Chelmsford, Hatfield, and Northampton

We aren't used to city life yet.  We still like the wide open spaces. 

It is so nice to get out of the city for meetings.  

We went to Chelmsford to meet with the Ipswich Stake Presidency. It is only 40 miles away and should have taken us an hour to get there.  We knew traffic would be bad, especially on the Seven Sisters road, so we gave ourselves over an hour and half.  Well, it took us 55 minutes to go 6 miles. It was like going home after the fireworks.  We were 20 minutes late, but the stake president was a half hour late too because of the traffic.  We did have a good meeting with him and his counselors talking about their plans for family history.

Next time we go north, we won't take Seven Sisters.  Never again.

I love attending sacrament meetings here.  There are such amazing people from all over the world. In Hyde Park a new sister missionary bore her testimony.  She is from the Congo.  Her English wasn't very good, but she is wonderful, such a strong testimony.  After her the speaker was a sister from Sri Lanka.  She said of the people back home, "We come to church because we want to be like Him."

The Whitakers asked us to come to their YSA family home evening and talk to the young single adults about family history.  It is in Hatfield, about 35 minutes north of here. (We found a better way to go north, the A10.We will go that way from now on, even if we are going east.  I'll explain later.) It turned out great and had a lot of fun.  There was a young man there from Malaysia who always comes to the activities.  He isn't a member, but loves to hang out with Sister Whitaker and the young adults.  He is really funny to the point of being silly.  When I asked him where he is from and what he is doing in England, he laughed and said, "Guess!"  Sister Whitaker would end up telling me and he would laugh some more.  He is studying law and will be going back to Malaysia after he graduates. 

He is the one sitting in front of Elder Syme. 

Working with the youth has brought into focus the special times we live in.  This is a day like no other in history.  It really is the day for the youth with technology and temples.  The technology of the computer and internet is really inspired from heaven for the work of spreading the gospel and family history work.  I feel the power of the Spirit that is with these youth, and I hope we can help more of them catch the vision and share that same testimony.

Last week we met with the stake president of Northampton which is northwest from here.  That direction is the easiest for getting out of London.  The countryside is so green and beautiful now. 

There are yellow fields all over.  It is rapeseed that canola oil comes from.

Northampton is a nice city.

 This is the Northampton chapel.

When we leave the city, we always try to stop at a Tesco Extra to do our shopping on the way home.  It is kind of like a Target.  It is larger than it looks.

In London they have smaller versions of the big stores like this Tesco Express.

We have 4 Family History Fairs to attend on each weekend of May.  That will get us out of town and keep us busy at least on the weekends.

We have started volunteering at the Hyde Park family history center on Tuesdays.  We couldn't go yesterday because of the tube strike.  They may be striking next week to.  Hope not.  We'll see.

We are fine except for 2 days in April I didn't feel well, but I'm back to normal.  We love you all.