Second Week of February 2009

It is amazing how many things can happen in a week. In addition to Ben, we learned that Kurosh wants to be baptized and it looks like that will happen on the 21st also.  Elders Session and Gerber stopped Kurosh on the street and talked to him about the Church. He had only been in Wales a few days, he listened to the Elders, and has accepted the Gospel. It appears to be true, the future of the Church in Great Britain and Europe is with the 18-30 year olds. It is an amazing privilege to be able to work with them.  

We have spent a tremendous amount of time this week studying the Gospel, part of the time preparing our Institute lessons, part of the time preparing a lesson for Relief Society, and a lot of time reading Preach My Gospel and reading and marking the scriptures referenced in PMG. I also finished the Book of Mormon for the second time since we started our mission. I only mention this to encourage my grandchildren and children to read, read, read the Book of Mormon.  I have gained an even stronger testimony of its truth and power. 

We had transfers this week and lost Sister Morris and Elder Sessions.  We will definitely miss both of them.  

I especially liked Institute this week as the students responded to the lesson and volunteered many, many comments regarding the Holy Ghost as a teacher of truth powerful enough to confound the mighty.  It was thrilling to me to see and hear them open up.  Their insights are deep and spiritually powerful.  

I gave a pass-along card to a Jewish Israeli at a stand in the mall in Cardiff. He said he hoped it wouldn't hurt his sale to me of products from the Dead Sea, but, "I am an atheist." I told him that it wouldn't. (I bought things I don't need.) We talked for a few minutes, I told him to look us up on mormon.org and he said he would. He said I could come back and talk to him any time and added, "And you don't have to buy anything." I told him I would like that. When we left he said, "God bless."  Interesting comment from an atheist!

Any time we can go with the Elders to teach Peter is a highlight. He is thoughtful, bright, serene, confident, studious and has such a simple and direct testimony of the truth.  I am continually amazed at how powerful the Spirit testifies when the Elders are teaching him and I believe it is because Peter has such strong faith and is so receptive to the teachings of Christ.  I hope and pray that his wife in Sierra Leone will receive the missionaries and join the Church too.  Peter is scheduled to be baptized soon and we are all looking forward to that. He could be such a powerful strength to the Church back in Sierra Leone, or anyplace else for that matter. 

New Year's Resolution from Cardiff, Wales

1.  Do better.  

That's all.  Just do better.  

Christmas Parties

I apologize that everything on this post is in reverse order with the most recent event on top.

 This is the top of the lighthouse at Roath Park.

Roath Park is a place I found on the Internet before we came here and I have wanted to see it ever since. Imagine my surprise when our little Christmas walk took us exactly there. I loved it.

And there sits Nanny McPhee on the bench with her walking stick (a gift from President Parry) and her long black coat. Ben gave me the name but was at least kind enough to say I was prettier than Nanny McPhee who had big warts and awful teeth. But she is magical!

Meg, Lisa, Jocelyn and Peter (on his cell phone) below.  Elder Cable and Ben on the right.  We all walked to Roath Park after dinner and after Brother Parry passed out all the gifts and they were opened and appreciated.  It was a beautiful day and I think the walk was my favorite part of Christmas. 

Peter and Lisa Hammond

Lisa is the Parry's daughter, she has three children. The food was fabulous and the company delightful. President Parry was the main cook:

Turkey, Yorkshire pudding, chestnut dressing, steamed vegetables, roasted potatoes and Christmas pudding with a fabulous sauce, among other things. Nummy!

President & Sister Derek and Sue Parry invited us to their home for Christmas dinner and sharing in family time together.  It was wonderful, relaxing, and most pleasant.

Our missionaries:  Elder Adams (Florida), Elder Alex Bearnson (Providence, UT), Sister Morris (California) and Sister Martinec (Las Vegas) and our new convert, Jack Kirby at the Christmas Eve party at Lisa & Peter Hammond's home.  They make me happy.                                                                 

On Monday the 22nd of December we went to downtown Cardiff to sign a lease renewal for a flat in Roath and saw the above church with a vegetable market right by it.  Sadly, the church is now a discount store inside.

The older gentleman, Jack Kirby was baptized on 13 December 2008

amid much vicious opposition from his pastor and family.

He has a lot of courage and says he is "happy" with what he has done.

The gentleman on the right is our bishop, Jamie Holcombe, 

a policeman and a great person.

These ladies are fun friends: Gillie Grant and Linn.

Pam Fitzpatrick went to Canada for the holidays.

The above photo taken at Derek Parry's 70th Birthday Party

is of Margaret, Ann Dearden, Gil (say  Jill)Davison,

and on the floor Melissa, and Louise Dearden with

their dad, Andrew Dearden, our Stake President who

is a very prominent physician in the U.K.

Sorry, but I like the following video of a spur-of-the moment-dance so much I want to see if I can post it on my Blog.  It was taken at our mission Christmas party and the white guy is Elder Adams with Elder Brobbey joining in. Elder Adams is a convert from Florida and is in our ward here.  He and Elder Bearnson are our Zone Leaders. Elder Brobbey is a life-long member from London. Later in the talent show, Elder Brobbey also did a mean Gladys Knight with lots of spur-of-the-moment missionaries joining in as "Pips". Loved it! But that video is too long for my Blog.  

The last shall be first, especially on my Blog. The top of this post is the most recent of our happenings.  All in all Christmas was nice - but ohhhh how we missed home. 

In Cardiff Without Internet

We are here, we are safe, we are busy. But we don't have Internet or email yet and it is making us feel very isolated. We finally walked through Whitchurch Village to the Cardiff Library and are using their computers. Driving is a total trauma. We spend most of our time lost, listening to our GPS tell us it is "recalculating" because we have taken a wrong turn. We can never figure out how to get off at the right place on the round-abouts.

The students are amazing and we already love them. We attend Family Home Evening with them every Monday at Student House by the University. We teach Institute to about 30 students every Tuesday. We will be inspecting missionary flats every Friday. We are speaking in sacrament meeting this coming Sunday. In addition, there are a lot of Christmas celebrations, dinner engagements, training sessions, YSA meetings and activities, a baptism this Saturday, dinner with a member this Sunday (our second dinner engagement), and we will celebrate Christmas with a nice dinner at Brother and Sister Parry's home and stay for their big family celebration. We truly enjoy the people.

I left the class rolls on the table when I left Institute last night and our S&I Coordinator called me "naughty" for doing so. He said, "You came all the way from America to lose the rolls! We could have had someone here do that." I don't think they are lost forever, but he certainly gave me a hard time. He is the greatest!

We love hearing from home. Shawna sent a card, Mom & Dad sent a card and a great gift, and Kim and her Young Women all made cards for us and a big paper Christmas tree with hand made decorations. We love it! It is hanging in our living room. Thanks. I will post photos when we I can use my own computer.

Can you say this?

And here is the store Julie is talking about.  The town with the long name is 190 miles from Cardiff.  

University of Cardiff

We have just learned that we will probably be teaching six institute classes at the University of Cardiff and supervising 25 seminary teachers as well as conducting their in-service training.  We will be working with two stakes in southern Wales.  It is all rather intimidating, but we are so excited!  I can't believe we are so lucky (blessed) to get such an amazing mission assignment.  I will have to learn to get up early, really early. And this just as I have mastered learning how to enjoy a leisurely morning.   

Cardiff, Wales

After studying all about Birmingham, England we just found out that we have been assigned to the Seminaries & Institutes Mission (S&I) in Cardiff, Wales. Our supervisor is in Germany and I am sure he will want us to meet with him there.  :-) I just know that Wales has 400 castles, Cardiff has 4 major higher education institutions, 41 inches of rain a year, and temperatures from 40-60 degrees F.  

The cool thing is that the Church sent us access codes to all resources available to institute and seminary teachers.  There are some amazing talks and manuals on their website.  Our letter with instructions also says visitors are allowed to come for short stays, so plan on coming to see us.