Quality Control of the Shoes, Again

It's not the best thing for someone who is trying to get a lot of time in, but the 10:00 Saturday meeting for service was sure nice after our late night.  We met at the Beaver's because of the continuing work at the hall.  I got to work with John again, and we were given the odd floors in a block at South Acton estates.  I think I have worked that territory 5 times in the last week.  (He's not making that up. I have been there almost everyday. Between working the territory and people having calls, the day is never done until we have been to South Acton estates. -Eric) We were finished in an hour, thankfully John had some return visits in the area.  If I haven't explained clearly before, the territory here is tiny.  Instead of checking out a territory(map as they call it),  the whole group is usually working the same area, and then you turn in the not-at-homes.  The next day your list is passed on to someone else, who crosses off the ones they get and turns the list back in.  The amount rarely lasts a morning, so the afternoon is filled with either return visits or street work.  It is a little frustrating to me to work the same areas all the time and not have enough to do, when there are so many places over the world that desperately need the help.  Acton has 14 pioneers and a few continuous auxiliary, so they cover their territory about every 3 weeks to a month.  (14 pioneers to 35 territorys. They say some pioneers who who is coming to the door before it is even opened. -Eric) I guess the lesson is:  even though we seem overwhelmed by all the work we have to do at home, be thankful that you can help cover a greater portion of the field, and actually have houses to go to! At the end of the morning we were doing street work, and John met a person that is born again.  Before the truth that's what he believed, and it was neat to see him really speak with conviction from the heart, even while fighting his stuttering.  That discussion lasted half an hour, and although it wasn't successful it was nice to talk to someone.  One of the side-effects from covering the territory so often is the people know exactly who you are right away, and have that "Oh, you again" look on their faces; because of that each conversation is special.  I met Eric and a few of the pioneers for lunch at Morrison's, then Eric and I went out to do some of our return visits. (Thats right. "Our". -Eric) We had to walk all over creation to get to them, such as to Ealing where we had driven earlier in the week.  Only found one home, which doesn't sound like a big surprise, but when you walk everywhere there is quite an investment in time and energy getting to each door.  Then  I went back to Morrison's at met Estera at 3.  We did more return visits, actually found one of mine home that wasn't earlier, and then did a little territory that she had(perk of working with a pioneer).  The territory ended up being a little north of Ealing, and we quit around 5.  I ended up walking home from there,  took about 25 minutes.  Though my feet were going to fall off, but they somehow stayed attached all the way home. 
As some of you may know, the World Cup just started, and the big England-USA game was on Saturday.  Wanting to get the full experience, we went down to a pub for the game.  They are die hard fans over here, the whole town is decked out in flags, and everyone has their gear on. We got to the pub and ordered our food, and right away the bartender was like "I know who you'll be rooting for".  Then when the cook brought out the food the crowd was busy mocking the US during the national anthem, and the cook told us to tell them off for it.  So somehow, accents or otherwise, everyone immediately knew we were Americans.  We quickly cleared up that we don't follow the American football team, and would be rooting for England.  This seemed to please them and they let us be.  England scored quick, and a load roar erupted from everywhere.  The game ended up being not terribly exciting, no more noise after that until USA scored on a goalie error, then i thought they were going to riot.  The game ended in a tie, not much fun at all.  Afterwards we were told that tying with the US is still like a loss to them.  Afterwards we went home, exhausted once again. (I love watching games in sports pubs. Sometimes football can be boring to watch but with the crowd of fans in a pub it can still be fun. -Eric)