1 year today ! This will be a long one, only because there are lots of pictures !

1 year ago today, we were driving ourselves to the Provo MTC to begin our 18 month adventure! 

   

So here is a recap of the last 2.5 months since the last update: 

We have had another baptism in our branch - our young friend Zak ! There are no words to describe how amazing Zak is ! He is so smart, he basically taught himself through his own research (and meeting with the missionaries). Because of his jewish background, it has been a dream come true for Tony to watch Zak put religious pieces, and missing pieces, together with his jewish knowledge and the restored church of Jesus Christ. 

He referred himself to the missionaries after meeting them on the street several months earlier. His first offical lesson was on May 15th, his baptism on June 28th,  his first trip to the Preston temple to do baptisms was on July 29th,  and he just finished reading the entire Book of Mormon in 6 weeks -  it has been a whirlwind of goodness and miracles !

Based on his University graduation date next summer and the research he has done on his own, he can submit his mission papers in the middle of February and he is currently applying to law school at BYU Provo, so that he can attend there after his mission ! 

Elder Center (ZL, from AR), Elder Taylor (ZL, from UT), Elder Lardelli (brand new missionary from NZL), Elder Dalton (DL, UT), Elder Decker (from CA), Elder Hanks & ZAK, our future Elder ! This was the day of Zaks baptism & yes, they planned it to be a grey suit day ! 

Bro. Cartwright        Pres Ellis         Elder Hanks

Bro. Cartwright & his wife drive about an hour to get to our branch & Pres Ellis and his family drive about 45 mins to get to our branch each week. Pres Ellis has left his current ward (the next ward south of us) to fulfill a 3 year assignment in our branch.

Our previous branch President served for 9 years, there just wasn't any one to replace him. 

If you have ever traveled to Hawaii, you know that at the end of sacrament meeting, the locals sing "Hawai'i Aloha" to all of the visitors. 

Well, we were able to expereince the Welsh version at the end of Stake Conference as the congregation sang their "farewell" song to the visiting Area Seventy. 

(Try to ignore the mom talking to her kids in the background...)

ZONE PDAY !

It was a 2.5 hr drive for us to get to our Zone Pday ! The Sister Training Leaders (STL's) had put together an afternoon for "Forced family fun" games, pizza by Pres and Sis Mayall, then basketball & boardgames. 

The STL's  sent me this video of me and one of our service missionares

We had the opportunity to help out with our Stake Youth Camp. It was held at our Branch Presidents property/camp ground- they own about 36 acres.  We spent the day with them doing self defense, rifle shooting and what they call "bushcraft". In US terms : survival skills like building fires, building a shelter from branches & rope,  and sea/water survival skills

Young men at a self defense class

Young womens self defense class- haha, no baseball bats for us....

the girls camp site area

We have hiked a coastal trail that is close by our house a couple of times

starting from sea level ...

3/4 of the way to the top .....

the view of Aberystwyth in the distance and the sheep fields in the foreground

views along the coastal path 

the coastal trail goes for hundreds of miles ! 

The elders really wanted to have a golf day before transfers, so off they went to the one and only golf course in town. Tony golfed terribly but he said the views were incredible! 

For one of our pdays we went to Dobby's grave from one of the Harry Potter books....
 Elder Lardelli leaving his calling "card" 

this was supposed to be our "sad" face picture..

                                  

the non ocean view side from Dobby's grave

                            

Pday continues at Bishops Palace

 a tight, steep, shallow stairwell - we can't imagine how they navigated these stairs with any type of armour on

where those small square holes are,  would have been the wood floor bracing for the second story of this hall, thus why the fire place is up so high. The higher archway you can vaguely see on the left, would have been the main doorway into the great hall. 



GADFIELD ELM CHAPEL 

We were able to go visit the oldest surviving chapel that the church owns (built in 1836) and in 1840, when Brigham Young preached here, it was the only chapel in the church.  This is the chapel where Wilford Woodruff was able to baptize over 600 people from the United Brethern congregation. 

the passcode to unlock the door ! 

The building is still used today for special meetings and the local stake helps care for the property.

If you made it to here - we love you all and miss you terribly !  

The next 6 months are going to go by SO FAST as we start up another University institute term in just a couple of weeks!  We are grateful for your prayers, support and words of encouragement as we finish strong. 

We need your prayers that families can be found to strengthen this little branch in one of the furthest corners of our mission! 

Love Elder & Sis Hanks