August 19-September 1

Good-bye's

Saying good-bye is always hard. The last couple of weeks have included a few good-bye's to students & missionaries that have left the institute. We also know that with these good-bye's will soon come many welcomes. We have been busily getting ready for Fresher's Week (that's what they call the influx of new Freshman to the different Leeds campuses).  There is much alcohol and partying that goes on at the campus. The stake president has asked us and the YSA council to have lots of fun activities provided at the institute so the newbies will feel welcome and find a refuge from the party atmosphere of the campuses.

Ver Chan is a recent convert. He joined the Church in March and we arrived in May. He is from 

Beijing. He has progressed rapidly in the Church. I've watched him bless and pass the sacrament, speak in a Mission Fireside, bare his testimony, and support and help other recent Chinese converts. He completed his Masters in Electrical Engineering from Leeds University. I've felt his spirit and love for the us and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I cried when we said good-bye. Hopefully, we will meet again. Maybe he'll come to America. In China the son has to have enough money to provide for his parents and his wife before marrying. Ver Chan is hoping he will have enough money to buy a home for his future wife and family in a year. I've seen pictures of his girlfriend. She is not a member but Ver Chan is hoping she will get an opportunity to join someday too. Ver Chan is one of the few Chinese converts that I feel will always find a way to learn and participate in the Church. 

Ver Chan and Pete. These two have a great love for each other. Pete has been an awesome example to Ver Chan as well. 

Ver Chan's last day at Leeds University. This picture was taken in our apartment. 

Sister Teo is from Singapore. She has been on her mission 9 months and to this point served it all in Leeds. She is excited to work in another Mandarin speaking area. She is going to Leicester. It's the southern most part of our mission. I will miss her. She is also a great cook, even if one week she gave the entire district food poisoning. She didn't know the food would get contaminated if she left it out all night. Excluding the one bad experience she has fed us many yummy dishes after district council.

Elder Cottle, our district leader is leaving for New Castle. It's the furthest northern city in our mission. He was a Farci Elder and taught and saw baptized some great Iranians. Every Tuesday we have had some enjoyable "Farci" nights at the institute with Elder Cottle and Ethington's friends. I made cinnamon rolls for the last Farci night just for Elder Cottle. He loves to eat! Usually, I don't provide food for Farci night but decided since it was his last time with us, I should cook something he liked. You would never know it to look at him, but he's gained 30 pounds on his mission. He's 6'5" tall and looks normal now. So, the weight gain has served him well.


Katie is from Scotland. She is one of the outstanding YSA at the institute. She left for her home to get prepared for her mission. She leaves the end of October for Melbourne, Australia. She has helped much at the institute. At the spur of the moment she has prepared lessons for Home Evening Group, been the guest chef on Wednesday evening, and supported and attended all the classes. I will miss her.

Bee Sting

We bought a £3.00 meal deal at the Tesco Market and a bee wanted the sandwich more than Pete did. Pete tried to get away from the pesky bee, but failed. This was right after the bee sting. By the time we got home, his whole upper lip and cheek was swollen much bigger. He looked like he had Botox overload. 

Harry Potter's Castle in Alnwick  

We took a two day weekend trip to Alnwick & Bambourgh with some of the office staff. We also met up with the newest senior couple to our mission, the McCombs from Reno. They live in New Castle another northern city in England. They're far away from most of us so it was a fun get-a-way for them too. 

Bambourgh Castle is at the northern top of England by the North Sea. The views were spectacular. The windy air coming across the North Sea blew strong the day we were there. 

 Alnwick is where Harry Potter and some other famous movies were filmed. It is a living castle for one of the noble families in England. The library was exquisite with first edition signed books by Charles Dickens & Edgar Allen Poe. They also owned a copy of the Book of Mormon. 

Alnwick Castle had some fun Harry Potter activities outside the castle. Harry Potter & Dumbledore made an appearance. We also took a try at flying on the broomsticks. We enjoyed our time together  laughing and having fun. 

Outside Alnwick Castle (Harry Potter Castle)

Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle & Senior Missionaries

Courtyard at Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle in the Rain

Alnwick Castle

Broom riding taught by Harry Potter's friends

Archery at Alnwick Castle

Hit the Dark Blue Mark

Fun to Learn

Pete did Great!

Harry Potter & Dumbledore

Bambourgh Castle 

Bambourgh Sits On top of the mountain

Beautiful View of North Sea

Inside the Castle

City of Bambourgh

Windy Day-Beautiful Views

New Castle Upon Tyne City

New Castle Upon Tyne Cathedral

New Castle Upon Tyne 

Restaurant in New Castle Upon Tyne 

Outdoor Medieval Campers - Each with a Different Talent

Standing on top of the Cast with Views of the City Below

Bolsover Castle was not a Military Castle-No Protective Guns Here

Tapestry Room

Durham Cathedral

Outside Durham Cathedral

Inside Durham Cathedral

Durham City Views from Cathedral

Antique Car Show Outside Durham Cathedral

Skipton Canal Boat Ride

Skipton isn't too far from Leeds. One day we drove to the scenic town to take a canal ride. The weather was beautiful and we had fun. 

Embassy

Embassy was near Skipton so we hopped aboard a steam engine for a train ride in an antique Steam Engine Train. 

Derwent Valley Mill a World Heritage Site

Derwent Valley is a large area with several towns. It's all part of the World Heritage Site. We drove through the valley and stopped at the North Mill in Belper. 

Mill Museum 

We ate in Wenslydale Creamery 

Beamish Historic Town

Beamish is a historical town much like Nauvoo. All the historic homes and towns are conveniently along a large circular road. A trolley travels through the town allowing riders to get on and off to explore each spot. 

Beamish Street

Ladies Creating Beautiful Lace

Leeds Canal - Beautiful

Pete Loves Walking Along The Canal in Leeds

Missionaries Doing Street Contacting Outside The Institute

We went with the Leeds 1st Ward on their evening of "Finding." It was a fun night. Pete and I met Adam Smithfield who hasn't been attending for a while. Pete had a great time teasing him about his Napoleon Dynamite t-shirt.  We wanted him to have a Book of Mormon. He told us he had one somewhere in the house. Then, we invited him to read it. He said he would. Pete told him it wasn't by chance that two missionaries from Utah met someone with a Napoleon Dynamite t-shirt on. 

ENGLAND, LEEDS MISSION IS THE GREATEST MISSION IN THE UNIVERSE!

That's what all the missionaries tell us. 

August 5 -18

Sunday Visits

We count it a blessing to visit the different wards in our stake. This gives us opportunity to meet the many different YSA throughout the stake and to feel the spirit from each of the different congregations. There is a 30 mile radius between the different ward buildings. All the wards in the stake start their meetings at 10:00 a.m. So, we can only visit one ward a Sunday. Today, we visited the Keightley Ward. It is the farthest away from us. It took us an hour to get to their building, traveling by car. There were quite a few members and two sets of missionaries serving in that area. We saw many familiar YSA faces and they were excited to have us visit. We feel like our visits to the different wards is beneficial in meeting all the YSA. The Keightley young single adults have a challenge getting to Leeds Institute because it is far away. They usually pick one of the activities from the week to attend. Most of them travel by train to visit.

The Bronte Family

The Bronte Family lived in the town, Haworth. It is a 10 minute drive east from the Keightley Ward. Since we were so close, we decided to take a quick stroll through this beautiful little town. The roads are narrow in the country, but the views are superb! 

Haworth Countryside

Haworth City Center

Haworth city center

Haworth Chapel & Cemetery

Patrick Bronte, the father & minister to the Bronte Family, preached here for 40+ years. All the children and family were buried in this cemetery except Anne. She was buried in Scarborough. They had six children. The first two died very young. The mother Maria, died in 1821 leaving the family without a mother. The two oldest daughters, Maria(11 yrs) and Elizabeth(10 yrs) died within a month of each other of Tuberculosis. Bronwell, Emily, and Anne died within 9 months of each other of tuberculosis. Five years later Charlotte marries and a year later dies of tuberculosis and complications of pregnancy. Six years later the Bronte father died. He outlived all his children. The three famous sisters were all great authors and wrote famous stories. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre. Anne wrote Agnes Gray. They all wrote poems and other stories not quite as well known. Haworth is a quaint town that sits on the top of a hill in the Yorkshire Dales. 

The Bronte Home

They were a prominent family in the community of Haworth

Leeds Campus

On one of our morning walks we decided to walk the campus. We've tried several times to get into the Great Hall. It's a very old building where all the students take their final exams. We met a nice security guard that let us inside to see the great hall. The students had told us how beautiful the building was inside. The outside is awesome too. We were not disappointed. 

Great Hall Entrance

Great Hall Stairwell

Great Hall Testing Center

Great Hall with the nice security guard who let us inside

Home Evening and Cinnamon Rolls

We had a home evening/going away party for Mateo. He is returning to Spain. A few of the YSA came to wish him well and to say good-bye. I made cinnamon rolls for the occasion and they were all excited. 

 

Mateo is the one holding the pan of cinnamon rolls. We will miss him. Our numbers are much smaller during August. 

Car Boot Sale/Book of Mormon

Both Pete and I like to visit car boot sales. They're a lot like yard sales back home. We've found some real treasures by searching through lots of junk. It's a fun diversion for us. The sales are mostly done on Sunday and we don't go to those. Sometimes we find one on a Saturday. The office sisters were with us one day. They liked it as much as we did. It's called a car boot sale because the sellers open their boot (trunk) of the car to pull out all the items for sale. 

The day the sisters were with us Sister Wassmer and I had a good missionary moment. Just as I was starting to leave, a gentleman asked me about my name tag. I explained what I was doing and we laughed together as I said, "You're probably surprised to see us at a car boot sale?" He was a professor at one of the universities. So, I said, "I bet you like to read. I have a book with me that you can read." He said,  "Is it the Book of Mormon? I already have two at home." I said, "and you haven't read it yet?" Then he started talking about "adding" to the Bible. We had a discussion about the Book of Mormon being another testament of Jesus Christ and a few other things pertaining to the truth within the book. I invited him to pick up his Book of Mormon and read it prayerfully. It was a great way to start my p-day. 

car boot sale

Car Inspections

The mission has asked us to help the office with car inspections. We did 8 vehicles at a zone conference and then did a few more the next day. It was a rainy, wet, day but we got it done. 

Sister Wassmer & Elder Carrier

Elder Carrier checked all the fluids while Sister Wassmer and myself checked lights, cleanliness, exterior condition, and appropriate cards inside the vehicle. 

Sculpture Park

We visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park on another one of our walks. We had to drive 30 minutes to get there and then we walked around the park for another hour. Pete had fun talking to the sheep and taking pictures of the sheep. They wander all through the park. 

big river at the sculpture park

Kyrhen

The office missionaries arranged a trip to Kynren. It's a live-action outdoor theater spectacular. It is the 2,000 year tale of the history of England. It's on a seven-and-a-half acre stage with a cast and crew of 1,000 from the town of Bishop Auchland in northern Yorkshire. The office staff arranged to take the mission van which was perfect for 8 people. The day we went it poured down with rain. There were periods when it calmed for a bit but most of the time it was rain. We stopped in Richmond on the way to see the quaint town there. Luckily, they had rain pancho's and waterproof blankets to buy. They came in very handy. 

walking from the car park to the outdoor theater

dinner before the show

Viking village before the show

Richmond Castle

This castle was in the town of Richmond where we bought the poncho's and waterproof blanket for the Kyrhen show. We got the picture of the castle on our way out of the city of Richmond.

 

It was wet but we were comfortable and warm

Finale of the performance

In front of the castle and behind the performers is a river. Much of the performance was done on the water. It was absolutely outstanding! We were grateful to be a part of this great adventure. 

Farci Night

The Elders have been holding a Farci night on Tuesday evening at the institute. One night they decided to cancel. We were in our upstairs apartment when the front doorbell rang. Usually only the mail deliveries come to the front door. We looked out our window and saw two women and a small girl waiting. After meeting them at the door, we learned that they were here for the Farci night. So,we called the Elders and told them to hurry over because they had company. We were able to visit with them since they spoke pretty good English. They had been in England for two years. After a nice visit with the two ladies, Elder Carrier took them for a tour of the institute using all the pictures on the wall as a way to talk about the gospel. They took two Book of Mormons and the Elders will check back with them. We always have some interesting thing that happens when we think we have time to relax in the apartment.  We're grateful for opportunities like this one.

Preston Temple

Two senior sisters who live about 1 1/2 away from us asked if we would take them to the Preston temple. The word that Elder Carrier can drive good in England is spreading. Most of the senior sisters don't like driving here.  They managed to make it to the institute and then we all went together to Preston.We were glad they called because it gave us another opportunity to visit the Preston Temple. It's out of our mission boundaries but the president seems to welcome senior missionaries attending the temple. We also gave these sisters a tour of the Church historical sites in Preston. We spent 3 hours in the temple and another 2 hours visiting the sites. Preston is only an hour and 15 minutes away from Leeds.  

Our experiences are varied but we witness the gospel of Jesus Christ at work in the England, Leeds Mission. We're very grateful to be part of this great work! Christ's gospel is alive in the wards and stakes we're apart and we strive each day to do our part in bringing about the gathering of Israel.