Tom was serving as a sealer several times this week and I was usually assigned as “sealers” assistant to him and the other sealers. This is one of our favourite assignments and we had some special experiences. On Saturday President Jensen sealed a Samoan couple and their seven children. Always exciting when small children are in the Temple. Tom sealed a British/Italian sister to her deceased parents after he first performed her parents sealing. Her whole family were together for this much anticipated occasion and they were all very touched. We also had a young adult girl come in her wheelchair. Her two friends had brought her to the Temple that day and did everything she wanted to do in the Temple. I asked if she had CP and she affirmed that she did but she still really wanted to kneel to perform the family sealings she had brought to do. She had never done sealings before and as I stood outside door I could hear weeping when the first sealing was performed. It was very sweet. The Temple provides you the opportunity to interact with special people as they participate in sacred work that has great meaning to them.
Dora Robertson, one of our single missionary sisters, invited us to lunch on Friday before we served our shift. She lives in one of the small bachelor suites in the Manor House and was able to sit at the table and without getting up, serve the food from the stove and the kitchen counter. It was a lovely lunch and such a kind thing for her to do for us. She is from Slovenia and will be returning home after the closure. She has been in England for years but her elderly father in Slovenia needs her and she is going to be with him.
Our coordinators, the Davenports, served their last day on Saturday. They have been very helpful and very kind to us. A new couple from Ontario arrived Friday. They are the Seaggers and the first new missionaries to arrive since our group in January. We have quite a few leaving soon so we are hoping we have replacements for them. It is a little concerning as our group is quickly moving up the seniority line and we still feel like we are learning. We really have remarkable, consecrated people serving here, all with their own interesting stories, heartbreaks and experiences. Everyone who comes, however, are experienced Temple workers. That is what we all have in common. Everyone loves serving here and as we have considered why that is, we have come to the conclusion that it is because we all serve every day in a remarkable environment and even when we leave, we all live together here on the Temple grounds, again in another remarkable environment of love, kindness and concern for one another and it is truly a Zion bubble.
Keith and Lynda Rushforth invited us for dinner on Sunday. They are a British couple and he is also a sealer. They are a wonderful couple and we really had fun with them us they explained where and how we should travel and they also shared with us the interesting, heartbreaking and eventually happy story of their daughter Katie. They are friends, as well as many others, that we would like to keep after we leave England.
Churchill’s Chartwell
The Shurtleffs at Chartwell
Chartwell
On Monday the vans took us to Haskin’s beautiful new plant nursery just down the road where we shopped and ate at the cute restaurant. They then drove us to Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s home, only about eight miles away. It is still furnished with their furnishings in the decor Lady Churchill planned. His clothes, uniforms and many of his awards were on display and many of his paintings hung on the walls. We would like to go back when the beautiful gardens are in bloom and the weather is warmer so we can walk around the large property. When both vans go, we take about 20 missionaries with us. We took a picture of the Shurtleffs standing behind Chartwell. They are a great couple. They have served as a Temple, Mission and MTC President and wife. He is a world known composer and conductor. They are fun and funny. They keep thinking they are old but aren’t we all.
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