April 29, 2012

Dear Family,

 

I can see it's time for an update if I try to do this every two weeks or so. 

 

We are finally seeing the weather we had anticipated having when we first arrived in England.  The past week and a half we have seen just a few peeks of the sun.  Each day has been cloudly with daily showers on and off - about 4 or 5 days have been days of steady rain, some wind, and very cool temperatures--in the low 40's.  I, for one, am ready for some sunshine; however, having expected this type of weather, I am not stir crazy yet--I guess we go out enough it keeps our thoughts on other things.  I'm not sure what is in the forecast--so this may be our "lot in life" for the next bit.  The funny thing to me is the British are completely sick of it--it puts them in pretty grumpy moods or at least they talk grumpily about it :)

 

The last time we wrote, we were leaving the next day for a day trip to York - Those pictures have already been posted - We took a day tour with one of the tour companies here in Sheffield -  It was nice just to relax and let the driver deal with the traffic and roundabouts - Dave especially liked that - I laughed at the music they played as "background" while we traveled - it was an American male singer (I could tell by his word pronunciations) and he was singing songs I remember from the 50's--I have no idea why they picked that type of music--Lawrence Welk type if you will!!  Obviously they were ttrying to appeal to all of us on the bus who were "senior citizens" for sure.

 

We initially went to Yorkminster (both a cathedral and a minster) - They told us what the difference is but I can't remember - I think it has something to do with who is in charge like an archbishop, or some other religious designation.  It is the only Medieval cathedral still standing in Europe (or maybe it was the British Isles)  Anyway, it was very old, built in around 900 A.D.  As you can imagine, it had beautiful stained glass windows, very old grave markings of their religious and political leaders who had some connection to the "York"  The markings are on the floor of the cathedral; you look down at what is written about the person, and they are actually buried somewhere underneath the slabs on the floor.  There are a lot of statues honoring other important saints and people since those medieval times.  I was interested in watching people, other than the tourists, who come in to meditate or pray.  I wonder what is happening in their lives, how religious they must be, to take the time to stop and take the time to do this - of course, that happens in all cathedrals and churches open to the public.

 

Our next stop was the shopping area in the middle of York - it is closed to most traffic and is all pedestrian friendly.  Many unique shops are there and some I recognized - I stopped in at Crabtree and Evelyn (which I haven't seen since being in Maryland), Laura Ashley, and I enjoyed going through a Scottish clothing store; cardigans, Harris Tweed jackets, kilts, scarves, and much else representing Scotland--its woolens, food, etc.  Dave was happy that my only purchase was a small item in Crabtree and Evelyn.

There is also a lot of souvenir memorabilia in most of the stores in commemoration of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee which will be celebrated and a national holiday here in England on June 6 I believe.  She has been the reigning monarch for 60 years.

 

We had lunch at the "tea room" Kent and Lynne Morgan recommended--Betty's tea room I believe it was called - Very popular in York; we waited outside in a line (que :)

before we could get in.  Such properly dressed waiter/waiteresses using their very proper English to serve you - Glad we found out about it and had lunch there.

 

After lunch it was time to do some more exploring--we ended up taking a sight-seeing bus around the city where very informative tour guides told us about all the history and sites of York--we were on one of the double decker buses so we had a good view.  I forgot to mention while in the cathedral there is a tower you can climb to the top - 250 steps up a spiral stone stairwell - the steps were pretty steep and only about 24 inches wide - thankfully, there was a railing to hold on to or I don't think I would have made it.  Finally at the top you walk out and can see much of the countryside from all viewpoints.  Coming down was somewhat easier--the next day I could hardly walk I was so sore--Dave, however, only felt a few twinges--what's up with that??  Anyway, we saw the cathedral on the sightseeing bus which reminded me of the tower.

 

There is a stone wall built nearly all the way around the city by the Normans so many years ago for protection from invaders - You can walk a path next to the wall so we walked along that for a bit, but not around the whole city.  It was time to meet our tour bus, so we walked back to the gardens where we were dropped off.  It was a good day.  We enjoyed seeing another part of England.

 

Our missionary work here is settling into a pretty basic routine.  A week or so ago, we were visited by a senior missionary sister from the Area offices in Frankfurt.  She is working in the historical part of the area offices and came to document, interview, photograph the beginnings of the Slovakian Church growth here.  She did a very thorough job of getting the information she needed interviewing missionaries, Slovakian members, Church leaders here.  She used the building facilities, Slovakian members homes, mission offices for her interviewing.  Since we have only been here a few months, we didn't think we could contribute much, but we ended up having about a two-hour interview with her.  She worked for the Family History and Church History libraries in SLC as her career, so she had the professional background necessary to do what she did.

 

Our time is spent in a lot of meetings :), visiting in the homes of the Slovakian people--recognizing their birthdays (which I think I told you, they are not really sure themselves when their birthdays are let alone celebrating them, helping make sure Primary/YM/YW and Sacraments meeting take place and are run correctly.  I just taught my Primary class today (9-10 year olds now) teaching them the Book of Mormon from the Primary manual.  It is really hard to get to the level that they can understand - today we talked about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem (we got started late on teaching from the manual, so we're quite behind most other Primaries :)  Just teaching them the words--Lehi, Nephi, Jerusalem takes some time--to their credit, they always know when we talk about Jesus and how good He is - They love to color, paste, and do any activities I can come up with--today we built the city Jerusalem out of Legos, tents out of index cards, and caves and mountains out of Playdough--they loved doing that; especially destroying the city Jerusalem!!  Who knows if any of it made sense to them--

 

Another thing we do is try to get the children and youth to any activities the ward or stake has.  Last week the Beehive/Deacons went to the temple to do baptisms; trying to arrange their transportation to meet (at the stake center for the rides), finding the appropriate clothing for them to wear, coordinating with the ward leaders, working out financial arrangements (since they have no money to speak of) takes a lot of time and can be frustrating and stressful.  We took four cute little boys to a stake Primary activity yesterday.  I think they get overwhelmed with what is available for them to do which most of us would take for granted--painting T-shirts, learning how to use a yo-yo, making simple jewelry, doing art, and decorating cupcakes--they were overjoyed with what they were able to take home--and as I watched the English children (just like children in any American wards) getting somewhat unruly, running around etc.  these little Slovakians sat very politely by us, and did everything we told them to do giving us many thank yous for taking us there.  So amidst the stress and frustrations, there are wonderful pay backs from each of them.

 

A member of the ward, Sister Nettleship, and I have begun teaching English in the homes of some of the Slovakians.  We are beginning very simply using Church materials and mission materials.  Sister Nettleship has been a teacher, I believe, but sitting in one home teaching Sister Dunka was such a great experience.  Her nephew, Roman, sat with us.  He is 14; came from Slovakia about 4 months ago, will not be enrolled in school until next fall.  They are so wanting to learn English and so proud of what words they could say and understand after the lesson.  Sister Dunka thanked us so much and said we were just like sisters to her--sounds like Relief Society - right :) and Elder Bond is her brother!! We hope to continue with a few more sisters--they especially need the help; the husbands as is their culture get out, but the women pretty much stay in their homes preparing meals and taking care of the children.  You can see how strong they are, however, and the three strongest families in the unit - the wives are now participating in Sacrament meeting with talks and scripture reading - they are so proud of themselves!!

 

We have posted pictures of the baptisms that take place--we had one more yesterday--the father of the family that was baptized last week.  We should not take for granted how many baptisms occur here - it is not typical of many places in our mission--or in other parts of the world for that matter.  And, as I have said, the missionaries work so hard, they are committed, funny, and work well together for the most part - I think the word that best describes them is optimism--even with days and days of cloudy, rainy, weather!!

 

Finally, here's a few odds and ends we want to journalize:

 

Sacrament meeting singing - They love to sing - I told you there are only a few songs they sing but with such gusto!!   No one can out sing them with God Be With

                                          You 'Til We Meet Again!!  They really have wonderful singing voices, too - They must sing in Stake Conference as a group sometime!!

 

Ricky Pecha - Our 17-yr old whose family, except for him, have gone back to the Hallejulah Church - He was explaining to me about Easter and said in his broken                     English Easter Monday was a celebration when Jesus stood up - meaning He was resurrected - I guess in their culture they think it was Easter Monday and not

                    Sunday - making it three full days--when we celebrate Easter

 

Language:  Still laugh at the different phrases used here - Dad and I realize we are really dealing with two languages here - Slovakian and British lingo!!

                 I think I finally understand how Elder Juran communicates with the Slovakians--Czech and Slovakian (and a little Polish he says) use pretty

                much the same language--only a few words are different--it's just in how they say them--For instance, in English we say How are you?  in

                British English you say "Are you doing well?"  For a long time, when they said that to Dad he thought they were thinking he was sick!!

                "Rubbish" - That's what all the Brits say for "stupid", "dumb" etc. :)  Luv - Both male and female are called that ALL.THE.TIME.  Well, I'll try

                to keep track of other funny things we hear constantly.

 

Well, I think that catches you up with the last few weeks.  This week is transfer week.  Don't think Dad and I have to think about that.  It will be hard if

any of our missionaries in the Slovakian group will be transferred - I'm sure it could happen.  We'll know on Tuesday.