Today is Mother’s Day in the US. It was a couple of months ago here in the UK. Two a year is probably still not enough. As I contemplate how Kathy has handled motherhood, I am overwhelmed. I know she, as most mothers, sees only the flaws and failures; but I stand in awe of how protective, caring, concerned and committed she is to each of our children. There can be no doubt in their minds that they are loved and there is nothing she would not do for them. It is quite a wonderful thing to be able to spend this time with her. I enjoy going to church each Sunday and hearing so many come up and say how much they enjoy working with Kathy in the temple. They always comment on her sense of humor and her genuine kindness. I still think I got, by far, the best of the bargain.
We are still going with the Sisters to visit their lawyer investigator. The meetings are all very pleasant. It is very satisfying to engage on topics of more than transitory interest with someone who truly believes in Christ and is endeavoring to follow Him. He is still not seeking in a way that will lead to joining the church–and may never get there. But he is a very good person and someone I will expect to find on the other side.
A quick travel log. Last week we went to the Quarry Bank Mill in Manchester. It is about the last remaining operating mill in the UK. In the 19th and 20th century, the entire north England area was occupied by cotton mills. Cotton was imported from everywhere (mostly US) and was carded, spun, woven and turned into fabrics of all kinds. It is from this era that all the horrible stories of worker abuse, child labor and the like emanated. Today, the mill with its gardens and villages are a national treasure museum. Here are a couple of pictures:
The Mill
Weaving
Period Clothing
This weekend, we went to a wildlife estuary nearby. Beautiful place. For school children, they have built a Viking village. See pictures below:
Carved out of tree truck
Viking Village
More thatched roof village
Ancient weaving loom
Sorry, this is going to take some time adjusting to my new camera. It is too high resolution to upload, so I have to shrink and downgrade the photos to post. And the quality is then horrible. On the way home, we drove through a little village by the name of Croston. A very picturesque little town with a great old church. We actually had a decent Pub dinner there.
On Friday night we had the Cards and the Barchis over for dinner. They are both temple missionaries with whom Kathy works. Brother Card just finished serving as the President of the Alberta temple for 4 years prior to coming here. His family settled Cardston (where it got its name). They were pretty impressed (as was I) with the four-course Mexican dinner.
Church today seemed to be filled with conversion stories demonstrating extraordinary faith. Or High Priesthood instructor (a very interesting retired sheep farmer–but very educated) was giving a lesson on the Book of Mormon. He started out by passing out two postage stamps to each person in the class. He told us on the back of one, he wanted us to write everything we knew about world events in 600 BC and on the other to write as many surnames as we knew of of people in Kurdistan. His point was that collectively, we could not fill the backs of two postage stamps with what we (almost all of whom had graduate degrees) knew of a subject of which Joseph Smith (with no education) wrote an entire book which as held up against criticism for nearly two centuries. An interesting approach (recognizing it is certainly not a given in the academic world that it has held up well).
We keep thinking winter is gone–and then, it comes visiting.
We miss our loved ones and pray for you always.