Chorley, England - March 6, 2011

This is the beautiful Missionary Training Center in Chorley, England. It is just a few miles from Preston, England where the church first took root in this lovely country. The Preston Temple is on the same property as the MTC, a stake center, accommodations for temple workers and temple housing.


We live in the MTC in a bed/bath arrangement. It is actually very satisfactory as we eat with the missionaries in the cafeteria and spend most of our time in the office and at various missionary activities. The Walkers, who are presiding over the MTC live just across the hall in an apartment. It is great to be able to just walk out the door to work and go home for any little reason. I'm amazed at how the space has expanded to house all of our possessions, which really arn't very many as they came in two suitcases each. But it is working great.


We have a new group of missionaries come in every three weeks. It has been fascinating to meet and learn so many wonderful stories of conversion from all over the world. We have had missionaries from New Zealand, Russia, Mainland China, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Romania, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, all over the US and from all parts of Britain. Every 6 weeks we have a group from Germany that are taught in German and are going back to the three German missions. There have been several come without parental support and often opposition. Yet, they know it is true and a mission is where they are supposed to be. Except for a few of the Germans, they all speak English, or at least a basis from which to grow. It has been a miracle to see some of them pick up the language and be able to communicate in just three weeks. Last group we had a missionary from Turkey who found the church on the internet, called the number and was converted by the senior couple serving there. Our elder from Russia knew Ken and Athleia Wooley. He was from the mission area they are presiding over. We are seeing the literal fulfillment of the scripture that says two will be standing in a field and one will b taken and the other left.


This really is a beautiful green country. We have lots of rain but are presently in an unheard of 6-day dry spell. We have actually seen the sun for three whole days!

If you look closely at this picture, you can see
sheep grazing. This part of England is covered
with sheep. We talked to a man in the temple
yesterday who said one acre of land here will
support 4 sheep and their lambs for a year, plus furnish hay for the winter!
We started working in the temple yesterday.
We will work Saturday afternoons. We start at noon and the last session is at 4 pm. This is the largest temple in Europe and is fairly busy. The workers come from all over the temple district. some come 4 weeks out of 8, others 2 weeks out of 6, some only on Saturday, etc. You can imagine the scheduling nightmare.
We are loving the work here and can see Heaven's Hand in so many ways. It is all true and we are sending wonderful young people out to share the Good News of the Gospel