Hello once again to everyone who is still willing to read our weekly letters! Thanks to all for your love and support. We love hearing from you and appreciate your love and continual prayers for us as we serve this mission. We continue to pray for you also, especially those that are experiencing trials. Well, doesn’t that include about all of us on any given day?
Happy Birthday on Wednesday to my niece, Tricia! She’s the one we were just in Paris with. We celebrated early! Also, Happy Birthday to my dad who would have been 85 years old on Friday. Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day for me, as my dad was born on a Friday. I still miss him like crazy.
We’ve had another busy week full of fun and new learning experiences. Monday night for Family Home Evening we hosted a gathering for the senior missionaries at the office. We had a potluck dinner and then watched the DVD of the Pageant since most of the couples were not able to attend. There were 24 in attendance all together including President and Sister Leppard, mission president and wife. We now have two senior sister couples as well. One is from England; the others are from Saratoga Springs, Mountain Green, and South Jordan (Daybreak) in Utah. It was a great evening! The desserts and popcorn were my favourite.
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L to R:
Elder and Sister Dutton (England), Elder and Sister Willmore Taylorsville), Elder Partridge
Elder and Sister Wills (Solihull), Elder and Sister Richards (Island Park, ID)
Sister Blumell (Canada), Sister Taylor (England), Sister Gerth (South Jordan, Daybreak), Sister and Elder Haws (England)
Sister and President Leppard (England), Sister Stewart (Mountain Green), Sister and Elder Veeter (Farmington)
Back: Sister and Elder Vernon (Cedar City)
Side: Sister Blackburn (Saratoga Springs), Sister Partridge
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Tuesday was an office day. Wednesday the Parrishes came up from London for our monthly video conference with the Frankfurt PA Team. That afternoon and late into the evening the four of us worked on a project for the Ambassador Outreach. It was good that they had planned to not return to London and stay overnight because it was quite late when we finished. We had a meeting in Wales on Friday, so we took an extra day and took the Parrishes to some of the church history sites they had not been to. Ron and I are becoming quite the tour guides at Gadfield Elm, the Chapel at Castle Frome, and Benbow Pond. J A new place we went that we had not been before was a tour at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! It was fun, and interesting, and they give you soooo much chocolate while on the tour that you are sick by the time you get out, and we only ate a little of it! We brought home eight candy bars from the tour!
Thursday night the Jones family who live in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, invited us to dinner. Julie Jones is on the Great Britain PA council from Wales for our church and we have the opportunity of working with her from time to time. She is a delight. Her focus on the PA council is on interfaith relationships, and WOW what a spitfire she is. It is amazing how respected she is among the UK interfaith community. She has established personal friendships with leaders of many Christian churches such as Catholic, Church of England, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, and others. She is currently working to organize a seminar with leading female interfaith leaders from all over the UK. What a pleasure to get to know her and to become her friend. While we were out site seeing together, she shared with me what her 11-year-old son had said the previous evening before we arrived. “Now which religion is coming to dinner tonight? Will there be any Muslims or Sikh’s?” Nope, just the Mormons. J
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| The home where David O McKay’s mother was born in Merthyl Tydfil, Wales. |
After dinner we walked down the street and around the corner from Julie’s house to the home where David O. McKay’s mother was born. The old man that lived there for a long time had passed away recently. The family asked the Church if they would like to purchase it for a historical site, but the Church was not interested. They were interested, however, in placing a plaque by the front door that told of the history of the house, so now the Church pays the family a monthly stipend to have the plaque there. For my non-member friends, David O. McKay was the ninth president of our church. He was actually born in Huntsville, Utah, after his mother immigrated with her family.
Julie also took us to see their chapel, which is the largest chapel in the UK. And, they DO have one drinking fountain! It was built when President McKay was our prophet, and it was like he was building the church in memory of his mother! They spared no expense. I’ve attached a photo of the chairs in the Relief Society room, to name one thing. You wouldn’t believe it! They are as comfortable as any chair I have EVER sat in! Nice and soft and roomy! Our meeting on Friday was with the co-owner of the Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales. He is a member of our church and very well connected in the UK. Celtic Manor is a gigantic luxury property with several golf courses and several hotels. It is where the Ryder Cup was held in 2010 (for the golfers in the crowd!) We stayed two nights on the property and had a great meeting with Simon Gibson. He treated us to lunch afterwards, and then Ron and Stan played a round of golf while Julie took us site-seeing to some restored Roman bath house ruins, a museum, and gave us a little history of Wales. The weather was beautiful. It is fun when we can ‘work’ and feel like we get a little vacation too. We loved it.
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| Celtic Manor |
We arrived home about noon on Saturday. The Parrishes caught the train straight to London from Wales. Although it took us all day to get to Wales on Thursday with the site seeing, we were home in two hours. I dropped Ron off at work and I went to the grocery store and came home to do laundry. Mid afternoon I began not feeling well and ended up with what I think was a 24-hour virus. I’m happy to say I am feeling better now, but Ron went to Stake Conference by himself and we postponed our first YSA get together. L
This morning while Ron was at Stake Conference I did the best I could to get a little church in by listening to past Ensign articles and watching some of the church videos. Every time I get on LDS media I find more and more. I was particularly looking for something I could share with our new home teaching families that have small children. There were so many I will need to decide which one to use this time. Just to name a few I came across:
· Are you experiencing too much fighting among siblings in your home?
· Is someone in your family struggling with depression?
· Would you like to hear what children think or know about Jesus?
· How do you deal with perfectionism in a child?
I watched videos that addressed all these issues. I’m grateful that the Lord is mindful of “every little thing from our trials to our triumphs. And help is available at our fingertips.
We leave tomorrow afternoon for a week of travel and will return Saturday evening. We will be attending Leeds Mission Zone Conferences and Manchester Multi-Stake Public Affairs Council Meeting, taking part in training at all the meetings. Rubbing shoulders with the young missionaries is the part of this trip that excites me! And, we will attend the temple in Chorley on Friday. That always makes for a good week.
May you be blessed and uplifted as you love and serve. We love you all so much!
XOXO,
Ron and Marie
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