’s so true! We still feel like newbies and sometimes the days do feel long and tiring, but we also feel like the time is flying by. So we will continue to press forward each day and cherish every moment (even the hard ones).

As usual, I have a collection of random thoughts and a variety of pictures to share…

We recently made (another) trip to Oxford. I think this is about my 5th time there and I truly never tire of it. Instead, it becomes more familiar and more loved. This time we visited a college named Corpus Christi (the “body of Christ”) and were given a tour by a Bishop of one of the Oxford Wards who is also a professor of philosophy and existentialism at this college. Such an interesting juxtaposition and he was fascinating to listen to. And I finally checked off a bucket list item by going INSIDE the Bodleian Library. Ah, dreamy! You can just see and feel and even smell the history in this amazing building.

The amazing group of senior missionaries from the whole London area.

Corpus Christi College is where much of the translation of the King James Bible took place in the early 1600s. In fact, our tour guide’s new office at the college will be in the exact room where it happened. (name that reference!) If you look at the picture just above on the right, where we’re gathered listening to him talk, you’ll see a window right above an arched entrance under the towers—that’s the room where the translation happened. Amazing!! If you come visit us, I promise to take you on a tour of Oxford and show you why I love it so much.

A few weeks ago, we were invited by someone in the Stake Young Women to go up to Girls’ Camp for the evening and share a message with the girls. Having been at Girls’ Camp for a number of years, I was excited to go and experience what is was like here. Unlike back at home where the camp is very established (and pretty cushy) and we have a huge group of girls (175+), the camp here was held in a sheep pasture. And there were only about 30 girls. A very different setting, but I still felt the same wonderful feeling when girls gather together and devoted leaders are there to guide and help them have a spirit and fun-filled week away from the world. We shared a message that came from our prophet, Pres. Nelson, about reaching out to the one, just as Jesus taught in the parable of the lost sheep. How appropriate it was that we were right in a sheep pasture (with the sheep baa-ing in the pasture right next to us as if on cue!). We brought supplies for them to make bracelets as a reminder of the message that Pres. Nelson gave—to care for both the 99 and the 1. #99plus1 We invited them to look for the one, to notice someone who needs their love and make a difference for that person.

Last weekend we were planning to go to the London Temple, but sadly it was closed for the weekend due to some basement flooding from recent heavy rains. So instead we went hiking and visited yet another manor house (there’s literally one around every bend it seems). We hiked at a place called Box Hill, which is the setting for the picnic scene in the Jane Austen book “Emma”. And the manor house we went to was Polesden Lacey—owned and renovated by a wealthy woman in the early 1900s to be a “party” house for royals and their friends. It was also believed to be the inspiration for one of the manor houses in the book “Emma”. Lots of fun history and such beautiful scenery wherever we go!

The final set of pictures are from my favorite place, the local cemetery. I’ve found it’s just a nice place to walk to, it’s a good hill climb, and it’s so peaceful to wander around. I’ve only been to one cemetery in my life where I’ve felt less than peaceful and it had nothing to do with the cemetery but more to do with the remote location and that I was by myself. But I feel like this particular cemetery in High Wycombe has a very special feel about it. Every time I’ve been there I feel a closeness to God’s spirit and I feel a tenderness for the people laid to rest there. As I walked around looking at gravestones and taking some pictures, I had these thoughts that I won’t claim to be poetry, but they were inspired by what I was feeling.

Thoughts in a cemetery

Life is made up of those who are rich and poor, healthy and unhealthy, happy and sad. But we all end up the same.

Death is the great equalizer, it comes to all of us. None of us can escape it.

No matter what we believe about what happens beyond, one moment we are here and then we are gone.

What will my legacy be? What will my tombstone say? What will matter the most to those I love?

She stands unmoved, clipped wings and a broken hand.

Yet she still stands, keeping watch, solid, protecting, hopeful, waiting.

A mother, gone too soon, a son waiting his whole lifetime to be reunited, eternity embraces them both.

Church bells ring in the distance, a reminder that “weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

A phrase from a favorite sacrament hymn gives me hope and reassurance that this life is not the end: “He seized the keys of death and hell, and bruised the serpent’s head. He bid the prison doors unfold, the grave yield up her dead.”

♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥

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Words of the Week:

(Words or phrases we hear “on the street” that either delight, confuse or amuse us.)

Swish - said by a co-worker, complimenting me on a missionary visa flow chart I created, “That’s really swish!” = very smart, cool, etc.

Cooking with gas - now it’s ready, things are working great - said when a computer finally started doing what it was supposed to, “Now we’re cooking with gas!”