A lovely visit to England

I had the lovely pleasure of spending a few days in one of my favorite places...England. You see, a few weeks ago I found out that 2 of my converts were going through the temple for the first time on April 4th. And as New York is a bit closer to England than Salt Lake is, I decided I would make all the necessary arrangements to make the trip over.

I left Sat. March 31st - arriving early in Manchester, Eng. on Sun. April 1st. Sarah, a friend from Sheffield, my second area, picked me up from the airport, and after crashing for a couple of hours at her place, we went to the stake center to watch 2 sessions of General Conference. I was able to see most of the members of that ward that I was friends with, which was very nice.

Monday, I wanted to take it a bit easy so Sarah took me to a reservoir just outside Sheffield, called Damflask, to go walking. It's about 3 and a half miles around, and it was a very pleasant morning. After our walk and a bit of fish and chips for lunch, I visited a few more friends.

This rock was in the middle of the path. The reservoir is popular for sailors and rowers.

I love the English countryside...

...and the daffodils were in bloom everywhere

On Tuesday, I wanted to take in some more countryside. We spent almost the entire day in Derbyshire. We started at a village called Bakewell, famous for the Bakewell pie or tart.

Then we went to this viewpoint called Monsal Head.

Afterwards we drove to Castleton, in the heart of the Peak district. There're some fantastic views there. We hiked up a bit of the mountain to see Peveril castle.

Wednesday was the day I had been anticipating, and it was a perfect day at the Preston Temple! I met up with Wynn and Monica, my 2 converts, Mary, my companion from that time, and a few other members of the Ashington branch.

(l. to r.) Wynn Sidell, Mary Boswell, me, and Monica Tuke

After the endowment session and a break for lunch, Monica had some sealing work to do, which included her own sealing to her parents. It was such a wonderful experience for me and I'm so glad that everything worked out for me to be there with them! The only unfortunate thing was that I had to come home!