Take Heart, Captain Moroni!

The reinforcements are arriving!!   This week, the fourteenth senior couple arrived in the mission!   Next month sees the fifteenth!   That will make it over double the number that were here when we arrived a year ago!!  * Yahoo *

The Hills and the Stevensons.  Our Senior couples are coming from everywhere:  Utah, Montana, Texas, California,...and from England! Remember when I said it would be great if every stake in the mission had a senior couple?  Well it will happen in March!

They are a grand group!!   The Pews take over the YSA program in Manchester and have just received the keys to the new state-of-the-art YSA Center there.  (The mission wondered if construction would ever be completed!) Even after just meeting them, I knew they were perfect for YSA.

Above are the Owens, our hard-working office couple, who earn every blessing they get.   In this photo, we were on a couples outing touring the Quarry Bank Mill, a water-generated cotton mill they still keep in operation.   These mills WERE the economy here in years past!  (ever watch "North And South"?)

The Shaws were taken from their MLS assignment into the office.   Even three couples wouldn't be too many with everything they do in an ever-growing mission!

Here's an amazing bit of trivia: when our President's wife was a teenager, Elder  Shaw (left) baptised her!   Wow, small world...even smaller when you're  in the church.

It seems like yesterday that the Whiteheads and Cordons were brand new out here.   And now... they're 'old hands' at English living.   Practically the only couple 'older' in the mission than they are....

You guessed it.   We are now the most senior couple in the EMM.   How did that happen?

I guess the only couple who will leave the mission before us will be...the Prestons.   And they'll just travel down the road a bit.   They're actually right from the Ashton Zone!
The EMM missionaries love their president.  But he's a wise man and is already trying to put things in place to make the summer transition smooth.

Well, I haven't even shown you all our couples.   We have a new doctor, and two Elders assigned as legal counsel for the Church here.  Next post.   Anyway, it's sure exciting to have so many out here (even if we only get to gather quarterly).   To give you one idea of why senior support is so important, you just have to look at our Elders Quorum. None of the quorum presidency has been a member more than three years.  Think about it - none of them has had the benefit of watching how a quorum functions or home teachers are assigned or tracked, or interviewed, etc.  They're just wonderful men willing to serve, and eager for a little training and support.  I never understood some of the challenges members have out here.  

Well, I will close for today.   But I always end with something fun.   This amazed me.  Our zone leader, Elder Wirtala (it's Swedish; say 'VER.ta.la') showed me the tiniest Bible I've ever seen.   It was a gift from a member.  I wouldn't believe he was actually reading from it until I took this picture and zoomed in on it.   It's a real Bible!

So on that note, Happy scripture study!   And God bless you from the EMM, where we had a blue sky almost all day here...I think Spring is coming.