Lots of picutre and work to share.

We are still teaching English lessons at our home. This particular time the missionaries were on hand to help us. One is a Chinese-speaking elder.

Another baptism, which we love. This is Leigh with his parents. He already looks like a missionary!

The Hull Stake sponsored a YSA dance. These are a few pictures of those who attended. Actually there wasn't much dancing, but young people drive a couple hours just to see their LDS friends.

We didn't dance much either. In fact, we didn't dance at all.

The newspaper stand where we buy our paper and have made a few friends was recently remodeled. There were free gifts, candy and face-painting for the open house.

 

 

 

Quite often the missionaries end up at our home for their P-Day. We were given about 50 hamburger patties, left over from the ward barbeque, so we let the elders and sisters have most of them. They cooked them in the park on little portable grills ($3.00), and then they played games.

 

 

 

This is a picture of the small portable barbeque grills and the missionaries when they are properly attired.

 

 

 

Isha came over and helped tie a quilt for Tim and Becky's wedding. We have been buying used jeans at markets or charity shops and putting them together as a gift for YSA's when they get married. This is the third quilt we have given away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Tim and Becky and the quilt. When young people get married here, they are married civily in the church first and then they have a reception where everyone eats and then the wedding party travels to the temple and the couple is sealed on the same day. By law, the Queen has to be allowed to come to the wedding, thus the civil marriage.

 

 

 

We visited the Whitby Abbey ruins.This archaic church was bombed during WWII and then gradually deteriorated after that until only ruins are left. But it is still a breath-taking structure set on a high cliff next to the North Sea.

 

 

Does this look like it could be the train station from one of the Harry Potter films. Well it is! Or the flying car that that was in one of his films. Well it is a replica. We thought we took the steam engine that they used to film a Harry Potter movie, but we went on the wrong day, but happened on these other items of interest by accident.

 

 

 

We love serving with the people here

Elders Deshazer and Hunphries wanted to bring home the Atonement, so they made a plate of brownies and offered them to each investigator in the home that they were teaching. Whether they took a brownie or not, Elder Deshazer did 10 push-ups. They kept passing the plate around until he had done 130 push-ups. I think they got the point - whether we partake of the blessings of the Atonement or not, HE still suffered for our sins.

This is Elder Ball, Shaun, just baptized, Elders Humphries, and Ressler. We love baptisms!

 

Missionarier live from transfer to transer (every six weeks). Sister Melander, Ah Mu, Vickery, Halbleib and others left us. We get attached you know.

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!

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.