We made some toast and had some muesli for breakfast and then we popped off to Caerphilly for 9am Church. The meetings were good. I was shocked at how people had actually prepared for the lesson. They had a ward Facebook page where the information was shared for RS and Sunday school and they actually read the reading for the classes. They even talked about how the youth are doing assignments and following up by sharing at the beginning of class each week (if we could only get our youth to do that as well!). After the meetings, the Forwards caught up with all their old friends from the Caerphilly ward and Tom and I chatted with whomever approached, though Jenny and Sarah (her friend from last night) were pretty good to not leave us (even though we insisted we were fine on our own).
After about an hour, we followed the Forwards to Jan's house (Steve's sister that came with us yesterday). The whole family was there: Jan and Roy's son and daughter who each have a spouse and a son. Grand-dad was there and us and the Forwards. Jan made us a proper English Sunday roast dinner with pork, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and roast vegetables with gravy poured over the whole of it (they serve the plates, you don't dish yourself... they just presented us with a completely piled plate) with mint sauce and applesauce for us to apply as desired. After finishing our large dinner, it was Teddy's first birthday (one of Jan and Roy's grandsons), so we ate chocolate cake with cream poured over it. Jan also served fruit salad and strawberry trifle, so we had to have those as well. After talking for a bit, the Rocky Road came out, which was sort of like a chocolate fudge with bits of biscuits and marshmallows and dried fruits and other things mixed in. It was really good. Moral of the story: we ate well and now we're stuffed.
We had a fabulous time talking to all of them. Jan was a nurse and was telling me all sorts of stories of her experiences. Then they all started talking politics. It was the most cordial, fact-based political discussion I've ever heard. Basically, it sounded as if they weren't sure whether to vote in or out of the EU this week, so they were going over the facts. It sounded as if they were leaning IN, but they're still not sure. The whole family is the nicest, greatest people. We had some great conversations about the gospel and the world and everything else. Jan pulled out our smoked salmon at this point for everyone to try. Joshua was the only kid that would try it ("it's not bad...it's a bit strange") but he went back for some more. Jan and Roy and Steve all quite enjoyed it as well as Grand-dad. Jenny said "I don't like fish, but this is actually alright." So there you have it.
We took pictures (Ethan took the picture of all of us so he's not in it and that's why it's pretty hilarious because he also never told anyone when he was going to take it) and said our farewells. Tom and I got back to Gwenno's just after 7pm. We've thrown our laundry in so we can hang it up tonight to dry before we leave in the morning, then it's off to the lake district tomorrow.
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