Temple Week #56, 23 - 29 June 2015

Summer has arrived and many families are out and about on holiday.  Some of them have come to the temple to do baptisms and a group of Saints from Ireland have been at the temple for a couple of days.  They have been faithful in coming each day for long periods and accomplishing much family work.

We worked the late shift at the temple, not getting out until 9 p.m.  I met up with Brother Orton and Brother Allen each night at the accommodations centre after shift to rehearse a musical item for Sunday's fireside.  The fireside went well.

I began in January to secure a tour of the Tower of Big Ben, known as the Elizabeth Tower.  I had to find the MP (member of parliament) for our jurisdiction and then go through his office.  You have to be a resident of England to get a tour.  I located Sam Gyimah as our MP and began with an email with my request.  Chrysoulla took my case and we began the process.  There is a certain each month tours can be requested and the date for the tour will be six months ahead.  She was most helpful and so professional as we communicated back and forth in this effort.  It was on my third attempt that I got the tour and the information packet came in the mail this week.  We are looking forward to climbing the 337 steps to the top of the tower and see the mechanics of the working clock.

Our washer was starting to make an extra loud noise about three weeks ago.  I called the engineers and after several visits from him, visits from the repairman, telephone calls, and the repairman getting sick, he finally made it.  He put in a new drum and motor and the little baby is humming right along, soft and quiet.   It was nice to have it fixed before it completely conked out and us having to take our laundary elsewhere.

We had chiropractor and podiatrist appointments, sang happy birthday to Jashar, and got a call from Brynlyn at 3 a.m. one night.  She was looking for her Papa.

The roses are in bloom.

President Irwin asked if we would take a couple of sisters who they know from when he was mission president in Slovakia with us to church on Sunday as he had an assignment to attend a stake conference.  We took Jeanetta from Slovakia and Evetta from Chech Republic with us and had a delightful time getting to know one another.  They both speak English and that made conversation okay.  Jeanetta says there is a missionary in her ward from Phoenix and Evetta is an ordinance worker in the Freiburg, Germany temple.  Evetta says she likes Americans because they are so easy to be with and can change and adept easily.  They were so easy to converse with and we seemed to become instant friends.