Second Week

We are beginning to feel more comfortable with our surroundings and assignments. Elder Cannon can pretty much take care of invoices from vendors, council tax bills, reimbursements for missionary travel, scheduling blocked rent payments, journal entries, checks, deposits, missionary funding cards, cell phone configurations, lost credit cards, lost phones, utilities, departing missionary travel orders, and petty cash disbursements. Whew! Still to come are transfer days (called "moves"), missionary arrivals, and all the brush fires that occur every 8 minutes.

Driving is still scary, but nobody has been killed or injured. The Elder who goes with Elder Cannon when he drives has developed a tick and seems a little jumpy. Driving on the "proper" side of the road isn't all that hard as long as you don't drop concentration for even a second. There are few stop lights -- most intersections are variations on the round-about. Nobody even slows down. The lorries are wide and the lanes are narrow. In our area, roads are tree-lined or have thick hedgerows so you don't see much of the countryside. The roads are paved cart paths that wind here and there so every turn is blind.

The above was from Elder Cannon.  Now this is Sister Cannon.  I just want to share some of the tender mercies we have experiences since we left Logan.  On our trip to Orlando, we were able to come out to the main terminal and meet with Rick, Julie and Robert who brought us some lunch as well as some of the wonderful taffy Rick makes.  It was gone in a wink when we brought it into the office here.  Then on the flight from Orlando to England, we enjoyed an extra seat on our row so we could spread out and relax a little bit more. I did get a chance to talk about the church for a few minutes in the waiting area before the flight. The couple we are replacing, Elder and Sister Adams, were there waiting for us as we ended up taking much longer to come out than expected.  They were so loving and welcoming!  Sister Adams reminds me so much of Aunt Virginia in her mannerisms, her laugh, and even in her looks.  Sister Adams is 20 years younger, but just having her to talk to made it feel like home!  We had three tender mercies our first week that brought us closer to home,  While doing laundry down in the basement of accomodations, I walked in and a couple greeted me asking if I had met the new office couple.  I told them I was half of them and they chuckled.  They are from Cache Valley and were visiting his sister who is serving at the visitor's center.  They are Kevon and Brent Miller and Scott worked with Brent at USU and in one of the USU stakes.  Then we met the mission president and his wife, the Millars.  They both knew many of the same people Scott had worked with at LDS hospital back when he was doing his PhD.  I needed to Skype with the president's counselor, President Martin to get some passports verified.  He ended up being the missionary who baptized Seja Puikkonen (from our home ward).  She had told him about us and we had a nice chat. Last Saturday I thought I was supposed to help clean in the office at 8:00 but when I got there, I was a half hour early.  I didn't want to wake up Scott who is still not well, so I took my first walk around the London Temple grounds!  It is absolutely beautiful!  It covers a huge area and I just walked around in the morning mist, through lovely English garden flowers on pathways over streams and ponds for a half hour.  It was so peaceful, it really calmed me down and filled me with joy.  Monday was a very discouraging day and we were both totally overwhelmed, wondering if we were even going to be able to fulfill our responsibilities. We came down to the reading room, opened our iPads and found many wonderful messages from family members, encouraging us and sending love. Thank you everyone that sent something!  We needed it! We were blessed with 10 days of warm weather, and no rain.  It has been beautiful! We have had the Adams show us how to get to several of the chapels we will need to use with conferences and transfer days and yesterday we went to Staines which is in west London.  The couple, the Boothes, who serve in the YSA there, have been serving missions for 14 years!  He was President at the MTC, and several other places but they know Craig and Renee Jessop and had a son living in Laie.  We were able to eat with them at an amazing restaurant called Tony Carver. Delicious!  We also had our first D.A - dinner appointment with the couple who run the Visitor's Centre.  Finally, we attended a session at the London Temple today and loved it!  It is very beautiful and peaceful.  It was a wonderful morning, then met the Fowlers.  They are another couple who will come and help us with "moves".  We know the Lord is watching over us and we can feel His constant care!