Zone Conference, meeting the Youth of Crawley Stake and visiting Brighton

This has been a full week starting with a Zone Conference in Reading. Here are some highlights:

ELSM is a world-wide mission. With the new chat program they are teaching all over the globe. There are two Chinese missionaries here teaching a Chinese man in Prague via Skype.

There was a presentation about fire safety. We were shown a video clip of how to use a fire blanket on a grease fire on the stove. I’ve seen fire blankets in some places here but I don’t recall ever seeing one in the United States. President Shamo soberly told of friends of his that barely started their mission in Texas when the stove blew up and killed the wife. He said Heavenly Father only has so many angels to watch over us, so be careful! We almost felt like we were in a game show audience when he announced that all of us would be given a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher at the end of the conference.

President and Sister Shamo talked about the importance of a kneeling prayer as in III Nephi 17:13-15 when the Savior visits the Nephites after his resurrection. He has them all kneel down and after he kneels down he prays to the Father. Verse 17:  And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.

He wanted to do a demonstration regarding kneeling, so he had two elders come up front. Then he needed some investigators and said, “Parretts come on up here” After we were seated he told the elders to explain prayer to us and to invite us to join them in a kneeling prayer. They forgot a couple of things, so they did it over twice at which time we agreed to kneel with them for prayer.

Wednesday we did some temple work and watched one of the office elders try to find us a place to live in Brighton, online that is. We got a quick lesson on teaching people to read using a method that was new to us. Certainly not the Dick and Jane that we learned in school! The Brighton elders are already teaching reading classes and we may be joining them.

Wednesday evening we were at Crawley Stake Center for the opening social for Institute. There was a brief program with sign-ups for this year’s course of study which is the Pearl of Great Price. There was a young lady who was new and spoke very little English. I speak very little Spanish but tried my best to make her feel welcome. By the time the food came out I saw that there was a young man who was helping her. Just as it should be.

Thursday we drove to Brighton and are very pleased with what we saw. We left our car at the church and rode a few buses just to see the area and get lost a little. But only by riding the wrong bus did we find a big ASDA (Walmart). I took some pictures, some though the bus window, so they aren’t very good.

Downtown Brighton

Brighton will be a fun place to explore once we get settled.

part of downtown again

This interesting building is the Royal Pavilion. "During the early 19th century, when the Royal Pavilion was given its Oriental style, the British East India Company had been established by Britain for almost 200 years. Due to the fact that countries like India and China were so closely associated with the economic well being of Britain, the strong influence of Orientalism, seen in the Royal Pavilion, can be attributed to the trading enterprise British East India Company."

Brighton is surrounded to the north with lovely green hills. I can't wait to explore!

Believe it or not, this alley is the way into the Brighton Ward car park. You go past a recycle place along the way.

The side of the Brighton Ward buildling which is the typical 2 story layout.