I Don't Know How She Puts Up With Us!

Our goal for this month has been to get our time in first so then we could go play.  After the previous day's laziness, we got right back to it on Tuesday.  In the morning i went out with Japanese sister named Acki(complete guess at spelling, that's how it sounds).  Her and her mother have been in England just over a year.  They had the goal of joining the English congregation back in Japan, and the circuit overseers recommended they come here to learn the language better.  Since the Beavors were missionaries there, and through some connections the two sisters came to live with them.  Just recently the sisters went to Tanzania for a month to help out, just cause they heard there was a need.  They just got back 5 days ago, and are full of experiences.  They are heading back to Japan at the end of this month, its quite an amazing story, more then I can tell in writing.  We did intercoms all morning, and had a nice discussion near the end.  I must confess that we drove to the territory, as it was quite far.  I had no plans until 4, so left Eric and went back home.  Then around 2:30 I received a call from Estera that her mid-afternoon partner had cancelled, and needed someone to go out with.  She was already my 4:00 appointment, so it worked out.  Because of the lack of territory explained earlier, we had nothing to do at the moment, and started out just street witnessing.  We eventually worked out way to the High Road, and caught a bus out to Ealing.  She then showed me a park I didn't know about, Gunnersbury Park, which is amazingly large for the city.  We walked on the paths talking to people as we went.  Park witnessing is easier than on the street, they are much more relaxed and in less of a hurry, not to mention less noise.  It took us over half an our to walk the perimeter, talking to people with varying success.  We found a man just sitting on a bench, and I asked to sit down a share a scripture.  He said he wasn't interested in religion, but we asked why, and eventually he opened up.  I was able to talk to him for close to half an hour; thank goodness I was with a pioneer to remember all the scriptures!  He declined a Bible study, but took the book and said he knew where to go if he ever changed his mind about religion.  Just as I was getting all fed up with this territory, I have one of the best conversations I've ever had; that will teach me not to complain!  Afterward we caught a bus back to the High Road for a call and a quick bite.  We had the NH list from the morning, and this time we ended up walking all the way there to finish up. Then we walked all the way back to some calls near the High Road, then south and west to a call near the infamous Ealing.  We street witnessed again all the way back to Acton, did one call of hers and then one of mine.  Finally by 7:00 pm our day was done.  Somehow we had survived each other from 2:30-7, guess it says something about the pioneer spirit(or desperation to get our time in;).  (In the morning i worked with a sister named Mercy. She is the wife of an elder in the hall and they are both pioneering. Almost everyone that was at the meeting for field service went to the same territory so we got a lot done that morning. Mercy is a mid-wife so she had some interesting stories as well. We then went back to the hall and i met a younger brother named Michael. He is i think 26, but is still active and fun to be around. It was nice to be with another younger brother and talk about sports, cars, and food. Sorry sisters but you just don't get it. After we worked in the territory for awhile we did some street work. Then he asked if i wanted to go watch the Portugal vs Ivory Coast game. In case you don't know, the World Cup is going on and so everything kind of revolves around that at the moment. Well of course i agreed to go. So we walked down to an authentic Portuguese pub and got some food and drinks and settled in to watch the game. Since it was a Portuguese place, the tele was all in Portuguese and everyone there was speaking Portuguese. But it was still very fun. People have so much energy when they watch football that it makes it easier to get into. -Eric) The long day was no excuse to avoid our evening ritual, so Eric and I went out to get in a few matches.  Admittedly they weren't the most energetic, but we were pretty pleased with our skills.  We then hunted down some ice cream and fell into deep slumber.