Had a very busy day today. We left early to go over to Birmingham to the mission office and the distributation center to pick up some furniture and odds and ends. Were able to get two nice wardrobes, a couple of dressers, a desk, a hutch, sewing machine, toaster and some nice end tables. Two elders drove the mission transport van over for us and helped unload. When we got back, the bishop's wife called and said that she had just gone and found us a frig, sofa, and bedstead to put the mattress on. The mission office also bought us a new vacuum. We can't believe how wonderful everyone is and all the help we have had. We had a dinner appt with a very nice family tonight. The dad is from Ireland and has a really thick Irish brogue. you have to listen really hard to understand him. After dinner, the bishop called and asked us to drop because they had something for us. When we got there, his wife gave us a bag of all kinds of cleaning products, some peanut butter and honey and several other this and thats. That, after having spent the afternoon finding us the other furniture. Really great people! Finalizing papers for the flat was like closing on buying a house. There were probably close to 30 pages of stuff that we had to sign. It was quite a process. It has been a long day and we are tired. Tomorrow we will go to the flat and get everything organized. Another dinner appt at the bishop's tomorrow night, a get together with another senior couple Friday to give us some pointers, and another dinner appt Sunday. There is also a baptism Sat. The days are full, but that is the way we hoped it would be. There is also District Mtg. Thursday.

Love to all of you. Remember who loves you. Elder and Sister Henry

Eldfer Henry wrote some about our trek today in the parade. It was a long trek and I wasn't prepared shoewise. By the time we finished (about two miles) I think, I was really hurting. It was cool though. the streets are so narrow anyway and people were lined up all through the town. There was barely room to get our handcarts through the crowd at some points. There was some up hills and down hills some also. We then went to one of the members farms and browsed looking at some interesting animals. There was the cutest baby dwarf goat. The grandkids would have loved it. We then picknicked and then came home and collapsed. The elders rode over with us. They are a couple of really nice guys. We asked them if they wanted us to get them anything at Costco and they immediately yelled "peanut butter." After dinner of the most delicious dumplings and stew, we took a car load of "stuff" over to our flat (the landlord let us in and said we could go ahead and put it in). I am so ready to not do these 29 stairs several times a day. Our flat is all on the ground floor. Yeah! Well, it is bedtime here, so will sign off. We love you. Elder and Sister Henry

Well, this morning we nipped over to Ledbury to the Parade. The Ward had a entry in the Parade. It was Handcarts and members dressed in Pioneer clothes. This area is in the center of much of early church history. When the apostles came to England in 1840 they came to this area. The united brothren group was from a short way from Hereford and Benbow Pond where most of them were babtized is also close. Brigham Young preached in the Market House which still stands in Ledbury. Brigham Young, Wilford Wodruff and Willard Richards met a few miles from Ledbury and decided to print The Book of Mormon in England. 1800 members were babtized in the 9 months following the Apostles arrival. Within two years most of them had immagrated to the US and became the backbone of the Church membership. Sister Henry and I dressed up and walked in the Parade. Our group was very well received. We head for Birmingham tomorrow to pick up a few items of furniture and go to Costco to do some shopping. Sister Davies has been really good to us. She is providing most of what we need for kitchen supplies. Also she is giving us bedding and a mattress and towels. Another member has a washing machine and a small refrigerator. We need a bigger one but this will do for now. The Bishop has four kitchen chairs and the Mission Home has a table. The main thing we still need is a bed and front room chairs. I am sure it will come. Well cherrio for now.

We taught the first discussion last night. It was just to our land lady who is a member. It was to practice. It went pretty well. We need to involve them more by asking questions and reading more scriptures. It is coming. Today we will teach it to her son-in-law. He is not a member. He apears to be intrested but is not moving at the moment. We asked if we could practice with him and his wife.

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We will move into our flat on Wednesday. We get the keys on Tuesday. We are going to Birmingham Tuesday morning and picking up some furniture and go to Costco. Pick up a few food items to make life nicer.

Well it looks like it might quit raining today. That would be good. It has rained almost all day the last two days and some everyday since we arrived in Hereford. Oh well that keeps it green and pretty.

Sister Henry is off Visiting Teaching again this morning so I am on my own. I have been typing up the outline for the first Discussion. This helps get it firm in my mind. ( Some would say I do not have one).

We will move into our flat next week. So now we are gathering up furniture to fill it. Members of the Ward have told us that most of it can be furnished by the Ward. Our Landlady here where we are staying has a number of items. Sheets pans and a mattress. So we have a start. Hopefully we will get the rest without too much trouble. We need a refrigerator and a washing machine. Fortunatly it has a brand new oven and hob (stove top). A lot of flats have nothing. We are looking for wardrobes to hang our clothes in as well as a bed and dresser. The mission home has a kitchen table that we will be able to use so that will help.

Any way we are on our way. Pray that we will be guided to those that will be responsive.

Lots of love,
Elder Henry

Had a good day today. I went VT with Sister Davies (whose B&B we are staying at) to three sisters. Had some really good visits and they are really nice ladies. Visiting one more in the morning. Tonight we had dinner with a family by the name of Hansen. She is from here and he is from Draper, UT. They met on the internet and married and he moved here about 8 years ago. Very nice people. They invited us for Thanksgiving dinner. Said they are the only ones in the ward who do thanksgiving dinner and they have all the missionaries and some other families over. Actually get Libby's pumpkin pie mix from the states so they can have real pie. Elder Henry went visiting with the elders to a couple of families also.

We found out that we will get the keys to our flat next Tues. so we can move Wed. morning. Can't wait. Several people in the ward are working at rounding up furnishings for us. It will be interesting to see what we end up with. We will be grateful for most anything at this point.

More later. We love all of you. Keep the faith. Love, Elder and Sister Henry

I typed this message about four times Sunday, but somehow it went to the old BOM site. So here it is again.

We went to church in Hereford Sunday. Everyone was very nice and friendly. I gave the opening prayer in RS, the bishop called on both of us to introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies in Sac. Mtg., and i played the organ in Sac. Mtg. We left after church with four dinner invites, a FHE invite and a service project to help with. It was a good day. I know we are going to love it here. There were also several people who said they had friends who they would like us to visit and possibly teach.

We are still looking for a flat. This "room" is okay but very small. It is about 10 by 12 and has a bed, a sink, a dresser, a big "wardrobe" and all of our suitcases. Needless to say, we are pretty cramped. And the bathroom and shower are "down the hall."

We pray for all of you and know that there are blessings in store if we have faith and endure. Please know that the Lord loves us all. Love, Elder and Sister Henry

testing

Another day in the rain. We have been staying in the Mission Office. They have a couple of flats in it. But that is two hours away from Hereford. However we are moving over to Hereford tomorrow. We will be staying in a "room" in a guest house while we look for an apt. Bed and Breakfast sort of place. Our problem has been that if you have not lived in England for 3 years they want you to have someone to guarentee your payment. We found today that the church office here(not the mission office) will do that. We have the paperwork and will turn it in to the agent tomorrow or Monday. Hopefully they will accept it. If not we are back to square one. We went to Costco this morning and back to ASDA this afternoon. This is what Wal-Mart is here. We have began to gather a few things we will need. Plates, pillows, ect.. Prices on most things are not bad. We are having a little trouble finding a printer. ASDA only had one. It was £47 ($75). We thought we would look around a little more.

So we will repack our bags in the morning and drive over to Hereford. Then we shall see what we shall see.

To answer your question, Scott, we have been staying at the mission office in Birmingham. Sleeping on bunkbeds and without a fridge. We keep a little carton of milk in the fridge downstairs in the main part of the office. It has been very interesting but not too bad. Tomorrow we are going over to Hereford and will be staying in a "room" at a guesthouse of a member. She will serve breakfast only and there are no cooking facilities in the room, so \i guess we will be eating out or eating bagels and peanut butter. We have some leads on some apts but haven't actually been able to look at any yet. All the letting agencies want you to either have 3 years residency in England or a "guarantor". We were able to get the Church to sign a paper today to act as a guarantor, so we are hoping that they will accept that. Everything takes a lot longer than you want it to and we are getting impatient to get settled and get busy.

We just got back from dinner with Elder and Sister Long. We went to a small Fish and Chips place and then sat on a park bench to eat. It was very good, but we certainly could not eat it every day. The countryside is beautiful. It has been raining most of the day today and a little cool. I love it. We have been to Walmart twice already and Costco once. They are similar to those at home, but carry a lot of different things. The foods especially. Well, tata for now.
Love, Elder and Sister Henry

No Curbs

Well today we went to Hereford. No problems today. I got our GPS going so we had good directions. It just needed time to find the satelites. We went over to try to find an apartment. No luck. They only agent who had any would not let us rent without a guarantor or 3 years residence in England. I am not sure what we will do about that. We did have dinner with the Bishop and his family. They have 10 children. Two are married and one is on a mission. But the other seven were there. They are really nice. We then made it home in the rain. Tomorrow we will follow up on a few possible leads.

Well, we arrived in one piece. It was a long day. We had to go through security three times and then customs. I did end up having to take a couple of pounds out of each suitcase and put in my carryon in SLC. What an ordeal. We were met by Pres. Ogden and his wife and Elder and Sister Long at the airport. We unloaded our suitcases at the mission home and then went to lunch. We spent the afternoon getting acquainted a little with the mission and then rested for a couple of hours and then went to dinner. We went to bed fairly early (9:00) and had a very good night's sleep. We spent today going to the bank and getting that all set up. \it only took us 2 hours to make the 30-minute trip! Driving on the wrong side of the road is really a scary hoot. Elder \henry kept running into the curb on my side and almost side-swiped a few cars bacause they all just park on the side of the road right in the middle of the lane. We then ate lunch at a little deli and had a cornish pasty. \it was very good. We then headed for Walmart to get some groceries and other stuff--curling iron, hair dryer, etc. \it only took us another loooooong hour to make the 20 minute drive. They don't mark the street names well and we kept missing our turns and having to go back. I AM SURE IT WILL ALL GET BETTER AS WE LEARN OUR WAY AROUND!!! We are having a great time and can't wait to get to Hereford and get settled in. We are anxious to get started meeting the people and getting involved in the "missionary work." We love you all. Love, Sister Henry P.S, The weather is wonderful. Cool, cool, cool.

We had a wonderful time at the MTC. I wasn't sure what to really expect. But the learning, practice teaching, and interaction with the other senior missionaries was absolutely great. I learned so much and feel more at ease now. The Spirit was definitely with us and we are ready to get on that airplane for England. We had a great experience in the last class of the last day. We walked into the room to find Pres. Bingham, our former bishop and stake president from Tulsa, Okla. was our instructor. We have known him and his family for 40 years. What a joy to see him and visit him.

Ok, here we are at day two. The first day was just orentation. Today was for real. They started by teaching us how and then we practiced teaching the first discussion(Restoration) and then we had a volunteer come to our room and we taught them. Very interesting. We are actually piloting an improvement to the method of teaching. Still teaching the same lesson but the aproach is different. We are not missing any meals. But we are doing pretty good.

I don't know who is happier. Us to be going or everybody else to see us go. ( They all expect blessings from our service.)

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE!!!! Tomorrow at 10 AM we check into the MTC.

The Lord continues to bless us. We sold our car this morning. A lady called last night, came to look at it this morning with her son who took it for a short drive. They liked it and she went straight to the bank for the cashier's check. YEAH. What a big relief. I think we are ready. If I really take time to really think about it, I get so excited I can hardly stand it. I have been too busy with preparations that I haven't really taken time to think about the reality of the mission. We are so anxious to get on that plane and go "across the pond." 40 hours and counting!!!

A picture of our Mission. It goes from coast to coast. We will be assigned to Hereford which is a little left of center.

Here are two happy campers. This was a week ago. It is now two and a half days until we enter the MTC. Our bags are mostly packed, the house is ready and the car is NOT sold. We do have someone coming to see it tomorrow. That is cutting it thin. I hope they take it. We are still messing with our prescriptions but they are coming.