Shopping and packing

Gadfield Elm Chapel We were able to tour southwestern England this month. Our first visit was to Gadfield Elm Chapel which has a rich history in our Orpington Ward. Gadfield Elm Chapel was built in 1836 by a Christian Methodist group, the United Brethren. Almost the entire congregation of the United Brethren joined the Mormon church in 1840 and the chapel was deeded to Wilford Woodruff for the use of the saints. As the new converts heeded the call to gather to Zion the Gadfield Elm Chapel became redundant and was sold, with the proceeds being used to assist with the emigration of the Saints. After many years of private ownership and dilapidation the property was acquired by a group of private members (of our ward) who established a charitable foundation in 1994. With limited resources derived entirely from contributions these visionary souls lovingly restored the ruin stone by stone to its present state, as near as possible to how it may have been in the times of Wilford Woodruff more than 160 years ago. The chapel was received by President Gordon B. Hinckley on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May 2004. Today it is the oldest Latter-day Saint chapel in the world still standing. Porthcurno Cove We traveled long distances (for England) to visit the westernmost shore of Land’s End the ruins of King Arthur’s Tintagel Castle. We then headed south to Penzance (as in Pirates of Penzance), twin castles built by Henry VIII for the protection of the southern coast from invading navies, and several beautiful coves with turquoise water. St Michael Mount is a castle and chapel on a tidal island off the Cornwall (pronounced corn-wool) coast. When the tide is low you can walk the causeway to the island, at high tide there is a ferry. St Michael’s Mount We have 17 days left in our mission, so yesterday we did a trial pack to see if everything will fit in our suitcases. We were relieved to find that even all of Larry’s things will fit! Then we made a final shopping trip to pick up various clothing items for our post-mission travels. We have three weeks on our visa to tour the rest of England. We fly out on 30 June to Illinois to pick up our car from Larry’s sister. We then have a month to visit family across the United States, report our mission to our Corpus Christi Ward, and finally arrive in Utah where we will start to figure out where we are going to live and what we are going to do in the next few years. We have some ideas but want to find out what is going on in the family before we make our final decisions. We will be so sad to leave England and the many friends we have made here. At least there is another senior couple coming to love and serve our young single adults and the special people we have been involved with for two years. We are so grateful for this experience and will remember it all our lives.