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Elder Watts' Web Page

"Thoughts"   The World is a Cultural Yarn Shop.  It's our opportunity to weave the ultimate tapestry.   London Missionary Experience 2 December 2008 We were given tickets to a Christmas Carol Service at St. Luke's Church on Sydney Street  this evening.  It was a charity event for asthma research.  St. Luke's is the parish church of Chelsea.  It was consecrated in 1824 and is typical of many of the old churches we have seen here in London.  The program included The Boy's Choir of Westminster Under School, some readers, who are notable BBC, TV and arts personalities, and congregation singing.  The Choir was great, but sang way too little.  They had the voices of angels and the pipe organ was incredible.  Interesting old church.  Obviously not heated and it was a cold day -- high temperature 23° but felt like 11° with and 17mph wind.  I've become a hat and scarf user - these are common clothing staples for Londoners. 3 December 2008 We started our day by walking to President Foulger's flat for a 'Bell' practice at 9am.  Have to walk at that hour(before 9am) or pay to ride the bus.  Our old-people-passes don't kick in until 9am, which would have made us late for the practice.  We've learned five numbers and will perform them several times beginning with Zone Conference next week.  It's been pretty fun, but a little difficult, especially for the other elder in the group.  He has struggled a little with counting and coming in at the right times, but he's close to getting it.  Lots of band stuff has made it pretty easy for me.  Mom does really well. Then we had our weekly staff meeting at 10am, and we were then through until 5pm when we were back to the FHC for the late shift until 9pm.  Lots warmer today -- a little drizzle this morning but sunny and mild the rest of the day.   Mom had an assignment from our director, Sharon, to try and find a death date / record for a man.  Today she found it!! :)  Hooray! I helped a couple, who were looking for ancestors in Australian records.  This is not our forté but, I was able to show them where to find what we do have, which was quite a lot.  They were thrilled and found one of their ancestors.  As they left, the man said to me, "God bless you and your church for what you are doing here." Another lady was having some trouble viewing images, which I was able to help her work out.  She was pretty happy as well. One of the things we've been told about is Medieval Heraldic Visitations.  When I first heard this, it sounded like a visit from the 'ghost of Christmas Past' or something.  But, it's just the art and collections of Coats of Arms.  You can look them up Here.   Supposedly ours looks like: Another interesting thing you can do is see the population of the Watts's at each of the UK censuses.  This shows how the Watts families migrated over each 10-year period.  If you want to take a look you can see this Here. We're plugging along as best we can, and, little-by-little, contributing more each day.  The patrons are wonderful people.  A number are continuing patrons, who are here very regularly, but many are first-timers and are thrilled to find an ancestor. One regular found an 'apprentice' certificate for an ancestor, who at age 14, was noted to be 'poor' and apprenticed to become a ribbon weaver.  He said, "Just think -- if he had not been given that opportunity, he might have died in a poorhouse and I might not have ever been born." There are lots of stories to be uncovered that make up the tapestry of our lives. Love, Dad