Kendal Branch

 This is a road just outside the Kendal Chapel.  Don't you just love the rock walls and tiny roads.

 It was a wonderful day visiting with the Kendal Branch today.  The members are so loving and welcoming.  The sisters there are teaching a few investigators and we are praying that they will be baptized.  It has been four years since they had a baptism.  We look forward to future visits to this beautiful village!

 On our way home from Kendal we took a little detour and got lost.  We ended up on a small muddy road out in the middle of nowhere.  There were some quaint farm houses and barns among wooded areas and green pastures.  We are glad that we got lost or we would have missed this area all together.

Elder Blunck

 Elder Blunck found this huge stock of brussel sprouts at ASDA and he had to buy it.  It cost one pound.  Yep, one pound!

 Getting older has it's perks.  The street sign shows two old people crossing the street.  It is an "look out for old people" crossing.  Dad doesn't quite match the sign yet but some day soon......

Love these old phone booths. 

Blackpool

We travel to Blackpool quite often so we thought we would share some pictures from there.  It is a city that tries to be like Las Vegas  but it is more like a cheap imitation.  The wind mill is on the side of the road as you travel out of town just before you get on the motorway.

Geowei's Baptism

This is our friend Geowei.  He is from China and was recently baptized.  Elder Mongie is a Chinese speaking missionary and does a wonderful job teaching the Chinese people here in Preston with Elder Candland.   President and Sister Ulrich came for his baptism and spent a few hours here with all of us.  It was nice to spend some time with them. 

Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas!

We are grateful for the birth of our Savior and love celebrating it every year!  This year is special for us because we are able to serve a mission here in England.  We visit many people who are struggling and suffering because of loneliness, bad choices of their own or others, or they don’t know where to turn to find peace.  We want to help them, to bring the love of the savior into their lives, and we have prepared ourselves to do so, but so many people will not listen or they just don’t have the strength to see beyond their trials and weaknesses. When the Savior lived on the earth He administered unto the weak and down trodden, He spent much time lifting them up and letting them know that they are loved.

 We hope that you too will take some time in your celebrating and look for one person that you can uplift this Christmas season.  Tell someone you are sorry, write a letter to someone you have not spoken to in a long time, call a friend, take dinner to someone who is alone, visit a sick friend, say “I Love You” one more time, or give milk and cookies to a homeless person that you pass by on the street.  Do something beyond your usual comfort zone, but bring the light of Christ into someone else’s life.  He is the gift.  Remember why we celebrate Christmas.

 Good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given.

The gift is for us! You, me and everyone is the gift given.   In the form of a child’s birth we celebrate, but it is the gift of the atonement that He gives to each of us that we are eternally grateful for.

We hope that you have a joyous and Christ filled Christmas.  He is the reason we celebrate.   We love you and pray that you are happy and well.

Love,

Elder and Sister Blunck

England Manchester Mission

Christmas Dinner 2014

 We had the Sisters over for Christmas dinner.  I cooked a turkey with mashed potatoes and stuffing.   We opened our Christmas crackers and wore our crowns.  It was a fun day!  Sister Hunter and Sister Amichia are in the Preston Ward and Sister Manning and Sister Brimley are in the South Ribble Ward.

Christmas Eve Dinner

We had dinner with Mark Chadwick and the South Ribble Elders on Christmas Eve.  We also watched Studio C and talked.  Mark is a newly baptized member and comes regularly to our Book of Mormon Class.

Christmas with Cassandra Helen

 All the Elders and Sisters in Preston got together to bring some Christmas cheer to Cassie on Christmas Eve.  We played games and had treats.  Elder Blunck and I showed the everyone what good mind readers we are by playing a game by choosing an object while a person is out of the room and they have to come back in and tell what the object is.  So fun!

 The Elders played a game that made us all laugh so hard.  They used curly spaghetti noodles to pick up life savers but they could not use their hands.  Elder Goodman and Elder Schofield were the moist coordinated.  Elders Candland and Mongie struggled just a little bit.

Sister Hunter and Sister Amichia played with Cassie's cat while we sang Christmas carols.

England Manchester Mission Christmas Party

 The Senior couples put on a skit at our Mission Christmas Party.  We did the 12 Days of Christmas.  Each one of us held up a sign which represented one of the twelve days of Christmas and the Elders or Sisters would act it out.  We laughed so much.  It was fun to be silly and to watch the Elders and Sisters having so much fun.

 This is one of the districts skits.  They wrapped themselves in boxes and danced.  Two of them jumped off the stage and danced around the floor and fell right in front of President Ulrich.  It was hilarious!

Good food, lots of laughs and Christmas cheer made this a very special party.  President Ulrich taught us the true meaning of Christmas through the scriptures.  He is an amazing teacher! 

What is it?

We saw this on the way to Blackpool.  It looks like a crystal space ship out in the middle of a field.

White Elephant Gift Exchange FHE

We had so much fun at FHE with the Young Single Adults.  We had a white elephant gift exchange and it was so crazy.  Everyone kept stealing from each other and we had really funny gifts.  Baby bibs, Utah license plate, huge New Year's popper, garbage bags that were costumes of super heroes and lots of chocolate.  We all had such a fun time!  We need to do it again next year!

Christmas Tree

   

Hi Loved Ones!                                                                                                         December 3, 2014

Life is good here in Preston England.  We have put 2,000 miles on our car since we have been here.  We still dislike driving here in England but we are willing to do what needs to be done.  When our mission president or zone leader calls and needs something done we always say “Yes”!  We love the people here.  The missionaries are fantastic and are energetically serving our Heavenly Father as best they can.  The missionaries are wonderful examples to us.  They serve with great faith and dedication as well as have an amazing knowledge of the gospel. 

We had a multi zone conference last week.  Elder Dykes and his wife taught us for two hours, as well as President and Sister Ulrich.  We were taught for a total for five straight hours before we had a break.  Oh, they gave us a minute to stand up and stretch but then we went right back to work learning how to be the best missionaries that our Heavenly Father needs us to be.  During our training, if you needed to use the rest room you had to sneak out quickly and get right back as soon as possible.  When we finally had lunch we had been spiritually fed and really didn’t notice that so much time had gone by.  It was a wonderful day!

Visiting the less active members is a special experience.  There are many reasons why a person goes inactive but the most difficult to deal with are the ones who just stopped caring.  We have found it difficult to encourage them to return to activity because nothing seems to touch their hearts.  We have talked to people who have been offended, have had major health problems or their lives have just gotten too hard to manage to get to church, such as no car and major financial problems.  We are not sure how to help them but Heavenly Father knows.  He can cause miracles to happen in their lives.  We are just reminding them where to look for the miracles they need and how to ask for them.

We met a sweet nineteen year old girl who became sick a year ago and is house bound.  She grew up in foster care and when she turned 18 she had to move into a very rundown apartment building.  She has migraines and her joints become dislocated at random times.  Sshe is in a great deal of pain which causes her to be on major painkillers.  She passes out often and so she cannot cook or do things for herself.  She walks with crutches and is so thin, yet when she met us at the door she had a huge smile and was so happy to welcome us into her home.  We are looking for ways that we can help her and look forward to meeting with her again soon.  The Elders and Sisters want to do a service project for her on Christmas Eve but we need ideas.  Do you have any?

All the senior couples got together on Saturday for a Thanksgiving Dinner at a Pub in Warrington.  The food was amazing as well as the conversation.  It was nice to finally meet and talk with the other couples serving here.  They all complain about driving here and even told us to expect a fender bender or two.  Our mission president talked to us about how the mission is growing.  He said that Heavenly Father is sending people from other countries here to England so they can learn about the gospel.  He said the three top baptizing ethnicities are the Asians, Muslims and then the Brits.   It is surprising how many Chinese and Japanese people are being baptized.  The University here brings students from all over the world whose hearts and minds have been prepared to learn the gospel and when they hear it they recognize the truth.

We are doing well.  We have been blessed with health beyond what we were experiencing at home.  We have energy and strength to do the work that Heavenly Father needs us to do.

We pray that you are being blessed in all that you do.  We love you all so much and miss you!  Keep smiling and working hard to learn the Lord’s will for you and your family.  He knows you and He loves you!  He is blessing you to bear your burdens so that you can accomplish the things that will bless you and your family.  Trust in Him and all will work out for your good.

Love,

Elder and Sister Blunck

District Meeting

We have the funnest district meetings! We usually play a game to choose who does what concerning prayers, songs etc, then we are taught a lesson by our district leader.  After that we play fun games to relax and get to know each other better.  Elder Blunck and I always make a treat of some kind to bring to out meetings. We also taught a lesson on companion unity!  I know, can you believe it? 

Lancaster City Offices

 Elder Blunck is doing a great job with photographing the beauty of England.  We were traveling home one night and noticed this beautiful old building located in the middle of Lancaster.  The moon was peeking out from behind the clock tower and it looked amazing. 

Cleaning checks

Elder Blunck and I have the wonderful opportunity of visiting with all the missionaries in their flats.  Unfortunately it is not a social call but cleaning checks.  Sister Blunck has a check list to go through to make sure things are well cared for but more importantly to make sure the missionaries are well cared for.  We make sure that they are safe and are in a good neighborhood.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner was celebrated by all the senior couples in the England Manchester Mission at the Memphis Belle in Warrington England.  We had turkey, ham, and roast beef with lots of different kinds of potatoes and vegetables as well as Yorkshire pudding.  The food was delicious and we wish that we could have eaten much more then  our stomachs could hold.  Thank you President Ulrich for the wonderful dinner.

Christmas at the Preston Temple

We love the Preston Temple!  The night we were there it was cold and foggy.  We noticed that the fog was creating a background for the reflection of the angle Moroni and it was as if Heaven was so close we could reach out and touch it. 

The Nativities

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This has been an amazing week.  We went to "The Nativities" at a church located next to the Preston Temple.  It was absolutely amazing.  The stake went to so much work to put this together and it was well attended by the communities in the area. We loved feeling the spirit of Christmas in celebration of the Saviors birth.  Be sure to look at Christmas. Mormon.org to see the new Christmas Message put out by the church beginning in December 2014.  Tell all your friends about it and you will see miracles happen this Christmas!

Zone Specilized Trainging

 Here we are gathered in the hallway to greet our Mission President and his wife, as well as Elder and Sister Dyke who is the visiting General Authority from the Second Quorum of the Seventy.  We sang "Called to Serve" as they came in the door and then followed them into the cultural hall for pictures.  We later went in to chapel for a five hour meeting.  It was so amazing!  It filled us with love, hope and a thirst to do as the Lord has instructed us to "Preach unto every nation". 

  All the missionaries have the same car.  If it works, why change it?  Do you know which one is ours?

 Lunch time!  After five hours of being taught by master teachers we had a quick bite to eat before everyone returned to their assigned areas.

Sister Cross, Sister Once and Sister Amesha rode with us to the Zone Meeting in Manchester.  They are so fun and kept us entertained while we sat in traffic for a full hour.  

YSA

Family Home Evening on Monday nights is really fun with the YSA.  We had a night of indexing, games, and a pizza party.  Elder Mahalanen, from Finland, is getting ready to go home so we made a card for him and everyone signed it.  We are going to miss him so much!  He helped us adjust to our mission and taught us how to organize things.  Sister Cross, Sister Bement and Amy are the best!  Love you all!

Book of Mormon Class

Can you believe it?  We are teaching  Book of Mormon class for new converts, investigators and really anyone who wants to come.  We have had 10 people there or two people.  It just depends on the night.  In this picture there in one young man who was recently baptized and one older man who got baptized the following Saturday, the rest are missionaries.  We love teaching this class because it is helping us learn more about the Book of Mormon.  It is true that when you teach you learn more then the students.

Second letter

Hi Lovies!

How's it going?  I hope to get this email written while we sit at the church waiting for the YSA to come for FHE.  It is raining now but it has been so beautiful and warm here.  Everyone tells us that it is unusual and to get ready to have the coldest winter of our lives.  It is so damp and windy here when it rains.

We have been given many assignments by the mission president that keep us busy visiting and checking on wards and missionaries.  One Elder in Carlisle (almost to Scotland) has been in the hospital since last Thursday.  When we took him to the doctor she thought he had meningitis.  She said she would call an ambulance but we drove him to the hospital instead.  I think it was faster, although we still had to sit in the waiting room for an hour.  Socialized medicine is not fast.   He is having an MRI tomorrow. When the nurse asked him what she should call him he said "Elder".  She said 'no what is your first name' and again he said "Elder".  His fever was 103 and he told her that he is a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that they can call him Elder ....  It made us cry to see him so sick and still testifying of the Savior. Our faith is strengthened by these wonderful and strong Elders.

 Another missionary has been told that he is losing his eye sight but he refuses to go home.  He is so humble and sweet.  Your prayers for these two sweet Elders is appreciated.

     We actually taught two discussions last week.  One man that we hope will come to church with us this week and a sister that lives about an hour south of here that we sent as a referral to the Elders in New Brighton.  This is so exciting!

     Elder Blunck is doing such a great job driving on the wrong side of the road that I'm not scared at all.  (Karl wrote that falsehood)

We hope to get the internet this Wednesday.  We can't wait to be able to facetime or skype with you.  Love you all so much!

We are so happy that grandma Brinkerfhoff is getting better.  Thanks for your prayers and fasting.

Love you all,

Elder and Sister Blunck