Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Thanksgiving

Sunset from our Balcony.  The sun sets at 4 pm.
Family Home Evening making decorations for Ward Christmas Party.


Weekly Institute Class.
Canterbury Sisters.  Sisters Gorniak (Australia) and Allred (Huntington, Utah)
Chatman Flat.  Elders Piedade (Brazil) Delannoy (France)
Canterbury Elders.  Elders Davis (American Fork) and
 Miller (Salem Utah)




Ashford Sisters.  Sisters Karyan (Armenia) Hansen (Parker, Colorado)
Sittingbourne Elders.  Elders Everitt (Utah) and Jespersen (California).
Gillingham Sisters.  Sisters Oliveare (Brazil) Larson (Fruit Heights)

Movie Night YSA with Wu, Kathrine and Don
Movie Night YSA.  Oliver Twist Musical. Sam, Don and Ben
Movie Night.  Each brought their own pizza to bake. Molly and Becky.
Tim came in his Onesie.

Guy Fawkes bon fire at Potter's home in Whitsable.
Simon White and Children, Maddie and Asher at Bon Fire.





At Gillingham FA Cup football match with good friend Phillip Hadlow.
Canterbury War Memorial on Remembrance Day.
Rembrance Sunday all the War veterans are honored.
Most everyone wore a red poppy.
FA Cup Match between Gillingham and Brackley Town.  Priestfield Gillingham.
Thanksgiving Dinner at the Holden's. Elder Davis, Sill's, Sisters Gorniak and Allred, Elder Miller and Alfred!
London Temple grounds on November 29th
London Temple grounds.
London Temple.





London Temple grounds in the Fall


Our District.  Sister Allred, Elder Miller, Elder Davis and Sister Gorniak.


The walk to our Apartment Building. We are in the white one, top floor.
Every 3 months we have the responsibility to inspect the missionaries flats.  We have 11 in our Zone and we travel to Dover, Ramsgate, Ashford, Sittingbourne, Gillingham, Chatman and Rainham.  It takes the entire month to schedule it.  Sister Sill does the inspecting and I visit with the missionaries and drive.

Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated on November 5 each year by huge fireworks displays in the cities and on weekends families have gatherings in their garden and have a bon fire and elaborate fireworks.  We were really impressed with the fireworks.  Guy Fawkes was part of a conspiracy to blow up Parliament on November 5, 1605. 

I really enjoy English Football (Soccer).  My good friend Phillip is helping me keep up on all of the leagues and tournaments.  Football starts the first of September and goes through May.  During the league play they will play several tournaments (Cups) and international friendlies.  So you could have different championships during the year.  The FA Cup is for every football club in England.  There are about 20 leagues.  Every town has a football club.  About 3,000 teams.  There is a hierarchy of leagues with the top league being the Premier League where the Manchester Uniteds' play.  Gillingham is three leagues down,  The FA Cup is single elimination.  The theory is every team has a shot at being the champion.  They are seeded like our Final Four.  The match I saw was a little town call Brackley Town versus the big boys Gillingham.  Brackley came through and beat Gillingham.  It was very interesting to watch.  There are organized chants.  I saw very few women at the match.  It is mostly boys and men.

We had a fun movie night at the Church.  We had YSA from Gillingham and Ashford come and they brought their own pizzas and drinks and treats. They were not to keen on the American popcorn.  They prefer sweeter popcorn.  They wanted to watch Oliver Twist the Musical which was 3 hours long.  Apparently it is one of the favorites in England. There were 15 YSA having a blast.

We prepared decorations for the Ward Christmas party and we are in charge of decorating for it. 

Remembrance day is one of the most important events in England.  The veterans sell the red poppies to raise money for veterans causes.  Remembrance day is November 11, 1914 when World War I was ended.  Each village, town and city have huge memorials for the Great War.  It was devastating to many of these villages that lost most of their young men.  The Sunday before November 11 is Remembrance Sunday and most everyone wears a red poppy.  We had a special service at 11 am and stood for 2 minutes of silence.

We are having a lot of fun doing Institute.  We have a meal before Institute so we are preparing a lot of different meals.  We have had vegetable beef soup, lasagna, creamy chicken enchiladas, chicken pasta bake and spaghetti,  We also teach the same lesson on Thursday to the Single adults of our ward.

The London Temple was closed from September 1 to November 12 for refurbishing so it was nice to go and do a session.  Fall colors come on later here.  Mostly yellow, gold and brown colors,

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Aimee Holden.  Aimee is from America and her husband Phil and their son Paddy were away doing a play in Stoke on Trent, so she had us and the missionaries over for dinner.  We prepared the stuffing, sweet potato pie, mash potatoes and pumpkin pies and Aimee did the Turkey, rolls and green beans.  It was very nice.  We thought no one would eat the sweet potato pie but were surprised the Elders, especially Elder Davis almost ate it all. They loved it.

We hope all of our friends and family enjoyed Thanksgiving.  We are busy and enjoying the work and the changes in the season.  The people are very good to us and we really enjoy them and the missionaries. We feel blessed to share many spiritual experiences and see the lives of people we love change as they turn their lives over to the Savior. We are so thankful to the Lord for His gospel and rich blessings.

2 comments:

  1. I now get the whole football club thing in the UK...finally! Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving and that we got to Skype with you. Love you! Enjoy the Christmas Season.

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