Konold Chronicles

Every morning, we have a prayer meeting with our group in Frankfurt.  Recently each has been telling a story (testimony or something in their work).  This morning, one of the attorneys in Frankfurt who works on Visas (bless his heart), told of an experience spanning over the last several days, but culminating today.  The Rome Temple has been a real challenge—to put it mildly.  It has become necessary to send two more construction supervisors from SLC to Rome.  The Visa and work permit challenges were insurmountable and I can’t even recall all the hurdles.  It involved US Social Security, Italian Social Security, the State Departments of both countries.  In the course of it all, both families had to be physically present in Italy to make certain applications.  However, they had to complete the process in less than about 2 weeks or they would be sent home to start over.  As the attorney in Frankfurt went through the several hurdles, each one would historically require 2-6 weeks to accomplish.  Documents had to be prepared, translated (by a government certified translator), certified by proper authorities and then attached to an apostille (a glorified notary) and the originals delivered to the officials in Italy.  As it turned out all of this was accomplished in one day (the day before the families would have had to return).  Those involved in the process are certain there was divine intervention—and it would be difficult to argue the point.  Sometimes mountains do need to be moved—nuisance that they are.

“Bank holidays” here are serious business. Everything shuts down and no one is expected to work.  Our office was closed, so we took off Thurs. afternoon and headed, by train, to Edinburgh—the first time to Scotland for us.  A few observations:  1. there is a remote possibility that you can understand perhaps 1 in 5 words if you ask them to repeat slowly; 2.  they really do wear kilts—a lot of them; 3.  they can out-drink the Irish; 4.  they are very proud of their history and don’t have a fondness for the English.  We were very fortunate to have good weather.  In fact, the last two days were absolutely stunning.  Very clear, blue skies and temperatures in the 60’s—which to us (both of us) felt warm.  We did most of the pure tourist things:  The castle, Holyrood House (Queens’s summer palace), the royal yacht Britannia, art gallery, cathedrals, and, of course, shopping and WALKING.  Mom spent a lot of time with Greyfriars Bobby (the dog that sat on his master’s grave every night for 14 years), and with the Lewis chess pieces at the museum of natural history.

Since this was conference weekend, we did make an effort to find a chapel.  I did find one about 2 miles from our hotel and walked there Sunday morning—thinking that is when they would re-broadcast Priesthood.  There was not a soul at the church and I could not raise anyone at the mission home/office next door.  I would have liked to have met some of the people in the mission office as I work with them (by phone) quite a bit.  I can only surmise they were at a stake center somewhere attending a session.  We were able to watch a couple of sessions via the Internet back at the hotel—so all was not lost. 

We found the Scots to be a friendly group—as long as you initiate the conversation.  The landscape—particularly on the trip there and back was stunning.  So much pasture land and so many sheep.  The textile industry is all but dead in the UK but they still produce and export a lot of wool.  On the way up, we saw no sheared sheep; but on the way back, several—so I guess the season has begun.  Idols of Scotland are Rabbie Burns, J.K. Rowlings, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Sean Connery,  One of the most curious things to me is the number of people who say they would like to come to America to visit Graceland.  I’m pretty sure I would not visit Graceland if I were in Memphis.

The Edinburgh Castle, like many in the UK, is very well “preserved” which means it has been rebuilt several times.  When Robert the Bruce recaptured the Edinburgh Castle (with 30 men against 300 Englishmen) he ordered the entire castle destroyed because they could not commit the number required to defend it and didn’t want to re-take it again.  In those days (14th century) the Scots didn’t really have an army, when they had to go to war, they would go and recruit support from as many clans as they could muster.  When the battle was over—the clansmen returned to their homes.  I don’t think I can understand how it must have felt to grow up worried every day who, when, and how someone was going to try to steal your freedom and enslave you. And death was so in your face every day.  We heard about a wife of a king whose husband accused her, probably correctly, of conspiring to over through him.  She was sentenced to live in a wooden and iron cage outside the castle wall—where she stayed for 4 years.  Do you know how cold it gets up here?  And how hard the wind blows?  Mary, Queen of Scots spent 14 years in prison in London tower and was then executed.  These were hard times.

Strange train happenings.  Due to the long bank holiday weekend, National Rail decided it was a good time to do maintenance on the line—so they shut it down.  We ended up having to take a two hour bus ride (not fun) to Carlisle, a train to Preston, then back on a bus to Buckshaw Village. While on the train we were informed that a freight train ahead of us had broken down and we would have to sit until it was fixed (anywhere from 1-3 hours).  Fortunately, we were moving again in about 1/2 hour.

As I was contemplating all of this, a thought came to my mind:  “Often we find that the stones that appear to be obstacles, turn out instead to be stepping stones,”  Our trip back will probably be among our most memorable times on this trip and will probably provide the most value in our lives.

That’s it for now.  Here are a few pictures of our visit to Edinburgh.

Who is wearing a hat?

View coming out of the castle

The abbey at Holyrood House

The queen’s garden

Trying some Scot food

Looking up at the castle

The first time we have seen the coat off!

It’s been a couple of weeks since our last post.  A week ago we drove into Liverpool for the first time.  It hadn’t dawned on us that it was the second day of the Grand National Horse Derby on the outskirts of Liverpool.  The Grand National is the English equivalent of the Kentucky Derby.  So many people dressed in very formal attire (on a cold and windy day).  I had the thought, as I observed them, how great it would be if they were all going to church.  What a force they would be.  In the evening, we were strolling through the mall at the wharf and thousands of them (still dressed in full regalia) descended on the bars and restaurants.  There were at least 6 police standing at every corner in the mall ready to keep things in check.

We visited a couple of museums (the Maritime and the Liverpool museums).  It was like seeing the other end of Ellis Island.  To ponder the millions of people going through Liverpool (including my ancestors) was sobering.  Many, if not most, with nothing but a dream in their pockets–expecting America to be their best chance at security.  Without those ambitious immigrants, I wonder what would have become of America and the Church.  The Church recently built a monument to the families who departed out of Liverpool.  It is right on the wharf.

Monument to immigrant families–donated by the Church

The Maritime museum included a display describing the hundreds of thousands of children–as young as three–who were sent to Canada, America and Australia during the 20th century. These were basically orphans and unwanted children whose parents voluntarily turned them over to churches or other presumably charitable organizations who then shipped them off–often without telling the parents.  Many are now trying to retrace their steps and find their families.

Yesterday, we travelled to Yorkshire and visited the towns of Halifax and Haworth.  In Halifax, we visited Shibden Hall the home of the Lister Family (for 500 years).  The interesting thing was the number of major remodelings done by Anne Lister–who had the greatest impact on the estate.  A couple of pictures:

From Halifax, we drove to Haworth, parsonage home of the Bronte sisters.  It is really quite moving how three literary giants grew up in a fairly isolated environment and accomplished what they did by their young ages.  They died at 29, 30 and 39 years old.  In fact, all 6 children of Pastor Peter Bronte’s children died before he died at age 84.  Probably best known of their works were Wuthering Heights and Jane Erye.  Haworth is in one of the many “moors” in England.  I am still not sure I understand how the moors become such, but you definitely know it when you see it.  Found in the hilly country, it is the top of the hills–where pasture land cannot or does not find root.  It is just very barren with a tall brown grass–almost a thicket.  It is in the moors where people did, and still do, go to walk and ponder.  It is said that the moors had great influence on the Brontes’ writings.  The roads are unbelievable.  Bordered by rock walls ranging from 4 to 8 feet high on each side, the road, at times, is maybe 10-12 feet wide.  If you meet a car coming the other way, one or the other must back down to the nearest turn out which could be a mile or two.  We were lucky and able to squeeze by at about 1 mph with mirrors pulled in. Here are a few pictures of the Bronte house and around Haworth.

Last week, I submitted the conclusions of what will be legally required to open Self-Reliance Centers in 20 European countries.  It has been fascinating to see how differently each country considers the issues of education, lending money, issuing certificates, collecting personal data and tax exemptions.  Now, to the task of obtaining the licenses, permits and exemptions identified.

This week also marked another milestone.  Kathy drove to the store by herself!  After she left, I found her phone here at the house–so if she got lost, we were cooked.  But she did fine.

In the next few weeks, we will have visits from Kyle McBride (here in Chorley) and the Gaughans (in London).  We do enjoy these visits.  That’s all for now.

Last weekend, we were visited by our neighbor and friend Kyle McBride who was in London on business and escaped a few days to see us and do some family history.  On Friday, we drove up to the Lake District and, again, enjoyed some scenery unimaginable to those who have not spent some time in England’s pasture lands.  I have decided that the whole purpose of winter is to permit us to fully enjoy spring. One of the beauties of spring is the new lambs.  Picture lush green fields in every direction with rock walls and generously dotted with white lambs.  And, once they are a few weeks old, they jump around together in play groups making for some good entertainment.

On Saturday, we arranged for a church history tour by a local member who has been in the business for several years and has an excellent mix of knowledge, story telling, and timing. Kyle’s third great grandfather, Robert McBride was one of the first to be baptized when Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde landed in England.  On the day of the first baptisms in the River Ribble there was a foot race to see who would be first.  McBride was in the crowd of 7,000 to 9,000 people who observed the race and the baptisms.  He was baptized himself 2 days later.  We visited the sites where he had been attending church (with Rev. Fielding), where he was baptized, where he was confirmed and where the Saints met for sometime once membership started growing (a cock pit).  Once the Perpetual Immigration Fund was established, Bro. McBride took his young family and traveled to America and joined with the ill-fated Martin handcart company headed for Salt Lake.  On the day before his death, he carried many across the frozen river and, as the musical talent in the camp, sang Come, Come ye Saints.  He was found dead in the snow the next morning.  His son, Heber, at age 13, took over and later became a member of the rescue team that would be dispatched to assist pioneer parties experiencing difficulties.  What a heritage.  We spent Saturday afternoon visiting the church where Kyle’s third great grandparents were married and looking for the graves of a couple of their children.  It was gratifying to watch Kyle connect with his past and to be inspired by the faith of that entire generation.  Without the English converts, it is difficult to see how the Church could have survived.

On Sunday, we attended church in the Southport Ward about 35 minutes away–where Kyle’s ancestors’ family lived prior to immigrating.  Coincidently, when we arrived, there were about 6 couples there from our Chorley Ward who had come to support Elder and Sister Card–who had been invited to speak in sacrament meeting.  So, we try to slip away–and get busted.  Sunday night, we stayed here and listened to a conference session.  Nice ending to the day.

The River Ribble

Kathy, Kyle, and our guide, Peter Fagg

Preston Temple

Kathy and Kyle looking for family headstones

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

 Carding

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.

A lot has happened since our last post.  Probably, most importantly, we have received a call from the Area Presidency to serve as “Church History Specialists.”  Our job will be to identify significant church history events in England and write a proposal to conduct oral interviews with those close to the event, index and categorize the recordings, and send them to Church headquarters for future reference.  We will be working under Brother and Sister Jones in So. Wales who are over the larger Europe Area.  We are still trying to get the focus, but it sounds like something we will enjoy doing.  We will, of course continue working in our current callings.

A couple of weeks ago, we went into London and spent a couple of days with Frank, Sheree and John Gaughan.  Frank and Sheree had just been released from their mission two weeks earlier and John had been home about two days.  Our visit included attending church in the Hyde Park Ward.  It was a fairly large ward with a lot of diversity in membership.  These English saints have great faith and express it very openly.  They are very honest about their struggles.  They come right out with health, employment, even marital problems to make a point in a class or talk.  And I must say, it plays well.  There seem to be many fewer who leave a sacrament meeting thinking they are the only ones carrying a burden or having a less than perfect life.

This last weekend, was a holiday weekend.  We drove with the Backmans to Nottingham (home of Robin Hood).  We had very little time there, so we visited Isaac Newton’s home–standing next to the very apple tree which set him thinking about gravity.  The actual tree is behind us.

I have been impressed before and was again that I could not keep Newton interested in a conversation for more than 10 minutes.  He was so ahead of his time, came from very modest beginnings and had an unbelievable mind.  He was deeply religious and wrote more about religion than anything else. I don’t believe I have read his religious works and hope to do so.

The Backmans left Saturday night and headed to Scotland to do some family history work and Kathy and I, after attending church in Nottingham, headed north to York.  I shouldn’t let our church experience go without a comment.  Again, very humble and faithful members; but a very relaxed atmosphere.  One speaker called a member out of the congregation and had him come up to receive a birthday card and hug.  There were a couple of shout-outs from the congregation–without alarm or offense of others. I wouldn’t say anything was irreverent–just loose.

York is a city we will visit again.  A wonderful Minster, a very old past (BC), and significant efforts to preserve.  We stayed at a beautiful B&B about 20 minutes out of town.  Enjoyed our visit with Louise–the proprietor.

Heater not working and–mom froze.  But the next day, mom and I climbed 275 stairs to the top of the tower of York Minster.  We were both exhausted, but pretty happy to have made it. Before attempting the climb we had to go through two interviews inquiring whether we were up for it because there is no way down.  The stairs are barely wide enough for one–there is no way anyone could get past you and there is a line of people ahead and behind you.

Under the Minster they excavated to add support to the columns.  They found a Roman city underground and have done a very good job of restoring and preserving it.  It was there that I succumbed to the curiosity of seeing what I would have looked like as a Catholic bishop. Thoughts?

This weekend (May 30 – June 2), we traveled to Frankfurt for meetings with the rest of the OGC staff and some of the Temporal Affairs people.  It was very helpful and enjoyable to meet the Castletons and the Riggs (the other two senior couples in the OGC –  Europe office) as well as to meet Mike Jensen’s (my boss) wife, Jean.  We have a very entertaining evening at the Jensen’s house on Monday night with all 5 couples.

I was very impressed with the Temporal Affairs committee meeting I attended on Monday morning.  Extremely professionally conducted with scriptures occasionally used to support an expressed idea.  For example, at one point there was objection to a certain course of action on the basis that a different decision had already been made a couple of weeks earlier.  Whereupon, the Ass’t Director of Temp. Affairs whips out D&C 102:20-21 which says that if there is an error in a decision, “the case shall have a re-hearing” and if additional light is shed on the matter, “the decision shall be altered accordingly.”  Some might observe that if the first decision was “directed by the Spirit” there really can be no error or additional light-so what’s going on here.  Well, I think what it means is that not every decision is directed by the Spirit.  In many matters, especially temporal matters, I believe the Lord expects and allows us to use our best information and judgment.  We will make mistakes and He expects us to turn around and correct the error–not punish ourselves by sticking to the bad choice because we felt good about it at the time.  And, if you are among those who want to see God’s hand in the details of the work, perhaps you can find that influence in the correction and allow the first attempt to be more inspired by man’s good faith effort.  God will not let us go far astray, but as we do with our children, He will allow us to walk on our own legs when we are able.

In church on Sunday (in Frankfurt) we attended the English service which consists almost entirely of Church employees (and we probably had about 200 in attendance).  It is odd how, you are dealing with “John” during the week while addressing one problem or another, and you show up at Church and find he is “Elder Jones” an Area Seventy.  The only ones that are “Elder” and “Sister” during the week are the senior missionaries.

For some reason, I have been dealing of late with a number of bizarre situations involving people who are probably suffering from mental illness.  Sometimes doing the right and Christian thing is not always easy.

I better sign off now, or I will never finish.  Cheerio.

We have started our oral history interviews and have watched a video of the British Pageant (Aug 2013).  The pageant was very well done and, while it didn’t produce the convert baptisms they hoped for, it appears it did a lot to strengthen the church and the members in the area. The play is now performed every other night in Nauvoo.  The hope remains that it will return to Chorley.

Last weekend we went to Fountains Abbey–which are the ruins of a 12th century monastery.  I thought it was one of the most restful places we have been and even the crumbiest camera would look like a pro here.  Terribly windy; but beautiful clouds.

Monastery Ruins

Monastery Ruins

Monastery Ruins

Monastery Ruins

Stream and Bridge at Abbey

St. Mary’s Church next to Fountains

Inside St. Mary’s Church next to Fountains

We then visited a Workhouse Museum in Ripon.  Workhouses were the 19 century welfare program.  Every Council (City) was required to care for their poor and they did so by building and operating workhouses.  Here, an entire family could be housed, clothed, and feed and their children educated while they did work for the benefit of the community.  Conditions were intentionally not wonderful in order to encourage people to leave as soon as they were able.  Men and women were separated and children older than 3 were only allowed to visit their parents on weekends–in order that they could be educated and not overly influenced by what caused their parents to be there–often alcohol.  It is easy to consider these conditions inhumane today, but I thought they served their purpose–in some ways better than our often dead-end systems of today.  Interestingly, religion was a very important part of the day with a worship service and three prayer breaks during each daily routine.  Here is a picture of the Ripon Workhouse.

Workhouse Museum

It is interesting how matters assigned to me in the office seem to come in country clusters.  This week it has been Poland.  I think my name is going to be changed to Konoldski.  Just today, I worked on a trademark infringement case, a zoning matter, and a matter involving a missionary automobile accident–all in Poland.

The weather has been nice for a few days.  We were walking until about 9:00 tonight.  Could easily have walked another 1.5 hours in the light with the temperature in the high 60’s.  But tomorrow, we return to rain and temp in the 50’s.  This is what makes this country so beautiful.

Cheers for now.

A lot has happened since our last post.  On June 19th, we took off heading South to Oxford for our Magna Carta Conference.  This was a symposium co-sponsored by the BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies and the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.  The event celebrated the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. 

Before the conference, we visited Warwick Castle which is reputed to be the best preserved castle in England.  It was very nice, but it is an amusement park with falconry, jousting, and all the trimmings.  But it was quite nice. 

We stayed Saturday night the in a wonderful manor house in Warwick. 

Manor House in Warwick

The grounds were incredible and there was an old church right out our window 

Taken from the window of our room

On Sunday, we attended church at the Warwick Branch and then, on the way to Oxford, we visited Anne Hathaway’s (Shakespeare’s wife’s) house in Stratford Upon Avon.

Sunday night was a kickoff fireside at the Oxford meetinghouse with Elder Bruce Hafen as the speaker.  I was very impressed with his comments on the Magna Carta and its influence on families and the need for covenants.  He focused heavily on the role of Archbishop Stephen Langdon in forming the Magna Carta.  He promised to send us a copy of his talk.

The conference was held at the St. Hughes College of Oxford University.  There are 28 Colleges  forming Oxford University.  We had three days of lectures which often delved more deeply into the minutia of the history of the MC than my attention could tolerate.  One interesting approach was to invite representatives from English Colonies to comment on the role of the MC in the formation of their governments (Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.S.).

On Tuesday, we visited Runneymede (the site of the signing in 1215).  Not much there except some chairs in a grassy field and a monument erected by the American Bar Association. 

Present site at Runneymede where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215

We then visited the British Library where we saw the original Magna Carta and many other ancient documents which both preceded and followed the MC.  A very well done exhibit. 

That night, we met at the Inner Temple of the Inns of Court and in the Temple Church or the “Round Church” as it is called.  This church was the original home of the Knights Templar who were the fiercest warriors and the shrewdest bankers of their day. 

Knights Templar were recognized by the red crosses on their amour and horses

The head of the Knights Templar was the Master of the Temple Church.  We met the present-day Master of the Temple Church, a very engaging man by the name of Robin Griffith Jones.  I had a nice visit with him about the role of the church in the administration of justice in the UK.  The Temple Church is right in the center of the Inns of Court and is attended by most of the judges and barristers who office in the Inn.  The keynote speaker that night was The Rt Hon The Lord Judge PC QC Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2008-2013).  That is the equivalent of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.  Despite the heady title, he was a very warm and extremely insightful person and speaker.  Again, I was impressed with his comments on how religion provides the moral compass which guides the judicial function.

Us with the Chief Justice

At dinner in the Inner Court

On Thursday, Stewart and Barbara Nielsen rode the train up to Oxford from London and we did an all day blitz of the Cotswolds.  A truly beautiful place.  All the homes are of the limestone material mined locally and they specialize in flowers.  Every home is a showpiece of quaint beauty.  We stayed the night on Friday at the Market Cross Abbey House in Malmsbury.  They only rent out one room of the house as a B&B and we were lucky enough to get it.  The property is one of the finest private gardens in all of England—over 2,000 varieties of roses—which were all in bloom.

The Market Abbey House

Our room at Market Abbey House

The Garden at the Market Abbey House with ruins of the Abbey behind

More of the Gardens

More Gardens

Lower Gardens and Lake

The drive back on Friday was horrendous.  What should have been a 2.5 hour drive lasted over 8 hours.  I am now told to never drive the motorways on Fridays.  I went into the office on Saturday to get caught up on a lot of work.

Fun’s over…back to work.

I think today marks our six month anniversary.  In some ways it seems we just got here and in others it seems we have been here much longer.  Our experience continues to exceed our expectations.  For me, this week was all about France.  How strange is this:  If someone moves into your property and stays for more than 48 hours you can get them out pretty quickly if it is your primary residence; but if you do not do it in 7 days (or if it is not your primary residence), here is the process.  First, you need to know their names.  Often these “squatters” are gypsies from Romania and they know what they are doing.  There is no way they will tell you their names and they usually don’t drive cars–so you can’t get their names from the license department.  Once you have their names, you start a 3-month eviction process.  If you win, the police will serve them with the eviction notice and they have 20 additional days to find a new place to live.  However, you cannot evict them during the winter which is between November 1 and April 1. So, if the squatter moves in, say, in August, they will be able to stay until June 1 without paying rent, utilities or anything.  And what do you do without a place to live for 9 months?  The only public purpose I can see in this law is passing the cost of homelessness onto property owners. So, I’m having to deal with that along with another crisis in France.

The highlight of this week was an interview we conducted in our Church History assignment.  Recall that we are taking oral histories concerning the 2013 British Pageant.  This week, we interviewed a family with 5 children who were all in the production.  Although each cast member worked on parts, songs and dances at home for several weeks, all of the formal rehearsals were conducted the week before the production.  All day–every day and then all day for the entire first week of the play.  There was a second cast that took over for the second week.  So, both parents had to be available for two full weeks.  Kids had to put summer sports on hold, food had to be planned, and many who came a distance would find housing with family or members.  The picture is–major sacrifice.  I won’t go into all the details, but this was a huge undertaking.  Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qExA8G34Dmw.  The children in the family we interviewed were 4-16.  Every one of them described a “Zion” like experience.  Absolutely no regrets.  They expressed significant spiritual growth and genuine love for all their fellow actors.  So, our interview was inspiring to us and, hopefully, the oral history will make it the same for others.  After the interview is over, the work begins as we have to catalogue and index the recording.  That takes listening to the entire interview about 1 1/2 hours and noting the time of each subject discussed.

Last weekend, we drove to a re-created town called Beamish.  Check it out at http://www.beamish.org.uk/.  It was quite educational, but the incredible part is that they obtained every piece of materials to construct the city from period buildings that were being destroyed.  From there, we went to the northeast coast of England.  These are some beautiful beaches and fishing villages.  A couple of pictures may capture the image.

Beach Village

Whitby

We spent the night at Lumley Castle and then visited Alnwick Castle–where they filmed some of the Harry Potter movie–particularly where he was taught to fly a broomstick.

Alnwick Castle

Kathy wanted to learn to fly for the grandkids–I was having no part of it.  So she did the class alone, but at the end, begged me to take a ride.  I gave in.  I know this is far too frivolous an activity for (senior) missionaries, but, for the record, here it is:

First we summon the broom

And away we go

Scary stuff.  That’s asking a lot of a broomstick.

Signing off for tonight.  Our love to all.

We have not had a lot of Summer.  One week (beginning of July) was quite warm, but it has been pretty consistently miserable since.  Tanner took the California bar exam last week and is more than ready to be done with school.  So, he is on his way to visit us.  We are looking forward to that.

The temple has been closed for the past couple of weeks (for annual refurbishment) so Kathy has had time to catch up on a lot.  We visited with Marilyn Faulkner two weeks ago.  She was visiting friends in Anglewhite which is just 20 minutes from here.  Marilyn met Helen in the class she takes at Oxford each Summer and they were kindred spirits.  We had a wonderful evening with them and are looking forward to future visits.

The flowers in England are quite remarkable.  Most have very nice gardens and flower shows are a very big thing.  One of the big ones is in Tatton Park and we went last week.  Hard to describe, but here is a picture of one of the outdoor displays.  All plants here (including trees) are in buried pots.

Landscape exhibit at Tatton Flower Show

Last Saturday, a couple in our Ward (the Holmes) invited us to lunch at their home.  Many have what they call a “conservatory” attached to their home.  Wonderful in the Summer–hardly useable in the winter.

Lunch with the Holmes

Lunch was followed by a visit to Queen Street Mill (a turn of the century cotton mill here in Lancashire).  This was the industry of the period.  The picture below is of the main floor where the looms ran.  There are only 300 now, but 1,000 in the day.  The sound of just two of these running was deafening (requiring ear protectors).  Imagine 1,000 and no ear protection whatsoever–and 13 year olds running four to six looms.

Looms at Queen Street Mill

I couldn’t help but think how much my dad would have enjoyed the engineering and production processes.  These ran with remarkable efficiency and little downtime.

On Sunday (our 47th anniversary), we drove to Lyme Park (and manor house).  I must say, I am getting a little tired of manor houses, but this one was particularly old and had some unique features like the “cage” built out on a precipice.  The cage was originally a hunting lodge and was later used as a park-keeper’s cottage and as a lock-up for prisoners.

Kathy at Lyme Park Cage (Manchester in the background)

Our work continues to keep us busy and interested.  I wish I could talk a little more about the matters I work on, but this confidentiality thing prevents me from doing so.  I believe I have communicated with attorneys who speak 15 languages just this last week.  All speak some English, but many are very difficult to understand.  Hearing my end of the conversation must be very entertaining to those around.

Our friends, the Stevens went home this week.  Elder Stevens was the medical advisor for the UK missions.  We will miss them.  He has three siblings on missions.  They will all be home in the Spring.  We have been helping orient their replacements (Elder and Sister Thomson) this week.  Reminds us of 6 months ago when we were totally clueless.

This week, I connected with a man named David Jayme.  I baptized his parents 50 years ago in New Jersey.  David was baptized a year later at 15 years old.  He and his brother Michael have served faithfully in the Church with David actually serving as the president of the Brazil Manaus Mission a few years ago.  I believe Michael was recently released as the bishop of their ward in New Jersey.  David has 6 children and 19 grandchildren.  It is humbling to see and to wonder how many lives have been touched by a visit to the Mormon Pavilion 50 years ago.  I was able to connect with the Jaymes through as senior missionary I met in Frankfurt when we were there in May.  He had lived in their ward.

That’s probably enough for now.  Love to all.

Tanner arrived on August 9th.  Exhausted from years of school, study for the bar exam, and a long flight, all he wanted to do is get a hamburger at Five Guys and get to bed.  I’ve got to say that is the best burger by 10x of anything we have had since leaving.  For the next two weeks, we have been spending the evenings and weekends trying to cram in all our favorite places to visit in Northern England.  One of the most moving is Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire.  I will post a couple more pictures although there are already some in other posts.  The location, history, and antiquity of this place really speaks to us–and it did to Tanner as well.  There was a light rain falling, so we had the place to ourselves–except for a hedgehog that paid us a visit.

Fountain Abbey

Our visitor

In the Lakes District, we visited the homes of Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth.  Tanner got introduced to the single lane walled roads–more exciting than a Tom Cruise car-chase.  He has now left for London for a couple of days on his own.  Here are a few pictures of our time spent with Tanner.

Conwy Castle (that is Tanner on the top of the tower on the left with the blue shirt)

The town with the longest name in Wales (58 letters)–almost the entire length of the train station.

Bodnant Gardens (in Wales)

The “Pike” overlooking Chorley and area

Enjoying the view from the “Pike”

Tanner and Kathy at Wordsworth’s home

This is actually a big hairy dog that jumps into its master’s arms on command

Tanner being a good-sport participant in the Ghost Tour in York 

On the missionary side of things, we decided to give one of our neighbors the first annual “Neighborhood Garden of the Year Award.”  John Bailey (a retired ice cream dealer) was thrilled. He won a plate of Kathy’s best homemade cookies. We had a very nice visit with him.

We had an outstanding youth sacrament meeting last Sunday.  They had just attended the English version of EFY and each bore very impressive testimonies and performed a very well done musical piece.  Some very talented kids here.

Tonight, we are on our way to help out with a family struggling with new challenges.

Love to all.