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