NEWS of the WEEK

We again have spent many long days in the office. Sister Hawley completed the mission newsletter called “Truth Will Prevail” at about 9 PM on Friday. Next time it will not take so long to do and there will be fewer new and leaving missionaries to highlight. Pictures and bios on thirty-five plus missionaries took some time. We have settled in. Most days we arrive between 9 and 9:30 at the office and leave most days by 6:30 or 7 PM. This week alone we had 3 late nights, but we accomplished many needful projects. It was a quieter week. President and Sister Patch did a lot of traveling around the mission carrying out interviews, speaking, and visiting. We have not had many vehicle problems, but this week there were three car accidents, no one injured, among the missionaries. Mostly fender benders, but there is still plenty to do to get the accident reports filed and insurance reports ready, as well as console and counsel the missionaries on better driving skills and actions. Elder Hawley was scrambling to find the insurance information and giving the missionaries the right information and procedures to follow. He made several trips seeking flats for missionaries in London and the office is seeking new flats in Cambridge and in Canterbury for new areas to be opened up. We will solicit help from the zone leaders to look at those properties as no one has the time to travel to look at those potential flats. We can find some good prospective properties on the Internet and then give the leads to the ZLs to follow up. Elder Hawley also had a great deal of contact with Frankfort, Germany, Solihull, England, and Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, in solving computer problems and resolving problems with the JPMorgan credit cards the mission office uses for purchasing. These are the cards the missionaries use to get their funds each month. Most of the problems have been ironed out. The seven-hour time difference with Salt Lake means most everything must be done with them after 3 PM here.  The work progresses and 10 new members were baptized this week. London is still busy, with the college students having returned to start classes. The Imperial College, the MIT of England, across the street from the Hyde Park Chapel has about 25,000 students and that makes the housing hard to find and rather pricy right around the Chapel.

Today, Saturday the 20^th, we went via the “tube” (subway) to see Buckingham Palace where the Queen has her work/weekday residence. It is only two subway stops away. During the months of August and September the Queen is away on vacation and parts of the Palace are opened for public viewing at the sum of about 26 pounds per person, or about $40-44. It is a grand place, with over 450 rooms, 76 bathrooms. gold leaf everywhere, and grand ballroom and throne rooms, galleries with glorious paintings, many from the Masters, and sculptures and tapestries. We walked our legs off. The tour lasted over 4 hours. We saw the Royal Mews where the carriages and cars are kept. The special gold gilded horse drawn carriage that is used for all of the coronations was shown also. It weighs over 4 ton with all of the gold leaf covering every inch. It is impressive. We also walked in some of the gardens and land around Buckingham of maybe 100 acres in size. There are people everywhere. It was a busy place. But all of London is full of people and vehicles, and it is a busy, noisy city.  On the way back, we took the bus to Harrod's to see this shopping phenomenom, and it was a Zoo! 

We had a good time. We were tired having walked over 4-5 miles and stood on our feet for many hours viewing the sites. We arrived home by 4 PM. Went grocery shopping and spent the rest of the evening doing laundry.  All the opulence and wealth make one think about the scriptures reflecting on the Pride of the World and the rich “grinding it upon the faces of the poor.” Power and Riches! Deadly poisons to spiritual growth if one is not very careful. This week the AP’s did several work-overs, and even the office elders traded companions for a while. So we got to get to know several other elders in the mission whom we don’t see very often if they don’t have reasons to come into the office. Each one has his/her own special skills and personality; they are friendly, happy, outgoing, enthusiastic, focused and energetic. This coming week there are three days set aside for zone conferences, which are planned by the APs. The APs also have a Monday morning meeting with the President each week to report on the mission. The zone conference for the Hyde Park Zone will be held on Wednesday and we are invited to attend. The newsletters need to be printed on Monday so they can be handed out to all of the missionaries in the mission at zone conference. Sister Hawley will design, edit and print one every other transfer. Some space in the newsletter is reserved for “Departing Words” from those missionaries released and returned home. They either write them before they leave, or they email them to the office from home. They always include their testimonies. It is uplifting and encouraging and inspiring to benefit from what they express and what means most to them from their mission experiences.