24 October 2017

We just finished a YSA convention in the Stake.  Some things went better than expected and some with hitches to be overcome but it all worked out with many hands involved.  Most people are delightfully willing to do their part.  The food was great and conventions, like armies, travel somewhat on their stomachs.  The man who did the Saturday evening BBQ was a professional chef who is now mostly confined to a wheelchair and not able to work.  He was thrilled to be asked to help and said that he can either be home and be in pain or go do something and get a distraction from the pain.  He is always cheerful and is an inspiration. 

The service project was photographing headstones to post on Billion Graves.  England is full of wonderful cemeteries that need documenting but so many of the headstones aren’t easy or are impossible to read.  

We have started to use up any food we have in our cupboards as the time is approaching to leave.  There isn’t a missionary couple designated to take over from us but we imagine the mission president will move someone here as it is the farthest from his home other than Guernsey Island.  The occasional “emergency” comes up that he has needed us to handle.

Our next assignment that is separate from the usuals is talking to a mutual group about American Thanksgivings.  We found a 6 minute video that explains both the history and customs and will use that for a portion of it.  Elder Warnick has learned how to do downloading and editing from different video sources that has been helpful in all the teaching we have had to do.  Something visual is always good to get the attention.  They plan to have samples of what might be in a Thanksgiving dinner.  We bet they don’t have pumpkin pie, as canned pumpkin is hard to come by, but they gladly use turkey instead of goose here now as they admit goose is very fatty.  They do love the goose fat though for roasting potatoes.  There is no comparable holiday to Thanksgiving in the UK.