Serving in September

September 9, 2014
Today would have been my Mother's 102nd birthday if she were still alive.  I always think of her on this day.  I think she would be very pleased with her posterity and the goodness of their lives.  Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass.  I remember one day when I was working as a substitute teacher, a little girl asked me why I was so nice.  I said,  I'm sure it was because I had a nice mother.  We have met so many people here who have not had a nice mother or father.  I have been very blessed.
The past weeks have been a blur of activity.  We have been out late several nights and fallen into bed exhausted.  We have watched over  and prayed for and visited a sister who we home teach.   She has gone through a difficult surgery.  She is in a hospital in Liverpool.  She is having a long and painful recovery, but she learned today that the cancer was not in her pancreas, so it is much more treatable.  We know it is because of the fasting and prayers and priesthood blessings she has received.  There are so many needs to be met in the ward.  We continue to visit many people.
We had the delightful experience of going to the temple last Wednesday with a young couple from the Liverpool YSA.  We taught the young woman the temple preparation classes.  It was great to be in the temple with them.  They are a YSA success story.  She had been less active for six years.  The first night she came to YSA, she met her husband to be.  He was a returned missionary.  We will miss them in YSA, but we are happy to see them move forward with their lives.  Saturday, we got to experience a wedding in England.  Here in this country, couples are required to be married in front of an English registrar.  There were married civilly in the morning.  We attended a wedding dinner for them in Chorley near the temple and then they were sealed at six o'clock that evening.  Then they went back home to a wedding reception.  What a long day couples have here on there wedding day.  It was a privilege to be a part of it.  We are very happy for them.  We felt a little like they were our children getting married.

A recent lunch with two other senior couples.

I am learning to use the panorama feature on our camera.  It captured the view from Beeston Castle.

We took our Elders to Beeston Castle

They loved it!

It was a lovely wedding dinner

We each got favors like these.  I should have told him to hold
up higher.

The temple grounds are perfectly kept.
Sometime the green in England is so bright when the sun is on  it.

The Happy Couple

This was the cleverest cake I have ever seen.
The Groom is a Star Wars fan.  The space ship off to the side
was later hooked on top to orbit over the couple.

At the Reception