Arrival

A bit of a long email, but it's been a whirlwind couple of days since our arrival! And there are some fun "Words of the Week" at the end.

After our week at the MTC, we had two days of training in Salt Lake at the Office of General Counsel, which was both inspiring and overwhelming. The weight of responsibility for Jon will be heavy. But everyone we talked with was very encouraging and helpful and I’m sure he’ll do great.

Wonderful new friends—the Romneys are heading to Lima, Peru and the Brashers are heading to Nairobi, Kenya (where they’ll have giraffes outside their apartment window, literally!).

On Thursday, it was GO time! After some repacking and readjusting, we made our way to the airport with two suitcases and a carry-on bag each, feeling excited and a little nervous to finally be on our way!

At the Delta check in counter we had a super kind and helpful agent who noticed a mistake on the booking and quickly got it straightened out and made sure our bags and passport and ticket were all in sync. He upgraded our bags to Sky Priority so they’d be sure to get transferred quickly for our long flight. It seems like a small little detail but we were so grateful for the extra help.

Being in the airport was the first time we’ve really been out and about in a very public place as official missionaries (other than a few quick store and restaurant outings). Just as it was so meaningful to put the missionary name tag on for the first time and wear the Savior’s name, it has been such a good reminder to have it on as I go about in public and not just wear His name but do better to act as He would act. Maybe we all need to wear name tags identifying who and what we represent. I’m guessing we’d all behave a little better and think and act in a way that aligns with what we believe. I tend to be a quieter person in public, but this name tag, at the very least, inspires me to smile more and be kind in every interaction.

London, here we come!

We arrived in London on Friday afternoon, after about 18 hours of travel, and were picked up at the airport by the Area Legal Counsel and his wife, who were so kind and welcoming.

We made a quick stop at the area office to meet a few people there and tour the office (which was probably a blur in our sleep-deprived state), and then they drove us to our new “home”—we’re located in an apartment building in a town about an hour west of London called High Wycombe. The apartments are called the “Kooky Apartments”. It’s apparently named after the architect, but it seems appropriate for us haha!

When we first saw the seven-story apartment building, Jon and I joked that it would be cool to be in the penthouse suite. Imagine our surprise when we went up the elevator straight to the top floor to a lovely apartment with a beautiful view! Maybe not a penthouse suite, but it feels pretty amazing to us especially since we’ve been “homeless” for a while. And what a great day it was to finally be able to unpack our suitcases for a good long time!

Our flat was stocked with everything we need--fully furnished, linens, dishes, food in the fridge and cupboards, and even boxes of chocolate and flowers. To say we felt welcomed would be an understatement!

We’ve also been so welcomed by the other senior missionaries serving here. They have regular gatherings and outings, and we immediately had quite a few things to put on our calendar! They invited us for dinner, they made sure we got to church so that we didn’t have to drive right away (more about that in a minute!), and they included us on a big outing on Saturday morning. We knew we’d be jet-lagged, but we figured getting out and about on the first day would be a good way to fight it—especially because we were going to the Greenwich Royal Observatory, the home of Greenwich Mean Time. Perfect place to reset our body clocks!

A tour of the Old Royal Naval College

The Royal Observatory

We could spend every single Saturday we’re here (around 75 or so over 18 months) visiting some new historical or nature site and not even see half of them! But we’ll love seeing as much as we can and soaking up all the beauty and history of this amazing place. In order to do that, we’ll need to drive—which brings me to the one little challenge about England…driving on the left side of the road…while sitting on the right side of the car! Yikes! When your brain has spent the last 40 years driving a certain way, it’s hard to switch over in just a day. Needless to say, it’s pretty stressful with all the roundabouts, narrow roads, and cameras capturing every move just waiting to send you a 100 pound fine for doing something wrong! We finally ventured out, taking turns driving and being the navigator. They call it being a co-driver (much better than a back seat driver haha!) because you literally need two pairs of eyes to help watch for cars and people and signs. I think I’ve shaved a few years off my life from the stress, but we’re doing it, and we haven’t hit anyone or anything yet, so we’re counting that as a win!

Finally, we attended church yesterday in the High Wycombe Ward and felt so welcomed there as well. We don’t know if this will be our permanent ward, but we’re going there for now until we get an assignment. As we sat down at the beginning of the meeting, the curtains on the side of the chapel were pulled open to let light in. If you know England, you know it’s often very overcast and wet. But on this morning, there was a beautiful ray of light shining through the curtains bathing us in its warmth. It felt like God was wrapping His arms around us, reassuring us that everything was going to be okay. And not just okay, it was going to be beautiful!

This is the view from our balcony! It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Rabindranath Tagore: “Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”

The talks were really powerful and spoke directly to what I’ll be doing while I’m here—helping people with their family history. A sister spoke about her experience not growing up with any grandparents. As she got older, she decided to search for information about them, specifically one of her grandmothers. She had felt something missing her whole life and when she finally found her grandmother’s name in an old record, she wept and felt that missing piece being restored. She visited her grandmother’s grave and again wept at the feeling of reunion and restoration. She laid flowers on her grave to symbolically represent all that she would have given her grandmother had she known her in life. Later, she was able to go to the temple to perform the saving and sealing ordinances for her grandmother and was once again overcome with tears of gratitude as she felt the nearness of her grandmother. It was such a sweet testimony of the power of family history to unite families both here and for eternity.

We’re still pinching ourselves that this is real and that we actually live in England. We already feel such a love for this place and for the people and we definitely won’t ever tire of hearing British accents. So delightful! And that brings us to…

Words of the Week:

(These will be words or phrases we hear “on the street” that either delight, confuse or amuse us.)

Dodgy = sketchy, suspicious, “That chap seems a bit dodgy.”

Chunder = to vomit, “I had a good chunder after that boat ride.”

Until next time, we love you! Cheerio!