Tickled Pink and Gold and Green

The beautiful London Temple one evening during sunset colored the spire gold, it is usually green.

Elder Thompson had a very enjoyable Father's Day last week. He was able to talk to both
Val and Jeff. England celebrates Father's Day on the same day as in America.  There was a
bicycle race from London to Brighton on Sunday, so because the roads were being
diverted for the race, we went to church in East Grinstead. All the men received a couple
pieces of chocolate (seems to be England's favorite treat).  It was a good sabbath.

Sunday evening we had a fireside with Chenille Saunders!! She used to live in Carthage 

and we were able to hear her sing many times, especially with Brother Marshall while we 

served in Nauvoo.  She recognized us and it was so good to see her.  She is so talented 

and it was an uplifting evening of inspiring music. This picture is with her and the 

Davenports and Muellers who also served in Nauvoo while she lived there.

Saturday night was movie night in the welcome center.

Enjoyable with popcorn and M&M's.

On Monday the Davenport's invited us to go to Polesden Lacey with them.  It was a 

beautiful day and is a beautiful place.  It was great to see blue skies after some very rainy days.

Polesden Lacey was the country estate of Maggie Greville.  

She entertained royalty and celebrities on the weekends here.  The home had a staff of 70 people, but was only used for her weekend parties. 

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and King George VI spent part of their honeymoon here.  

She said of Polesday Lacey, "This is a delicous house..."  Maggie Greville never had any 

children of her own, but considered Queen Elizabeth to be the daughter she never had.
She was originally going to leave the estate to the king and queen, but she
ended up leaving it to the National Trust.
She did however leave most of her jewelry to the royals.  Millions of dollars of jewels.
Princess Eugenie recently wore a Greville tiara at her wedding and Camilla
often wears a honecomb designed tiara that is a Greville tiara.

This is William McEwan, Maggie's father.  He was a Scottish politician and brewer.  He founded Fountain Brewery in 1856.  This brewery is where all the family wealth came from.

This is Maggie Greville.

This rooms walls are covered in 24 karat leaf.

The house is filled with artwork and Chinese porcelain and all the fine things of the day.

When Maggie liked something, she bought it.  

 Matt and Dave playing a little old fashioned air hockey.

               

There are 1,400 acres of beautiful grounds to enjoy.

Can't you just picture them going out on a fox hunt on horses through those hills?

Of course there is a beautiful garden.  And we were here right in the middle of the rose festival.

The garden cottage.

June 21 was summer solstice.  I'm sure we would like to have some of this day-light in the winter.

Sunrise was 4:44 AM and sunset was 9:20 PM.  That's a lot of daylight.

We were on early shift this week in the temple and for the past two weeks we were able to work together on our assignment.  It was fairly busy during the week, but Saturday was really busy.  

We go home exhausted from working hard.  But we love it.

We are blessed to work with this great temple presidency.  We have learned much from them.

We love and learn much from those who work here and those who sacrifice so much to come here.

For instance, the Chivers came and stayed the week in the accommodation center.

They are elderly and Sis Chivers has many physical challenges, but everyday they 

did three sessions back to back. That's 15 sessions in a week when looking at them you 

would think they would have every excuse to not attend at all.  They have that great British 

sense of humor.  Brother Chivers said he comes to stay out of trouble, but Sister Chivers 

chimed in to say that it doesn't work!

Our study of the Come Follow Me program continues to deepen our conversion, testimony and faith in Jesus Christ.  We want to become like Him. We testify that He lives, that he atoned for our sins and sorrows and pains. He taught us how we can return to live with God. We love Him. 

Sissinghurst

 This week has been a busy one.  We have been very busy serving in the temple on our shift, 

late shifts this week.  Saturday got busy as a coach (bus) arrived. We also were asked to give 

the spiritual thoughts this week.  The focus is on Elder Takashi Wada's conference talk, 

"Feasting on the Words of Christ".  He said, 

I bear testimony that feasting upon the words of Christ can happen at any time and on any occasion if we prepare our hearts to receive them. Feasting upon the words of Christ will bring life-sustaining revelation, reaffirm our true identity and worth before God as His child, and lead our friends unto Christ and everlasting life. Let me end by echoing the invitation of Nephi when he said: “Ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life”

The temple was busy with a singles conference here for the week.

We met Edel from Norway.  She is in the Bergen Menighet Ward in Norway.  

She speaks great English, but likes to speak Norwegian in certain parts of the temple.  

It sounds so beautiful! She came to church with the missionaries today and I had to pull out my FamilyTree app and show her my relatives from Norway.  We checked her ward group on 

Relative Finder to see if I was related to anyone in her ward.  No, but she is a delight.  

Hopefully we will see her again in October when she returns.

Last Sunday there was the traditional 'Hi and Bye'.  It is when missionaries that are new 

arrivals introduce themselves, but the highlight of the meeting is when those who are leaving 

share experiences, stories and testimonies of their service in the London Temple.  

Saying good-bye were the Wades (from England), Wolseys (from Canada), and Smiths (from 

I can't remember, but Americans.  In talking we discovered they are related to Hyrum and Ora Smith from Mesa who were in our ward ages ago.) Also the Russ' are leaving (from Wales) but they had taken a load of things home for the weekend so they were not at the meeting. We were the only Hi's.

Sister Wade said she counted the steps (stairs) in the temple and came up with 287.
That includes the stairs up to the front door and both the front and back stairways.

It was an emotional and spirit filled meeting.  As with any mission you grow to love those 

you serve and those you serve with so much it's hard to leave.

This picture was taken after our 'Hi and Bye'.  It has been a really raining day,
but this was the result of the sun coming out after a shower.

On Monday there was a mini-bus trip to Sissinghurst Castle Garden. As with everything in England it is very old.  It has a long history of owners and uses. The tower was built in the 1560's.  The gardens were created in 1930's by the new owners Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. 

It is now a National Trust property. And we are National Trust property members.

 This is a portrait of Vita hanging over the fireplace.

 

One shilling was the charge for entering the garden, paid at the garden gate.  

Today they give you a plastic shilling to gain entrance to the gardens.

It was a bit of a wet day, but the gardens were so beautiful we didn't seem to mind the rain.

This is the tower, where Vita did her writing,

and this is taken from on top of the tower.

The buildings with the white cone tops are called oast houses.  

It is where they kiln (dry) the hops to make ale.

Great views from the top.

Lots of variety of flowers and plants in the garden.

We bought some cherry curd in the gift shop. 

Matt had bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) for lunch at the cafe.

 

On the way back we stopped at a stand and got some cherries from Spain.

On Wednesday morning our B shift did an endowment session in the temple.  

We have been working so hard that was a nice treat.

On Saturday we got out of the temple at 5:00.  We decided to walk the .6 miles to Tammy's Thai Restaurant.  We walked along the pavement (sidewalk).  The road is where the cars go,
the pavement is a sidewalk, a footpath is a trail, but not paved.
We really enjoyed the walk, dinner, and being out of our little room.

Kind of a cool little place, furnishing are very Thai.  It is very popular and it gets quite busy.

On the way back on our walk to the restaurant you are greeted with this sign.