Reminders of Home

 Reminders of Home

Sometimes you look around and see so many reminders of home:)

How can this not remind me of home?  Thanks Warburtons! Love you all:)

Travis and Tyler's favs Haribo Golds:)

My Granddaughter Lila's favorite on toast with strawberries:)

A grocery chain pronounced Liddle but Matt calls it Lytles:)

Yay Lytles, You're the best!

Not quite TJ Maxx but close!

 Costco has been a huge factor in  making me feel at home:)

I've been told that most things in the US come to the UK

Twixt, Snickers and others.

Tell me How!

 Tell me HOW!

How in the world are you supposed to bake when you can only buy vanilla in this size!!!!!

The End

Flat Checks & Castell Coch

 Flat Checks

This week was spent doing Flat (Apartment) checks of all the missionaries in our zone. We have 10 sets of missionaries in our zone so it takes quite a few days getting to all the areas. Some flats are more organized and clean than others. Next transfer is going to be a deep clean check. Missionaries will have to wipe down their walls, clean ovens, refrigerators, freezers, bathrooms, shampoo carpets and a host of other things. They will need to be working on their flats the next 6 weeks. 

Castell Coch

This castle was built on the foundation of a 13th century castle in the late 1800s. The 3rd Marquess of Bute inherited his family's vast estate when he was and infant and by the time he graduated Oxford he was one of the richest men in the world. He loved Medievil period castles with a drawbrige and so he patterned Castell Coch after that era of castle. 

Hip bath

14 Finnimore Court, Cardiff Wales CF14 2FZ

 We are finally able to get settled in our new flat in Wales. The next few days will be spent unpacking and getting all the things we'll need to be settled, ie: bedding (they generally don't use top sheets here but for me it's a must), pillows, clothes hamper, food, kitchen gadgets like a rolling pin, cookie sheets. bread pans etc. 

The little lane coming into our flat. 

The front of our flat. Our flat is the bottom flat of the 3 story building just behind Ruby. 2 bedrooms 1 bath. 

Our living room area.

The kitchen, equipped with all the essential plus a washer and dryer. Most flats don't have a dryer. I don't know how clothes can even dry in this humid weather just hanging on a rack.

Not used to a bed so low to the ground but it will work.

 

Our 2nd bedroom is made into a wardrobe/dressing room.

This is the view out our back porch. There is a large field use for football, rugby and walking dogs. There are walking paths around the perimeter for walking and biking. 

Celestial Sunset!

River Taff behind the field on the back of our flat. 

Elder Herdt down by the riverside. 

A secret path

Loving all the green!

Wales on the other side of the pond.

The Bridge across Bristol Bay to Wales

                                                                         Flag of Wales

We are officially in Wales now! Our flat still isn't ready to be moved into yet. We have moved from the Premier Inn in Bristol to another one in the Newport area just north of our flat in Cardiff. Each Inn has a pub/restaurant where we ate breakfast.

These vines behind the Inn have a jumpstart on Fall!

The Pub by the Inn is called Coach and Horses. It reminds me of what would be called a Coaching Inn back in the early 1800s where people traveling would stop to change out or rest their horses, get a bite to eat or spend the night. The hot breakfast fare is usually over easy or scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, sausage links, blood sausage, cooked tomatoes, baked beans, & sauteed mushrooms. You could also toast precooked pancakes, bread or crumpets. Croisants were always a favorite. They also had fruit, yogurt and cereal. We never went hungry. We could eat all of our calories in a day at one meal!

We had stopped by our flat after Zone Conference on Thursday and the mission office elders and Brother and Sister Wallace were working hard to prepare our flat. There wasn't a lot of room for 6 people to be working in the flat, so we just retired for the evening at our Inn. 

Friday, we returned to our flat around 11:00am to see if we could help with anything. The Wallaces needed to leave at noon, so we stayed and helped Elder Kearney and Elder Watts until they had the furniture put together they were working on. Since we had the keys, we decided to go back and check out of the Inn and stay in our flat. We were ready to explore our area and begin our new adventure in Wales.

Cardiff Zone Conference

 Cardiff & Merthyr Zone Conference 

Two zone conferences in one week!

We were blessed again to be among the young elders and sisters at a Zone Conference!

We have been assigned to the Cardiff Zone in Wales. This will be our new home area for the remainder of our mission.  

President Mayall spoke of aligning the keys and working together with the ward and stakes leaders in the area you serve in. That will be our main focus since we have been called as MLS missionaries. (Member Leader Support)

The Cotswolds

 Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds

Being in limbo has its advantages. Since we had nothing else to do, we decided to practice our driving skills and take an hour drive to the Cotswolds. 

Bourton on the Water is a lovely village in the Cotswolds. It has a river that runs through the middle of the town. The Cotswolds are famous for the yellow stone the buildings are made from. 

These pictures are of a miniature model of the village. Amazing talent to recreate the main buildings in the village to scale!

Elder Herdt didn't care for the large amount of tourists in Bourton on the Water. We walked around the village a little then decided to head out of town and take a walk through the countryside on one of the many footpaths that you can take through the countryside that skirt around fields from one village to the next. 

Nice to be in the countryside:)

Poole Zone Conference

 Poole Zone Conference Tuesday, September 17th

Since we aren't settled in our flat and area yet, we have been tagging along with the Senior office couples. Today we ventured South to the Poole Zone in Dorset. (See map below) A wonderful time spent amongst some wonderful young elders and sisters, senior couples and President and Sister Mayall. We were able to help put together a lunch under the supervision of Sister South who is an amazing cook! The spirit is strong in these training meetings.  

Our first time traveling down country roads! Glad we weren't driving. There are no major roadways between Bristol and Poole so it was a nice drive from village to village. Most of the time there are hedges on both sides of the road that block the view, but it was still an eye-opening experience driving down such small roads. We didn't get to see the coast, so we'll have to visit again. 

Ruby & Tyntesfield Manor

 Ruby a cute little Toyota Corolla is the newest addition to our family. It is a little daunting driving on the opposite side of the road! Elder Herdt is the designated driver and I am the navigator. We drove home from the Mission office last night which was just a couple of miles but it was very scary. Part of my job is to remind Elder Herdt which side of the road he needs to be on.  

We decided to venture out of the office to Tyntesfield Manor and practice our driving skills. It is a beautiful estate with an Ornate Victorian Gothic Revival house with extensive gardens and parklands. We missed being able to tour the house by a half hour but enjoyed walking the grounds and gardens. 

Arrived in Bristol

 We arrived in Bristol England around 1:00PM.  Going through customs was easier than I had expected. The hardest part was wheeling all the luggage out. We each had 2 checked on pieces plus one extra piece and two carryons.  Two sets of Senior couples picked up at the airport. The Souths and the Wallaces. It took us awhile to find them but once we did it was just a matter of throwing everything in the mission van and heading to the Premier Inn where we stayed for 4 days.

Our first evening we went out to dinner with the Souths and Wallaces to a carvery. A Carvery is a traditional dining place similar to buffet style where they have meats like turkey, ham, beef, sausage and several sides. Beans similar to Pork and Beans are served with breakfast and dinners. It was nice to spend time with them and get to know them a little better. 

Sunday we attended the Ward in Bristol. The mission offices are attached to the ward building. It's a small ward but we felt at home. Afterwards the Souths had us over for dinner. Sister South made French Dip sandwiches, corn and a salad. Very Good. Afterwards we drove a little north of Bristol to see a couple of Church History sites. 

Gadfield Elm Chapel:  A small chapel built by the United Brethren in 1836 who were a break off from the primitive Methodist church. In 1840 Wilford Woodruff met the leaders of the church and within a few months nearly all of the 600 members accepted his message and were baptized. In 1842 the chapel was sold to finance the emigration to the US of those members. In 1994 a group of church members purchased the property and began the task of restoring the building. Upon completion it was deeded back to the church. It stands as a reminder of Britain's history in the church. 

Hill Farm & Benbow's Pond were 2 other places we visited. There wasn't much water in the pond, but this was the place where Wilford Woodruff baptized over 300 members of the United brethren's congregation. Another 1200 were baptized in and around the Malvern area. 

Hill Farm

Benbow's Pond

Benbow's Pond

Malvern Hills in the distance. 

(Another night we went to Crispies for Fish Chips with the Souths. The fish was huge! We are being taken care of:)