More News from Jolly Old England

Today is an A.A. Milne day, it truly feels like Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day! A good day for staying in and working on the blog!!

Great week! Moving forward in the work and learning a lot, always learning a lot! Our family had some significant Birthdays to celebrate last week. Michael our youngest turned 31 on Monday the 14^th and Bill’s mother had her birthday on the 17^th ; let’s just say she graciously earned every year of her life! Even more mind boggling however is the fact that my own mother was born 100 years ago this past Monday also on Oct. 14^th. She passed away 32 years ago and would probably not be here today regardless but just the thought that one generation back from myself could possibly have begun 100 years ago is kind of sobering!

On Monday to commemorate these Birthdays, well mostly because it was P-day, we visited the museum in Bristol which is the SS Great Britain. It is a huge iron side ship that was built in about 1843. It was very innovative for its time. It was a passenger Steam Ship with a single screw propeller instead of a wheel. It sailed from Liverpool to NYC in 14 days. It was the first iron steamer to cross the Atlantic. Voyages to the US did not work out as well as they planned so it was refitted and turned into a Windjammer and made many voyages from Liverpool to Australia during the Australian gold rush.  In all before it was purposely retired in a deserted bay in the Falkland Islands it had sailed over a million miles. In 1970 it was recovered and towed home to Bristol where it had been built. This part of the story is amazing to me, they towed her on a barge until they got to the mouth of the Avon River and then they sealed her hull so she could sail up the river via tug boats to her final resting place.

Avon River at high tide

Avon River at low tide

 Now the Avon River is a tidal river, I am totally fascinated by this phenomena. It means that the river fills and empties twice every day with high and low tied. The whole excursion had to wait for spring tide when the river could support the whole operation. Many people gathered on the cliffs, suspension bridge and banks to watch her come home. Brother Evans remembers watching it as a youngster. Wow!  

 It is very well restored and it is actually in dry dock though they have made it look like it is still in the water. To keep the hull from further deterioration they keep fans blowing to maintain a humidity much like the “Arizona desert”. Now we know where to go when we get homesick!

S S Great Britan

Dry Dock

sleeping quarters

Monday night we just had FHE with the two of us. We did get some SKYPE calls from family members, the birthday boy, Lindsey and Uncle Dan, so it was a nice evening!

Tuesday was a long day… We did have some appointments in the evening but not during the day. We do read and study our institute lesson and plan and try to make appointments but would much rather be busy than not!

When I taught Kindergarten I used to teach patterns, reading readiness. Well last week here in Bristol would be a perfect week to illustrate that to the children: rain one day, sun the next, rainy day, sunny, rainy sunny! If this pattern maintains I will be fine this winter!

Wednesday District meeting and YSA Dinner. Busy day, good day. Dinner was an English Fry up, breakfast for dinner! Very English! Very fun! Toast, Bacon (more like Canadian bacon), sausage, potato ‘waffles’, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes! Of course served with brown sauce and red sauce (catsup) and ‘squash’ to drink.

Thursday we got to drive out to Taunton for some mission business and it was one of those wonderful Sunny days. Except for the interesting way our Sat Nav brought us back to the Stake Center it was an enjoyable trip. It a few weeks we will be attending Ward Conference at that chapel so we are glad we know how to get there now.

Institute was great. There was a sweet feeling in our little class and teaching the Book of Mormon is the best. After classes the activity was: World Food Night. The YSA members brought food from around the world, either from ancestral origins or missions etc. It was great fun. We had a hard time coming up with something that is uniquely American. Most of our food comes from some other nation since we are a ‘melting pot’. With some coaching from Mimi and Lindsey we decided that Corn bread was pretty American. After all the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow and use corn! We also found some British made Root Beer. It is really hard to find it over here unless you pay an arm and a leg. Both were big hits! Many had not tasted either before and some were really excited about the Root Beer!

We ended the evening with a special YSA leadership meeting with President Webb of the Stake Presidency. It was a very inspiring meeting with much good council given. These Young leaders are marvelous people, certainly the church leaders for a coming important time!

3 members of YSA Council Presidency and President Webb (he is a firefighter!)

Friday we drove to the Visitors center and mission office for Senior Couple’s meetings all day Saturday, including a talk from President Millar. The trip was enjoyable. It is a lot of driving and the traffic as you get closer to London does teach patience. We were able to just make it to the distribution center 5 minutes before closing Friday night so we could pick up the things we needed and find most of the items on the list that came from the missionaries in our district! Whew!

The meetings with the other senior couples and President Millar were very helpful and up lifting! We returned home with time to relax a little Saturday night.

 Sunday was a very busy day. We left about 8 am to drive to the Bath Ward to meet with their PEC. They meet in a former Methodist church. It is quite unique! There are some lovely people in that ward and they are having great success with missionary work so it is growing fast. The Bishop had served a mission in Escondido CA in 1982, that was the same time we lived in Vista. Small world!

There are a lot of Young Single Adults that are active and we got to meet them and get a list of others that we need to start visiting. We felt such a good supportive feeling from all the members and leaders that we met. There is a lot to do but it is such a good feeling when we are moving forward!

Last evening we had two YSA council meetings and FHE. A fun moment in the evening was when all of us, YSA Presidency brother Evans and ourselves, were watching a ‘Prezi’ (like power point) presentation from the Digital zone and Uncle John called on SKYPE. He was a little surprised when he was greeted by so many happy faces!

Hannah has been sick so we have not seen her for a week. We are having FHE here tonight with Georgia and Rebecca the University of Bristol students that we mentioned before. They want to talk about families; that is a good subject!!

I am ready to start listening to the Conference talks over again. I get so inspired when I hear these words from the leaders of this glorious church. A couple of thoughts I would like to leave with you come from President Monson. I loved when he used the term: “The Heavenly virtue of patience.” And I loved his closing remarks which I would leave with you my wonderful family and beloved friends!

“May we ever be found doing the work of the Lord.”

                                              Thomas S Monson

Elder Hagadorn after hours

We talked the Elders into coming to dinner with us,
 they met someone while in line at the buffet and now have a new person to teach!