Yuma to London: August 2015

The week was sunless, but come weekend, it came out. Thursday the rain came down in buckets, raining so hard I could hear it even in the temple. That is pretty hard as we don't even hear the airplanes constantly flying over from Gatwick. Patrons were coming in wet, some pretty soaked.

I was assigned to work with Sister Russell, a new sister missionary, in training her. She has not worked in a temple before so she is learning from the ground up and is a fast learner. By week's end she was ready for several duties. She has come to us from her public affairs mission where her companion became very ill and had to go home. Sister Russell will finish her mission with us. The temple grounds continue to amaze us with their beauty.

We are super excited about Jason's graduation. He has worked long and hard for this day to come.

We received our mail-in ballots for the Yuma City election this week and prepared them to mail back. We took them to post but didn't put any postage on them as they had pre-paid postage on them, if you mailed them in the US! We realized that too late and they were off. Now we wonder how long they will take to get back to us.

The highlight of the week was Dennis being back in the country. He came over Wednesday night and we went to King Henry VIII Pub in Hever for dinner. It was so good to see him and we had great conversation. We came back to the flat and played rummy. It has been so long for us, it took a round or two to get into the mode, but once there, we had a great time.

Dennis headed back to his hotel with us in charge of coming up with a plan for the weekend. We started plotting and came up with Hastings and Battle Abbey. They are both a little over an hour from here and we could make our flat our base for the outings.

Dennis came back on Saturday and was in the temple for a couple of hours before we got off. We changed clothes and headed to the seaside town of Hastings. We had fun finding our way around and deciding what we were going to do.

We parked in the car park you see in the middle of the picture and started walking up Woods Passage through the buildings, headed up to the top of East Hill.

We made it to the base of the hill, crossed the street, and started up the trail to the top. We found wild black berries along the way and enjoyed their flavor. We learned quickly which ones were not ripe!

Dad is walking on up.

We had to take a break from the climb. It was a panoramic view of ocean, sky, and village.

Our journey down was along the walkway to the left of the lift.

The steps dumped us into small walkways between flats. One lady stepped out her front door to collect herbs from her pots we brushed by on our way down. She said she was preparing dinner and greeted us a pleasant day.

Upon reaching the street, we took off walking to get a view of the lift and where we came from.

Stade beach looking up.

We walked out to the edge of the sand on the pier you see, and the picture below is from the pier looking back to the town.

From the pier back to East Hill. The Stade is a shingle beach. It has been used for more than a thousand years to beach boats and is home to Europe's largest fleet of beach-launched fishing boats.

Barbara, Bob, Dennis

We stopped at a little fish & chips place for supper. The meal was okay, we were happy to sit down for a little bit and then were back on the street and the beach, taking in the sights.

We saw some fun places for pictures. Make of them what you will.

We made our way back to the car and drove up West Hill and enjoyed the scenery there. We could see across to East Hill and where we had been.

At the top of West Hill are the remains of Hastings Castle. You can see the tower and part of the wall. There was a trail down and around to it, but we had been on quite a hike already and decided not to go the distance.

We enjoyed the sunset from the top of West Hill.

Sunday came and Dennis joined us for church. Everyone was super friendly and he made many new acquaintances. He went to Young Men while we taught our Primary class. He is in Young Men in his ward so he felt right at home and they welcomed him in.

During the afternoon we headed to Battle Abbey where the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. William the Conqueror defeated the English and England is now what it is because of that battle and who won. William was of Norman descent and brought his ways and attitudes to the throne.

We used the audio tour and walked around the battle ground and the abbey. It was a great experience and history tour.

From the battlefield looking up to the abbey.

Part of the abbey

From the abbey out to the battlefield.

Dennis along the wall of the abbey. We went up the steps behind and to his right. It put us on top of the wall for a walk back to the gatehouse.

We ended the day with more rummy and snacks. It was a great weekend with family and a nice break from our regular routine.

Monday finished our week with the regulars of cleaning and laundry, and some shopping in lieu of Halie and Jason's arrival tomorrow. We went to lunch with Natalie and had great conversation. She is preparing to go through the temple and we have been given permission to teach her the temple preparation lessons. We are all excited for this opportunity and will begin lessons on Wednesday.

We have been asked to serve on the Activities Committee and had a meeting prior to the Hi & Bye. We are now in charge of the Hi & Bye programs, with our first one being in September. Tonight we said "Hi" to:

Sister Rhodes from England on the B Shift, and Sister Russell from America on the A Shift.

And "Bye" to:

Elder & Sister McClellan from America on the B Shift.

Brown & Sister Callaghan from England on the B Shift.

We were on the late schedule this week, which means late nights and finding it hard to unwind and go to bed. At least we do not have to get up early in the mornings. I spent time at the piano and we were to the doctor and even took Sister Smith for her check up from her eye surgery. She is doing well and on the mend. Bob was out to breakfast with the boys one morning. Brother Walters, the only Englishman with them said: "Yes, I am feeling pretty American today!" I helped Brother & Sister Basten with family history. They are good at finding people in their trees.

The Masih's were in the temple on Saturday as their grandson, Ammon, was going through for the first time. He has his mission call to Leeds England. They are super excited for their first grandchild missionary. It was good to see the family and give hugs and best wishes.

We were out to dinner with Sister George and Sister Smith on Saturday. The three of us and Sister Tooley were at the same table during lunch one day, when Sister Tooley said the Vowels had taken them to the Smith & Western for lunch and it was really good. Sister George piped up: "Yes, I really like their burger." I couldn't believe what I heard and turned to her and said: "How can you who doesn't like anything, like that?" She said: "Yes, that is right, but their burgers are really good.!" Sister Smith joined in by saying she had never eaten there so could not comment. That settled it for me so I told them we would take them on Saturday for a meal. The food was as good as the three of us remembered and Sister Smith enjoyed it too.

We sent birthday wishes to Shawn and Juliann this week.

Shawn

Juliann

On Monday, the missionary van took a group of us to the Harry Potter Studio. It was quite the tour and we really enjoyed it. We saw and learned how they constructed sets, designed costumes, made props, and made fake characters and animals that moved. We learned how the movies came to be in the first place and that Harry, Hermione, and Ron lived on the set, went to school on the set, and worked on the set during the ten years it took to make the eight movies. They were 10, 11, and 12 when they began. We had a cup of butterbeer and I voted for more!

We woke up to overcast skies and rain. It was a typical day in England for sightseeing!

Now these are chess pieces!

The set of Harry's room was at the end of the queue where we waited to begin the tour.

The door on the inside of the great hall.

One of the tables in the great hall.

We learned from a food artist in a shop on the street that most of the food in the movies was fake, just like what you see here. He had samples of real and fake food and we got to see if we could guess which was real. I tried the raspberries and got two out of three. Next were fruit tarts and again, I got two out of three. The food really does look authentic.

Check out the chocolate table. Wow, did it ever look real.

Yes, the butterbeer is great! Or so I think. Dad didn't think it was that great.

A walk up the street.

Shops of many kinds. Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment

Dad at the bank.

You can get in and out in a hurry!

New to the studio this year, is the original Hogwart's Express.

It was set up to reflect a true platform in the train system in England. You really felt like you were there. It made me think some of "The Polar Express."

We were able to go into the cars and walk the very narrow isle and peer into the cabins.

In the burrow there were touch screens where you could make the iron iron, the knife cut the carrots, the brush scour the pan, and the knitting needles knit. It was pretty fun to watch.