England, home where our fathers lived

We hope the journey to England wasn't as long for you as it was for us...it might have felt that way to you when you read that last longggg blog! :)

                                                   Birmingham Self-Reliance Centre

                                                Mission Office and Self-Relaince Centre

We're on a hamster wheel now and we're really way behind on posting anything! Still waiting to hear if Casey's wife, Amber had her baby yet???? If not, our next granddaughter will arrive on Monday the 23rd! And we're thrilled that Kimball's chemo has been working to shrink the tumor! Our prayers are being heard!


Mark and Linh have been keeping tabs on our house and they found a few moths flying about. Then Ryan and family came up for a visit and found ants in the kitchen. They grabbed the bug spray and made short work of the critters. As soon as we moved out, the bugs moved in! Luckily we have kids around who are in and out, and the neighbors across the street, Evan and Carol Love, who are keeping their eyes peeled too.


We're helping with a family history open house tonight (June 20th) at the church (Wylde Green Ward) next to the Employment Office where we work. We're taking some of the names of our ancestors to see if we can find anyone to "visit" at the cemetery or perhaps some long lost cousins from the maternal or paternal lines. I met a sister today who has Jolley ancestors but she said she had never met a Jolley in England. Maybe they all migrated to Scotland or Ireland. These are pictures of the church and the office where we work. The employment office is connected to the mission office.

                                                     Wylde Green Ward & Stake Centre

The weather has been mostly nice here ever since we arrived. There have been only a few rainy days. Perhaps it's because I brought an umbrella that my sister Judy gave me, and since I arrived coat-less, I bought 2 raincoats. If you're prepared...the sun will shine! :)

We're busily preparing to teach workshops and learning the new self-reliance program so we can teach the stake presidencies once all the pegs are in place. We don't want to make a move ahead of the Area authorities. The changes will come to the stake presidents through the ecclesiastical lines before being taught through the Self-Reliance Services. There are new lesson materials coming in August. We can't wait to get those!

We went to Nottingham last night to visit Stake President Jonathan Gray and his presidency members. They are some very sharp men and they're excited to learn more about the new program. They have some "SR specialists" in mind whom they can call. President Gray asked why we were here. Elder Jolley said, "we don't know" but he went on to clarify and to say because we love the Lord and want to serve etc. I have been thinking that the real reason we were called to this particular mission is so we could learn to work together. We have always worked at our individual work but not as a unit. This calling will force us to learn to work together instead of being so independent. It's also something we LOVE...self-reliance is a soapbox where we feel comfortable!

In Nottingham, we saw lots of Robin Hood attraction posters. We'll probably get back that way to do more training so we will visit some of the sites and take photos for the grandkids to see.





Nottingham Area/Stake Building






We're assigned to a ward in Sheldon instead of the one closest to us. This building is an old Methodist church that the LDS church bought and converted for local members' needs.  It's a very old structure.  The Sheldon Ward needs more help than the other wards in the area.  The Bishop is a wonderful brother who moved to England from Germany. His wife was originally from Switzerland. They are valiant souls but what a JOB they have! We have been asked to home teach 6 families. And from what Elder and Sister Jones tell us (they are in the same ward and have HT families too) it will be memorable. We actually did HT for Brother and Sister Martin at the church today because they leave town tomorrow morning and will be gone all week. The Martins will be leaving the ward in August to fulfill a mission at the Preston Temple.

                                                        Sheldon Ward meeting house

We just mailed postcards to each of our kids' families so they will have to tell us how long it takes for the mail to arrive from here. It's definitely more expensive to mail a postcard across the ocean.  :-)

We will tell you about Warwick Castle in the next blog...we have some fun photos to add to that one!