Another Month Come and Gone

Missions are made interesting by trying new things you've never done before, cooking new foods, and meeting new people.  For three months we have been anticipating the arrival of our new senior missionary couple, and they finally arrived on January 12th.  Life has been a blur of activity since that time.  We have a lengthy list of things to be done before spring, but some of the tasks needed more than just the two of us to effectively complete them, so we were elated when the Foy's arrived.

Our work list was going smoothly for the first six days with the new couple, then January 18th came upon us, complete with rain, strong howling winds, and flying slate and ceramic roof tiles.  One of the barns in our backyard is currently sporting large gaping holes where tiles used to be.

The tiles that were blown out of this roof landed all over our yard, with one tile hitting our car and another one hitting our work van.  Fortunately we are not using this barn, so cleaning up the yard was all that was required.  Then the phone calls started coming in.  Seven of the thirty homes we service had roof damage, with more rain expected daily.  The list of buildings affected included our Farm General Office as well as the home of our 94-year old friend, Mary.  So the two Elders jumped into high gear, while the women-folk continued with the patching and painting of the vacant home that we have been preparing for the next renters.  One of the challenges the men faced was that each house required a different style of ceramic tile or slate to replace the broken ones, and some of the tiles are so old that they don't make them anymore.  Trips were made to Peterborough on the north, St Ives to the east and Cambridge to the south until all tiles (or "close enough" tiles) were purchased.  Wind, rain and cold air created other delays in the roof repairs.  At one house,  Bruce climbed up into the attic to place buckets under the leaking roof until conditions were favorable for fixing the tiles.  What he discovered in the attic was that over one section of the house there were 12 rolls of insulation sitting neatly in their wrappers, but had never been installed.  Once the Elders laid out the insulation the tenants reported that their bedroom was much warmer.  Who knows how many years the insulation had been waiting to be installed.

The tile replacement process included climbing up high ladders then laying a smaller ladder flat on the brittle tiles so the men could climb over on it to replace the broken tiles.  The flat ladder was secured on the roof by throwing a rope over the top of the house and securing it on the other side by tying it to a tank, the van, or Elder Fillmore on another ladder in once instance.  (You remember how heavy he is!)  For the taller roofs the men would assemble the scaffolding first.  The Elders have finished the roof repairs and now they are moving on to the long list of things that need to be done before spring.

For fun and entertainment we sang in a bi-ward choir for Stake Conference, have done a little touring, and fed the full-time missionaries multiple times.  Bruce did a clever thing by taking the young missionaries with him as he went to make an adjustment on a tenant's fridge.  it was a great missionary moment with the lady who has been inactive for years, and she enjoyed the visit from the Elders, (who are doing follow-up visits with her).  She promises to come to church again with her 14-year old nephew who she is raising.

In-the-meantime, back in Utah, our own home experienced a little trauma with a blocked drain, so currently our basement has linoleum, carpet and drywall that has been removed.  It's interesting that we are across the ocean fixing up plumbing,  plastering and floors in homes here, while someone else is fixing up our house.  Isn't life great!

All you former UK missionaries will be proud to hear that I made my first Yorkshire pudding, Eccles cakes, and cottage pie, and I have been cooking with Swedes (turnips, not people from Sweden), courgettes (zucchini) and parsnips.

These are Yorkshire Pudding and they are typically eaten with beef and gravy over them. The term "pudding" is also used to refer to dessert.  "Eat your vegetables so you can have pudding!" (which is cake, or other sweets that have no resemblance to pudding)

My new favorite fruit is pomelo...it's like an enormous grapefruit, only sweeter and harder to peel. I was first introduced to pomelo by cousin Jennifer in Germany, and was thrilled when I found it in the shops in England.  The British friends we have eaten with serve LOTS of vegetables and we are feeling quite healthy!

This is a pomelo sitting next to a normal apple.

This is a side note for cousin Frank.  When we sang in the bi-ward choir for Stake Conference I would sit next to a lady who is from the Czech Republic.  She, her husband and children are converts to the church and are living in England for one year so they can learn English.  At the third choir rehearsal I took a copy of the story about Frantiska Brodil found in The Master's Touch, pages 275-279, for this sister to read. As soon as I handed her the copy and she read the first line, she was instantly animated, and began chatting away with her husband, who also became animated (and grabbed the papers right out of his wife's hands so he could start reading it).  She said that they had learned about Sister Brodil and her daughters from the older sisters in the ward, who spoke about them with fondness and reverence.  It was an emotional interchange when she found out that Jane Brodil was my aunt, so I shared a little bit of her story after she moved to America and married my Uncle William.  The lady was thrilled when I told her the copy of the story was for her to keep.  There is something magical about being in Europe where this rich history took place that has captured my heart and my tear ducts.