Gadfield Elm Chapel and Benbow Farm Pond

Last Saturday morning, July 12th, Sister Jolley, (using the Self-Employment Office upright vacuum), did aerobic vacuuming of the flat, cleaned the entire kitchen including cupboard doors, countertops, appliances and floor. Then she cleaned the bathrooms and dusted all the furniture, which may have totaled 2 hours...definitely easier cleaning than the homestead back in Kaysville! But far less exercise. :-) Meanwhile, the Hulk a.k.a. Elder Jolley was out for his "wog". Hip hip hooray!

After the cleaning, wogging, and showering, we headed out in the afternoon of this sunny day, for some church history sight seeing. We had the co-ordinates for the Gadfield Elm Chapel, which took us right to the chapel. It is located near Pendock, in Worcestershire. (Yes the sauce originated here!) The chapel was built in 1836. In the entrance, photos can be seen of some of the early local church leaders. There is also a register for visitors who wish to sign their names and make comments.

                                              The wooden pews & rafters inside the chapel.

                                                   

                                             This side is the entrance with the secret code.

                                           This door leads directly into the area with pews.

                                                   Sister Jolley out by the wishing well.

Over 160 years ago, Gadfield Elm Chapel belonged to a Christian congregation called the United Brethren. They were a group who had broken away from the traditional religious denominations of their time. All but one of their congregation joined the LDS church after hearing sermons preached by Wilford Woodruff. After the congregation was baptized by Brother Woodruff, they donated the Gadfield Elm Chapel to the LDS church for their meetings.

During the few months he was in this area, Wilford Woodruff also baptized 1200 from other denominations. Church History (as someone said) did not happen only in America. Lots of church history took place in the U.K. Many of these converts traveled to America and helped to establish the city of Nauvoo. They were later driven out and were among the saints who crossed the plains and settled in the Salt Lake Valley. This was the first chapel used by the saints. They had not constructed chapels in America at that point in time.

The Gadfield Elm Chapel fell into disrepair through the years, but in 1995, the church bought the site and restored the chapel as best they could to replicate its original state. In 2001, Jeffrey R. Holland, a descendant of one of the original United Brethren leaders, re-dedicated the chapel. It is now a popular church history site for youth groups and others to tour.

If you can figure out the riddle at the door, you can enter the chapel at any time. First, what is the middle initial of Heber Kimball? Second, How many chapters are in the book of Enos? Third, What age must you be for baptism? Fourth, How many members are in the Godhead? Fifth, How many books are there in the BOM after Moroni? And sixth, What was the first initial in Brigham's last name? The only ones that count are the 4 in the middle - did you guess what they are?

Hill Farm

                                                    Path Leading to Benbow Farm Pond

                                           The water is surrounded by a wooden perimeter.
                                       Difficult to see the pond since it is as green as the grass!

                                         

                                               Plaque located near Benbow Farm Pond

                                                    Elder Jolley: "THIS IS THE POND!"

The Benbow Farm Pond was our next destination. The significance of the farm is that is where Wilford Woodruff met John Benbow, a wealthy farmer, and his wife, Jane. He preached his first sermon in their home. The next day, he preached another sermon. Six people were baptized in the pond, including John Benbow, his wife and four United Brethren. When Wilford Woodruff preached in their church, 1000 people showed up, as compared to their usual congregation of 15. Many of the 1000 were baptized and formed some of the earliest branches in the church in England. Brother Benbow also helped finance the 1st British edition of the Book of Mormon.

It took us about an hour, tired and hungry by then, to find the Benbow Farm Pond. The secret is: When you leave Gadfield Elm Chapel, enter Ledbury into your SatNav (England for GPS).  Once you find Ledbury, the farm is only 20 minutes from there.  Head into Ledbury City Centre, pass the Tesco on your left, continue straight ahead to the turnoff to 4214 Bromyerd. (sign post) Continue through Staplow Village. Road forks. Take LEFT fork to 4220.  Signpost will say Bishop's Frome & Bromyerd. Continue to a sign post at tip top of the hill which points to the right and says: Frome's Hill. Take that right turn and continue until you see the Hill Farm sign.

Enter the driveway and park up by the barn. You need to get out and look for the gate. There is a little sign on the gate that designates this is the way to the BF Pond. Open the gate and walk down a slight slope. The church doesn't own the farm. They only own and maintain the pond. You can enter another  gate to get closer to the pond...have a seat on the bench and relax and meditate. :-) These directions are for US in case we go back. We won't ever get lost again!

Great Church History Tour! These photos were taken with Elder Jolley's phone, since the camera battery had died. Pretty Sweet!

Coventry, Preston Temple & Church History

On July 1st, Elder and Sister Jolley went to Coventry Stake where they met with Mark Reynolds, the high councilor over employment; Sister Natalie Green, and Brother John Taroni who are the Coventry Stake Self-Reliance specialists. We had a nice visit with them in the computer room of the stake center. They are anxious for the arrival of the new SR materials.

Coventry Stake Centre...not one of the more beautiful shots of the building, but the name looks good!

Here we are in front of the Coventry Stake Centre with our cheesy "selfie" photo.

Coventry stake SR specialists are ready for the "new day"...they have been waiting for a long time to get their stake on board, but without much luck! We will be returning to Coventry on July 24th... happy Pioneer Day!...to talk to as many of their council as the specialists can gather up. :-) We'll report further after that visit.

On July 8th we headed up to Chorley/Preston - about a 2 hour drive from Sutton Coldfield. We arrived at the patron accommodations at 3:30 so we unloaded the car and took a short walk around before going to the temple for the 5 p.m. session. We were the only ones there. This was a Tuesday.

I added most of our family's names to the prayer roll since we had some time to kill. :-) We waited until almost 5 p.m. but didn't see anyone else come in so we decided to come back for the 7:30 p.m. session. Fortunately, there was a small wedding party there for that session. We were the witness couple since most of the family members were involved with the excitement of the bride to be. (In other words, most of them were late coming into the session.)

                                                          Preston Temple in Chorley

                                                     Elder Jolley next to the spooky tree

                                                  Lovely flowers on the temple grounds

                                           The temple spire can be seen through the archway.

                                                   The bed is more comfy than it looks!

                                                            Temple Accommodations

Preston and Chorley are within a few miles of one another. For Tuesday dinner we went to a restaurant in Chorley called the Cosmopolitan. We met a couple of young women who worked there who were also LDS. They noticed our badges, of course, and told us they were church members. They said they came from a family of 10 siblings...5 girls and 5 boys. These sisters looked nothing alike...one was skinny and blonde while the other was full-figured and dark-haired. Maybe a bit like Aunt Judy and Sister Jolley about 45 years ago. heehee  I tried the restaurant's soup of the day, broccoli and zucchini. (They call zucchini corguettes or something like that.) It was excellent. I will have to attempt to re-create it! In the tradition of cookbook research carried on in merry old England!

On Wednesday morning, July 9th, we went into Preston to see some of the church history sites. There's an obelisk in the market square that was supposed to be near where the first LDS missionaries would stand to preach. They stood on a small platform called a Bull Pit. (sounds a lot like Pulpit! :-)) Elder Jolley photographed the obelisk and some of the buildings in the square.

                                                         Talk about a fork in the road!

                                    Monument to the Preston heroes who died in WWI & WWII

  In Avenham Park there are 3 plaques honoring those who joined the church in the U.K. and Ireland.

                                             The plaques are located in the Japanese Garden.

                                   Beautiful view of the Japanese Garden & bridge over the pond.



                                    Ribble River where many of the new converts were baptized.

 Lovely Swans on the Ribble River. "As I went down to the Ribble to pray, studying about that good old way and who shall wear the robe and crown... Good Lord, show me the way!"

          Elder and Sister Jolley wearing their shades. Elder Jolley did not bring his sunglasses to England since he was sure he would never see the sun here. Luckily, he had to buy a new pair. :-)

                                                Elder and Sister Jolley IN the shade.

That chocolate thingee that I had forgotten the name for when we had hot chocolate at the castle, is called a "flake".  It's a long piece of chocolate that is kind of flaky. Hummmm...Hard to describe! But they like to stick one in ice cream cones or in hot chocolate, etc. It kind of looks like a single kitkat stick with holes in it. We'll have to do a closeup on some of the foods here so you can see some authentic fish and chips, Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, flakes, etc.

Wednesday evening, we met with a great group of SR specialists from Chorley. The stake centre is conveniently located right on the temple grounds. We were planning a half hour to an hour meeting but we were there from 6:30 until 9:30. They really enjoyed learning more about the SR initiative! After the meeting we grabbed a burger and then drove back to B'ham, which put us home about midnight. We're called brummies since we're from Birmingham. :-) Well it's late so gotta go catch 40 winks. So bye-bye until next time...

Thank you to ALL those who contributed jokes to the blog. (That would be Emma and Brock. haha)

Next Blog...Gadfield Elm Chapel and Benbow Farm Pond.

AND we head to Wales on Wednesday the 16th to meet with Cardiff Stake. Pretty excitinin' folks! :-)

Goodbye to the Castle...Now Back to Work!

The Defenders of the Castle  

Which one is Elder Jolley?

                                   

                                                             Elder and Sister Jolley                              

                               



                                                                   A Table for 20

                                                           Elder and Sister Jones

Elder and Sister Jones were stopped by a visitor to the castle to enquire where he should go to catch the bus out of the park. Elder Jones pointed him in the right direction. Then we realized why he had asked them. He mistook them for park officials due to those white shirts and official badges. :)

Following our frolic in Warwick, Elder and Sister Jolley returned to duty.

Monday, June 23rd through Tuesday, the 24th we had a training meeting with President Martin Gardner...employed by the church in the Birmingham Employment Centre; in attendance were
the self-reliance couple from Edinburgh, Elder and Sister Boden and the SR couple from London, Elder and Sister Garner. Both couples have been out for over a year so they will head home early this fall. Bodens will be returning to AZ and Garners to Provo.  They shared a wealth of valuable information with us regarding work they have done to help introduce people to the resources available through the church self-reliance services.

                                             Elder and Sister Boden with Sister Jolley

                                          Matthew Slyman with Elder and Sister Boden

                                                   Elder and Sister Garner from London

Brother Matthew Slyman is working on a program to computerize a database of mentors to work with those who are seeking employment.

June 26th we drove to Leiscester Stake to meet with their Stake Council. Before the meeting we dined in Leicester (pronounced Lester) at San Carlos Italian Restaurant. We met an ex-mafia member who is the manager there.

He chatted with us about how much he disliked the UK. He asked if we were connected with the TV evangelists who had swindled believers out of their money. We let him know that we are volunteers. He told us he was a "sinner" who had been deported from Florida. He wanted to go back to the U.S. because he did not like the arrogant people here. The poor man did not realize that he did not have a warm, fuzzy bone himself! We laughed at all his "jokes" so he liked us ok. He called Sister Jolley "sweet hat" just like her N.Y. cousins do. (they don't pronounce the "r")

Most of the waiters were Italian. Some didn't speak English. It was obviously authentic...mafia man and all...he even helped with preparation. It was yummy food!

                                                       Outside San Carlos in Leicester


We were given 15 minutes by President Paul Smith in Leicester. His counsellor over employment , President Marshall, arranged the meeting for us. President Smith is a successful businessman who is very punctual. When he walked into the high council room, he looked at his watch and said "we begin in 2 minutes". No beating around the bush! We had timed our power point presentation so we were in and out right on time.

                                                  Elder Jolley at Leicester Stake Centre


Elder and Sister Jolley attend the Sheldon Ward where they are assigned to home teach 6 families. Elder Jolley taught Priesthood Meeting last Sunday and Sister Jolley has been asked to teach Relief Society in August. Brother and Sister Martin, one of the families we home teach, (below) have been called to serve a mission in the Preston Temple beginning in August.
                                 
                                                  Brother Adrian Martin and wife Agnes

                                     Elder and Sister Jolley in front of Sheldon Ward Building

Next week, we head for Chorley on Wednesday. We will be making a presentation to Chorley Stake that evening so we'll head up early in the day and attend the Preston Temple.

We love you all! Be safe! Have a wonderful week!

The Castle

On Tuesday June 17th, Elder and Sister Jones introduced us to Warwick Castle.  We loved it! There are so many things to see and do. We were thinking of our grandchildren the whole time and how much they would enjoy being there. We bought season passes since you get free parking with the pass and you save the cost of admission in just a couple of visits. It's a nice wooded area where there are walking paths so we can walk all we want or enjoy the activities and shows.

 

                                                                Warwick Castle

First we saw the bowman. He's dressed a bit like Robin Hood. Elder Jolley took photos for you! The bowman tells lots of funny stories geared toward the school children who come to the castle for their field day. We'll call the bowman Robin Hood for the sake of the story. R.H. shot a few arrows into the hill across a ravine. He was right on the mark with the Long Bow he was using. He requested the appropriate oohs and aahs from the crowd and we were great oohers and aahers.

Then R.H. commenced showing and telling how to operate the old implements and weapons used for war in medieval days. He took a long deadly sword and went to the end of the enclosure where the school children were sitting. He asked all the other children to move away because he was going to cut a certain boy in half. Then he drew back the sword and swooshed it down toward "Ben", stopping just a foot or two above the boy, who was cringing, but grinning. Then R.H. said, "Well, I like that! Not a single teacher yelled "STOP"!

                                                                  "Robin Hood"

After the bowman completed his 'grisly' show, we moved to the Bird Arena. There were eagles, vultures, an owl and a huge Andes Condor. The birds would swoop down right over our heads so we were ducking for fear we might get a talon in the eyeball.

                                                        The Majestic Eagle having a "sit"
                                                   

                                                       Cute little owl, trying to ignore us

When the cute little owl appeared, the trainer told a story of how the owls teach their young. The parents bring the babies food to the nest right after they hatch, but one day when the babies appear to be getting too fat for the nest, the parents don't bring the food to them. They fly by with the food so the babies have to come and get it. Once the babies have learned that lesson, the parents stop bringing any food and simply have the babies follow them to find their own food. When they can do their own foraging, the babies are no longer welcome in the nest. No wonder they are called wise old owls! They are smarter than many human parents! :-)

Speaking of smart parents, Casey and Amber have a new baby girl - Tessa Lynn. She was born on June 23rd but since she kept trying to swim back up the channel, she had to be delivered Caesarean section. Momma Amber is in pain! Thankfully, Grandma Palmer is there to help out for about a month. Grandpa Palmer will come to help out soon. We're sorry to miss out on the new little one.

We have another granddaughter, Skylar Rose who was born April 15th in Las Vegas. We couldn't see her before we left...thankfully we have FaceTime (such a miracle) so we can see these new little darlings across the miles! It is sweet, but painful to see them while unable to hug them, and inhale the new baby essence...straight from Heaven!  

Back to the castle...After the bird show we went to see the catapult. We stopped for the world's best hot chocolate which has a huge pile of mini marshmallows on top of a dollop of whipped cream with a couple of chocolate pieces stuck into it. The chocolate has a name. We'll tell you what it is when we remember.

The catapult, also known as a trebuchet, is situated way out in the field to prevent injury to the crowd of onlookers. The catapult is first primed, which requires some husky lads running about inside the wheel, and then a massive fireball is hurled into the air. We were hoping to see it hit a duck so we could have roast duck for dinner but no such luck! The fireball flew harmlessly through the air and landed as planned, in the unoccupied field behind a tree. We couldn't see the landing from our vantage point. Next time we'll know where to be and we'll bring our own duck.

                                                     The Trebuchet (pardon my French)
                                                 

Kimball would love the Trebuchet (Tre(like Tre-vor)bu-(like bu) chet(like shay), since he loves apparatus-es. Good news about Kimball! The tumor is shrinking! Bad news...his hair is falling out. :-(

                                                        Backdoor View from the Castle

More on Next Blog: Inside the Castle