WEEK 7: Another Great Week!

                                     17-18 August 2018

We had a wonderful weekend!  It began on Friday after working at the Grange Farmhouse for a half day.  We traveled to the London Temple and checked in at patron accommodations as we were spending the night there.  Then we enjoyed a very small but lovely endowment session. Both the Foy's and we had more family names needing baptism, so we asked about getting them done.  President Freeman, of the temple presidency, invited us to join the youth group coming in 15 minutes to perform baptisms.  He told us that circumstances had greatly diminished the size of the group they were expecting, but he told the bishop to send whomever could come and the Lord would provide enough priesthood to complete the work.  We were quite literally provided by the Lord!

It was fun to participate in baptisms and confirmations, something we haven’t done in quite a while.  Elder Foy and I were baptized for our family names.  Then Elder Foy was voice for some baptisms and confirmations, and Steve acted as a witness. He then did some confirmations.  Sister Foy also participated in the confirmations.  We met a lovely family, the Ahmanson's from Fort Collins, CO who were just finishing their tour of England and France, and took time to come to the Temple.  They are a convert family of just three years. Daughters Asalyn 17 and Liesel 13, and brother Julian 15 and their parents. We really enjoyed hearing their conversion story, of how their mother felt the need to be baptized by a specific date in October.  It turned out they had been members for a year and a day when the Fort Collins Temple was dedicated and they were the first family to be sealed in it!  Such a delightful family. We were well fed spiritually. But since we hadn't eaten for a long time, we needed physical food too, in spite of the late hour. So we had dinner at 9:00 p.m. at the Peacock Lodge, just around the corner from the Temple.  It was delicious, and they rushed our order, as the kitchen was closing in five minutes! 

Saturday, we traveled to Canterbury to explore. The Canterbury Cathedral is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. This 1,400-year-old building is massive, beautiful and had much history there. The archbishop, Thomas Becket was martyred in 1170, by knights of King Henry II,  who had frequent conflicts with Becket and is said to have exclaimed in frustration, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four knights took it literally and murdered Becket in his own cathedral.  Through succeeding miracles, Becket was proclaimed a saint, which made the cathedral a place of pilgrimage. 

                                                              

On the walk from the car park to the Cathedral, we passed "The Canterbury Tales" attraction and popped in for a delightful retelling of many of Chaucer’s famous tales, set in 14th-century England and housed in the beautiful St. Margaret’s church.  

Our “extended P-day” finished up with a trip to Costco and a long ride home!  Work wise this week, Sister Foy and I were able to finish painting Grange Farmhouse, except for the master bedroom.  The 100+ yr. old structure is cracking in one corner, so the engineer needs to strap it back together.  But it’s wonderful to have so much accomplished!

Steve and Elder Foy working on the tile

Elder Foy and Steve continue to resolve problems and mend concerns.  Some corrugated cement fiber panels were replaced around the fuel tank at Grange Farm as were several on the  chemical storage barns in the office yard.  They had to make some additional repairs on the grain storage at another farm and were called out one night to cover holes in the roof of the grain storage shed, as they expected (and got!) rain the next day. That was loads of fun for them climbing up the hills of grain to repair the top!  The men also took care of some water leaks at Hungary Hall as well as replaced the garden tub surround.  They mowed more farm patches of weeds, fixed the sliding door on the van, and hung a new gate at a little cottage.  But the neatest job they did was to repair the tile at Grange Farmhouse where the plumber had ripped it out looking for the source of a leaking toilet.  They rocked that job!