Just Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella

On Tuesday, March 17, we visited one of England’s national trust sites, Lyme Park.  It is a beautiful estate of 1,300 acres with a huge home built in the 1500’s located just a few miles southeast of Manchester.   The movie Pride and Prejudice was filmed here.  The home has many beautiful paintings, mostly portraits of people who lived in it through the ages but also some of dogs, horses and fox hunts.  There is a tall castle like structure in the middle of the park where the women would go to the top to watch the men pursue the poor foxes.  It was unfortunately another very wet and cold day so we did not spend much time on the grounds but we spent a couple hours touring the home. (However, we did not see Mr Darcy)

The day began with troubles as Sister Pew dropped her iPhone just prior to entering the home, cracking the face of the phone.   She thought it was ruined forever, but the next day Apple was able to repair it for just over 100GBP.  We also went to the Preston Temple later in the day and then spent the evening at home in our flat relaxing and resting.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Legh family by marriage in 1388. It remained in the possession of the Legh family until 1946 when it was given to
the National Trust.  

Grounds of Lyme Park

On Monday, March 16, we began our teaching assignments with the Institute program in our beautiful new building.  Elder Pew is teaching two classes – on Monday’s, a Pizza with the Pew’s class using Elder David A Bednar’s trilogy of books beginning with “Increase in Learning”; on Wednesday’s, Sister Pew is teaching an English class to people from a number of different countries and Elder Pew is teaching a Book of Mormon 121 class.  These are all during the daytime.  The number of students has begun lower than anticipated but we believe the classes will grow over time.

Sister Pew with Abdul, Huessein, Bobo, Mohamed, Zhang and Ethan.  We make learning English fun with journaling, games, and learning a Beatles Song each class. 

On Thursday, March 19, Stephanie was baptized.  She is a wonderful person studying nursing and got to know the Church via her grandmother who has been a member for many years.  Later in the week, we took Stephanie and Pierre out for dinner to get to know them better.   Pierre is from the Congo, via Belgium and is studying economics. 

Stephanie...ready for her baptism.

Elders Greenland and Robinson…Stephanie, with Sisters Jordan and Merrill

We had a week of terrific weather – no rain other than on Tuesday and reasonably warm, by Manchester standards.  Unfortunately we spent it indoors acting as security guards in the new building.  We have some help in doing this but are spending about 45 hours per week within the building.  Some days are quite boring.

Here we are on the first day of Spring…Bundled up !  We were able to wear our Sunglasses for a few hours.  Brilliant! 

We have found a few lunch spots close the the YSA building.  One is the Couch Potato.  We also enjoyed lunch at Alchemist, a good restaurant in the Spinning Fields area with Lynn this week.  Lynn is an investigator from China.  She works in banking and has been very friendly and sweet.  She even attended the first Sacrament Meeting in the new building.  I did my visiting teaching with Ally a business student ,from China, at the Noodle Bar where they practically know our names and know what we're going to order.  They now just bring our Diet Cokes with the glass full of ice.  

Heather Pratt trying out Elder Chong's ukelele.  She is a talented girl who works hard and will be leaving us to go to Australia and Fiji for a year.

Elder Pew...hard at work ! 

We also saw the Imperial War Museum which in a very unique and terrific way gave a written and visual history of the wars England has fought in during the past couple hundred years.  Obviously WWI and WWII were given the most attention, particularly WWI which Britain was a major player in.  Funny, reading the history, one would be hard pressed to learn that the USA also participated in those wars.  We saw uniforms, tanks, guns, ration kits, pictures of soldiers in foxholes, a section on women during the wars and many other items related to the wars.  And no, the American Revolutionary war was not mentioned.

                                             

After the Museum we went to Trafford Center for lunch at Pesto and to a movie,, "The Book Thief" 

Our two “P” days were both raining.  I am hoping soon to get a warmer, dry day to go hit golf balls at a driving range in the city.  The courses here do not have driving ranges, but there is one that operates on its own.  So far, I’ve not hit one golf ball since arriving in England.  But to be fair, Sister Pew has only been shopping once and that was with Ally to buy a modest dress for her baptism.  A mission is work, we have learned!

There are lots of puddles here..These puddle shoes come in quite handy.  We have learned to never stand close to the curb or you get totally splashed by passing buses.  I decided to take off my tights for the first time since I arrived. 

One Friday night  a month there is a YSA dance or activity. We are going to start an additional activity on Fridays and call it Friday Night Lights..Our first will be in two weeks and we will be showing Ephraim's  Rescue.

Carter Maclean sports a BYU shirt. 

Foosball Tournament.  We were the Cougars and we LOST !

Dace from Latvia is studying Nutrition and Fitness.  

Girl's game of cards…

Franklin, from Panama, is a Returned Missionary and is studying English. Mauro from Portugal is a new convert who is studying Film and plays football.  

On Saturday, the Chinese Missionaries planned a special activity for all the Chinese members and investigators.  About 150 Chinese along with YSA members attended.  The Senior couples made and served the food.  Sister Preston made Sweet and Sour Chicken and each couple made Curry and Rice.  It was a great turnout.  There was even a bus chartered from Liverpool to bring all the Chinese members into Manchester. They ate, played games and had a testimony meeting.

Senior Missionaries Sister Cordin and Sister Shaw at Chinese Day Activity.

My first time making curry.  It was actually quite simple.

YSA's Cinthya, Lukas, Carter and Melody helped set tables for Chinese Event

Saturday was the day transfers were announced…so we had a Mexican dinner for these missionaries.  It will feel weird not to have Elder Bytheway, Elder Greenland and Elder Robinson in the YSA ward. We get attached to these missionaries.  Jacinta also brought yummy  treats from Singapore.




I have made so many brownies that my little hand mixer started smoking and then finally just died.  I had to purchase a new one the next day. 

One VERY early  morning this week at half -four (That's 4:30 AM) my iPad began to ring.  We were startled thinking "Oh NO….Who died?" We jumped up out of bed and answered the Face Time call and there we saw a sweet little grand daughter.  She was also in her "jammies" and under the covers.  It was 10:30 pm there and she was tucked into bed and told us that she had taken her parents iPad to bed and wanted to call us. We had a nice conversation about her day and what she had been doing.  We chatted for 20 minutes or so until she said she was sleepy.  We told her to call us again soon and that her sweet phone call would be our secret.  One of these little girls was the "CALLER"  but we won't say which one.  We hope she calls again soon.  Being a grandparent is WONDERFUL !

Tomorrow is "Mothering Day" in England.  We will be speaking in church tomorrow.  So much for a relaxing Mothering Day. 

New British Terms:

   Chemist- Drug Store

   Subway- Underground walkway

   Hoovering- Vacuuming 

   Jelly- Jello

   Have a go at it-  Take a chance