It's Us Again, and We're Still in England

The weather has been very British this past month.  It has been cold, windy, and rainy. Right now we are experiencing a brutal storm from Siberia which includes snow drifts and icy roads. Great weather for thermals.

The work schedule for the men has included making minor repairs on houses and a major moving project.

These are the old shops that we moved out of

Our wood and tool shops (right behind our house) have been ear marked for a major renovation, turning them into two new homes, so we had to move everything of worth out to another place that isn't as handy...or big.  The newer place is 1/4 the size of what we had.  Bruce and Elder Foy made shelves, tool holders and work benches for the new facility.  Picture a workshop that has been accumulating "stuff" for over 25 years and now needs to be sorted, cleaned and moved.  It has been a big job, involving trips to the recycling drop, charity shops and rubbish bins.  It has been a cold job, but we are making progress.
Sister Foy and I have been helping with the move as well as painting two vacant houses.  One of the houses has water creeping up all the interior and exterior walls on the ground floor, which results in white salt crystals growing like soft fuzz on the interior walls, as well as big wet spots in random places and sizes on the walls.  So, we have been painting the upstairs rooms for now, while the men were removing carpets, baseboards, and doors downstairs in preparation for the professionals who will try to fix the water problem.  For those interested, the color choice for walls in England is magnolia.  It shows up in nearly every house.

While cleaning out the new shop we found this adorable doll house that the previous owner didn't want.  It has carpets on the floor, curtains at the windows, wallpaper, and even some real glass in some of the windows.  There were also a few dead bugs, spider webs and a lot of dust on it.  It came with 8 people and a lot of furniture, including a little piano, entertainment center,  bunkbeds and more.  We cleaned up the house and carpets, washed the curtains and furniture and gave it to our Farm Manager's kids on National Pancake Day.

The activities last month included a Youth Temple Trip to London.  It was wonderful seeing our two priests being able to baptize and act as witness' for their own siblings and their own family names. The youth had so many family names that we weren't able to complete all of them on this visit.
Following the temple experience the senior couples drove into London for a river cruise on the River Thames.  We won't mention that due to bad traffic it took us 3 hours to go 46 miles into London, or will we mention the parking fiasco or the fact that our GPS (called Sat Nav in Europe) died on the trip into town.  Fortunately the Foy's had their Sat Nav and saved the day....we made it home!

The "tender mercy" of the month revolved around the birth of our 44th grandchild, born to Mark and Cadence, in Bremerton, Washington.  Mark is in the navy and was out to sea on a submarine as the time grew close for the delivery, but the boat "happened" to come in on a Sunday evening and the baby "happened" to be born on Wednesday, which was 3 days before the scheduled due date.  The boat was scheduled to head out again on Wednesday evening, but Bremerton "happened" to have snow that night, so Mark had an extra day at home, shipping out on Thursday evening.  They had a healthy boy and are naming him York Fitzwilliam Fillmore. Another tender mercy was that our daughter, Katie, was able to leave her family in the hands of her capable husband, Ken, and spend two weeks up in Washington with Cadence to help her with the birth and the care of the other two children.  Aren't families wonderful!

Another highlight was the visit of our daughter Stephanie and her husband, True, who are currently living in Kentucky.  Stephanie was a missionary 15 years ago in the Birmingham England Mission, so we drove around and visited with people that still know and love her in Peterborough and Merthyr Tydvil, Wales.

This is the church in Wales where Stephanie served

This is the flat where Stephanie lived in Wales.  It's on a steep hill.  Merthyr Tydfil is full of steep hills.

These are the Malachowski's who hosted Stephanie at Christmastime when she was a missionary and who fed us Sunday dinner.
Stephanie spent a full day in Peterborough visiting members who were delighted to see her again.  Several old friends mentioned how they felt like Alma when he met up with the sons of Mosiah after 14 years, and they all rejoiced that they all still waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth. (Alma 17)

February was a very good month!

Another Month Come and Gone

Missions are made interesting by trying new things you've never done before, cooking new foods, and meeting new people.  For three months we have been anticipating the arrival of our new senior missionary couple, and they finally arrived on January 12th.  Life has been a blur of activity since that time.  We have a lengthy list of things to be done before spring, but some of the tasks needed more than just the two of us to effectively complete them, so we were elated when the Foy's arrived.

Our work list was going smoothly for the first six days with the new couple, then January 18th came upon us, complete with rain, strong howling winds, and flying slate and ceramic roof tiles.  One of the barns in our backyard is currently sporting large gaping holes where tiles used to be.

The tiles that were blown out of this roof landed all over our yard, with one tile hitting our car and another one hitting our work van.  Fortunately we are not using this barn, so cleaning up the yard was all that was required.  Then the phone calls started coming in.  Seven of the thirty homes we service had roof damage, with more rain expected daily.  The list of buildings affected included our Farm General Office as well as the home of our 94-year old friend, Mary.  So the two Elders jumped into high gear, while the women-folk continued with the patching and painting of the vacant home that we have been preparing for the next renters.  One of the challenges the men faced was that each house required a different style of ceramic tile or slate to replace the broken ones, and some of the tiles are so old that they don't make them anymore.  Trips were made to Peterborough on the north, St Ives to the east and Cambridge to the south until all tiles (or "close enough" tiles) were purchased.  Wind, rain and cold air created other delays in the roof repairs.  At one house,  Bruce climbed up into the attic to place buckets under the leaking roof until conditions were favorable for fixing the tiles.  What he discovered in the attic was that over one section of the house there were 12 rolls of insulation sitting neatly in their wrappers, but had never been installed.  Once the Elders laid out the insulation the tenants reported that their bedroom was much warmer.  Who knows how many years the insulation had been waiting to be installed.

The tile replacement process included climbing up high ladders then laying a smaller ladder flat on the brittle tiles so the men could climb over on it to replace the broken tiles.  The flat ladder was secured on the roof by throwing a rope over the top of the house and securing it on the other side by tying it to a tank, the van, or Elder Fillmore on another ladder in once instance.  (You remember how heavy he is!)  For the taller roofs the men would assemble the scaffolding first.  The Elders have finished the roof repairs and now they are moving on to the long list of things that need to be done before spring.

For fun and entertainment we sang in a bi-ward choir for Stake Conference, have done a little touring, and fed the full-time missionaries multiple times.  Bruce did a clever thing by taking the young missionaries with him as he went to make an adjustment on a tenant's fridge.  it was a great missionary moment with the lady who has been inactive for years, and she enjoyed the visit from the Elders, (who are doing follow-up visits with her).  She promises to come to church again with her 14-year old nephew who she is raising.

In-the-meantime, back in Utah, our own home experienced a little trauma with a blocked drain, so currently our basement has linoleum, carpet and drywall that has been removed.  It's interesting that we are across the ocean fixing up plumbing,  plastering and floors in homes here, while someone else is fixing up our house.  Isn't life great!

All you former UK missionaries will be proud to hear that I made my first Yorkshire pudding, Eccles cakes, and cottage pie, and I have been cooking with Swedes (turnips, not people from Sweden), courgettes (zucchini) and parsnips.

These are Yorkshire Pudding and they are typically eaten with beef and gravy over them. The term "pudding" is also used to refer to dessert.  "Eat your vegetables so you can have pudding!" (which is cake, or other sweets that have no resemblance to pudding)

My new favorite fruit is pomelo...it's like an enormous grapefruit, only sweeter and harder to peel. I was first introduced to pomelo by cousin Jennifer in Germany, and was thrilled when I found it in the shops in England.  The British friends we have eaten with serve LOTS of vegetables and we are feeling quite healthy!

This is a pomelo sitting next to a normal apple.

This is a side note for cousin Frank.  When we sang in the bi-ward choir for Stake Conference I would sit next to a lady who is from the Czech Republic.  She, her husband and children are converts to the church and are living in England for one year so they can learn English.  At the third choir rehearsal I took a copy of the story about Frantiska Brodil found in The Master's Touch, pages 275-279, for this sister to read. As soon as I handed her the copy and she read the first line, she was instantly animated, and began chatting away with her husband, who also became animated (and grabbed the papers right out of his wife's hands so he could start reading it).  She said that they had learned about Sister Brodil and her daughters from the older sisters in the ward, who spoke about them with fondness and reverence.  It was an emotional interchange when she found out that Jane Brodil was my aunt, so I shared a little bit of her story after she moved to America and married my Uncle William.  The lady was thrilled when I told her the copy of the story was for her to keep.  There is something magical about being in Europe where this rich history took place that has captured my heart and my tear ducts.

The Magical Month of December

This was a magical month packed with all kinds of activities, sweets and surprises....and work.  We'll get the work part out of the way before we launch into the magical moments.  We currently have three empty homes that we need to repair and paint, the operative word being REPAIR on all three.  Most older homes have six things in common; cracks in the walls and ceilings, cupboards in need of fixing, plumbing issues, mold in varying degrees of severity, the need for a complete paint job,  (outside as well as inside), and yards that need cleaning up and fences to be painted.  The yard work will have to wait until spring.   One family got really creative in their paint colors, so we are trying to cover deep purples, mauves, oranges and blues.  We'll spare you the details and get on with the month.

Trying to "Light the World" through service was a focal point for us.  I'll just mention a few things we did.  Remember the 94 year old lady we visit?  I have been without hand chimes for 2 Christmas', so I ordered a set of Baby Bells on line, and what came in the mail was "Preemie Bells".  Rather than being 6 inches tall, they were about 3 inches tall.

Despite  the fact that they were rather small and high-pitched, I taught 4 little girls to pay 5 carols, which we took to our sweet friend's home.  We also took a keyboard along so the girls could play their favorite carols.  The 5-year old forgot her music book so she played a tune called "Chromatic Scale" involving every note.  It was precious.  Our elderly friend doesn't get out much, so she was thrilled with our musical serenading.

We were also instrumental in helping the Young Women make toys to give to every Primary child in our ward (only 17 kids), and we took three boxes of toys to the Children's Ward at a local hospital.
The Youth also made Cookie Plates for the older members of our ward, so we split up and delivered them on a Mutual night.

Bruce was able to literally "light the world" for a sister he home teaches, whose porch light hasn't worked for a long time.  He made her very happy!

I went on a history excursion with two sisters in our ward and visited Chatsworth Estate. The Estate celebrates Charles Dickens and his works, so the whole place was decorated for Christmas with  scenes from many of his books.  I took a ton of pictures but will just share a couple.

This is a dining room from Great Expectations, where Miss Haversham's wedding celebration was canceled because the groom didn't show up.  Miss Haversham actually appears in the dining room in her aging wedding dress and tells her story of woe about how her beau ran off with a considerable amount of money that she had loaned him.  The cake, candles, etc include years worth of cobwebs.

 
In one of the ornate bed chambers an animated Scrooge is literally shaking in fright as he awaits one of the Ghosts that will appear.  It was amazing and fun.  Although Charles Dickens didn't live here, he actually visited several times and we saw a couch in the library where he actually sat at one time.

The highlight of the month was traveling to Germany for Christmas, where we visited Bruce's brother Ed and his wife Judy, who are serving at the Freiberg Temple.

We stayed in one of the apartments that Temple Missionaries live in next to the Freiberg Temple.
The Temple is on the left, the meetinghouse is on the right, and the accommodations building is behind the two.

So, our December temple excursion was in the Freiberg Temple!  How wonderful is that?

We visited a Christmas Market in Dresden and bought a couple of ornaments.

We also toured the famous church in Dresden that was destroyed in the war and was featured in one of Dieter F. Uchtdorf's conference talks.  The church was rebuilt using as many of the original blocks as possible.

The black blocks are from the original church, and the dark section on the right was in shambles, but remained standing.

Another Germany highlight was spending time with my niece Jennifer Maschke and her family.

Jennifer, Frank and their six kids at church.

Of course the biggest highlight of Christmas Day was talking to our kids and their families across the good old USA!   Because of a 6 to 9 hour difference in time, we had an elaborate schedule where we could reach everyone....some at 7:30 in the morning their time!  What troopers!  It was a lot of fun.

Things we learned this month at a sing-along concert:  not all countries sing the carols like we do in the USA.  The English have a whole different tune for "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night".  We all speak English, but not the same vernacular.  While ice skating with the YW/YM, I got derailed by a Kleenex that had fallen out of somebody's pocket.  While explaining the situation to the YW, they all said in unison, "What is a Kleenex?"   Also, Christmas Crackers are not something you eat in England.  It is something you wear on your head, read and play with after opening.  Are you intrigued?

We are grateful for this time of the year and the tender feelings that people express as they remember the birth of our Savior.  We love you all!

BRRR....IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

Winter has arrived in England with increased rain, lots of bone-chilling wind, decreased daylight (8-3:45), but no snow in these parts...YEAH!  This house is where our American ward friends live (where we ate one of our Thanksgiving Dinners.)  The ivy is stunning in the fall.






The month began with an outdoor ward dinner, bonfire and fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night.  This celebration on November 5th commemorates an event dating back to 1605, where an attempt on King James (of King James Bible fame) was foiled.  The event was cold, but not freezing, and the food was great.  We were pleased to interact with several non-members who attended.

Another noteworthy event was a fireside at the church given by Eva Clark, a lady who was born in a concentration camp and who survived due to a series of miracles.  her story is told in a book, Born Survivors, written by Wendy Holden.

November 11 is called Remembrance Day here and is celebrated in most cities and villages with a town square ceremony and a nationwide poppy pin campaign.




Our church participates by placing poppy wreathes in the town square ceremonies in the villages that are within our ward boundary.  We attended one celebration which was very touching....and cold.  And we did wear our poppy pins.

































The event which occupied most of our spare time was producing the ward roadshow.  It was actually billed as a Pantomime, but was not at all what I expected because it has words, songs and lots of audience participation.  The British definition of a pantomime is different than ours.  They generally have a 2-person animal in them, so we added a 2-person camel.  Our ward was the only one that had a 2-person animal, by-the-way, but we received a hefty cheer from the audience when the camel appeared.  By default I wrote and directed the 15 minute play, and it was a great success.  Bruce made all of the tricky props, so we were a bit busy but had a great time interacting with the ward members.  Because our stake center is so far away most of the ward members were not able to see the show, so the bishop asked if we would do it again for the Ward Christmas Breakfast this weekend.  Unfortunately, I had thrown out or dismantled some of our key props so we are doing some quick reconstruction work.

We enjoyed two Thanksgiving Dinners this year, both in the same afternoon.  Our American ward members hosted a houseful of non-member American military families, and the second meal was hosted by a non-member American family and their military friends.  By the end of the day we were pretty full, but managed to eat pie anyway!  I was asked to cook a turkey and provide mashed potatoes for the second meal, so I was able to bring a turkey carcass with lots of meat left on it home for boiling.  We have been eating turkey soup all week....warm and yummy!
Unfortunately we missed being with our own family, and missed our oldest grandson's mission farewell (he left for Brazil), but we spent some quality Google Chat time with family members.

There was a major break-in down the lane from us involving the barn re-build homes that are still under construction.  Boilers, radiators and an entire kitchen was stolen...all cupboards, counter tops and appliances.  The intruders smashed three sliding glass doors to gain entrance to the three homes. Bruce spent the next two days strengthening sagging gates and securing locking mechanisms on them so that now all roads leading to the construction site are blocked.  An alarm system was also installed on the homes.

On the work scene this month, Bruce fixed a leaky barn roof, leaky tub, and leaky laundry room pipes (there is a pattern here) and a squeaking clothes dryer.  The barn roof was interesting because there was a gaping hole, but the roof is corrugated and too fragile to climb on.  So Bruce found he could catch the incoming rain and divert it directly to the eaves from the inside.  No more rain on that spot....there are numerous other minor leaks in the old barn.

Hopefully this picture doesn't scare the kiddies.  It's grandpa ready to do some sanding on the beams.




The second picture is Bruce diverting the rain out of the barn.  It's a pretty tall barn.








We also leveled a gravel driveway, replaced outdoor spot lights, painted a fence and have been waging a war against moles.  While working outside we wear lots of layers.  One day I had 5 layers on the top, 3 on the bottom, two pairs of gloves and 4 head coverings.  We were still cutting grass through November, and there are a few places that could use a little trim, but it has been too cold and rainy.

Our one historical tour this month was to a place called Bletchley Park, which housed 9,000 code-breakers from WWII.  They weren't all in this building, but in a number of buildings built on the property.  Their work and contribution to the war was kept secret not just during the war but for 30 years after the war ended.  What they were able to accomplish was truly amazing.  My admiration for the British people increases the more I learn about their history.

This month at the temple Bruce was able to do initiatory, sealings and an endowment for family members, but I was unable to find any female names from my tree.  I'll keep shaking the tree and see what falls my way.

We are healthy and happy.  Have a great holiday season.

My How Time is Flying - September/ October

It is surprising how fast the months slip by.  Our daily events were punctuated with the passing of my step-sister's husband, Grant Palmer, as well as my 2nd oldest brother, Grant.  These are the times when it is hard to be so far away from family.  I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my brother last summer, and shared some special memories with him.  I knew that he most likely wouldn't be around when I got home, so I said my goodbyes before leaving the states.

Work:  Besides the usual mowing and trimming, Bruce cranked up an old tractor pulling a bush hog and attacked a half-acre field of thistles and weeds.  Of course the tractor had a flat tire, which needed to be pumped up twice in the process.  He later removed the tire and had it repaired.  This week I had the opportunity (?) of driving this tractor while pulling a spring harrow.  Lots of fun!

I am on a barn floor repainting a sign for one of the farms.

The men also fixed a boiler, leaky bathtub, rain gutters, sharpened mower blades and installed more shelves.

The Mannings finished their mission and went home, and the new couple won't arrive until January, so it's just Bruce and me here now doing the work. Bruce does the hard stuff, I help  with the mundane tasks.

This project needed immediate attention because water was leaking from the ceiling into a laundry room.  The pipe was fixed, and the very next week (to the day) another leak began in a different spot.  Bruce fixed that one and had the drywall up and painted, when a third leak sprung open in an adjoining bathroom.  Bruce fixed the pipe, but he's leaving the hole open for an extra week to see if any other leaks show up.  While we're waiting we have been scraping, priming and painting some rusty beams on a grain storage bin, installing a new bathtub front panel and mowing.  This week Bruce's mower got stuck, so I saved the day and pulled him out.

This is Mary (sitting) and her friend Peggy.  We have been doing some work at her house.  She is 94 years old with a mind that is sharp-as-a-tack and lives alone.  We visit her often, taking her banana bread and dehydrated apples and pears.  Her younger sister (80) came for a visit from Canada, so Bruce and I spent a couple of hours in her garden (or backyard) pulling weeds and trimming trees so it would look lovely for her sister's visit.  

This is Mary's garden (back yard).  When she moved in it was a bare piece of ground, so she added  bushes, trees, flowers, a small pond, and little walkways.  If you look closely you will see the peacock to the left of the bird bath that lives in her yard.

These are some funny looking pears that we are dehydrating.  They are long and skinny and have extremely tiny seeds, so you can literally just eat the whole pear.  I did dig out some of the seeds, as you can tell. The pears are sweet, easy to peel and lovely this time of year.

 While out mowing we harvest potatoes, onions, pears and beets. The blackberries are all gone by now.  I sometimes feel like Ruth who was out gleaning in Boaz'
fields. Notice the size of the beet on the right.  We made a soup out of it.

TRIPS - Before the Mannings left, we made one last trip to London and one to Scotland.  

This is the front and back of Buckingham Palace

This is Kensington Palace where Diana lived, and where Prince William and his family live now.

Because this year marks the 20th anniversary of Diana death, they had a special display of some of the 1,000 dresses and gowns that Diana had made while she was the Princess.

We also visited Hyde Park,  Harrods store, and the Hyde Park Chapel, which is historic.

We'll show you a glimpse of Scotland...specifically Edinburgh, where we stayed for two nights. 

We toured the Ship Brittania, which was the Queen's floating castle for about 42 years. The second picture shows the drawing room, where guests would gather after a wonderful meal in the large dining room. It had a baby grand piano, which is out of the picture.  I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery was low. 

This is the wheel house from where the Brittania was navigated. (I included this for Mark's benefit, since he is qualified to drive a submarine.)

This was a knot board on the ship....reminded me of girls camp. (But our knots weren't so fancy!)

We loved Scotland!  With our ever-present missionary tags we have been able to explain to people what church we belong to, where we are serving, and our love for the country and people.

CHURCH ACTIVITIES

Bruce is chilling out with the guys at a ward barbecue, following a ward service project

Young Womens have been keeping Ann busy with lessons, firesides, a 6 mile hike, dodge ball, cooking projects, Family History projects, and much more.  We are currently producing a roadshow, which is a parody on Aladdin, and includes props, costumes, music, etc.  We'll let you know how it turns out.  

Bruce and I drove two of the three Laurels up to Preston for an overnight Stake Laurels activity, which included a walking Church History tour through Preston, then a tour of the Preston MTC, followed by a fireside inside the MTC.  I took lots of pictures inside the MTC because that is where Stephanie was at the beginning of her England mission.  I sent her the pictures to see if the MTC had changed much in the intervening years.  

 The tour highlighting the beginnings of the Church in England was wonderful!  For me, it far surpassed all the castles, cathedrals, and estates that we have seen thus far.

This is the house where Heber C. Kimball and his companions were renting an upper floor when devils entered the room and tried to discourage the missionaries from preaching in England.  Heber C. Kimball then rebuked the evil spirits and they left. The mission in England was a huge success.  The house is vacant at present.

This is the house where President Hinckley and his companion lived while in Preston (on the top floor).  It was here that he felt discouraged and wrote home to tell his father that he was wasting his time and his father's money.  His father wrote back, "Forget yourself and go to work."  It was here that he fell to his knees and made a pledge that he would give himself to the Lord.  Interestingly enough, President Hinckley visited this home on subsequent trips to England.  After Sister Hinckley died, it was here that President Hinckley asked to be left alone in the upstairs bedroom, and he fell to his knees again and told the Lord that he was lonely without his wife, and he wouldn't mind going to her, but he would finish whatever work the Lord had left for him to do.

A funny story is that tour groups stop in front of this house often to talk and take pictures.  One little boy who lived in the house at the time came out and told the people that a very important man used to live here.  If he only understood how true that was!

We love serving here.  The people are great and even though the roads aren't getting any bigger, we are becoming more accustomed to driving on them.

New word......autumnal.  "The trees are looking autumnal".  Or "It's feeling very autumnal outside."  

Cherio!