The 4th of July With No Flags Flying! Still a Blessed Day (as they would say in the South).

"Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away."  Ether 13:8

Happy Fourth of July!  Using my favorite treat (only 45 calories), I send you some red, white, and blue (as close as I can get to a flag today).  It seemed very strange not seeing flags flying everywhere.  I should have had Elder Blain take my picture in the outfit I wore to church.  I'd never worn my red coat with the black, white, and blue flowered skirt, but it worked for today.  With my cheap, but sparkly, crystal bead bracelets, I looked properly American.  Maybe a bit of a tacky American, but American.

"And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."  Matthew 24:14

I was literally pushed from my seat by the Spirit to stand and bear my testimony in the Stoke Ward today.  It takes something like that to get me to walk to the pulpit and stand in front of people due to my lack of courage and dread of having attention focused upon me alone.  You'd think I would have outgrown that after all these years in the Church and having done thousands of presentations in the public sector, but the basic shyness came with me and shows no indication of ever leaving.  Only those who are introverts and suffer from shyness can understand this curse fully.  Yet, the fact we can conquer the fear with the Lord's help and function in the world is a testimony to me that prayers are answered and He does help us when there are purposes to be accomplished.  We have to go forth in faith and just do the thing we most fear and then we grow.

Just because I can get up doesn't mean things come out as expected.  While standing in front of the congregation, I announced that I was celebrating my independence from them.  At least everyone laughed.  One never knows here in England.  I did acknowledge my thankfulness for England as the mother land and for the fact a strong foundation was built for the newly restored Church when the Lord sent British and Danish saints to America.  They were the backbone of the strong pioneers who made the trip to the Salt Lake Valley to build up Zion there.

Today, I was most thankful for our investigator from Angola (by way of Portugal).  He has been quite ill and we weren't sure he'd show today.  As we waited for our investigator to show, we saw the young Elders standing out on the steps in the front of the building waiting for investigators they expected that never showed.  They worked so hard during the week.  We were all praying for each one individually to be there and then only the one showed.  I knew how deeply disappointed they were, but I know they won't lose faith.  They'll just keep working with all of their heart, might, mind, and strength.

Our hearts leaped with joy when we saw our investigator coming down the hall.  He came into the building looking like a royal prince, carrying himself beautifully.  His regal look was enhanced by a brand new suit, white shirt, matching tie, and shiny shoes, with his waist-long dreadlocks tied neatly at the back of his head with multiple twists of his own hair.  It was easy to imagine his ancestors in Africa as chiefs and leaders in the tribes.  Aside from his appearance, there is a spiritual maturity about him that is unusual.  He has had a very, very difficult life thus far, yet he has faith. This person humbles us.  I spoke of him in an earlier blog, but we are so in awe of this man being sent to us to teach and he is teaching us.  I am grateful beyond words to know this person, to see his soul, to hear him pray, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is a very choice son sent from Heavenly Father for greater purposes than we know.  What a blessing to associate with persons such as he. 

This experience in Stoke Ward, having four investigators the Zone Leaders are teaching show up to Newcastle Ward, hearing a new investigator bear her testimony that she'd read the Book of Mormon in three days and had to leave the church she loves because she knows it is right to join Christ's Church, and hearing so many heartfelt testimonies of members in two fast and testimony meetings today filled us over the brim.  Our Sabbath couldn't have been better!

14th Century Church and Sweeny's Barbershop

"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock."  Matthew 7:24-25

Today we visited people on the outskirts of Newcastle Ward about 22 miles out.  Sorry, I don't use kilometers because most everyone reading this blog are Americans.  As we drove through the village of Madely, there were church bells ringing.  Eventually we got near and saw a bride and groom going into an old church.  We drove around a little more and heard the bells again, so I asked to go over to the church to take a few pictures.  The bride and groom were leaving to get into their decorated Volkswagen bus.

A man bicycling with his little daughter stopped, and we talked about the building and I tried to share the gospel with him when he said his wife teaches Sunday School there.  He had never heard of Mormons but wasn't really interested as he kept changing the subject back to the old church.  He said it is at least a 1,000 years old and the oldest in England.

Driving down the road after we left, I saw a sign on the road that said, "14th Century Church."  I think this may be the church the sign refers to and it isn't quite that old but still very old.  Pictures are below.  There was a tombstone that I thought said "1701," but looking at in now it may be 1791.  Some of the writing was in Latin.  We didn't have time to walk around too much, but some of  the grave markers are weathered and we couldn't read the writing or any dates.

We enjoyed the country and the beautiful weather today, but the 4th or July celebration planned by our American ward members sorta fizzled out by the time we showed up.  No fireworks.  We weren't too disappointed and actually quite grateful we could go home an relax for the rest of the evening.

This is All Saints Church of England.  Notice the animal sticking out on the left?  They were on the building at the corners and other places.  Don't you think the blue commercial sign ruins things a bit?

That is probably a nine on the headstone.  I thought I'd found the oldest readable one, but there was actually

 another one dated 1739.  We couldn't read the really old ones.

We wonder if the skull and crossbones on some of these means they died of the plague or something contagious.  That is something to research.  Later note:  Check out Sal's research in "comments" at the bottom of the blog--I knew someone would find out something--thanks, Sallyann!

The wire or whatever it is ruins the looks of this view.  There are two more animals here--one at the top.  I'd

have to research what those represent.  Are they ornamental or supposed to protect the building by warding off evil?  They actually look evil.

This is located in downtown Newcastle.  How many of you saw the movie with Johnny Depp?  Horrible!

I couldn't watch it.

The flags are still flying even though England is out of the World Cup.

Phone booths like these are old.  Whenever I see one, it reminds me of the phone booths we used to have

when I was growing up.  Guess that makes me really old too.

I always think I've found the perfect rose and then another one pops up.  I LOVE roses!

Miracles by Ordinary Means

"And it shall be given thee from the time thou shalt go, until the time thou shalt return, what thou shalt do."  D&C 28:15

We were driving from one address to another the other day and Elder Blain took a left turn that put us into the ASDA supermarket drive instead of the road he meant to take.  He said, "Oh no, I need to turn around!"  He had no choice but to drive in and find the way out.  We both said at the same time, "We may as well go to this ASDA and get some eggs."  This store is in a different town from where we usually do our grocery shopping, and we had accidentally forgotten the eggs the day before when we shopped.

We were cruising the isles, checking out their prices and seeing if there were any new items that weren't at the other store, when this man stopped by our cart and said, "R-YALRITE?"  Elder Blain said, "Yes, I am, how about you?"  The man said, "You don't remember me, dya?"  He looked at him and the man said, "I met you over at B__"s house."  We both then remembered him.  He and a friend were standing outside our less-active friend's home, leaning on a car and visiting when we stopped to teach the member.  They are both from Angola.  I specifically remembered he wore a beautiful gold cross around his neck.

The young man introduced us to his wife and we chit chatted a bit and he asked us to teach him at his home!  Wow!  The reason we were so surprised is, when we'd asked our member friend about him, he said that his friend was a staunch member of  The Church of England, who is a very spiritual and religious man, but he wasn't interested in learning more about the LDS religion.  Our less-active member friend has been a great member missionary because he has brought one golden investigator we are now teaching and he has two more interested in being taught.  He has also helped interpret for us with the one lady we are teaching who speaks Portuguese.  We may end up with an Angolan branch if all these people join the Church!

Here are some pictures to catch everyone up on the goings on:

All creatures great and small . . . and bouquets for you!

 

This would have been the last we saw of Polly if she had not conveniently gone back into her box when we

tried to set her free (more like we were setting her up to be killed in this wilderness--bad people).  She wandered for about 15 minutes, never going too far from us (including climbing over my shoes).  She is now safely back home and the neighbors tell us she is gaining her weight back after losing about half her size.  All she does is drink, eat, and sleep.  We're glad she survived it all.

Pretty blue eyes.  We stopped to check out the little Gypsy filly.  We don't know her name yet.  She is very friendly and came right over to us.  She is growing quite the lovely mane and leg feathers.  Right proper Gypsy horse she is.

Getting nosey.

 Pretty is as pretty does pose.

Evil in the city.  This picture can give you nightmares with those spooky glowing eyes.  This urban fox was limping around in the church parking lot.  It didn't seem to be very afraid of us.  Foxes like this are a nuisance, and the Church members tell us there is a den down in the gully next to the church building.  There were reports of two separate attacks on babies near the London area in the last couple weeks.  They also spread rabies to domestic pets.

 

Long and lean without much of a fluff to the tail. 

This is our Newcastle Ward mission correlation meeting.  From left to right, Elder and Sister Blain, Ward Mission Leader, Our Zone Leaders (one of whom is finished with his mission this week), Relief Society Counselor, Elder's Quorum President, and the Ward Missionary (Superman).

 

These are good friends of ours.  The one on the right is the really good cricket player I've talked about.  This couple fixed the dinner that we called "posh" because of the all the candles, elegant table setting, and presentation of food.  The food tasted fantastic as well.  We wanted to celebrate the cricket player getting help for a serious illness he had for two years from which he is now recovering, so we took them out to dinner.

Elder Blain looks like  . . . something other than a missionary.

Here's one of our little buddies we were having a fun Family Home Evening with--he talked Elder Blain into  the glasses!

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Here's how our windows get washed.  One benefit of renting!

 

Elder Blain is standing near the point of the "V" in Queen Victoria's garden in Newcastle Towne Centre.

I have to include the token purple flower.

A very"special" hairdo done for Young Women's