This is my nightmare every time I drive. The lowest speed on "C" roads like Wood Walton's is 30 MPH. I'm in a Ford Transet Van pulling a trailer with a tractor on it.. Ever turn is blind because of the hedges they use for fences. Tractors and Lory's (semi's) use them all the time. I'm lucky here because I could pull off into the weeds, there are no shoulders.  Robyn and I will be on this road again tomorrow. I'm surprised any of the cars have outside mirrors. None of the locals think twice about it.

Very few homes here have garages and the ones that do use them for storage not cars. One of our rental units has a very small garage and the American renter wants to use it for his new motorcycle.
The door was latches and wouldn't open for repair so Elder Foy climbed thru a broken window of hundred year old cobwebs to get in. He is truly a man of faith!
The garage had no lock but had a steel pen in the floor outside the door for one. The new lock Would be over $100.00 US so we made one that uses a padlock. That's my welding. It looks bad but is very solid. For the money we could have installed a remote opener but none of the local suppliers have hear of them and I could not find one in their catalogs!

Another thing about this home, In Utah we go thru a lot of trouble to keep water away from the foundation. But with the current drought the clay ground is drying out and shrinking so the house in sinking. We had to flood the ground around it to swell it up.  The home very old and made out of stone and survived worst.

I Love to see the Temple

Saturday we were able to attend the London Temple which is not really in London. It was great but lots of stairs.  There was a couple getting married while we were there and this VW was their limo. All in all a great day.
This Saturday we will actually be going to London and seeing the sites.

Not a lot of time to write. This is the floor of a grain storage barn/shed we have been repairing. This is a very large building with four of these stalls 60 or more feet deep. Each will be filled with grain eight feet high, Giant fans/blowers force air through the floor and up thru the grain to dry it. The grates get damaged by the heavy equipment used to fill and empty them. We removed the damaged ones hammered them back into shape and used tape to block any holes. Hard work but very rewarding. AND I no longer want to be a blacksmith.

Week 1: Lack of sleep!

Our first week in England has been very interesting! We love the people we have met, especially the Foy's, who are the other missionary couple we will be serving with.  They have been showing us around, helping us to acclimate to the different time zone, as well as driving patterns! It's still unnerving when you see cars and trucks speeding towards you on the "wrong side of the road"!  They say I'll soon be driving here, but I'll take as long as they let me!  The round-abouts do seem effective, but I don't want to accidentally go the wrong way...  We have visited several of the farms we will be working with and have been able to help outwith the activities.  The weather here has been "unseasonably warm"!  While it's only in the 70's -80's, it's still warmer that we would like and are looking forward to some nice London fog!
Saturday we went exploring with the Foy's to the lovely Burghley mansion, where the royals would visit in the 1400's-1800's. We took pictures of their elegance, and of the sculptures in the fun surrounding gardens.  We also visited St. Peter's Cathedral in Petersboro, which is also very beautiful.  We love old historical buildings!  I also took pictures of local houses that are cool, and it's just so curious that they still use "Thatched roofs". Some day I'll find out why, and then you will know why too!  

Week 3: We drove on the roads!!

Our weekdays are pretty busy. We start out at 7:45(ish) at a prayer meeting with the Foys. We take turns doing thoughts and prayer. We are out by 8:00 am, and I go with Sister Foy. We have been cleaning and painting the houses as renters leave to prepare for new renters. Steve goes with Elder Foy, and they have done a variety of things, from repairs to painting and mowing. It’s been “unseasonably warm” here and the locals “aren’t used to this heat and don’t like it this warm” (hear that said with a cockney accent!) 😉 It has been in the 80’s since we arrived! Typically they have 1-2 weeks in August where it’s warm. We are still waiting to be cooled down by the rain! We told them we left 100+degrees in Utah, hoping to get a reprieve here! They said, “be careful what you wish for!! Just remember that in January-February, you’ll freeze!” 😂



Saturday we went to the London Temple with the Foys, Pat and Howard. We love them already! They are so sweet, patient and kind. Great to work with too! ♥️ They will be here for 6 months more, then go home to Panguitch, UT. Then WE will have to train a new couple! I hope we are ready!! Steve drove to church Sunday, and did really well! We didn’t even get lost or hit anyone! We also got a new calling, to teach primary. We will teach together, the Senior Primary, which is 10 kids, age 8-12. They have another class of the younger children. We will also do Activity Days twice a month for both girls and the boys. They don’t have cubscouts here so they invite the boys too. It will  be fun!

Today I finally drove, but just down the road a bit! Nothing too exciting, but Sister Foy looked nervous as I tried to see how close I could get to the left edge of the road.  Maybe she doesn’t like the thistles that grabbed our car. 😊 Well, we love being here and serving in this capacity. We can’t wait to see what new adventures we will have!!

Men at work

Thursday afternoon: Elder Foy replacing window trim while I take pictures. This house has newer vinyl windows but some of the wood trim is rotting. I mowed about a half acre of weeds (sadly mostly wild flowers) while Elder Foy pruned a plum tree that was effecting the phone line. Then we replaced trim on five windows and touched up the paint on others. The renter has a beautiful flower garden and we managed to only damaged one tomato plant. Everyone offers us tea or coffee which is the custom, so they are being kind,  not trying to be smart.

WEEK 2; Just another day at the farm..

This is a fence Elder Foy and I finished last Thursday. The posts and rails were in but we needed to remove the rails and install the field fence/wire and reinstall the rails.  The housing is a triplex that was once a farm shed, but is now very modern housing. I met two of the tenants  who are both American families working at the NATO base near here. The building is called Mote. I don’t know how it got the name but it is located in the middle of the same farm as our building, a few hundred yards further down a farm road, which is about eight feed wide. The road is raised and drops about three feet on either side.You need to look to make sure no one is on the road before you start or you’ll have to back up all the way and start again.  

One of the tenants invited us to go to the commissary on base with him to shop. I asked if they had Mountain Dew and he said they have everything American and no tax! The next day I found a case of Mountain Dew on my porch! I love this place.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a sign...

Here are some more road signs we saw today. I guess blind cats are really a problem here.

Can you guess what these signs are for?

The large highways, closest thing to our freeways, are labeled “M” for motorway, M1, M2, M3 etc. The next size down in size are the “A” roads. They’re narrow, all the roads are narrow, they are what you would consider a normal road. Below that are the “B” roads. They are very narrow but have a line down the center which you grow to really appreciate. The “C” roads, which and the most common and are everywhere, are VERY narrow and have no center line. Sometimes they put a few marks on the turns but they are rare. The roads are lined with hedges which they mow vertically like walls, that makes every turn a BLIND turn. There are no “straight roads” and only a few straightaways. No one slows down but they all do the speed limit on the M, A and B roads because of the traffic cameras. If you speed you get a ticket in the mail.

I have been trying to learn the local road signs. Below are some examples. Two are fake the rest are real, can you tell which ones? Can you tell what they mean?

Travelaters!

Some interesting things we learned yesterday The “trollies” (shopping carts) are locked, to take one you put a one Pound coin in the lock to release it. When you’re thru and put the trolley back in the rack you get the coin back. The “Tesco” store is somewhat like our Walmart’s. It has food on the main floor and clothing etc. on the second floor. Between the levels is a trolley escalator, the "travelater". When you roll onto the escalator, magnets in the wheels lock so it can’t roll.  I took a video and will try to post it. Most everything is sold in small packages. Two small romain lettuce in a package, the iceberg lettuce is about the size of a grapefruit. They only had Coke and Pepsi in regular and diet and none of their other stuff. Everything else was local brands, but they do have several aisles of booze. Most of the meat is sold vacuum packed but they have a first class meat counter that’s very impressive. Tesco is special because they don’t charge to park like most others do. The parking spaces are tiny as are most of the cars.

Heading to the MTC... Again!

We were set apart as new missionaries tonight by President Garn McMullin of the Bluffdale Utah South Stake. It was a wonderful experience and we are so excited to head back to the MTC to prepare for our next adventure serving the Lord.

We will try and update this blog each Sunday night so that our friends and family can follow along on our journey.

We love you all!

Thanks for your love and support!