The work goes on!

Spring is coming!

There is an interesting phenomenon that happens when you are a missionary. When Bill retired a year and a half ago we had to get used to the idea that everyday felt like Saturday. Now every day feels like Sunday! Sometimes that disoriented feeling plays tricks with your mind!

So right now while I am typing we get a package full of Valentine love from all the grand-kids who are currently living in our house back in AZ! What a wonderful way to start and add joy to the day! I am wiping away tears of love and of missing.

This past Saturday a sister in our ward from a part-member family was baptized. It was a great occasion. You could feel the joy from all of the family. I do have to share a very humorous incident relating to this event however.

The new Southmead Elders have never had a baptism in our building before and we have never had anything to do with filling the font. The missionaries and ward mission leader had a teaching appointment so they asked us to go over to the chapel and start filling the font for them. We did, we put in a plug and stayed around for a while to make sure that the water temp was good and that the level was rising. We nervously left the building with the water running. You can kind of see where this is going. When the members came to start setting everything up for the baptism the water was just starting to run over the top.  We had mistakenly put the wrong plug in so there was no way to get to it and let some of the water drain. An unnamed person had to strip down to the buff, while the doors were being guarded, in order to climb into the water, pull the plug and let it return to a workable level and re insert the correct plug. Needless to say we were mortified but the family of the convert now have a story to tell forever!

The rest of the weekend was great. Georgia gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. I substituted for Primary and Bill taught the Priesthood lesson. Saturday night we were all sitting in our flat busily preparing for our assignments!

Sunday evening was another great highlight of the week. Elder Alan Packer of the 1^st Quorum of the Seventy and two other members of the Seventy were presenting a devotional in Hyde Park Chapel, London for all YSA. We had already purchased train tickets for the event. We so much wanted to go and say hello to Elder Packer who was in the Stake Presidency of our Sandy Utah Stake. We are so glad we went. We invited Georgia to tag along and it was a great evening. We all three had the privilege of shaking hands with and meeting these good men, including Elder Kearon, also of the Seventy, who used to be the Stake President in Bristol.

Sunday night at Hyde  Park Chapel

The message of the devotional was the importance of Family History work as a part of The Hastening! They are traveling all over Europe giving Family History seminars and devotionals to launch new ideas and approaches to help motivate us all to become more involved. The whole message of the meeting was teaching us how to search out and share stories from the lives of our ancestors so that they become more than names and dates on a page; to help us make a connection to the people that we owe so much to.

This whole FH group of leaders had just come from Kiev. They had to be moved to a safer Hotel while they were there but they were still able to hold a seminar for members from stakes all over Russia and the Ukraine.

Of course the best news of the week is that Georgia is getting baptized this Saturday! Not without challenging opposition but with great faith and determination. I am sometimes amazed and even overwhelmed by the courage it takes to listen to the truth and then embrace it with commitment. My perspective of the conversion process has changed and deepened.

Also this week President Millar sent out an SOS! In the next few months the mission will be sending home about 5 senior couples but only 2 are scheduled to replace them. Apparently applications from senior couples is way down according to the Missionary Dept. I have already sent out to many an invitation to consider serving a mission, particularly in the London South Mission. If anyone reading this knows of seniors who would be interested, let me know and I will tell them how to get a hold of President Millar.

Our grandson Jacob encourages you to catch the wave!

Tuesday we went to Taunton and Weston-super-Mare. One of our jobs in the mission is to periodically inspect the sisters’ flats to make sure they stay tidy. We love this job, because we get to build a relationship with those lovely girls! This last transfer Elder Preece’s sister’s niece is now serving in Weston. She is a doll. I can tell she is related to the Clarks! We are so happy to be working with her!

Sister Clark, Sister Varga and me

I would like to close this week with my testimony of this wonderful gospel and the power of the Atonement! Here is as quote from Elder Bednar taken form the B of M institute manual that describes how I feel about my ability to do this work:

“‘… It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts’ (p. 697).

 A quote also from the lesson by Gene R Cook:

“The grace of the Lord through the Atonement can both cleanse us of sin and assist us in perfecting ourselves through our trials, sicknesses, and even character defects. … Christ can repair our flaws and failings that otherwise are not repairable (see Genesis 18:14; Mark 9:23–24).

"Bubble and Squeak" with ham and egg...

Flood waters and a flood of spiritual learning

Burrowbridge

Well it looks like we are officially on a mission, days and weeks are suddenly beginning to fly by! I sat down today to write the events of this past week and had to look at the calendar to see what happened and on what day!

Wednesday after we got back from our regular appointment in Taunton, we were able to help our new Elders teach Lilly. Because we were coming together from different places, we were a little late and only had time for about a 15 min. meeting. It was long enough for her to meet the new missionaries and to again invite her to church. It must have been a successful visit because she came to church on Sunday!!!

Thursday we had our very first district meeting since transfers. Elder Davies is the new DL. We have 4 new missionaries in our district. As always as I watch the workings of the mission I am in awe. How brilliant is the Lord to move these young people around regularly and allow them to learn from new styles and personalities. It is marvelous how this trains leaders and builds testimonies! I love being a part of it all, mostly I love the privilege of observing the whole thing!!!

Institute was as always great! The attendance was a bit down but Brother Balloch was back and even though we only had one student in our class it is always a treat to talk about the Book of Mormon. We were teaching 20 chapters of Alma, consisting of all the wars. Hooray for Captain Moroni and the Stripling Warriors!

We had to say good bye that night to Sister Beth Starns who is leaving to go to the MTC to serve a mission in Germany. This is the first of many “God be with you till we meet again” farewells. It was not easy! Needless to say tears were shed. Also Sister Demi Deeley just left for the Provo MTC to prepare to serve her mission in Greece. God speed ladies!

We had planned Friday to take a trip into London for another Senior Couples day out. We were looking forward to this one especially because it was a great way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We were to be meeting at Hyde Park Chapel and visiting the museums there in South Kensington, pretty much our ‘old stomping grounds’. Sad to say we woke up to such a wild wet blustery day that we had to cancel. The trains were backed up, some even canceled into London. At least we got our tickets refunded but we were pretty disappointed! We just stayed in snug, warm and dry and had Chinese take away for dinner. My Valentine gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I am still enjoying them. Loved the greetings from our family back home. Loved talking to so many kids and grand-kids on SKYPE.

Saturday the Bristol YSA met at 10 AM at the Stake Center to drive down to the Taunton Ward and the flood zone. The whole day was quite an experience. It was unbelievable to see the flood waters and the devastation to so many homes and farms. It truly is humbling when man is confronted with the powers of nature! Because the situation at the ‘front’ is constantly changing we did not get to do as much as we had hoped. When we got to the little town of Burrowbridge, while waiting for our orders and a lady who was volunteering got her foot caught between two telephone poles there to stack along the river and secure the raised bank they built. Everything had to halt while an ambulance came to remove her to safety.

The next delay was caused because the sand they were waiting for had not been delivered yet. There were so many who came to help that the ‘commander’ of the rescue effort had to tell us there was not enough for us all to do. We were able however to walk a couple of blocks to an old school where items for the victims had been dropped off. We sorted for quite some time. As luck would have it the sand showed up while we were sorting so we were able to fill sand bags and haul wood chips along the bank for a while. Because there were so many hands the sand bags were done quite quickly. There was a lot of food; sandwiches etc., supporting the relief effort. After we ate the hour was late so we had to head back home. When all the water recedes there will be massive cleanup needed. YSA will surely help, the stakes in the area have already pledged Mormon ‘helping hands’ service.

On Sunday we had to speak in Sacrament meeting. It went well and all of the new converts and investigators that we have been working with were there! Evening was YSA home evening. Adrian Evans taught a lovely lesson on Jesus Christ our Savior. We received a book mark with this quote on it:

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the perfect prescription for all human problems and social ills. But His gospel is only effective as it is applied in our lives.  Pres. Ezra Taft Benson

Monday we had fun taking the new Elders to Costco. It is so fun to watch them carefully meet out their meager funds and agree on following a budget! Afternoon I had to go to the Doctor for a UTI, I am all better now. We actually had a little time in the evening to watch the Olympics.

Elder Davies and Elder Moore

Tuesday this week was a long, busy, wonderful, and tiring day. We picked up the sister missionaries from the Downend Ward first thing and made our way through the beautiful green country side on those little winding roads to Poole for tri-Zone Conference. We had to bid farewell to Elder Mansfield. It has been a privilege knowing and working with him. Another ‘till we meet again’ good-bye.

The day was full of instruction, friendship and the spirit! Everyone was edified. We got to see Elders Hagedorn and Lam and others who have left our area. The whole experience was a tremendous shot in the arm! Loved the admonition: “He who fails to prepare, prepares to fail.” One of the best parts of this experience is watching these wonderful missionaries teach each other. The APs gave an inspired presentation. One of them pointed out to this young army that they did not just apply for a job at Wal-Mart but that they were chosen and called by a prophet of God. They were foreordained to come to this exact mission and they were set a part and given the power for just that. Ya gotta love this stuff!!Truly flooding us all with of the spirit of Hastening!

Wednesday was a day to finish reading Book of Mormon assignment and get this blog going. We had a nice visit in the afternoon from Georgia who was all jazzed because she had a great missionary experience and wanted to share it with us. In the evening we had to excuse ourselves from YSA meals to transport the sisters who were on exchanges back and forth to Bath. It took about 3 hours but they are now safely where they belong.

I would like to leave you with a thought form D Todd Christoffesrson:

“Personal persistence in the path of obedience is something different than achieving perfection in mortality. Perfection is not, as some suppose, a prerequisite for justification and sanctification. It is just the opposite: justification (being pardoned) and sanctification (being purified) are the prerequisites for perfection. We only become perfect ‘in Christ’ (see Moro. 10:32), not independently of Him. Thus, what is required of us in order to obtain mercy in the day of judgment is simple diligence” (“Justification and Sanctification,” Ensign, June 2001, 24–25).

Love you all and miss you too!

Elder Preece adding a little humor to the sorting! He got to keep it.

Peace be still….

Wow, it sounds like the tempest is raging outside my window! It is really kind of spooky. I am so glad to be in my warm flat today and not out in it.

Yesterday we were down in Taunton. They are really close to the flooding in the flat lands of Somerset County. The ward building is currently being used as a drop off center for items that the flood victims need like towels, blankets, clothes, toiletries, food etc. While we were there several carloads were dropped off and we helped to sort them. They need a lot of help with sand bagging and the Bristol Stake YSA is organizing to help with that on Saturday. The forecast for the next three days indicates that we will get a month’s worth of rain with 70 mile an hour gusts! I hope all of the flood victims have a dry warm place to go! This part of England has now received record rain for the past 248 years!

Well now to try to remember all of the events of this past week. Last Tuesday was my blog posting day. I baked cookies for our meeting that evening with Elders Hagedorn and Lam. Georgia came too and enjoyed one last visit together.

good-bye Elders...

Wednesday we got up early and drove to the Sister’s flat in the Downend ward and picked up both of them. Sister Watt had to bring all of her luggage because she has been transferred back to the Visitor’s Center. We drove then to Bath to drop of Sister Moangare so she could be companion to Sister Steffensen while we picked up her comp and her luggage.  Sister Chamberlain transferred to the Isle of Wight. Then we drove to Stains about an hour and a half away in a very windy drenching rains storm. With suitcases stuffed in every nook and cranny of the car!

not a lot of room left for passengers

About one third of the mission was being and moved around. The building was just buzzing and bulging with missionaries! Our sweet friend Sister Cowley from Mesa left Bridgewater and is going to one of the Channel Islands: Jersey. We had a great surprise, Sister Clark, Uncle Craig and Aunt Margie’s niece has now moved to our Zone! It was fun to meet her and get our picture taken with her. We will be inspecting her flat occasionally because that is one of our jobs.

Sister Clark! 

We had lunch, and picked up the new sisters plus their gear and drove back to Bath, again in awful weather. The weather was so bad that day that some of the missionaries did not even make it in to transfers and had to get to their new assignments later.

Sister Kariyan from Armenia went to Bath and Sister Nenadovic from Croatia is taking Sister Watt’s place in Downend. We delivered them all safely. Our district now only has three Americans, Elder Preece and myself and an Elder Moore from South Jordan UT. Our new District Leader is Elder Davies from Wales and the new elder in Wells Rd is Elder Wheatley from Norwich.

Wed. evening we did get back in time for YSA meal. We had a very nice visit with Wil and Tina Farrell the YSA advisors. At the end of the very busy day I did have a very sweet feeling. I think it had to do with totally being on the Lord’s errand and not being concerned about myself.

Thursday Institute day so we spent the day preparing. We took the new Elders with us so that they could meet Georgia, Francine and Hanna. It was a very nice evening, both lessons went well and everyone had fun playing indoor hockey!

Our Southmead Ward had a planned temple trip that involved mostly the YSA from our ward. Two were investigators and two newly baptized. Those who are already members did baptisms for the dead and the others took a tour of the temple grounds and visitor’s center. It was quite amazing that the whole thing was organized and carried out in a week and everyone was able to come! The two of us went up on Friday night so we could do some family sealings the night before. We were also able to do an endowment session in the morning before everyone arrived.

We met them all at the Peacock Inn for lunch and then were off to the Temple. It was a very sweet experience for the two new members. There was a lot of support for the investigators and all in all it was a good day. The trip home was a little ‘white knuckle’ due to the weather but what else is new.

All of us from Bristol 2nd Ward 

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Francine, Georgia, Lisa, Hanna and Alex

Sunday as always a good day. YSA Home Evening was taught by a brand new member and she did a magnificent job. I am just so impressed by the caliber of people who are seeking out and joining the church! It is an amazing thing to witness!

Monday the appointment we had with a young single adult from Wells Rd ward got canceled so we ended up cleaning and shopping and getting ready for FHE in the evening. The two new elders, Elder Davies and Elder Moore had asked Georgia to just bring them up to date on her whole conversion story. It was quite amazing to listen to it all. She has everything from the beginning of her journey recorded in three journals. She had spent all afternoon writing it into a precise, condensed one page form. The spirit was powerful! It is amazing to listen to the conversion process. She is hoping to get baptized soon. Keep praying for her!

I love Either 12! It is amazing. How much we learn from the things we experience and even suffer in this life. I love that I can feel the prayers that are being offered for me and Bill. I think it interesting however, that sometimes I want to dictate to God what the answer to those prayers should be instead of putting my entire trust in Him. He always knows what is best! Even trying times and challenges can be best!

I sometimes want every member of my family and every investigator and convert to just sail along smoothly. Probably not a good plan, then where is the growth that can be gained from the strenuous exercise of Faith?

LIFE IS GOOD! It is a gift! I am so thankful for all I have been blessed with!

Cheers!

One third of our mission over…

While we were driving in the car yesterday on a P-day outing it hit me that we are already 1/3 of the way through our mission! Wow when did that happen? Time on a mission, as time on Holidays or Sunday is totally relative. Suddenly I will wake up aghast that it is already Friday and yet when I try to think back to last Friday is seems eons ago. Interesting….

This past week has been no different. We have had some very busy and fun days and some normal days but when I sit down to recount them I cannot remember some of it, or put the events in the right order, let alone the correct day. I believe I left off last post with FHE on Monday, which means I need to tell what happened last Tuesday to start out this post. Cannot really remember… I think I worked on the blog, read institute lesson and I do remember that we went shopping to ASDA, Oh yeah and it was a cold windy, not very pleasant winter day.

Wednesday I do remember because we were busy all day. We had invited our district to have their weekly meeting at our flat because we wanted to share with them the wonderful CES broadcast by Elder Tad R Callister. If you have not watched it I would highly recommend it to you. The message of the restoration is just so precise and direct. Once they were fed spiritually, I fed them all taco soup and brownies afterwards. I told them that they all had to eat an apple first before they could have a brownie. Elder Johnson did it! Possibly his first apple in about 8 years! I am proud of him!

Elder Hagadorn and Elder Lam had a teach with a young mom who was going to be home alone so they need us to come along. She was such an adorable person. Her name is Lilly. She is Chinese from People’s Republic of China who came to Bristol for school about 13 years ago and met and married an Englishman. They have two adorable children ages 4 and 2. She has some interest in Christianity. The Elders did a wonderful job of introducing her to the Plan of Salvation. I even got to use the glove from my pocket to explain resurrection to her. She loved the visual! At the conclusion she asked if we had activities or times we can get together to discuss religion. She was quickly invited to church. She has not come yet but has great potential.

We got home in time for me to go to the dentist. My dental implant is loose and I wanted to be sure that was not a problem. It is something that can wait until I get home but I need to take good care of it and watch for problems. I was much relieved.

We then hurried to Wells Rd. for YSA meal. We needed to help because Sister Farrell was over there cooking all by herself. We had a nice meal and visit with those who came. The number is pretty small these days, hopefully we can stir up some enthusiasm going forward.

Thursday we needed to complete our lesson preparations for Institute in the morning because we went to the Chinese super market with Hanna and Shera in the afternoon. We went to buy the food for the great Chinese New Year’s party planned for Friday. That was kind of a fun and educational experience. I had no idea what anything was but the two experts helped us along!

Evening was Institute and dodge ball! We had a very nice turn out. Elder Preece taught the regular class again and will this week also. It is wonderful to study the Book of Mormon. Only Helen, Tina Farrell and I were in my little class but we had a very good discussion about the mission to the Zoramites etc. We especially enjoyed talking about Alma chapter 32! Elder Preece and I did not engage in dodge ball lest we get injured beyond repair and need to cut our mission short!

Watching and staying out of the way

dodge ball

Now for the Friday!!! We got up and straightened our house, clearing all the counters in the kitchen for all the cooking expected! Then we had to drive to Taunton for an appointment with the sister missionaries out there. We picked Hanna up on the way back and the cooking began.

Georgia came over early too and helped us find things on Google to print up and decorate for the evening. We just had such a good time! There were 18 people in our little flat, 6 of them were investigators and potential investigators!

Our huge picnic table worked out really well. Hanna had them making their own dumplings and wantons. We also had ‘hot pot’ which is a big pot of soup that everybody puts whatever they want into. When it was all cooked you just fished out what you wanted to eat. All of the food was soooo good. Shera and her flat mates helped in the kitchen. The missionaries made sweet and sour chicken and some brought noodles, you name it we had it! The link below gives you a glimpse...

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP3ttoGcnvI 

Elder Lam

Hanna

Elder Lam can play an ancient Chinese musical instrument called a Sheng, which is a mouth organ. He brought that and performed for us. It was so awesome! Such a joy to share customs and talents with others. Here is his performance.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlCWia1O7Ek

笙

Then we all got bundled up and walked over to the Downs to set of fireworks! The 6 foot long string of firecrackers and rockets were spectacular. We could not get the Chinese Lanterns to light because of the wind but we laughed a lot. Thank you to everyone for the enjoyable time. Especially Hanna for the idea!

fire crackers

the lantern won't light

Saturday was a missionary’s dream. Two baptisms. One in the morning for a new convert, and in the afternoon for the 8 year old daughter of a newly baptized sister. The spirit was powerful in both instances. Georgia came too. It was hard for her because it was the day she had wanted to be baptized. I know that will still happen for her. I am so thankful for her testimony and her patience!!

Sunday fast and testimony meeting as always was great. It was nice to have so many of our investigators and new members come to the Gospel Essentials class. Love what we learn there. 

After church we came home ate our crock pot dinner and crashed! We are not used to such a pace and every now and then our age shows. Evening was YSA FHE and the lesson was lovely about the nature of God. Attendance was good, even an investigator joined us. To all you YSA out there who read this, just putting in a plug, if you can manage to come to these Sunday evening gatherings you will find them enjoyable and uplifting.

Wells Cathedral

Monday we decided to take a day trip, we have not done that on P-day for a while; mostly because of the weather, but also we needed to catch up around the house. We drove out to Wells in Somerset County. It was a cold and cloudy day but thank goodness it did not rain. We visited the town center, had lunch in a little brasserie and then toured the beautiful Medieval Gothic Cathedral there. The pictures say it all.

the steps are worn from 800 years of use

second oldest clock in the world

the Cathedral cat

On the way home we decided to go see the Nunney Castle which actually has a moat! It was built in 1370 and destroyed by the Kings men in the 1600's when the owner fell out of favor. The day was windy and gloomy, the mood was perfect for wandering around in an old crumbling castle! We loved it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5gaGGIwXwU

While we are here in the UK engaged in hastening the work of salvation our family at home just keeps on keeping on. Two of my daughters at the moment are abiding in our house. I am proud of them for having the courage to help each other. Lindsey and family just moved back to Arizona from Texas and are looking for a place to live. Mimi and Trevor have moved over for a few weeks while they search for a place. We found out last week that grand baby number 20 is on the way to Mike and Caitlin. David and Kelly in Virginia experienced a 'freak' snow storm! Emily and Matthew have made their travel reservations to come see us in March and Ali and Ray got new phones for Christmas so they can share all that we do through Facebook!

The reality is that for the most part life is good! We just have to keep our eyes open every day for the tender mercies of God, they are always there! The stumbling blocks and challenges are just there to strengthen us for our eternal goals!

Here is as quote from Neal A Maxwell found in the B of M Institute lesson manual:

“God was redemptively at work long before mortal time began on this earth—and He will still be at work even after mortal time is no more…

“Mercifully, things then will ‘be done in [God’s] own way,’ not ours. Then God’s purposes, His patience, His power, and His profound love, which were at work long before time was, will also be at work even after time will be no more.

“These and other truths are among what Paul called ‘the deep things of God’ ” 

My love to you all. We feel your prayers and support!