Children & Parents, BIG Bread, MAJOR FAMILY HISTORY News, Elder Holland's Chest Pains

England has a lot of respect for parents and children as can be seen in many grocery store parking lots.  Yes there are handicap parking spots up close to the front of the stores but there are typically just as many parent-child parking spots at the front of the stores.  We like this respect for parents and children!   

Another fun thing about England is the loaves of bread are VERY TALL.  For those who care about stuff like this, the height of most standard US sandwich bread is 4.5 inches tall.  Here in England the bread height on most of the standard breads is easily over 6 inches tall.  This means you can get by with one slice of bread for a sandwich... pretty cool. Plus bread is fairly inexpensive; approximately one US dollar for a loaf of the standard bread. 

We were delighted to meet and receive a visit from Sister Archibald and Sister Frost.  Sister Frost is from Salt Lake and is a retired school teacher.  Sister Archibald has lived all over the world and for now is from Arizona.  The small world about this meeting is that Sister Archibald used to work with our well-sharing neighbors up Tollgate Canyon in Utah.  Here we are after lunch this last week.  

A BIG thank you to our children who purchased a new, very large photo screen for Heather for her birthday.  We are delighted to view family pictures as we come and go between our missionary activities.

Last Sunday we attended Gateshead ward, one of the 9 units in the Sunderland stake.  It was good to meet young single adults there and the very faithful leaders.  There were about 70 people in attendance.  Small Gateshead chapel below. 

The full-time young Elders who serve in this ward are in our missionary district, and one of them Elder Aneca from Calgary is being transferred to be a District Leader in Scarborough-- We said we would be down to see him soon because Mont's grandmother Emily Ness was born in Scarborough.  Elders Aneca and Schneider below, outstanding missionaries. 

 Countryside outside of Gateshead chapel on our way home, about a 30 minute drive. 

Now the BIG FAMILY NEWS.  Mont's grandfather, James William Betteridge, served in the British Mission during 1903, the same year that William Woodford Hardy, Heather's grandfather, served in the same mission. (Thank you Bishop Jackson for sharing the link on the missionary information recently assembled for early church missionaries who served between 1870 and 1920 and now available in the church archives: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2021/03/united-states-and-canada-section/early-missionary-calls-voices-from-a-century-ago?lang=eng).  Though they may not have been companions, our grandfathers undoubtedly knew of each other, serving in the same mission at the exact same time.  A pretty special discovery for us.  Pictured below on left James William Betteridge close to his missionary age, and pictured on the right William Woodford Hardy close to his missionary age.  Handsome devils aren't they!

      

This last week we taught institute again and served soup, bread and brownies.  The lesson was the Blessings of the Lord's Church.  Here are two quotes we liked from Elder Christofferson on this topic:

"It is important to recognize that God’s ultimate purpose is our progress. … That requires more than simply being nice or feeling spiritual. It requires faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism of water and of the Spirit, and enduring in faith to the end. One cannot fully achieve this in isolation, so a major reason the Lord has a church is to create a community of Saints that will sustain one another in the “strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life." [2 Nephi 31:18]. (“Why the Church, Elder Christofferson.

"As the body of Christ, the members of the Church minister to one another in the reality of day-to-day life. All of us are imperfect; we may offend and be offended. We often test one another with our personal idiosyncrasies. In the body of Christ, we have to go beyond concepts and exalted words and have a real “hands-on” experience as we learn to “live together in love” [Doctrine and Covenants 42:45].  (“Why the Church, Elder Christofferson.

As we were being taught by President and Sister Clare, our Mission Leaders from Salem, Utah, they shared with us the following amazing quote by Elder Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

"The Church in Europe must live again.  The work of the Church has run on the backs of its European saint since the beginning. Don't think that you are just minding the shop waiting for the Savior to come.  Don't think that the great days of gathering in Europe are over.  This is our time.  Europe is the richest composition of the blood of Israel we've known.   The blood of Israel out of these lands saved the Church.  They left behind family members, children, grandchildren and friends.  They are still here.  And we must find them.  The blood of Israel is here.  The spirit of the work is urgent and we must imbue our missionaries and members with the spirit of now. NOW!  We are not just waiting for natural slow growth.  We must move more rapidly.  We must take things up a notch.  If we have to call down miracles or angels, then call them down... I feel an incredible burden of urgency, I feel a sense of urgency in my chest. I can hardly breathe!  The gifts of heaven are there."  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland  

Snow, Flying Squirrels, Heather's Birthday and Chinese New Year

The rainy, cold weather we had been used to in the Northwest has collided with the Utah snow weather, which we just left, to bring us rainy cold snow in Newcastle.  Though it is damp and cold and now a little bit white, our spirits are bright and happy to be serving these saints in the Sunderland stake.  (Our flat is in Newcastle and we attend the Newcastle ward but the stake center is in Sunderland, just 45 minutes away).

Snow on our car, looking out our kitchen window.

While we were shoveling snow off our car this last week, our dear children, Chris Archibald and Jordan Betteridge were shoveling snow off our mini-cabin in the mountains west of Park City.

Time is flying by and so are a few squirrels.  These squirrels entertain us every morning as we look out our kitchen window while we eat breakfast.  They chase each other jumping/flying from one tree to the next. 

Our district council was on Wednesday at the Sunderland Stake Center.  We are so impressed with our district of Elders and Sisters.  We meet for two hours and review Preach My Gospel sections, friends who are learning about the Gospel and how to be better missionaries. 

Our district from left to right in photo above.  Standing in back: Sister Zhang from China, Sister Giannini from Italy, both serving in the Mandarin speaking branch,  Elder Winters (ZL), Elder Hineman (DL) Elder Aneca, Elder Gilbert (ZL) Sister and Elder Betteridge, front row kneeling:  Elder Bailey and Elder Schneider. 

Heather practicing the organ in Sunderland Stake Center (built by members many years ago).

We taught institute again last Thursday and discussed a lesson on Following Jesus Christ's Example of Submission which included a section from President Nelson's talk on letting God prevail in our lives.  We become the Lord's people when we willingly choose to let God prevail in our lives.  We talked about the Sacrament prayer on the bread and the use of the word "willing".   Willingness emerges from desire and knocks at the door of Faith as we take action and move our covenant feet forward on our covenant path.  

Midweek we had a wonderful little celebration of Heather's birthday at a Crepe shop just a few blocks away from our flat. 

P-day on Saturday involved a short 30 minute drive to Belsay Hall, Rock Quarry Gardens, and Castle.  The Castle was built in the 1300's.  The historic site was owned by the Middleton family and also includes a greek revival-style home and a Jacobean addition to the medieval castle.

We had a YSA Chinese New Years eve party Saturday evening and another Chinese New Years day celebration with the Mandarin branch on Sunday Eve.   President Wang coached basketball in China and then 20 years ago came to Newcastle to get more schooling and met his wife after being introduced to her by the missionaries.  They both joined the church as young adults and have lived here since and now have 2 wonderful children.  These pioneers are an inspiration to us.  Their goal is to attract Chinese students here at the 4 universities to join in our fellowshipping activities, teach them the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and then send them out into the world to participate in the Gathering of Israel amongst their cultural peers wherever they may be. 

We also joined the stake choir and practiced with them Sunday eve as we prepare for stake conference the first week in March.  Elder Betteridge is sitting next to Bishop Wakenshaw, convert of 5 years, and bishop of the North Shields Ward in the stake.  His wife is the choir director at the piano, and of course, they met at a YSA event shortly after he had been introduced to the church, a good example of the eternal significance of our service in getting the YSA saints together.  

 

Getting Established

These first two weeks have been given us great cause to thank Heavenly Father for his tender mercies in making it this far.  We have learned to drive on the other side of the road, we have only been honked at 3 times so far!  We have learned where to find groceries and needed items to cheer up our flat (apartment).  We found IKEA and COSTCO both within 30 minutes of our flat.  Our favorite all around grocery store is Sainsbury's.  We also have found the Boots pharmacy to help us combat Mont's cold which is thankfully now in the rearview mirror.  

Entrance into our little community.

  

Our building; our flat is up on the third floor -- getting good exercise.

Our car parked outside of our apartment building. 

District Council meetings have been awesome.  This is where we meet with three pairs of Elders and one pair of sister missionaries and talk about Friends the missionaries are teaching and how to improve our mission efforts.  The sisters serve in Europe's only Mandarin Branch here in Newcastle. 

We attended the Newcastle ward on January 8th.  We were invited to give on-the-spot talks because the speakers had fallen through.  Today, January 15th, we attended Sunderland ward at the stake center about 45 minutes away and when we arrived were also asked to speak.  Thank goodness we love to speak and share our testimonies of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.   

Newcastle Chapel

Drive back from Sunderland Chapel

Last week we met with the the stake president, President Gill.  He is anxious to get us involved in various endeavors but is still considering some of the details.  He definitely want us to work with the Young Adults and invited us to attend the Stake Young Single Adult Committee meeting via Zoom and to teach institute for a few weeks.  So we taught institute on Thursday night the 12th and loved meeting 10 young adults from our stake, who are led by Beth and Matthew, the stake YA reps, who run the YA program in the stake.  We taught Rejoicing in the Divine Birth of Jesus Christ from the institute course: Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel. We were thrilled to testify of this truth:  Because of His unique parentage, Jesus Christ had power to atone for our sins and lay down His life and take it up again.  

Each Thursday evening at 9:00 pm President and Sister Clare (our mission leaders) do a 30 minute inspired message for the missionaries.  We look forward to these short inspired messages.  Recently the focus has been on increasing our faith, and we have studied so far lectures 1 and 7 of the Lectures on Faith.  They counseled us this last week to: "let His love, help us love everyone around us."  Also, they taught us to seek His errand and to be grateful for the progress we have made,  to be mindful that whatever 'offering' we feel we can give, then it is 'enough' and to remember that our strivings are beautiful to the Lord. 

President and Sister Clare

We had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Elder and Sister Holland when they spoke to the Young Adults of the church last Sunday eve (we listened to it the next day).  We were impressed with their message and the Apostolic Blessing Elder Holland pronounced on all the YA of the church.  Sister Holland said if she could go back and do anything differently in her life she would change one thing: to simplify more.  She counseled us to be hopeful and humble, to rest in the Lord, to simply believe and believe simply.  She said hope is trusting that He will help us, faith is the conviction there is a God and Charity is His love working through us.  She continued, the world needs the Light of Jesus Christ and the world needs your beautiful light.  She encouraged us to be quiet, be still, simplify, slow down, calm down and kneel down.  What a wonderful message from the Hollands!

We felt impressed to do something for our Mandarin sister missionaries and so took them over a meal; Chicken Italiano, green beans and chocolate oatmeal cookies.  They were so grateful for food!

Last night, we visited an elderly sister, considering coming back to church after a 5 year absence.  She is 76 and when she was 39, she lost her husband to a heart attack and for almost 40 years has been a widow.  She has two children who are grown, live close by,  and have blessed her with 2 beloved grandchildren.  She became a member of the church about 28 years ago and has been to the temple and had her husband sealed to her.  She wants to come back to church, so we will keep working with her and see what we can do to help.