Denholme & Thornton

Denholme countryside

Deserted Denholme Church (John Mercer christened)

St. James Church (Ann Bailey christened)

Bronte Pictures

 Bronte church Haworth

Bronte cemetery

Another view

 Bronte home

Street near Bronte church

House across from Bronte church (esp. for Jill)

Pictures of Missionaries

 Elders Hynds, Griffiths, Kyme, Balderee, Juran

 Sister Harrop and Sister Stout

 Elder Pearse

Elders Juran, Gee, Pearse, Taylor

July 30, 2012

30 July 2012

Well….I’m not too happy right now – I just spent an hour updating our blog and when finished realized the Internet was not connected and lost everything…so…I’ll try to start again and not sound frustrated…

We celebrated the 4^th of July like everyone in England—hardly remembered it!!  Our nice district leader had us sing America and the Star Spangled Banner for our opening and closing songs at our district meeting since it was on July 4 – That was the extent of our celebration …

We had a young boy from Church laughing at our American accent.  He asked us to say “water” and laughed every time we said it.  He doesn’t realize how he sounds saying “water” with a British and Slovakian accent!!  Anyway, we still have problems understanding what the British have to say.  I think they pronounce only a few syllables of a word, leave off the “h” at the beginning of words, and talk quite fast.  If we get a few words of what they are saying in a sentence we usually catch the drift of what is being said.  Of course, they sometimes have to have us repeat what we are saying so it works both ways!! 

We were in a ward council meeting and I was listening to our Bishop speaking…not what he was saying but the words he was using.  He used the phrase “switch off” which I now realize we say in America but he was using it in a different way.  Also, he was reading from the scriptures and got somewhat emotional and said:  “I can’t hold a good cry”  I love listening to him – he doesn’t have quite the Yorkshire accent we normally hear but it is still very British.  Alas, I remembered the phrase he used and not the scripture he was reading…oh, well!!

I read a lady’s blog the other day and I really agreed with it.  She said, “As I looked back on my first few months here in England, I feel like I can hardly be blamed for my weight gain. The English are not renowned for featuring fresh vegetables in their prepared meals.  What they do well at is comfort food.  This is understandable considering the days are usually gray, wet and cool.  This is a perfect environment for bangers and mash, fish and chips (fries), steak and chips and steak and kidney pie…all of it served with beer”  I found after a few months of being here, I needed to be very careful about what I ate…I couldn’t afford to put on one pound…need to take quite a few off…so I hope to come home all skinny…oh well, wishful thinking!!

Speaking of food, we were in the grocery store a few weeks ago in our “missionary attire,” an elderly gentlemen stopped Dad/Dave and said how nice it was to see him dressed “properly.”  He then bemoaned how badly people dress now – this could have happened in America too J

We had the chance once again to visit some of my ancestor’s birthplaces this past month.  We were able to spend some time in the small villages outside of Bradford (which we visited before and where my Wilkinson line attended Church.)  This time we visited a few of the villages outside of Bradford where some of them were born—Allerton, Thornton, Denholme.  I took pictures of the churches in the villages, thinking this was where they would have attended church as children.  However, after doing some homework I think these churches were built after my ancestors were there (they still looked very old) and perhaps looked like the churches that would have been there about 150 years ago.  This area is where the Bronte family lived and wrote.  It is called Bronte country and we toured their homestead, church and village.  I wonder if my ancestors would have known of them or gone to Church with them since they lived in the very same area.  The Bronte father was the pastor of the Church of England at one time in Thornton where my ancestors are buried.  I am reading a biography of Charlotte Bronte written by her friend many years ago which gives me a feel of what living there and then must have been like.  (I am really enjoying having a Kindle to find books I want to read…I miss the pile of books I usually had at my nightstand to read from every night!!

 We have overloaded Karen with our pictures but hopefully you will see some of the things I have mentioned in our blog soon.  I probably need to ask Allan to help her post them (OK Allan?)

We enjoyed a dinner at the mission home again after our sightseeing.  Have I told you how much we appreciate our mission president and his wife and all responsibilities they carry…if not, you have now been told J  We had a couple finishing their mission and another arriving…so Sister Lindley says that calls for a special dinner…which she always provides.  Amazing lady!!  We now have seven senior couples in the mission.  Three work in Leeds where the mission offices are, two in the office and one as Institute leaders…One couple works in Hartlepool – way north toward the Scottish border – He is the branch president there…one couple works in Hull with the young adults…one couple just arrived a few months ago and work far north too in a Center for Young Adults.  I had no idea what that was until I looked it up on the Church website.  While Elder Perry lived in Europe for a year several years ago..he said the growth of the European area would be in keeping the youth strong…so he instituted these Centers throughout Europe…and we are the only couple now in the southern part of the mission working with our wonderful Slovakians.

Our young missionaries continue to be our support and example.  They work so very hard and we love associating with them.  Each transfer we usually lose one of the ones we work with but are glad to meet new ones.  This last transfer something interesting happened.  An elder from the Manchester mission was sent to our area for 3 months.  He is a native Slovakian and has come to help our little group become a branch (something they are very anxious to have happen).  He helps Elder Juran in teaching and translating and all of the other things the Slovakians need of them.  Our district leader was sent to the Manchester mission for the trade.  He will be there three months.  We hope he is reassigned back in our area upon his return.  So now in our Sheffield Area we have two sisters and four elders from America (Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Utah),  one elder from Australia, one elder from the Czech Republic, one Elder from Slovakia, one elder from England and us.  A diverse group for sure.

The ward/stake are quite anxious to have our little group become a branch.  Needless to say, there are many issues to resolve.  We have only a two-hour block Church program…no RS or Priesthood meetings yet. .By going to a three-hour block they want to add those two meetings…only problem is who teaches them.  They have asked two sisters to take turns teaching RS – one said she would but is not ready to start yet…the other said she would not do it…For Priesthood, one member probably will teach a class a month, although he hasn’t done so yet…the other member they want to teach has not been to Chuch in over a month..he has some problems going on of which we are not sure…and he does get a work conflict on occasion…and it is very important they go to work since it is only temporary and they need all the income they can get.  These temporary jobs have diminished somewhat the attendance at Church.  Our youth have a class every other week and then are to go into Sunday School with the adults…which they do not like to do.  Primary runs pretty well except one of our teachers has a husband with health issues…so hasn’t been able to be there for several weeks…Our missionaries try to fill in where they can…but can’t be divided in two!!  Now doesn’t that sound like what happens all over the world as the Gospel is trying to be established. We certainly are not the exception!!

I must tell you about our Sacrament meeting last Sunday.  Slovakians love to sing and dance.  In fact, a Slovakian church in the area who can hardly stand us because of those of their members who have started coming to our Church…anyway, at their church, they do a lot of singing, dancing, whatever…we believe it is more like a nightclub than a church.  The singing the Slovakians really want to do.  We just won’t do it the way they do it in the other church…but we have added another song or two during Sacrament meeting services.  Last Sunday being close to the 24^th of July, Dave/Dad gave a short talk on the song Come Come Ye Saints.  The missionaries then sung it as one of the intermediate hymns both in English/Slovakian.  The members loved it…they even like to clap when you finish…we’re trying to get that to stop…After finishing the service, the missionaries said anyone who wanted to stay and sing the song again could (the hymn is in their little Slovakian hymnbook which has some of our translated songs).  They usually like to leave immediately but the younger ones especially wanted to stay…so they did and sang the song through several times and loved it!!  It was great to see them leaving singing and smiling…and also nice to have them learn one more song since they end up singing the same four songs nearly every week.

We attended a wedding of a Slovakian couple in our ward who have six little boys (ages 5-13) As you can imagine, marriage is not a real common occurrence among the Slovakians.  But in order for the wife to be baptized they had to marry (the husband had previously been baptized but that’s a story for another dayJ  Their Slovakian family/friends were going to bring food, music, dancing to celebrate.  The Bishop performed the marriage and told them they could have a reception at Church as long as it finished at 11:00 pm and there was absolutely no drinking/smoking on Church grounds.  With that injunction no one would come.  So the couple married with the Bishop, the missionaries and a few other Church members in attendance.  The “bride” looked very pretty in her Slovakian wedding dress, borrowed jewelry and long dark hair she had a friend style. (We usually just see her in sweats and a t-shirt) The Bishop took pictures of them and their 6 little boys had bought white shirts and dark trousers for the occasion (however, they said they would not wear them to churchJ)  The government has some law that says people have to be married before 6:00pm – have no idea why – but by 5:30 everything was in place and they were married.  So that was our experience with a Slovakian wedding…hopefully there will be others so people can get baptized. 

We are as you know experiencing the Olympics as I write here in England.  Since everything is taking place in London I only see pictures/news on the Internet.  Our Mitt Romney got blasted by the London tabloids as you are aware, but he is now off to Israel and Poland which is a good thing. The Church has renovated the London Visitor’s Center which is right down town where all the athletes, media, visitors, etc. are staying.  The Visitor’s Center is near Hyde Park – I hope many take advantage of that…we hope to see it before we leave England.

Well, I know I have missed some things I wrote to you on the 1^st attempt of this blog..but what can I say?  There’s enough here already…that’s what I can say!!

Hope all is well with are family/friends – We love to hear from you – e-mail us any time!!