We hold District meetings at our farmhouse and the Zone Leaders, Elder Hvistendahl and Elder Dettingmeijer, came from Preston to attend. We decided to do pictures in the serious and more normal poses :) It was also Elder Durkin's birthday ( notice the small and one and only candle) so we had to have cake and ice cream. We are very international with Elder Durkin from the USA and Elder Soule (blond) from Alaska (sort of the USA), Elder Tomita (our District Leader) from Japan, Elder Di Iulio (between the Lukes) from Italy, Elder Dettingmeijer(front row middle) from Germany and Elder Hvistendahl(front row left) from Greenland, where there are only eight members in all and who happen to speak Danish. He is the first missionary from his country and his father is the Branch President.
They are wonderful missionaries and we are honored to serve in their company. We are constantly having to interpret for each other, as if the Northern English accents weren't tough enough.

Ducky Park Farm

Natalie and the kids are visiting again. We took them to a children's farm nearby for the day. Jackson loved the cars as expected. It was hard to keep him off them but it sure helps to have a big sister who can drive. He was not interested in holding rabbits so Ilana had to do that job on her own. Jackson got a nuzzle from the horse on the top of his head. Missions are such hard work!

Grizedale Forest

These are pictures from the Lake District where we are living now. The picture of the field shows how the old stone walls that cover this country divide the farmers fields and pastures. Our daughter, Natalie and her husband, Jason, brought our grandchildren, Ilana and Jackson to visit with us just before he deployed to Iraq. They live in Germany so it is not too far to come. We went to Grizedale forest which has many paths that have wooden sculptures all along the way. The scenery is spectacular. All of the streams are at flood stage because we have had so much rain.

District Lunch

Hi everyone,
We are back after a month without a broadband connection. These are pictures from our latest District meeting. Natalie fixed her famous potato and cheese soup for us after our meeting.

Elder Tomita is our District Leader. He is from Japan and has mastered the language very well.

He is sitting next to Elder DiIulio who is from Italy. The other picture is of Elder Soule (blond) who is from Alaska and Elder Durkin who is from Arizona.

After eating, the Elders changed a tire for Elder Tomita and Elder Soule. They had gotten too familiar with a rock and it tore out their sidewall. It raises the question of how many Elders does it take to change a tire? Only Elder Soule, Tomita and Durkin had to clean up if that tells you anything.

Elder Durkin and DiIulio are serving in Kendal and come over for our meeting every Tuesday. We bribed them to meet at our farmhouse by serving lunch. It is the sure way to get whatever we want.

Meet Regina Mwanza, an amazing woman. I will tell about her and her quest in a coming letter. There are many reasons we came on this mission and she is one of them.
The next picture is of Simon Hester, master BBQ chef in the freezing wind at the beach. We were all chilled to the bone but had a good time anyway. When the tide comes in this beach is all under water.
The other pictures are of a park in the city, Williamson Park and the Ashton Memorial. Lord Ashton made this as a tribute to his adored wife. There are parks and scenes like this all over England. Lord Ashton inherited his fortune from his father who was the linoleum king in Britain.

Here are some pictures of the farmhouse we will be moving to tomorrow near Barrow in Furness. It is the middle cottage. The owner lives in the far cottage and someone else is in the house where the trash cans are. The whole thing has been redone so that it is very quaint but modern plumbing and electrical heating, etc. The living room is upstairs on the second floor. The big window looks out toward the Sea, behind where Larry is standing and we can see across Morecambe Bay to where we just moved from. The back window looks over the beautiful fields to a distant pig farm. Yum... When we move in we'll put up a few more pictures. Natalie and Jason come with the kids next weekend from Germany so we are thrilled we'll have room for them. Jason is coming to see us to say goodbye before he is shipped back to Iraq for a year. Natalie will be coming to stay for several weeks at a time, which will be fun while he is gone. She was a missionary in Barrow so she will be our secret weapon in doing missionary work there.

Family Search Fair and Sunderland

This week we helped out at a Family Search Fair at our building. The exhibit was from London and included eight computer terminals, two printers and two large TV monitors for viewing from behind the participants. The graphics were wonderful. A Senior Missionary couple takes the exhibit to each Stake. The Stake provides hosts and experts. The public is invited to come and work on their family histories. We had several hundred people come through during the three days that they were there. Larry helped as an expert (which he is not) whenever they were short handed and Barbara was a hostess. Our feeling was that it was a marvelous tool for introducing the public to our church.


We also took another trip with madman driver Bro. Holden to Sambo's grave. It lies in Sunderland, a small village near the mouth of the River Lune. Sambo was a slave boy who died shortly after arriving in England. His grave is a tribute to the fifty or so other slaves buried in the area in unmarked graves. There is a wonderful tribute written that lies upon the grave. Many school children visit and leave toys and mementos at the site, which is otherwise just a barren field near Morecambe Bay. To get to Sunderland, you travel on a road that is under water during high tides. If you are not careful, you could find yourself floating down the Lune River into the sea. On either side of the road are areas of quicksand and other dangers. It was not a trip for the faint of heart. Houses in the village have large slots on either side of their doors where wooden boards can slip in to hold back the high tides during the winter. The place is very isolated during high tides. During the time when it was a port, many men were hijacked from the local pubs to serve as sailors on the cargo ships. Some of the pubs are still active today. Thank goodness the sailing ships are gone. We made it out alive!
We will move this week to Barrow in Furness, which is across the Bay from Heysham about fourteen miles away. Since you must travel all the way around the bay, it takes one and a half hours to get there. We will dearly miss Lancaster Ward. They have been wonderful to us.