Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Harry Potter's Castle and more

Have you ever had missionaries take over your home? It can be exhausting! Twenty missionaries came for Preparation Day. They said they were going to play in the park, but they changed their clothes in our house so they could play in the park. We had clothes everywhere; the bedroom, the dining room, even in the kitchen. Plus their were bags of food as I did not fix their lunch. Elder Olson and I left and ate lunch at McDonalds!



James Smith is "teaching me how to cook". He is a YSA. So pictured here are six missionaries, plus three YSAs. We are having lasagna. James is in black. We are taking the picture and this is our dining room.

We went to Alnwick (pronounced Anick) for a couples specialized training session. There are seven couples including us plus the mission president and his wife.. Since the mission is so big, we had to stay overnight. in a bed a breakfast a short distance from this castle where the film Harry Potter was filmed (at least the outside scenes). The inside scenes were filmed in another place. This castle is inhabited for six months of the year. The family who owns the castle and most of the land for miles around is the Duke of Northumberland. We had meetings where we each shared our successes, and were instructed by President and Sister Lindley. Incredible days!





While we were at Alnwick, President Lindley taught Elder Olson how to fly on the Nimbus 2000. We saw Harry Potter and Hagrid. Here are a few pictures.





This is the Holy Island - almost to Scotland.



Note the blue sky and water (The North Sea). We don't have blue water in Hull where we live.


This is the Bambourgh Castle.






We've had two baptisms this last weekend - Gordon and Shaun (YSA). Actually there were more than that, but we could only attend two.





These are some of our favorite people - Danny Cooper and Steph. Danny acts like a member and will be baptized soon. Steph is a member and is starting to come back to church. We went out to dinner last Friday night to celebrate!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Word from England (but not about the Olympics!)

We have been teaching English to Suki and her son, William. Last week we took them both to the beach. William played in the sand, Suki tried to fly our kite (there was no wind), we ate lunch, and I sat and watched. They loved it. In Hong Kong, they go to the beach every day, but here they haven't been for years.





We had a young single adult wedding. The Hull First Ward practically did everything: the food, decorating, cake, ceremony, pictures. This is Jamie and Tammy.






Not everyone wanted to participate in the entire wedding.


We gave an English lesson today William showed up with a tie and missionary badge with a book about going to the beach and making sand castles in the sand.



The English lessonwas about taking care of your car, so since Suki is trying to get a drivers license, we showed her how to put petrol in the car and pay for it.