Visitors from Poland

Actually they are from McCammon, Idaho but they have been serving their mission in Warsaw, Poland for 8 ½ months. Due to the church hiring a new CES employee for Poland they received a new mission call to serve in England. President Shamo asked us to host them for three days. Since they’ve been out in the field almost as long as we have, we really didn’t need to train them. But we did help with the cultural adjustment. It was fun to hear them say, “Those signs are in English!”



They needed to buy a Satnav (GPS) and a good road atlas. We took them by bus to the church and showed them our Centre for Young Adults. Then a short walk away is Halford’s, an auto parts-type store where the Satnav was purchased. Elder Parrett recalled seeing a road atlas at one of the charity shops for 50p and amazingly it was still there.

The Simons knew our bishop’s son (from Idaho) when he was serving in Poland. Small world. It was great fun to visit with them and hear about their adventures and challenges in Poland.

Because of all the new senior missionaries coming into the mission, they’ve been taking vehicles from the young elders and giving them to the senior missionaries. And since we only drive one or two times a week, we were asked to give up our car. Elder Parrett could only drive on his Idaho license for one year, so we knew we’d be giving the car up at that time (late May). So we’ve been mentally preparing for this day and scheming on how to get to the temple and the stake centre. Actually the mission can help out with that a little and it’ll work out fine.


The passing of the key.

Since it was conference weekend, we mostly watched it via the internet at our flat. Sunday afternoon we watched the Sunday Morning session down at the church on a nice flat screen TV in the centre.

In the afternoon Sis. Simons and I went for a walk in the park across the street. We checked on the tadpoles in the pond. They’re still small but twice as large as they were last week. In the wooded part of the park we saw some people gathered around a tree that looked like they could be geocaching. They were. We talked for a minute and I answered some questions since they are beginners. I told them there was another one nearby that we had placed.



On their way to Newton Abbott and new adventures in England.

YSA Dinner for the Brighton Ward

The Young Single Adults of the Crawley Stake sponsored a Family Home Evening for the Brighton ward members. The YSA wanted to promote awareness among the members of the ward of the activities of the Centre for Young Adults. The evening was also a way to thank the ward members for their support.


There were 40 in attendance which consisted of the YSA, their families as well as members of the Brighton ward. A dinner was served consisting of chili and jacket potatoes which had been prepared by the YSA presidency. One of the pots of chili was vegetarian; we have quite a number of them here.


Rice Krispy treats for dessert.


A spiritual thought on the importance of family scripture study was given, then the evening concluded with games and socializing.


Several comments from the older ward members were heard to the effect of “You do this every Monday Night?” Many had no idea of the purpose of the Centre for Young Adults, but came away with new appreciation for the YSA.

The Office Sisters Visit Brighton

We had Sister Kae and Sister Hess from the mission office join us on Saturday to explore Brighton. Sister Hess had a lovely black eye from a fall earlier in the week.


The first stop for visitors always seems to be the pier.





We pass by the Royal Pavilion several times a week but this was our first time inside. It was absolutely beautiful. This was the seaside pleasure palace of King George IV. “It is built in the Indo-Saracenic style prevalent in India for most of the 19th century, with the most extravagant chinoiserie interiors ever executed in the British Isles.” from Wikipedia





The banquet hall was my favorite room. It has an awesome dragon that holds the chandelier in his claws.


In the royal kitchen they had put a plastic rat on one of the shelves. I'll bet they did have problems with critters.





After a delicious lunch of fish and chips at the Harvester we caught a bus heading east along the seafront and claimed the coveted front seats on top.


We got off at Saltdean oval to walk down to where we had our Christmas photo taken in front of the chalk cliffs.


The tide was way out and Elder Parrett climbed down onto the rocks and on down to the tide pools. He was out of sight and we missed the action. But as he returned he came up a concrete ramp. At the high tide mark there is a lot of green slime which was his undoing. He slipped and slid for a while. Then he couldn’t get up without sliding more, but finally came up to where we were waiting.





His right side was wet with plenty of green slime. Sister Hess and I took his two hankies and cleaned off what we could while Sister Kae took pictures. It was his favorite suit too. By the end of the day he was mostly dried out.


As we walked back up to the highway Sister Kae took some of the loose chalk and wrote kilroy was here on the concrete.

The first bus along was headed to Peacehaven which was about as far east as we wanted to go anyway. We got the front seats on top again. We’ve actually ridden that route before and knew that the end of the line was by a grocery store but that the bus would go on to Brighton. We waited for the bus driver to smoke his cigarette and start the bus again. We didn’t get suspicious when he didn’t make any stops, we just enjoyed the scenery and sunshine. But when he turned into the bus garage we knew something wasn’t right. We quickly climbed down the stairs; the driver was quite surprised to see us. He said the end of the line was Peacehaven. So all that time the bus would have had the sign saying “Not in Service” on the front, but we didn’t know it. We’re still chuckling about it.


To finish off our day we went to the musical, “Dreamboats and Petticoats.” It features the music of our teenage years so we enjoyed it greatly.


The Theatre Royal Brighton first opened its doors to the public on Saturday June 27 1807 with a performance of Hamlet





This important grade II listed building is one of the oldest working theatres in the country with an exquisite example of a regency auditorium





We were intrigued with the two female saxophone players. They even danced while playing.

District Meeting in Crawley

Our last district meeting was held in Crawley (stake Centre) rather than here in Brighton. There were several districts together which made for a livelier discussion plus a rousing opening hymn. It’s great to be with these young people who are so courageous and full of the spirit.



Introductions



As we were discussing a scripture, in walked a disheveled elder who proceeded to tear his shirt off (with great difficulty). Of course it was an old one that he wore over his own shirt.

Elder Lam wrote in Chinese on the “title of liberty” the key words that are in the scripture.

Alma 46:11-13 
11 And now it came to pass that when Moroni, who was the chief commander of the armies of the Nephites, had heard of these dissensions, he was angry with Amalickiah.
 12 And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.
 13 ...and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty)




Afterwards we all went up and signed the title of liberty. It will be like a traveling trophy week to week, being awarded to the district with...well, I’m not sure what the criteria will be.



I was trying to take a still photo but I got this little bit of video.

Zone Conference Visitor

We were privileged to meet and hear from Savannah Stevenson, a lifelong member of the church who played the part of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the Bible videos.

From her website:
“Savannah trained at The Guildford School of Acting. She won a scholarship to the three year degree course and graduated with First Class Honours in Performance and the Principals Award in 2004.

Savannah made West End headlines when she played the iconic role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, with no rehearsal. She stepped in for the matinee performance opposite Pop Idol's Darius Danesh as Rhett Butler the day after opening night. Savannah
was understudy to the role but had not yet been rehearsed. She was word perfect however and played to standing ovations and rave reviews for her following performances.

Recently she was chosen after worldwide auditions to play Mary, Mother of Jesus in new film version of The New Testament for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was filmed on location in the USA.”

Savannah said that she had had opportunities to play parts that weren't up to church standards, but she had turned them down.  When she was interviewed by the church for the part they asked her if she had done anything in her professional career that would show the church in a bad light.  She was able to honestly answer no.

A friend called her on the last day of auditions and encouraged her to try out. The audition included the scene where Mary greets Elizabeth, which wasn’t intended to be included in the final production. However, it turned out so well it became part of the Bible videos.

Savannah also plays Mary later in life. As they were filming the crucifixion she couldn’t watch, even though it was portrayed by actors and not real. She couldn’t look up until the scene where she, as Mary, looked up at her son on the cross.

Her most powerful testimony was that of kneeling at the cross of Jesus when he was crucified.  She described being "pierced" by the Spirit, as he was pierced in his hands and feet. 

Freedom!

After being cooped up in the house for a couple of weeks with tonsillitis, it was exhilarating to get outside and walk around.

And what better place than the pier?





I need to remember to keep my fingers out of the picture!



What fun! I'm ready to go again tomorrow.

This is Brighton

This is Brighton from Caleb Yule on Vimeo.