MERTHYR GANG

There we were, enjoying juicy fillets, on a Saturday night, when coming down the hall, clanking and banging came this group of (Temple Missionaries??). What on earth? Seems they had decided to do a little celebrating of Guy Fox. Obviously, they had too much time on their hands and too many ideas to create from. (Did I really end that sentence with a preposition?) Guy Fox was an ancient character who was want to assassinate members of British Parliament.  But—he got caught and burned at the stake, after he was drawn and quartered. (Not a good thing.) Guy Fox Day is a big deal over here. Fireworks are set off just like it’s the 4^th of July. Big bon-fires can be found all over the country, where an effigy of Guy Fox is usually burned. These people really love their bon-fires too.  Anyway, several of these sisters hail from Wales. We love our Welsh sisters! 

Sister Adler, our Welsh friend game for anything!

Merthyr gang

They are a fun-loving lot and great teasers, too. The only problem we ever have with them is that most all Welsh simply cannot whisper or even talk quietly whilst doing ordinance work in the temple. I guess it has something to do with the way they distinctly pronounce each syllable in every word they speak. Their accent is extremely strong. Whispering is not in their blood. However, we don’t know what we would do without them. You gotta to love the Welsh! A worker I am training currently gave Niel and me little Welsh Dragons to wear on our lapels and when I said that I would probably put them on the English wall I am planning to put up in our Springville home, she got quite distressed. She said: “Oh, don’t do that. If you put a Welsh Dragon on an English wall, he will just fly away!” Okay, okay.

Last Sunday, we attended church in the East Grinstead Ward. We happened to sit on the opposite side of the chapel from where we usually sit. What a choice experience! There, sitting behind us were two elderly gentlemen, one of whom, RELISHES the opportunity to really belt out the hymns. Honestly, he didn’t disappoint us. He sang so loudly that we couldn’t hear ourselves sing. But that’s not all. He slid from note to note. He trilled little trills on certain words and actually warbled and scooped his way through each hymn. It was great! My word, how can a little old man (must be in his late eighties or early nineties) actually do that? He also attends the temple every Thursday for the 3:45 session. Oh, by the way, his name is Bro. Mann.  Man o man!

We are preparing for our annual Thanksgiving dinner to be held next Monday. Thankfully, I have already prepared and frozen all the rolls. I’ll just have to thaw, raise and bake them on Monday morning. We will send pictures.

Also, we are going to collect our little French lady, who we have befriended at the local McDonald’s and bring her to see the temple and grounds and Visitor Centre. At first, she was hesitant because she said she wasn’t ready to change her religion. She is a Scientologist. When we promised her we wouldn’t, she agreed to come. In the past, she has asked a lot of questions about where the temple is and what we do there. We’ve given her a Book of Mormon with our testimonies written inside. So, no pressure. That’s as far as we will go. We’ll send more pictures of that too.

Our friend Fay (Fayrouse) at McDonald's

The prospects of cleaning out our flat and packing our bags is turning out to be a real test of how two people can stay happily married and not do each other in. It has been interesting, I might say, how to get rid of a “lot of stuff”. I dare say that it will happen, one way or another.

Love to all, Happy Thanksgiving!

Niel (Grumps) and Carolee (Gran)

WINDOW WITH A VIEW

What will become of us without our precious Temple view? This is how close we live to the London England Temple. This is our view during the day. 

Our view at night is ever so spectacular! This view is what keeps us coming back for more each day. It just draws us up to the front doors, recommend in hand, to serve another day. My heart aches when I think of never living this close to a temple again. It has been an experience that we will never be able to replicate, and, you know what, we would never want to try it. Yes, the end is in sight. We are ready to close this wonderful chapter of our lives and move on to whatever the Lord has in store. 

Niel was able to find a little bit of good weather to take some more pictures (see pics) of the temple grounds in their fall glory. Love this place! 

We spent a wonderful week with our darling granddaughters, Ashley and Allie Lancaster. They overcame their jet-lag with flying colors and kept themselves very busy all through the week. We visited Stonehenge, which Allie said was her favorite, and the white cliffs on the Channel, which are called the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head. 

They spent two days in London and even saw the Queen in her motorcade! 

The English will be celebrating a day of remembrance for the soldiers who served in both WWI and WWII this Sunday. I wrote about the church services we attended last year. Very impressive. I included a poem about the poppies in Flanders Field. This year, there was a BIG project to make over 800,000 ceramic poppies and plant them in the dry moat outside the Tower of London. Niel was able to get pictures.

We are now in the process of training new couple missionaries. Two couples came this week. One of them will be coming for one in eight. That means, work one week and be off for eight, which means we will not be seeing them again. We have only one week to try and get them prepared to serve as T.O.W’s (temple ordinances workers). The other couple moved back to England from their home in Brittany (France) in order to serve as full-time workers for a six month period. They are Bro. and Sis. Banks and will definitely be an asset for the A temple shift. We are expecting another two couples in the coming weeks. One couple  from England and the other will be coming from Logan, Utah. WooHoo!  My sister, who works in the Logan Temple has been telling us about their coming for quite a while and they are finally coming. However, they will be on the B shift and we won’t be training them. But, what’s to train? They will already know what to do. Wait a minute, they won’t know the London Temple way, though. Guess they will still have to be trained, properly, as the Brits say. 

Be prepared for lovely pictures of us packing our bags on the next blog. Hopefully, we have more exciting things in store to share on the blog, though. 

Love to all, Niel (Grumps) and Carolee (Gran)