Nearly Settled

Our landlord, having just returned from vacation two weeks ago, checked out our complaint of pet urine odor in the carpet, and we had new carpet 48 hours later (great response!).  While the old carpet was up we treated the worst spots on the floor with vinegar, then baking soda, but the odor returned when the new-carpet smell faded.  However, sprinkling half a pound of baking soda on top of the carpet and letting it work its way in may have finished the odor, though it’s a bit early to declare victory.   Febreeze helps too, but we’re giving most of the credit to the baking soda.  Why put this in a mission blog?  Well, you may need to know it someday.

With the carpet replaced, we have now added a dresser, a wardrobe, and a permanent bed to our furnishings.  Our Vauxhall station wagon is very handy for hauling furniture home.  We really feel for the couples in London with unfurnished flats and no cars in which to haul furniture.   On the other hand, gasoline (petrol) is a bit over $8 per US gallon.

In the past two weeks we’ve met with local church leaders to receive further direction on our assignment with the Center for Young Adults and have met a number of the young adults with whom we’ll be working.  We spoke in church on Sunday.  There are roughly 200 young adults in the three congregations with which we are concerned.  We are greatly impressed with the caliber, vision, and commitment of the church leaders here.  When we mentioned to the stake president that we are without Internet access until Aug. 1, he pulled a cellular wi-fi hotspot out of his pocket and said, “Here, use this.”  Talk about being prepared for everything!

New Forest Free-ranging Horse

The Andrews, our hosts and guides for most of the past month, took us to their place at the beach in Dorset via New Forest, a large park and former hunting ground of kings, where horses and cattle roam without fences.  The beach reminds us of the Oregon coast, where one may need a jacket in the summer.  A distinctive feature of this beach is that it has ocean-going swans.

Ocean-going Swans with Isle of Wight on Horizon

The Shopping Mission

We enjoyed our first meeting with our younger missionary colleagues this week.  I am very much impressed with their abilities, enthusiasm, and spiritual depth.  To me they seem better qualified for this work than I was at their age.  We also spent 2 evenings at the Southampton Center for Young Adults, being oriented and trained by Elder and Sister Andrews.

Our Living Room

Shopping:  We have spent most of our first 10 days in Southampton shopping to furnish our "flat" or townhouse (unsure whether a townhouse is a flat), with considerable success, acquiring a sofa ("settee") from Ikea, a nice used oak table and chairs, dishes, utensils and miscellaneous other items needed to fill a home.

Wheels turn slowly...  We should have Internet service in 2 weeks, until which time we get by with wi-fi at the church or by infrequently renting BT wi-fi for £5/day.  A week after opening a local bank account, we received a letter saying our initial deposit in the form of a check in US dollars would be credited to our account in 6-8 weeks, which seems rather slow for the 21st century.  We withdrew cash from an ATM with our US debit card and deposited it in the local bank in order to have a balance with which to qualify for Internet service.

Our Home for the Next 17 Months

We are settling in to what will be our home for the next 17 months or so.  We have a car due to the size of our area (a stick-shift Vauxhall station wagon).  Paul, due to some perverse genetic mutation, or perhaps just from being a guy, actually prefers a stick shift for driving in England, where the roundabouts require constant shifting.  An interesting detail about driving we learned last week:  a US driver’s license will do for 12 months, but after that we have to have English licenses, which involve mandatory lessons, expensive tests, and perhaps a 6-month effort to acquire.  This requirement seems to be safety-related until one learns it doesn’t apply to Canadians driving here.  One may perhaps be pardoned for suspecting that it’s related to an incident that occurred in the colonies in 1776.

Our House (blue door, on right)

Our house is quite nice, about 12.5 ft wide inside, two storeys (English for stories), two bedrooms, a washing-machine hookup in the kitchen, and a fenced back yard.  It was unfurnished (that includes nothing in the kitchen but an oven and hob), so we’ve done some shopping [understatement] and still have a lot to do.  We ate our first home-cooked meal here today, on a table consisting of two upside-down suitcase and a microwave box. Translation:  we have some pots and pans, dishes and silverware now; we do not have any furniture except a small chest and two patio chairs loaned to us by the Andrews family and two air mattresses we bought the first night (in retrospect, we should have also bought blankets and figured out how to turn on the heat the first night). We are trying to scout out used furniture stores, but they are widely scattered so shopping takes a long time.  Thank goodness for GPS!  And with church / mission responsibilities starting this week, we are hoping we can find something quickly.

Our Back Yard

Our address is

12 Quob Farm Close

West End, Southampton

England SO30 3HE

We have an inexpensive cell phone issued by the mission, the number of which is 07800 61 5397.  I believe to call from the US you precede it by 011 44 and drop the first 0 of the English number.

The church members here have been wonderful.  The Andrews, a local couple who have been working with the Young Single Adult center here, have fed us, showed us the stores and charity shops we are and will be frequenting for furniture; given us furniture and a refrigerator and dishes; helped us get established in every way, even offering us space in their home until we get settled (which we declined because we wanted to rough it just a little); and introduced us to church members.  Everyone we have met has been very gracious and kind.