Departures and Transfers

Monday evening we had Elder Celestini and Elder Halvorsen over for dinner.  Elder Celestini will be leaving this Wednesday and Elder Halvorsen is being transferred to Wales. They live in a flat
down the street from us.  We sure love having the missionaries in our home and feel their special spirit and love to hear their message.

Tuesday - September 5 we had transfers throughout the mission and our departing missionaries came to the office to prepare to depart on Wednesday morning and to have a testimony meeting and farewell dinner.  We had three departures this month.  This is the highlight of each 6 week cycle - to spend a few hours with these awesome missionaries and hear them bear testimony of their Savior and their feelings about their mission.

Sister Leppard, Sister Tartaglia, Elder Holbrook, Elder Celestini, President Leppard

Elder Celestini with his brother and sister

It is always such an special occasion to watch parents and missionaries reunite when a family picks their missionary up at the mission office.  We all got tears in our eyes.  Elder Celestini's family is from Italy and I loved hearing his cute little sister, Emma, speak in Italian.

Elder Liang, Elder Terry-Wylde Green Elders
Elder Willis, Elder Ashwell-Office Elders

Some of the missionaries watching the departing missionaries and saying their farewells.












Our Preparation day adventure for this week:

We drove to Tewkesbury to walk through the Tewkesbury Abbey.  It was built in the 1100's for housing Benedictine Monks.  We stopped at a boot sale on our way.  They are so much fun to walk through.





Then we drove through Lowbands to stop and buy some delicious homemade jam from a stand at the edge of the road - you pay by the honor system.  Very delicious!  I bought Summer Fruit with Junipers, Damson, and Blackcurrant.  It is just down the street from Gadfield Elm Chapel.
I have a feeling we will be stopping by for more in a few weeks.

Then we drove a few more miles down the road to the Malvern Hills - such a beautiful view of the countryside.

A perfect way to spend a Pday.



Busy day at church today - we had five of our primary children attend.  We just recently had a new family move in which added another member of our class.  She is a very sweet young lady from Australia.   During part of primary I went into Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School to give a part of the lesson (we took the primary class in with us) , then finished teaching our primary lesson.  Went into the nursery for second part of primary.   We drove to a chapel in another town to take a flyer to put up about our Addiction Recovery Class.




Just remembering my sweet mother this week - it is her birthday on the 14th.  One of her greatest accomplishments is being "Grandma Booth".  All the grandchildren and great grandchildren adore her.  She made each of them feel special and she loved to spend time with them.  Such a Christ-like and charitable lady.  I was certainly blessed to call her "Mother".