Goodbye to Elder Cohen

Hello to Elder Bardsley
On Monday, we welcomed our new office Elder - Elder Bardsley.

Elder Bardsley, Elder Cohen, Elder Ashwell

Our departing missionaries with President and Sister Leppard
March 29, 2017

Transfers and Departures
This week we had transfers and departures on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We said farewell to twenty missionaries (including Elder Bonelo who left last Sunday).  They flew home Wednesday to all parts of the world.  Elder Wagner served in the office with us as an Assistant to the President.  Our testimony meeting and dinner was so much fun with these awesome young missionaries.  They have such strong testimonies and will be great leaders in the church.


On Wednesday we also were able to meet five of the parents of the missionaries who came to the office to pick them up.  Sweet Reunions!

Sister Gjevik with her family from Norway

Transfers were very quiet because we did not have missionaries come into the office - they took trains and buses to their next areas.  This is a first for our mission.



Farewell to Elder Cohen
On Friday we said farewell to our dear Elder Cohen.  Elder Cohen has been in the office since we came and has been such a great help in training and teaching us.  We will truly miss him.

Elder Cohen as the desk

Elder Willmore, Elder Cohen and Sister Willmore
We have spent a lot of time together

Breakfast Conference Sunday with President and Sister Leppard. 
We were invited to have breakfast and watch Conference.  Sister Leppard and I watched Womens Conference while President and Elder Willmore went to Priesthood meeting 10:00-11:30 am

A New Missionary in the Family

Happy Birthday to SAMI - "12" years tomorrow - She spent Spring Break with brothers and sisters and cousins.

Officially going into Young Womens!!!
Brandee made her nutello with peanut butter cupcakes - YUM

Receiving a mission call -
Our grandson, Ryan, opened his mission call on Saturday (Sunday for us)


He is going to Santa Cruz, Bolivia and will leave July 4th, 2017. He will go to the Mexico MTC. Congratulations Ryan!
From the time we last saw Ryan until he returns will be three years.

Our Plumbers (and gardeners and auto mechanics)  - Thank you for all your work and long hours.  They only had to make two trips to Home Depot - which is pretty good for a plumbing job.

At least they are still SMILING

First they replaced the faucet and then found out the disposal had a "DRIP" - Jamie even caught the drip on her photo.

 Nothing like "plumbing 101" on spring break

THE DRIP




Kinver Edge and the Rock Houses

I think we found Bilbo Baggins house!

The Kinver Rock Houses are built in sandstone caves.  They were inhabited until the 1950's

The art of Glass Blowing -
A young lady who makes beautiful glass vases in the Old Richardson Glass Cones in Strourbridge - it was so fun to watch her make beautiful glass pieces.  She earned her masters degree in glass blowing.  
Glassware for the Titanic was made here.

Saturday night we were invited to President and Sister Leppard's home for a delicious traditional English dinner that they prepared for us and the assistant's and Elder Bonelo who is leaving a few days before the other departing missionaries.  A wonderful night!

Today (Sunday) started out our daylight savings time with a conference call with Ryan to open his Mission call, then went to the mission office to pick up Elder Bonelo who is flying home today and took him to church with us, I talked in church, taught primary, taught nursery, attended the munch and mingle and then drove to the Birmingham Bus Station to drop off Elder Bonelo.  

We walked a few blocks around the Bus Station to see the area where Elder Willmore's Great Great Grandparents lived.

The Willmore family belonged to
the St. Martin's Parrish

Rea Street (The River Rea is where the Willmore
 children would take baths)

This week will be transfers and departures - We are ready for the week.  Also it is our last week with our amazing Elder Cohen.  Makes us sad.

Ordinary People doing extra-ordinary things

Happy Birthday to Tyler today

Also known as "Kilroy" in his school play.  He played the lead part and sang a solo.  

Happy Birthday to Kaeli on the 25th of March
She will be "20" - officially not a teenager anymore.
Our fun-loving sweet granddaughter at USU.

Two ordinary People doing un-ordinary Things in an Extra-Ordinary Place

Elder and Siter Willmore
by Charlecote Manor House

This week at the office was quiet. We are paying council taxes for all the flats and writing letters to the councils to get a tax reduction.   In the UK, if you rent a flat you pay for the rent, utilities and taxes. We did not have many missionaries in the office this week.  Things are definitely going to change because we are not going to have the missionaries come to the mission office for transfers anymore - they will go directly to their new assignment.

On Saturday we took a few hours and went for a drive to Charlecote Manor House which is about a 45 minute drive.  It is a Manor House that was built in the 1600's and owned by the same family all these years.  The family still live in part of the house, but they turned it over to the National Trust.

Elder Willmore on bridge over River Avon

Charlecote Manor House

Charlecote Manor House Estate

Of course, Elder Willmore wanted pictures of the deer on the Estate

We love getting pictures from these EXTRA-Ordinary people in our lives doing ordinary things in their lives:

Eric, Payton, Brandee and Brynlee at Disney on Ice

Brynlee, Payton, Lauren on Trax

Hannan and her friend

Caden in his snow fort

Scott, Alli & Melissa enjoying time with their family

Jaxon and his friend sledding

Weidauers at Star Wars Movie

The "Beasts"

Jamie and her family in Idaho together - Going to Beauty and the Beast Movie

Weeks fly by and stay busy

Happy Birthday to Colby on the 14th - He is turning "15" and will get his driving permit - OH NO!!!

Also Happy Birthday to Tyler next Sunday the 19th - He is a real actor and had the lead part in his school play - He even sang a solo.  We heard you were amazing!

Monday - The Spor's left our mission and returned home to St. George, Utah - They will be missed - the missionaries loved them.




Wednesday we had a mission wide "spring clean-up".  One that was much needed in the office. We have actually spent the past week preparing for the clean up making "piles" for the skip (dumpster). 

Sister Willmore organizing

Elder Willmore taking "stuff" from the basement

Elder Ashwell shredding

Wednesday evening we had our Faith in God Activity - all I will say is "out of control".  No further comment.

Friday - Elder and Sister Willmore had a heart attack on our car when we came out of the office.  They tried to get away before we saw them, but they didn't make it.










We love you Sister Jones and Sister Harrigfeld - they are so sweet to us.

Saturday - We spent our Pday with Elder Cohen and Elder Ashwell because they couldn't be in the office.  The church next door was having a Seminary Conference and Elder Ashwell's mum was in attendance.  We went to lunch with Elder and Sister Veater and then spent some time at Sutton Park - an old hunting ground for King Henry VIII.  We went to watch the airplanes flying in the park - I thought we would see a big crowd of teenagers but it was definitely a geriatric club.

Sutton Park watching the model airplanes fly

Elder Cohen, Elder Willmore and Elder Ashwell at Sutton Park

Sunday - This afternoon we were invited to dinner at Bishop and Sister Robbins house.  We had the traditional English dinner with roast, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes and vegetables.  Pudding for dessert.  Very yummy and such a lovely visit with them.

Special Baptism

Daffodils outside our front door

Just got back from a stroll around our neighborhood - reminded me of how I miss those Sunday afternoon strolls and visits with our wonderful neighbors.  We have been getting a lot of rain so our paths are pretty saturated.  We are also starting to see flowers popping up everywhere - daffodils and crocus.  When we ask about spring weather someone said - Oh yes, we had a beautiful spring last year - I think it was on a Tuesday.  We are not sure what to expect but we are certain we will see plenty of RAIN.

Baptism of McKye and Cayden - Saturday March 4th, 2017

Cayden Barrass Baptism

McKye Maughan Baptism

Yesterday we went to a very special baptism service of two of our primary children.  McKye is eight years old and was in our class last year - Cayden is 10 and is a convert who just took the missionary discussions.  We love having him in our class and see his enthusiasm to learn.  A very special day!

STAKE CONFERENCE IN LICHFIELD

Today we had a special Conference Broadcast from Salt Lake City for Northern Europe.  It was very inspiring and we received such wonderful counsel.  Our Stake President, President Hamilton talked about Forgiveness; Elder Dyches talked about being spiritually resilient. Elder Clayton talked about Joy and Happiness, Sister Reeves talked about "Why I Know" I have a Heavenly Father.

Elder M Russell Ballard gave an "epistle" to the members of this Region.  He warned of being deceived  by Satan and false prophets that can deceive the very elect.  He gave the example of a Sequoia tree at BYU that died.  Sequoia trees are very strong and resilient but they found the reason this tree died was because during a construction project, the water source to this tree was cut off.  He warned of our spiritual living water being cut off and by disconnecting from our spiritual source, our Heavenly Father.  He warned to beware of Internet sites, Sunday activities, and making sure we have daily sincere prayer, diligent fasting, pondering our scriptures, attending the Temple and reaching our to the poor and lonely.  Many things to work on.

After conference, we brought our office elders to our flat and enjoyed a meal with them.  I love to hear them "teach us" after we are finished with the meal.  

This week at the Office

It was wonderful to have missionaries in the office again this week because we had a Mission Leadership Meeting at the church across from the office.  The missionaries always come in the office to visit afterward - We love that.  We also went out to dinner with President and Sister Leppard on Friday with a few other Senior couples - my first time eating at an Indian Restaurant.  I really liked the food.