Ya Alright?

We delight in the differences in the language. We were walking along the street today listening to the lady behind us talking Yorkshire loudly on her MOBILE.  I wish I could write the way she spoke--roughly:
"I wa' te taw te yeow."  (I want to talk to you.) 
When we hear someone speak we try to mimic the way it sounds but our mouths don't form the words properly.  They hold their face and bodies different -- it looks rather formal.  I wonder if we look too casual when we talk.
There is a delightful little waitress at the local carvery that I would like to record.  She has a sweet little voice that makes the Yorkshire accent such that we can just barely make out the thought.  We walked in the other night and she snuck up behind and sang, "Ya alrigh'?" That is the phrase that is equivalent to "How are you?" or "How ya doin'?" at home.  I like the way the maintenence guy at our building says it.  He says: "Ya alright!" without the question mark.  I feel like I am alright.
So sometimes when I am talkin' wi' sumun on the tele we both have to slow--down---real--slow to communicate.   T'is brilliant tryin' to learn the lingo!!! ;

Making the change

     There are so many things that are the same here and so many things that are different.  We love watching all that goes on around us. 
     We have moved into a small home in the Kirkstall area of Leeds.  We live near a 12th century abbey called Kirkstall Abbey.  There are marvelous ruins that are surrounded by a lovely park along the River Aire.  Our house is on a hill that has a view of the river valley.  Our upstairs bedroom window faces east and on clear days we get a spectacular sunrise.  Our house is attached to another house,  (we would call it a duplex), which is very common here.  The interior is small and neat.  We do have to dance around each other a little in the small areas like the kitchen and ...well, everywhere else.
     One thing that has been challenging is driving.  Largely because the driver is on the right side of the car instead of the left and we all drive on the opposite side of the road.  We have a Vauxhall Meriva.  It is a small deisel vehicle that seems sip fuel in an acceptable manner for around 8 bucks a gallon.  We, however, buy it in liters which confuses us enough to help us forget how much we are paying.  At any rate, we still enjoy driving around seeing this beautiful country. 
     We work pretty hard every day from 9 to 5.  Lorraine is the secretary to the mission president and the spark plug for the mission.  I am the financial secretary and see that the missionaries get there living allowances and that rent and utilities get paid.  It has been exciting working with the utility companies to keep things going for 54 flats.  It is fun to try to talk things through with our different accents.  I am trying to learn to use phrases and terms that make it easier for them to understand me.

England is a bit jollier!

We have arrived in England. We flew in on September 10,2011 to Manchester, England. We were greeted at the airport by President and Sister Lindley. They took us on a scenic route back to Leeds. We stopped by a lovely stream where Orson Hyde had baptised many in 1837 and dedicated ourselves to our mission.

We have been in Leeds a little over a week now and are busy learning our duties. There seems to be plenty of work to do.

Trip to the Seashore Sept 17,2011

Saturday was a lovely day. We went touring around with the Jensens, Westons, and Youngs in the mission van. We went to the eastern coast and the weather was Beautiful. The scenery was fantastic and we really enjoyed getting to know each other. I think we have some great pictures.

Here is a photo of Whitby Abbey from our trip to the eastern seashore. England is so beautiful!

MTC Friends

We have also really enjoyed the other couples in our group of 27 missionaries. Our favorites are Elder and Sister Howes, Elder & Sister Hall and Elder and Sister Jensen. People from our group are going all over the US and the world. Two couples are going to Africa.

Lorraine -The MTC

September 4, 2011

We have completed a week here at the Missionary Training Center and it has been wonderful. It is really great to see all the young elders and sisters with their bright and earnest faces. They are so good! They usually will race ahead to open doors for us and sometimes clear away our trays after dinner, just to be nice. Gary says that we feel like rocks in a stream and he is right. The young folks all move so fast!

We had classes Monday –Friday with wonderful young returned missionary teachers. We really grew to love them. We taught lessons to “investigators” and listened to some great guest speakers. Some of the speakers are quite old and have served missions all over the world.

Counting Down

We are now counting down the days until we depart. We do not, however, know when that will be. Our call letter said that we would report to the MTC 0n September 5th. President Lindley, our mission president called and reassigned us to work in the mission office. He also asked that we come 2 weeks earlier, if possible. So our target date is August 22nd. We are not sure the visa issues can be resolved in the time available, so we will see. We have been in contact with the couple we will be replacing and are getting alot more information.