5 August 2017

We thought we would give you an update of some of the things happening recently with us.  Probably the largest focus has been our work with the missionaries.  We have seen a number of baptisms, notably Kaleb, an impressive young single adult who joined the church on July 22nd.  He recorded his conversion experience for the mission.  We will forward it on to you if we can. He attended Institute for the first time on Thursday and is a wonderful addition, interacting very freely with everyone.  It is wonderful to see young single adults rally around each other.

We also experienced on Thursday what we consider to be something amazing.  The YSA have taught the Institute lessons the last 4 weeks.   One of our YSA, who in the past has attended Institute but didn't participate much, volunteered to teach that lesson.  He did a tremendous job with Pres. Uchtdorf's conference address Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear.  We do not think he would ever have done that 18 months ago when we first met him.

After a discussion with the stake presidency, our distance problems for the YSA in Cornwall are going to be solved by creating a satellite class that will meet together with their own instructor and activities three weeks out of the month and joining us in Plymouth once a month.  We hope this will serve them best and provide a nucleus for growth.  Institute slows down in August, as most people go on holiday, with the next meeting not until Aug. 31st.

We are looking forward to LaMar and Debby Hatch joining us as senior missionaries in the England London South Mission in mid August.  They will be assigned to the Bristol zone and will overlap with the Ramptons there for about a month.  We look forward to seeing them at our next senior missionary conference the first part of Sept.  Our replacement for the Plymouth Zone has not been identified yet.  If you know anyone that would like to come to southern England tell them to submit their application as soon as possible.  "The harvest is indeed great and the laborers are few".

We are in the planning phase now for our YSA convention which will take place in October.  It will be very small compared to some conventions like Festinord in Sweden where one of our young people just went.  The Pettits helped with it and were so impressed with the 800 plus attendees and all of the well planned activities.  Festinord has been going on for many years and is a great place to meet other European young people.

We continue to be invited to speak in sacrament meetings and Stake conference and are grateful for the opportunity we have to bear testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that through Joseph Smith the Saviour restored His church to the earth once more.  We are grateful for the testimony and direction of apostles and prophets that provide us safety in these times.

7 July 2017

Since our last update we have had a lot going on, and even an adventure or two.  The month of June was largely dedicated to getting a suitable broadcast process for the three wards in Cornwall.  That may hardly seem like something that ought to occupy most of a month's time, but for us it was very consuming.  We first had to determine what technology to use both in hardware and software to accomplish this.  We did call upon the best local resources we could find.  They were helpful, but what we were trying to do was not exactly anything that had been tried before and given the busy schedules of others we had a difficult time getting together with them.  We finally did our first broadcast on June 1 only to have the computer itself fail.  Eventually we were able to work out the bugs, but each week something new cropped up.  It was like whack a mole!  After a month's worth of broadcasting we assessed the reaction of the YSA involved and concluded that even with our system working it still would not provide the desired spiritual experience that a face-to-face Institute class provides.  After discussions with the stake presidency it was decided to abandon broadcasting altogether and call the right instructor to teach them in person.  They will still try to get together with the rest of the YSA in Plymouth once a month even though that involves an hour and a half drive for some.

Another thing we have done is photographed and documented a request from someone through Billiongraves.  It was windy and rainy, but we felt good about adding to someone's knowledge of their ancestors.  In the cemetery office we learned that a common process here is to bury very deep allowing for others on top.  In this case he was 5 down and had never had a headstone. The plot was paid for for only 3 years.

On our 44th anniversary we drove to the Cridford Inn in Trusham for a nice lunch.  It is one of the oldest inns in England with a verified date of 1081 but advertised as dating back as old as 825. It is hard for us to comprehend structures that old, as in the USA it would have to be those of Native Americans.

The year 1081 in small stones, under glass in the floor of the Cridford Inn.

During the month we attended Rupert's baptism.  He is YSA age and has been very happy to find the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  One of the things we have enjoyed is seeing people join with both feet and grow to where they are in turn able to baptize a friend.

We felt privileged to be here when Elder Christofferson visited a gathering of the entire mission.  It is a rare occurrence to get everyone in the same building.  Elder Christofferson is Elder Warnick's second cousin, and it was good to renew association with him.  He and his wife shook every missionary's hand with a personal greeting then spoke to the group as well as having a time for questions to be answered.  Elder Christofferson finished with an apostolic blessing upon the missionaries and it was a wonderful, uplifting experience.

We have continued in having frequent speaking assignments all over the Stake, sometimes by Stake assignment and sometimes by request of the wards.  Some units are quite small, so like to have others come visit.  When you think about it, there is never an end to what could be said of the importance of the gospel in our lives, and we always benefit greatly from these speaking assignments.

We have a new Area Seventy, Roy Tunnicliffe, who came to the Paignton Ward to comfort a family who were grieving the loss of a husband and father.  The daughter is one of our YSA, and courageously spoke at her father's funeral.
Elder Tunnicliffe and his wife also spoke that evening at seminary and Institute graduation, and we have learned he will be coming to speak at our YSA convention in October, for which we are grateful.

On the Fourth of July we were asked to speak to the YM/YW in Newton Abbot about why Americans celebrate on that day and we included the reasons why all church members should also celebrate as it marks a foundational piece of the Restoration.

We just had another 4 zone conference in Poole.  The young missionaries from our zone, which is the farthest away, go the day before for interviews with the mission president and sleep on the floor as needed.  One flat had 10 in it.  We are glad we are not expected to sleep on the floor.  It is one advantage of being senior missionaries.  The conference was wonderful with shared instruction from the recent mission president's training provided by the apostles.  The main focus seemed to be about simplifying the teaching and getting to the essentials quickly.  We thought this was great counsel and something all of us could benefit from.  This was quoted from Pres. Benson:  "...the Book of Mormon is the keystone of testimony. Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the Church understand this clearly. This is why they go to such great lengths to try to disprove the Book of Mormon, for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it. So does our claim to priesthood keys, and revelation, and the restored Church. But in like manner, if the Book of Mormon be true—and millions have now testified that they have the witness of the Spirit that it is indeed true—then one must accept the claims of the Restoration and all that accompanies it."

Also emphasized was knowing who we are.  Without knowing we are children of Heavenly Parents who love us, the rest doesn't make sense, the whole purpose of mortality is called into question.

After the conference we brought missionaries home, 2 cars with 10 missionaries in our group, meeting in Newton Abbot to drop 2 and pick up another to take to Paignton.  That same night we went to the end of Institute and enjoyed being with the YSA there.  We went home tired but filled.