Thursday, January 14, 2016
Dad Passes His Driving Test
Lancaster Castle
August 2015 Family Letter
August 2015
Dear Family and Friends,
Our mission life is full of surprises every day. We received a call from our mission president
telling us that we were being transferred to the bottom half of our mission,
which takes in part of Wales. We were
sad to leave our many wonderful friends in the Preston Zone and also excited to
make new friends and see more of this beautiful land of England. We are now living in Stoke-on-Trent and serve
in the Newcastle Zone. We have nine
wards and branches we work with. It took
a while to close things out in Preston and to get settled in our new flat. Once we had the internet and access to ward
lists we were able to begin again finding less active members and letting them
know that they are loved and needed in their wards. We have also been blessed to work with new
Elders and Sisters whom we dearly love.
They are so strong and valiant!
Even though God’s army is small it is strong and capable of facing the
challenges before them. We have gone to
about 120 homes, with thousands more to go, but it was only been a week ago
that we started. We have seen miracles
with investigators coming to us,(yes coming to us) and asking to learn more
about the Savior. They are seeking the peace
the gospel brings. The work is hastening
and we just hope that we can keep up with it.
We have seen many blessings in our health and energy being
restored and are surprised that we can do so much in one day. When we get home we are so tired but feel
strong and healthy. We know that we are
being strengthened and uplifted as we go about our Heavenly father’s business. Serving a mission is a wonderful blessing. We drive long distances and visit about 25
homes in a day. Not everyone is home but
we leave a message in each door inviting them to church. Those that we do talk to are generally
welcoming. When we are turned away we
know it is not us they are rejecting but the Savior himself. It makes us so sad and we pray that something
will soften their hearts and turn them back to the blessings of the
gospel. Heavenly Father loves them.
Twice we have finished out our day and decided to head back
home but have been prompted to go to just one more home. Both times the person we were looking for had
moved but the person living there asked us if we would teach them about Jesus
Christ. They asked us! We never really feel discouraged because we
know Heavenly Father has prepared people for us to teach, we just have to find
them. It is a test of our faith to go to
just one more door, to stay out a little longer, to have faith that we are in
the right place and they are just waiting for us to knock on their door. Sometimes they don’t know that it is what
they want but they feel a prompting and stop us and want to know how we can
help them to have peace in their lives.
God knows his missionaries will be obedient and serve faithfully and
that we will go where he wants us to go.
Our mission president asked all the missionaries serving
here in the EMM to pray at 6pm for the missionaries to find people to teach and
for the investigators to know that what they are learning is true. Would you like to join with us in prayer at 6pm
every day that we might have more baptisms and that we can find more people to
teach? We are uniting our faith that we
can see miracles in this great work.
Usually we are not encouraged to ask our families to join in our mission
prayers but our president asked us to invite our families to do so this
time. It is an act of faith. We do believe in miracles and we know
blessings will come to the people of England through this opportunity to
exercise our faith.
We are living in the area where our families lived a hundred+
years ago. Thanks to my sister Robin we
have information about my third great grandfather Theodore Turley. He married Francis Amelia Kimberly. They were born in Birmingham, which is just
outside of our mission boundaries. He
served a mission to England with the apostles when they came to England in
1840. Robin read his mission journal and sent me the information of his travels
and where he proselyted as a missionary. We live in the Staffordshire County where the
potteries are. (they make Wedgewood and Spode dishes etc) Theodore taught many times in the Stoke -on
-Trent potteries, Manchester, Preston, Burslem, Turnstile, Leek, Hanley, New
Castle and many more. That is exactly
where we live! It is so exciting. We plan on visiting many of these places and
even get permission to travel outside of our mission to Birmingham to addresses
found in his journal.
Grandma also gave us an address in Scotland of her
grandmother’s family. (Elizabeth Orr
Hay) We hope to visit there and see the
home/estate she grew up in. We did look
up the address on google maps and could
see where the home is today.
Dad also has family (Ellsworth) from Birmingham and the
surrounding areas. It is exciting to
think that we are in the very same places our ancestors are from. We have to learn more and then go exploring.
Time is flying by. We know that we are almost to our year
mark and that makes us really excited.
Just a few months and we will be home with our family. We miss you all so much. We are grateful for memories, the wonderful
blessing you are in our lives, and knowing we will always be a family
forever. Yes we are trunky. Yes we miss our family and home. Yes we appreciate the United States of
America! We are hanging in there and
will continue on to finish out our mission. Our mission has been a huge
blessing in our lives! It seems that blessings are everywhere. We don’t appreciate what we have until we
can’t be together with you and we have an ocean separating us. We love you all and we miss you!
We love you all so much!
Mom and Dad
Elder and Sister Blunck
The J.R.R. Tolkien Hike
Senior Missionary Dinner at the Mission Home
Anthony's Funeral
Siti and Bronwyn Leave For Home
Blackpool Elders
Elder and Sister Stephenson Join Us for Dinner
Funny Mustaches!
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