The Back Row Pew: I Love A Rainy Night

Baptism

The baptism of Jess was our "August Highlight". Jess is a medical student from Hyde, who works at the Aquatic Center, next door to our YSA church building , as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.
Elder Peterson and Elder Sidhu met her just outside the Aquatic Center and she came for a building tour. Elder Pew sat in on most of her lessons and Sister Pew sat in on a couple. After a few lessons, when she seemed to be accepting everything being taught so easily, Elder Pew said to her "You are already 90% Mormon, you just need to get baptized." So she did.

Jess on her baptism day.

Elder Webb from Draper, Jess, Elder Sidhu and the Pew's

We love Elder Sidhu's faces !

Other things we have been up to in August. Elder Pew cancelled his golf outing to Royal Birkdale because the weather was so bad that day and rescheduled for August 21, tomorrow. The weather report now for tomorrow is for 54 degrees and 21 mph winds plus rain. Should be fun. lol. We have continued to teach Richard and Nadine Thornley in the Hyde Ward every week. This past Sunday, they went to church with us at the Hyde Ward. It was high council speaking assignment day and Elder Pew gave a talk along with 2 missionaries assigned to the Hyde Ward. We met with Luke Kerr today to make plans for Institute classes in the fall. There will be a total of 6 classes with Luke teaching 3 of them and we are teaching 3 of them.

We also met with the new mission president over dinner on August 18. He asked us to begin to street tract more to find our own investigators to teach. He also asked the 4 missionary companionships in the YSA Ward to utilize us more as the "members" in their teachings. And he asked us to begin immediately to teach family history to the new converts, so that within a few weeks after baptism, they can take a family name to the temple for baptism. This is all quite exciting to us.
Things are changing in the EMM. We were sad to say goodbye to President and Sister Preston, who by the way were named the new Preston England MTC President. They didn't even get a chance to sit down!!! We are excited about our new Mission President, President Ulrich and his wife, Laura. He is moving quickly, making changes and full of energy.

Preston Temple

We were able to attend the ward baptistry session on August 16, driving a of couple YSA to it; and on Friday, August 8, we invited the Endowed YSA to join us for a temple session this past month. We had 5 YSA's attend with us and we all went to Nando's for dinner after.

Helen Smith and Joe Walsh

Gospel Path Class

We continue with our Gospel Path's Class on Wed Evenings and numbers have been low but tonight there were 11 students and 8 missionaries . Last week we had a recent convert who had some serious questions and was doubting his testimony of Jesus Christ. He said he had concerns that his prayers weren't being heard and that other's made fun of his religion. We put our lesson aside and dealt with his questions and concerns. He felt like he was losing hope. We spent an hour with him, reading 1 Nephi 8 about the Tree of Life vision. We showed him how he was just like those that ate of the precious fruit and liked it, but when those in the great and spacious building mocked him, he wanted to join them. He saw clearly what was happening. Sister Pew promised to send him a scripture or thought on hope each day and suggested he read it just prior to his prayers. We pray for him daily.

Tonight in our Gospel Path class (Aug 21) we taught the simplified "story" of the Book of Mormon using chronology charts so that when the new converts and investigators are reading, they might better understand it. Next week will be a class to introduce them to the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price books. Most have honestly never heard of them.

Outings with YSA's

We have had plenty of outings with YSA's and really enjoy going out with small groups.

We had a fun dinner at a Thai Restaurant with Sam and Anna who are one of the few dating YSA. We won't be successful YSA Missionaries until we get some of these kids married off...

Katie Magee and Helen Smith joined us for dinner at an Italian Restaurant at Trafford Centre.

Lunch at "Home Sweet Home" with these cute girls...
Angelina (investigator from Singapore), Katie, Rachel, Ruth and Lorna.

Quite a Selection of Cakes at Home Sweet Home!

This is what I chose...Vanilla Wafer Cake!

We wandered the Northern Quarter and I loved this little pink building with the open windows and flower boxes.

This is the old Fish Market in Manchester...it is now an empty building in the Northern Quarter.

Elder Hotchkiss, (Layton) with a dog and Elder O'Brien, (New Zealand) with pizza enjoy our trip to Dogs and Dough!

IF it looks like we are eating a lot....we are !

Vehicle Mishap...

Yes, I did back into the gate in our car park and scrape the car a wee bit. We had to notify the Mission Pres, the European Headquarters in Germany and a repair shop will be coming to our car park on Saturday to fix this....we hope.

Mice...

The above picture is a blurr because Elder Sidhu was quite frantic when he arrived with his belongings at our flat. At 9:45pm he called us while standing on a chair because of mice in their flat. He told us he couldn't sleep and we needed to come and get him and Elder Webb. We ran to ASDA to find mouse traps but were unsuccessful so we picked the missionaries up and they ran out with their blankets and pillows like they were going to a sleepover.

My girls sent me this apron from Liberty of London which I put to good use right away.

Pancakes With the Pews on August 3rd at the flat. Less people because August is vacation month here. Everyone goes on vacation.

Ryan Hoyle made a larger than plate pancake.

Leah Smith, our YSA Ward Relief Society President left us for a new teaching job in Cambridge...and also to be closer to her boyfriend Ben. She will be missed in the YSA Ward.

Baking Tips...

Chocolate Chips are super expensive here, so I chop up a chocolate bar and add instead...it's even better!

I struggle converting my American Recipes from Grams to cups and Grams to Kilograms and ounces to grams and millimeters to pints etc etc etc...So I found this little Measure cup made by Tala in Britain.

Millie's Cookies are pretty good! What a nice gift from the Sister Missionaries.

I am currently watching the Great British Bake Off, a very popular TV series here. It is a lot of fun. It makes you really want to bake and buy great baking supplies. I have watched several British "Tele" series since we have been here. At night, when we are simply exhausted, (missionaries are always exhausted at night) we curl up in bed with our Ipads and watch a show until we crash. We have watched Mr Selfridge, the Paradise, Call the Midwife and Downton Abby too. Most of the English we have met watch American shows...funny that we are liking the British ones.

We made a visit to the Salford Royal Hospital to see Brother Hoyle, Ryan and Rhianne's dad. We are glad he went home after a four week stay. It seems that all the hospitals are Royal. So is the Royal Mail and Royal Brewery which we view from our window. It's the service that may not quite be Royal.

Ally Zhu is a convert from back in January (baptized by Elder Pew) and business student who desperately wants to stay in Manchester after graduation. She is trying to save money and works three jobs. I visit taught her in China Town at one of her jobs.

The Sisters always like to visit us but always watch the time to be home by 9:15. They are very obedient.

When you live in the hood, the grocery stores have to come up with unique ways of keeping the carts from being stolen. You must put a pound in the slot to take a cart. Then when you take the cart back and hook it up, your pound comes back out. We have to always keep change in our car for carts and for parking too.

Serving at the Single Adult Convention

President Fletcher, the Ashton Stake President, asked us to help get the Canapés and the other Hors D'oeuvres assembled for the 4 day Single Adult (ages 31-100) Convention this past weekend. We spent Saturday evening working in the kitchen.

President Fletcher with a tray at the door along with several Ashton Stake members and Elder Pew making Canapés. Life can be a bit humbling for Elder Pew, once a CEO, now making canapes.

Of course, I am always on the look for new tarts and these were so yummy!

Rhianne Hoyle is one of our great YSA's. We have pretty much adopted her. When she made the trip to Utah, she did a football "soccer" camp for some of our grandchildren. She was quite impressed with their skills and they had a great time with her. Here she is with Ashton, Molly June, Tenley and Rex.

Nellie left behind her park pictures. We loved finding this after she left. Miss these kids. Senior Missions would be so much nicer if you could bring your grandkids.

Believe it or not, the weather is changing here and it is much cooler. It rains at night ( I quite like the sound of rain at night ) and is cool and cloudy in the day. It feels much like October to me. I actually wore tights today. And as always...a sweater.

Our daughter tagged me in the Donate to ALS Ice Bucket challenge..I then nominated Reed and so it goes...a little excitement and craziness... My water wasn't iced, but Reed's was. And, by the way it was quite cold today. When I left the flat I wore a coat. Here's our pay it forward challenge.