England, London Mission

Dear family and friends,

The week has flown by so quickly, and Scott and Sherri and the girls are coming for a week, so I will send a quick update on my blog! We are soooo excited for the Miles family to come. We just wish that baby G could have fit inside their suitcase!!!

We had some sweet and tender experiences this week! Last Wednesday we took a sweet friend, a member of our ward to lunch to celebrate her 75^th birthday. She chose this little diner type establishment and we enjoyed the meal and time together. When Brad went to pay, for some reason the card didn’t go through, so he ran it again and it showed that the card had been charged so he figured everything was ok. He told the owner that he would watch and make sure the purchase went through, or we would be back to pay in cash. The cashier noticed his missionary tag and commented that the owner/manager was a member of our church. He is from Turkey and when Brad invited him to come to church, he said, “no, I’m too busy!” Well, Friday morning, Brad checked the credit card and saw that the lunch purchase did not go through, so we went back to make things right, and yes, we took a Book of Mormon with us. Ollie recognized us, we showed him our bill and Brad gave him the correct cash. I think he was quite surprised that we would come back in. We handed him the Book of Mormon and a card with the address of the church and our contact information on it and again invited him to come back to church. He said he was too busy, but was so grateful that we would return, that he offered to give us a cup of coffee!!! (I’m not so sure he was a Mormon!) But the name of his restaurant was BLD’S! Who knows? Maybe something will touch his heart!!!

A cute couple we have gotten to know, Jim and Nita Haskins have become sweet friends! When we visited them, they told us that Jim had gone to A and E (emergency room) with chest pains. We felt bad that Nita didn’t call us as we would have come and given Jim a blessing. I guess we should have been close enough to the spirit to have known, right? Tests were taken and Jim was fine, but Nita has had some health issues and her doctor told her she needs to quit drinking tea and coffee. She is the one who told us that she would never join the church until the Word of Wisdom is rescinded!!! So when she said she wasn’t to drink tea and coffee, we both said together, “Yeah, now you can join the church!!!” They will be heading to Utah and are going to visit Thanksgiving Point, so if any of you happen to visit Thanksgiving Point and hear a cute English accent, stop them and say hello!!! They will be there the week of May 30!

We had a great treat this week as Teresa Liu and her friend Ann came all the way to Cambridge to see us!!!! I love Teresa like a daughter! She and Ann had come to tour London and were so sweet to take an afternoon to spend with us! We picked them up at that train station and then showed them around Cambridge. It is so beautiful here right now and luckily the weather cleared so we had a lovely day. It was so fun just to enjoy them enjoying King’s College, the streets of Cambridge, and the beauty of the college backs!!! We enjoyed a great lunch of salad and pizza at a really good restaurant. Thank you Teresa for coming! How we adore you and I just want you to know how precious you are!!!

Again, we have some dear friends, John and Vivian Cook who are in Utah for the next 2 weeks. If any of you get a phone call from an English bloke, just know it is a very wonderful friend!!!!

Great week! Lots of fun with YSA’s, barbecue, FHE and temple trip! Our life here is sweet and very rewarding!!!

We love you all! Thanks for making our life so wonderful!

Love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

our zone leaders and district!! from L to R back row Elder Toa, Elder Coon, Elder Walker, Elder Jensen (ZL) Sister J, Elder J, Sister Vizaco, Sister Becker front, Elder Dalley, Elder Withers (ZL)