We cannot believe how fast the time is going by, we are almost one-third of the way through our mission. We feel we have accomplished a lot in the short period of time we have been here but we have a lot of work ahead of us. We have been working hard, because we love the work, but we do get a little weary each night after a 10 or 11 hour day. Since I wrote last we have met or visited with five Ambassadors, Austria, Jordan, Papua New Guinea, D.R. Congo, and Senegal. We really enjoy meeting with the Ambassadors, they are very polite, accommodating, intelligent, and seem to be interested in hearing what The Church is doing for them in their country. We had a long week-end over Memorial Day so we went North to Arden Forest, which is just outside of Birmingham, and stayed at a nice Marriott Resort with a golf course and I did not play. Instead of golf we drove about 20 miles to Warwick Castle, built in 1066, toured the Castle and grounds, and found it very interesting. We then drove to Stratford Upon Avon, about 10 miles away and spent a lovely afternoon walking quaint, old Henley Street with Shakespeare's home and a lot of little shops on it. We had a nice dinner and then went to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and watched Antony and Cleopatra. The play was 3 hours long but it moved right along, I think it helps now we have a better ear for the language and we really enjoyed it. Sunday we went to church in Solihull, which was close by, went back to the hotel, changed and checked out. We then drove home through the Cotswalds which was a fun experience. The Cotswalds is a region of small hamlets and towns that never changed when the Industrial Revolution hit England. To drive through them is like turning the time warp back 200 years. We visited towns like Stole on The Wold, Upper and Lower Slaughter and Brouton on the Water. We really enjoyed it and vowed to go back again and stay in one of the quaint old places We enjoy working with the Ambassadors and one of them, Amb. Qirko from Albania, is very interested in genealogy and finding some of his own ancestors. We have worked closely with him and a senior genealogist at the Family History Centre and hope we find some connections, Albanians are not known for doing genealogy. We have really enjoyed getting better acquainted with him through this process. We love working with the missionaries in the London England Mission, Joyce has become like a surrogate mother to many of them. They are such bright, wholesome, spiritual kids and a real breath of fresh air to be with. We attend their Zone Conference with them and try to take different ones to lunch to get better acquainted. We enjoy working with the Faith Based groups as well, we have attended some interesting events. We had one the other night we attended to hear an Italian woman Appellate Court Judge, Judge Cartabia, speak about Freedom of Religion from a judicial perspective and there is no neutral position that doesn't discriminate some party so there has to be Judicial Accommodation. (think about that one for awhile) It was a very thought provoking lecture and she did a great job. The other great opportunities that comes out of these events is the networking with other attendees. You can see why we love it and really enjoy sharing this experience together. We see the Lord's hand guide us in our work, He opens doors and opportunities for us and we receive special blessings when we are on His errand. We love you all and pray for you daily.

May 21, 2017 I am writing my weekly post for the past month. I apologize for not being more diligent and I appreciate friends that get on me for slacking. We have been very busy and enjoying the work and I will give you a travelogue to cover some of the highlights. I wrote last month about preparing for a luncheon for the Latin American Group(LAG) Ambassadors we invited to give a presentation on Church programs in their countries. There are 21 countries in the LAG, we hosted it at the BYU Centre here in London and expected five or six to show up. We had 11 come, they appreciated the presentation on what we are doing in their countries, over lunch we asked for any questions and they all wanted to talk about The Church, policies, doctrine. We had them there for three hours and the discussion regarding issues like abortion and some of the social issues could not have gone better. We had a powerful spirit that day and they felt it, they all thanked us for the luncheon and many invited us to come and visit with them again. Eleven Ambassadors in a meeting like that was a bases loaded home run. The following weekend we went with our ward to the London Temple, we took advantage of the opportunity because they chartered a van and drove us out there. Other wise it is a tube, train and 20 minute walk to get there, the bus was only an hour and a half. London Temple is kind of a misnomer but it is in the same general area on a map. The Temple is very nice and we welcomed and enjoyed the great spiritual opportunity to go to the Temple. Over the last several weeks we have visited with three new Ambassadors and had a wonderful visit with each of them, they are all very gracious and friendly. Easter weekend was a three day holiday so we took advantage of the time. We rented a car and drove West to a town named Swindon. We stayed there because it is central to where we wanted to visit. The driving on the other side is not bad but "round abouts" are the worst exercise in traffic engineering I have ever encountered. Joyce with a map and GPS navigating and I would still miss turns and get lost. We had a wonderful time though, Bath is a quaint city that dates back to the Roman Bath times of the Roman Empire, we missed Stonehenge because of lack of time but we spent the better part of a day at Highclere Castle touring the castle and walking the grounds and really enjoyed it. It is in a beautiful rural area with a lot of sheep in the fields around it. For those that don't know Highclere is Downton Abbey. The first weekend in May we took the Eurostar train through the Chunnel to Paris. Two hours and 30 minutes and it is a wonderful ride, at points in the countryside the train travels at 180 MPH. We toured the new Paris Temple and it is beautiful. It is quite small but very elegant. We spent Sat. sight-seeing in Paris, went to church on Sun. hopped on the train and came home. We were very impressed by how grateful the French members are to have a Temple and we do not appreciate what a sacrifice members make to attend the temple. Every Temple here has Patron Housing for patrons to stay in while they take excursions to the Temple. It is not a 15 minute commute with convenient parking but usually a long distance so they stay for two or three days to maximize the benefit. We had our friends Mike and Joyce Sibbett come and visit and we spent a fun day sightseeing with them. I wear my Fitbit bracelet to track our mileage, which averages 9,000 steps a day but that day we walked 16,800 steps, welcome to public transportation, but it was fun and fun to get some stories from home. London is known for it's Men's Clubs, which now include women, they are similar to the Alta Club, except they are in beautiful buildings two or three hundred years old. Our friend, The Baronness Nicholson, invited Joyce and I to lunch last week at the Reform Club, a small group she hosted for Matt Holland who is here studying at Oxford for four months. Joyce and I have been meeting with religious leaders from some of the various faiths here, as part of our outreach programme. Yesterday we took a Multi Faith Pilgrimage with the Westminster Interfaith group and visited, Churches, Mosques, a Hindu Temple and a Bahai cemetery. It was interesting but we are keeping what we have. I did have a couple of people tell me they would like to find out more about our religion. Carpe Diem! We are having a wonderful mission, the Lord blesses us every day and we pray that He will continually guide us, it is His work. We miss our family and friends but we are doing what we should be doing right now. Love, Joyce and Stan

The time is really flying by us, it seems. We are staying busy and I guess that helps. We love what we are doing and we feel like we are really serving the Lord so we find our jobs very satisfying. We are very comfortable in our living arrangements and life style in London. Everywhere we go it is tube, bus, walk or take a cab or a combination. We avoid taxi's as much as possible they are expensive and no faster than public transportation. Joyce is getting around on her own very well now, like when she goes to have her hair done, we are true converts to big city living. We love working with our London Mission missionaries, Joyce and several senior sister missionaries made Easter Baskets for the missionaries this week and we attended one of their Zone Conferences. They are truly wonderful young people, committed to the work, clean, wholesome and willing to give of themselves. We always look at them and think of our two grandsons who are also serving now. We are getting ready for a lunch we are hosting next week for seven Ambassadors from Latin American Countries. We are excited to tell them about all of the wonderful things The Church is doing for the people in their country. In, what they call the Latin American Group,21 Ambassadors from Central and South America, we will report that LDS Charities has provided collectively to their countries $3.3 Billion. Keep paying your Fast Offerings. Saturday we had another adventure we went to Hampton Court Palace, which became the home of Henry VIII, after he talked Cardinal Woolsey out of it. It has been added on to several times by subsequent Kings and Queens and the grounds are magnificent. Sir Christoper Wren was the designer of most of it and he is famous for designing St. Pauls Cathedral. It took us two bus transfers to get there but we enjoy sightseeing on the top deck of double-decker buses. We took a train and the tube home public transportation is wonderful and Joyce is very relaxed because she doesn't have to look for parking places for me. We are enjoying the mission, we miss our family and friends, like getting together today for Easter, but we are blessed for our service. We enjoy wearing our Mission Name Badges we have been stopped several times on the street but never a negative. We love you and pray for you. Love, Joyce and Stan

I have been a little negligent on keeping up on our blog but I will repent. Two weeks ago Jennifer, Brett, Jordan and Eliot visited us for four days and we had a marvelous time. We were on the go non-stop, the weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed being together in this wonderful city. We had one work interruption, on Tues. Joyce and I had an appointment with the Ambassador from Kenya who turned out to be delightful and we made a good friend. As we met with her we learned she has visited Salt Lake, attended a Humanitarian Aid seminar there and was very impressed by The Church. We met Jennifer, Jordan and Eliot right after and went to Trafalgar Square, walked down Whitehall past 10 Downing Street and visited the Churchill War Museum or the Bunker. After that we walked around the corner to Westminster, took pictures of Big Ben and walked around the"Estate". Twenty two hours later the deranged Muslim killed people on Westminster Bridge and ran his car into the fence close to where we had been walking. Timing is everything. We were sorry to see the kids leave because we love having visitors. We also met that week with the Deputy Ambassador from India, we had a nice visit and it was fun to see the Embassy. The building is full of Teak Wood and the Security to get in is as tight as The Whitehouse. On Friday we caught the train to Chorley for a meeting of the United Kingdom Public Affairs Council. Chorley is a suburb of Preston and is where the Preston Temple is and the MTC also a big Stake Center. It is a beautiful campus and a great location. The other Public Affairs Missionaries in the UK, Ron and Marie Partridge met us at the train station and drove us around in their car. The Preston Area is very rich in church history and the Ribble Valley where Chorley is. We visited a little village called Downham which was featured in the Church News about a month ago and it is beautiful and quaint. There are no antenna's, overhead wires or any trappings of modern conveniences, it appears as it must have two hundred years ago, a lot of movies are filmed there because of that. Our meetings were good, we had people from Scotland, Wales and England there and it was conducted by an Area Authority 70, Cliff Herbertson. We can tell the difference between an English and Scottish brogue. Sunday, March 26 is Mothering Day or Mums Day in England but we decided we will celebrate on the US Mothers Day. We have also met with the Ambassador from Swaziland, who is a Christian, and very interested in Religions. We have spent a lot of time with Baroness Nicholson, a member of The House of Lord's, planning a summit she conducts in the fall. She is getting an Honorary Doctorate Degree from BYU at the end of April, she is not a member of The Church but very helpful in many ways. We have become very good friends with her. The work is going well, so far we feel we are making a difference and we are enjoying our mission immensely. We miss you all and the association we have enjoyed with each of you, but their is great joy in serving the Lord. Love to all, Joyce and Stan The Hyde Park Chapel and our office

Another week has flown past and we feel like we are in a fast forward mode. One thing that is a little concerning is that our flat is really starting to feel like home. It is amazing how comfortable 670 sq. ft. can feel. We have been able to get all around London on the tube system, we feel comfortable going anywhere and we also really enjoy the bus in non-peak traffic. We sit on the upper level of the two decker buses and use it as a sightseeing opportunity. We are getting our excersise we average over 8000 steps a day on the fitbit and yesterday we walked 13500, that is a little over 6 miles. We really enjoy the mission and working together. We finally feel like we are up the learning curve a ways and able to function effectively. We are required to write a lot of reports, document all of our meetings and what we do, and we have to cc about 8 different people. We were invited to go to a musical on Wed. night, An American in Paris, the old George Gershwin, play but it was very enjoyable. Two musicals in one month, not bad. We had a Zone Conference with our mission on Friday, Pres. Mark Stevens and his wife Sister Jean Stevens are remarkable leaders. We had our Area Authority 70, Andy Phillips, do the training, he is a dynamic young man. The theme of the conference was love and there was plenty of it there. Joyce and I really enjoy studying together, we are studying the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel alternatively. Both good reads, I would recommend it for everyone. We miss home, family and friends but we love what we are doing and we feel blessed to be able to do it and enjoy the blessings. Love to all, Joyce and Stan

It is hard to believe we have been on our mission for a month. We are starting to feel comfortable in the assignment and in the way of life. We take the tube or a bus everywhere we go including the grocery store, church or to appointments. Mass transportation is a good way to go and the system here is rather easy to use. The language is a little problem when you go to the grocery store or the cleaners. Pants is offensive because it refers to underwear, cookies are biscuits,raisins are sultanas and whipping cream is coddled cream. We are getting the programme down though. We have met with several Ambassadors and they have been very receptive to us. We are working with the Honduran Ambassador to host a 23 Latin America Country lunch to explain to them about our Humanitarian Aid programme, Self Reliance, Proclamation on the family and Education. We have made a new friend, Baroness Nicholson, a member of the House of Lords, who is receiving an Honorary Doctrate from BYU in April. We had High Tea with her in the Lord's Dining Room. We have met with Stake Presidents, Area Authority 70's and Regional Leaders to breathe some life into the London Public Affairs Council. We are really enjoying the work and the challenges. The Lord blesses us every day and opens doors for us, we are dependent upon Him for guidance. We try to make Sat. an adventure day and we have been quite successful,after we take our little "trollies", basket on wheels, to the grocery store for weekly provisions. Fortunately Coke Zero is popular here and in the office, so I don't have to smuggle it in. Yesterday we toured the North End on the top of a Double Decker bus, went out to Wimbledon, The All England Tennis Club, went to Leicster Square and bought same day, half price tickets for the musical "Half of A Sixpence. We walked through Chinatown, which is just off Leiscter Square, had a Gelato and enjoyed the play. Yesterday we walked 12,500 steps according to my Fitbit. All of this on a bus or the tube. We feel native. We love to hear reports from home, we pray for our family and friends every day and hope everyone is doing well. Love, Joyce and Stan

This past week we were very busy getting up the learning curve. We have a lot to learn and several reports to file and every email requires 5 or 6 cc's. We have to write the Queen's English because that is the programme they use here and teach at the BYU Centre. Our training in Solihull was very helpful and we are now outfitted with all of our technical tools, phone, wifi and computers. We start our social visits this week with receptions at two embassies and meeting with others in the community. We are very adept at getting around on the tube and buses. Joyce is struggling a little with the transportation because she does'nt have to find us a parking place and tell me where to park. Yesterday was an adventure, we took a bus to Knightsbridge and walked a short distance to Harrods Dept. Store, which is massive. The nice thing about shopping Harrods is everything is so high-end and expensive we just wanted to look. We had a delightful lunch of "fish and chips" in their Great Food Hall and felt we have arrived. We walked around Picadilly Circus and came home exhausted with 10,000 step on the Fitbit. Church at the Hyde Park Ward is very nice with excellent speakers and teachers and real diversity of members. We love you all and hope you are doing equally as well. Love, Joyce and Stan

We have had a wonderful first week in London. We replace Lee and Diann Burk from Logan and they have stayed and help us transition for a week. We have been made to feel so welcome here, the missionaries, the Mission Pres. and his wife, and all of the staff in the mission office. We have a nice, comfortable office which doubles as a lounge for hosting when we have guests. We have learned to navigate the tube and it is quite handy. Joyce has our flat all tricked out and cleaned up and it is starting to feel like home. It is very small but convenient to all of the shops and the the tube stop. We are doing a lot of work contacting embassies, meeting with them and informing them about the church. It is nice to be working together and we have divided up our duties and responsiblities so we both have plenty to do. Sat. we took our little trolley, which is a bag on wheels that you take shopping for groceries, did our shopping and wheeled our trolley home. it is very interesting to adjusting to no car, we either walk or take the tube or both to do anything or go anywhere. We navigated the bus and tube for all of our travels on Sat. from shopping and touring. We attended church at the Hyde Park Chapel, the same building our office is in, the people are very friendly and also very diverse. The Bishop is American and several others are expats but their is a mix of Europeans and Africans and some very interesting accents. Today is Wed. and we took a train an hour and a half North to Sulihall for some additional training. We are about 20 miles from Stratford on Avon and the Cotswalds. WE are learning a great deal about the use of technology and how to work with the media. We are also learning how to spell the English way, it is an intersting programme and very colourful. We miss our family and friends but we are really enjoying the work and the Lord is blessing us. Love, Joyce and Stan

MTC week of training

 We had a marvelous week at the Missionary Training Center(MTC) in Provo, UT. We checked in Mon morning, picked up all of our materials, got our missionary name tags, checked into our room and went to the cafeteria for lunch.  The routine at the MTC is: cafeteria, classroom, cafeteria, classroom , cafeteria and bed. The food is good and we ate our intimate meals with 2000 other missionaries, mostly 18 and 19 years old.  It was fun to see these excited and scared young people that are good looking, clean cut and  worthy to go on a mission. After an orientation and getting acquainted with the other senior missionaries in our cohort, about 50 of them, we started to study "Preach My Gospel", (PMG)  the workbook and guide for missionaries.
We spent most of our time studying the PMG workbook and then discussing the chapters and doing role playing. The second day we actually had to prepare and present a 30 minute lesson to another couple of senior missionaries and they in turn presented to us.  At the close of the lesson we presented  them with a challenge for the night and they presented us with one.  The challenge for each of us was looking at a church video and reporting back the next day.  The video we watched was a talk given by Brad Wilcox, a professor at BYU, entitled "His Grace is Sufficient", a story about forgiveness through the atonement of Christ.  It is worth watching.
Thurs. night we had a chance to visit our grandson, Ethan Ingersoll, who is serving a mission in Provo, Utah, Spanish Speaking.  He looked terrific, recovering from a broken foot, in a walking mission. We visited for about 45 minutes and then had good, affectionate farewell.  Friday we finished late afternoon, and we were happy to get back to our home. We enjoyed a wonderfully spiritual week, great preparation for the mission, made some wonderful new friends and toward the end got used to being call Elder and Sister Parrish.
Love,
Joyce and Stan

Farewell

 

Yesterday, January 22, 2017, we gave our farewell talks in church.
We had an open house at our home afterward and several family members (including our daughter from New York) were there to support us.  We also had many dear friends and ward members join us as well.  We feel so blessed to have such a great support system.  We love you all very much.
A special thank you to all those family members who helped organize and prepare the food for the open house.  We really appreciated it.
We have this week to finalize our preparations as we enter the M.T.C. in Provo on the morning of January 30th.  After a week at the M.T.C. we will leave for London on February 6th.
We will be able to receive emails while in England.  Our email addresses are as follows:

stanley.parrish@myldsmail.net
joyce.parrish@myldsmail.net

Our mailing address is:
Joyce and Stan Parrish
64-68 Exhibition Road
South Kensington
London, SW7 2PA
England

Remember we are 7 hours ahead of Utah time.  We will be able to Skype and will be available under Stan Parrish2

Thanks again for all of your love and support.  We are excited to start this adventure and will keep you posted.