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)

Work and Play

Throughout the week we had been hearing about remodeling work at the Kingdom Hall, and Thursday after service we stopped by the hall to talk with the brothers.  They told us they would start at 7:30, and that's when we showed up Friday morning.  Right away we were greeted with a cup of tea, something that would be repeated many times.  The early jobs were just miscellaneous prep so we could do wallpaper later, such as moving bulletin boards and taking radiators off the wall.  They use plaster board instead of drywall, so after repairing any defects we got to spend an hour sanding the walls smooth.  The work slowed late morning, and to fill the time we had about 3 more tea breaks. (In an hour. -Eric)  We did get to meet brothers front the other 2 congregations, so the time wasn't wasted.  Lunch was lasagna and a whole lot more.  We started putting up the paper right after we ate.  This was different than the other times I've helped this crew; usually the paste is applied when the paper is cut, but here we put it directly on the wall.  Not a big problem, just had to learn and more of a pain in my opinion.  We were working on the second school, which for some reason had all sorts of fun corners and small sections to navigate.  While there i meant a brother named Drew who had just arrived back from the Congo on Sunday, working as an International Volunteer, which is what i want to do.  Only got to talk a little, but hopefully will see more of him soon.  We worked till 5, with a few more tea breaks thrown in for good measure. (I have never done wall papering so i wasn't much help with that. But i did get to paint some cabinets. -Eric) Afterwards we went back to get ready for the show.  Sister Elkington was cooking curry for the Saturday meal at the build, I've never seen such a big kettle in my life. (She was cooking two smaller pots of curry as well. -Eric) We grabbed a quick shower to remove the plaster dust that covered us from head to toe.  After that if was off to Turnham Green again, and we used our newly acquired underground skills to zip into town.  We arrived a little earlier than expected, so we walked around town for a little bit.  The show was at 8, and we got to the theatre around 7:40.  We had fifth row middle seats, and the show was called Stomp.  For those not familiar, they are a group that does rhythm based performance on everyday items such as trashcans, brooms, matchboxes, buckets, just hands, etc.  It was a high-energy, fun show for sure.  They had it broken into sections, each with its own skit intertwined into each performance.  I highly recommend going to see it if you ever have the chance.  It lasted about 2 hours, afterwards we could have checked out London at night, but were too tired from all the work and play so we went straight home and fell into bed.

Thurday, Touristing Day 1

It was finally time for a vacation from out vacation.  The public transport rates go down after 9:30, so we gave ourselves a little cushion and left at 12.  (I thought we would be much safer leaving at 1 but it all worked out. -Eric) We walked 15 minutes down to Turnham Green Station, the nearest place to catch the Underground(<--formal name, also the tube or subway).  The ride into the city was about 45 minutes, and involved a changeover that only allowed us 30 seconds to find the next train.  We handled it like pros.  Took the second train to Holborn; we didn't realize how far under the city we were until we got on the escalators to get out- it was a 2 minute ride, and we estimate about 4 or five stories up.  We snagged a map from an information booth, and strolled off, trying not to look like tourists.  We found our first turn fine, but then were a little eager with our strides and overshot the destination by a few blocks.  No worries though, we got a picture of one of the sweetest cars every as a result of going too far.  A few minutes later we arrived at the British Museum.  The bottom floor was all about Africa, the pieces were not extremely old, but it was very interesting.  Next was a section about the Americas, and after was the Asian countries floor.  Probably one of the most popular rooms in the building was the Egyptian exhibit.  They had many different types of coffins, as well as a few actual unwrapped mummies.  (I hope the pictures turn oh well. You can see the hair on some of the mummies because they were so well preserved. -Eric) Next was the Mesopotamian room, which included some of Rome.  By the time we got to the ancient Britain section our intellectual quota had been more than filled, (I have an intellectual quota...? -Eric) and we decided to call it a day.  The museum is unfathomably large, you really could spend weeks there to learn about each piece.  Be sure to check out our slideshow of the museum on the Photos page.   We will go back another day to finish up, and hopefully do one of the Bible Tours that the brothers run.  We will explain more about this later, but if you would like to learn more googling "meander tours" will bring you to the information.  After the museum we grabbed a quick lunch at Subway, and decided what else to do.  After a web search we decided to go down to the theatre district, called Leicester (Pronounced Les-ter. -Eric) Square.  We a good deal a place called tkts, which the the theatre associations official outlet; we got fifth row middle tickets for Friday night at about half of the list price.  The streets around the square were filled with neat shops, and we spend some time checking out the, umm-interesting, fashions in Europe.  (Well some of them are totally sweet. I am going to get this really cool leather jacket before we leave. -Eric) We then took the Underground back home, and ate at a nice place called Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  I think they are a chain, so if you ever see one be sure to check it out, the food was excellent. Afterward we went back home for some tennis again, and played till dark.

Wednesday, London day 7

Wednesday we went out with a pioneer couple.  You're not going to believe this, but we actually got to ride in a car!  The territory was in Ealing, which is about a 25 minute walk, and the pioneer couple we were with had a car and decided to use it!  Only with great difficulty were we able to contain ourselves and not break out into song and dance.  (Doesn't sound like much but after walking you know probably literally at least 12 miles a day a car ride is amazing. -Eric) Michael is a former Bethelite and an MTS grad, Mercy is from Ghana,  and they're both regular pioneers.  The territory started above storefronts, with the doors on the back side.  Wasn't much interest here, and we moved on to a more residential area. Once again not much interest until at one of the last doors I had a nice conversation. Afterwards we went back home for a lunch.  The group met again at 2.  Michael was out again, and we couldn't believe our ears when we found out we would be riding in a car for the second time in one day.  We drove to one of the nicer neighborhoods in the area for more territory. I worked with a brother named John.  He is in his 70's, and is another one in the hall that struggles with stuttering.  He has difficulty with comments, but still gets at least one every meeting.  I was amazed, though, once we got to the door he was a totally different person.  Yes the speech was slow, but smooth and strong and convincing.  It really shows what speaking from the heart and relying on the Holy Spirit can do for person. (Like the Watchtower recently about how it is the Holy Spirit that is guiding the preaching and helping ones who have extreme shyness or other reasons that they would not want to do the preaching work. -Eric) The people in this neighborhood were friendly but overall not really searching.  We went back home again afterwards, this day had lots of stop and go.   Eric went out with a sister in the evening, and when he got back we played tennis till dark.  For the first time it was actually decent competition, I definitely wouldn't say we're good yet, but getting past the part of feeling sorry for the opponent if we hit it to hard.  (I think it because we had so much more energy from riding in the car a couple times that day. -Eric) Then we went to sleep in decent time (Like 1ish. -Eric) in preparation for the big plans we had for Thursday.

Mega Tuesday

Tuesday the 8th was another service day, and nothing else.  We started with the group, I went with a brother named Ivan and we did the odd numbered floors on block of flats (group of apartments).  This only took an hour or so, and we tried a few return visits and called it a morning.  Right as we quit I got my first taste of London rain.  It came fast and the wind whipped from seemingly every direction.  But in a few minutes if calmed down to a drizzle.  I camped out under the small awning over the door and the KH, but after 20 minutes and no Eric, I guessed that he had made plans for the afternoon, so I went home.  (In the morning i worked with a sister named Anna. A very nice sister who i believe is a pioneer. Then I met Estera at 12 at Morrisons. I can't remember if we explained what Morrisons is but basically its a market with a cafe attached. Its a very common meeting place for witnesses to eat and meet up with their next partners. We did some territory then just some calls. -Eric) After a quick lunch I went down to Acton Park to do street work.  In this case it was just wandering around looking for people that weren't in a rush, and there were a few that were very nice and thankful for the tracts/brochures. A few laps around the park, and I walked towards town for more street work, but again the sky decided to drop it's contents.  This was no drizzle, it poured for 10 minutes.  I had plans with Estera for the evening, and I met her around 4.  (I then did some street work and walked through Acton Park. I also walked through the city trying to speak to people as best i could. After that i walked down to Chiswick High Road. I got a SIM card for my phone and had a little trouble working it out. Oh and by the way, sorry to you all that i am supposed to be emailing (you know who you are) but we have just been busy and I have not had any data service for my phone. Oh well at least you have the blog right? -Eric) We did return visits all over town (yes I can say we, I have 2 of them), and then took the bus to some territory.  The buildings were more intercoms (joy!(sarcasm)), but one of them unlocked the front door. It turned out to be a young man, and she showed him the book.  He picked the chapter about "Who was Jesus?" and off we went 30 minutes and half a chapter later we were walking out the door.  She was shocked and overjoyed that it worked out so well on the initial call, just the way it works on the platform!  We decided to do a few more calls, and the last one was an agnostic young man, studying theology.  There were many good points exchanged and he is really searching through everything, but just couldn't be swayed into searching with the help of a Bible study.  That little discussion lasted 45 minutes, and it was suddenly 8 pm and the conclusion to another long day in the ministry.  That evening we got our second round of tennis in, slightly better, but still just shy of Wimbledon caliber.

Back at it, London day 5

Monday morning was service again.  Sorry to disappoint all you hoping for big city stories and adventures, that is coming soon as long as we get a nice hours cushion built up.  We worked with two brothers house over house, and finished the street in less than an hour.  We went to the next street over for more intercom witnessing, o joy!  This particular section was also interesting because we were going the houses above businesses, and their doors were right on the street.  So we were knocking on door and talking to people as someone ate breakfast literally right next to us at a sidewalk cafe.  Towards the end we had an encounter with a dog, and I'm just guessing Michael was a bit scared, as I was suddenly standing alone and looked back to find him back in the road.
We went home after service to study and rest, and then went to Doug and Kam's for dinner.  Over a authentic Oriental meal we had the privilege of learning about all their years as missionaries and the circuit work in Japan.   We could write a book just about what we learned, and will give you details about this at a later time.  The meeting was Monday night because of the remodeling mentioned in a previous post, so we went strait to the hall from dinner.  Their young kids (under 12) are amazing, the comments make us look bad.  One boy, about 7-8, gave one of the best Bible readings I have ever heard, and of course with the perfect British accent.  The number 3 talk was given by a brother who has struggled with stuttering for years, and he was obviously fighting the whole time, but gave a very good heartfelt talk.    The local needs was a new experience for us.  To get the optimal level of religious recognition, the congregation needs to be registered as a charity in the UK.  Once you are a charity, you are required to have a president, secretary, treasurer, etc, as well as hold an annual meeting to review the state of the charity.  The local needs turned into the annual meeting, and they financial situation was discussed along with lots of other terribly boring business matters (taxes, legal mumbo jumbo).   The brother barely took a breath go get it to all fit in the allotted 10 minutes. (When they opened the talk that was the annual meeting the words they were using were very interesting. Actually we got a little nervous and wondered what in the world was going on. But it all turned out fine. -Eric) The last part about the foreign language field was confusing at first until we realized it wasn't really directed at us.  There is an Albanian group that meets on the same night, they do their school separate and then join us for the Service meeting.  He went on and on about the special search work, which we were thoroughly perplexed by.  But it was explained later that this is simply going to doors and asking is they have any neighbors nearby that speak a particular language.  The congregation then butchered the song, we were pros at it.  After the meeting we scrambled to book service partners before schedules locked in, the competition is not for the faint hearted. I was only semi-successful, got 2 confirmed, but will refine my technique and do better next time.  (I of course dominated and after fighting people off, claimed my turf and got booked to work in service with different ones all the next day. -Eric) After meeting we walked outside to our first rainstorm of the trip, and had a jolly good time sprinting home in our suits.

Finally, a Lazy Day

After a week of non-stop busy-ness, we got a little bit of a reprieve on Sunday.  Their meeting isn't until 12:30, so we were able to sleep in.  Meeting was quite interesting, as we have been having a good time observing the accents in this very multinational congregation.  On this occasion, the speaker was of Oriental descent, and his speech was marked by his native cadence but marked with the British accent.  (The brother was an excellent speaker. He told some hilarious stories which would be hard to re-tell now but when we get back we can try to relate them. -Eric) This lesson in linguistics continued with the Watchtower Study.  The conductor was from Greece and still retains that speaking style; Brother Beavor, born an English gentleman, read using perfect Queen's English.  We are actively trying to obtain this desirable speaking style, but for some reason just haven't quite got a handle on it yet.  (There are so many accents in this congregation, at times it can be hard to understand each other. A few have a little trouble with understanding the American accents. In one comment I heard a Gerhoviya, which is Jehovah by the way. -Eric) After meeting we went to the park to practice our football skills, slight improvement was noted.  Then, as the majority of British families still do, we had Sunday dinner.  This time it consisted of roasted glazed pork, broiled garlic potatoes in special vinegar, Yorkshire pudding, (Not pudding in case you were wondering. -Eric) applesauce from green apples, and steamed carrots and broccoli.  We decided the scrumptious meal needed to be worked off, and decided on a whim to try out the tennis courts nearby.  Neither of us had ever routinely played the game before(we had no real experience).  We should have brought brown paper bags to wear on our heads, but instead we had to suffer the embarrassment out in the open.  We started out slow, just trying hit it in the proper direction, then over the net.  Keeping it inside those white lines was just a dream at this point, over the net was a cause for celebration.  (Whoever made the net that high is a cruel man, or woman whichever. -Eric) I think it is fair to assume that never before at Wilkinson Park had so many tennis balls flew over the rather high fences surrounding the court.  (He's exaggerating, it was only like 2ish. -Eric) As the evening wore on we improved ever so slightly, and were feeling rather good about our abilities.  We decided to go home, write a little to satisfy you guy's insatiable appetite for blogs, and get some rest.  Look out Federer , we're coming for you.