"Tis a wee country, aye--but a bonnie one!"

Spring is Coming!!

When Ned served as a young missionary in Yorkshire, England, he endured the coldest winter there in 238 years. When the crocus started blooming in Redcar, that was his evidence that spring would come. He has loved and revered crocus ever since!

After our unusually cold, dark, and snowy winter in Edinburgh, we are both gleeful at the sight of the crocus flowers that we are seeing everywhere. In Britain, crocus are often planted in their lawns as you see in the picture above. It's a beautiful sight to see the purple, yellow and white flowers covering the green lawns this time of year (grass in Scotland stays green year round). The flowers also line many of the medians and roadsides. BEAUTIFUL!!!

As beautiful as the spring flowers was our Zone Conference in Dundee on Saturday, March 20. Elder Steven A. Kerr, an Area Seventy who resides in the Edinburgh Stake, was a guest for the entire conference and was such a motivating speaker. He loves Scotland (his homeland), the missionaries, and the gospel and inspired us to be courageous, have faith and know that we are good enough to do what we have been called to do. We won't soon forget the spirit of this day and the opportunity to be with the young missionaries and our mission president and his wife. It filled us all with renewed vigor and resolve to go forward with eagerness and faith. Elder Kerr's message in a nutshell: None of us can do what we've been asked to do as members of the church or as missionaries! Don't worry, just accept you can't do it and turn yourself over to the Lord. He'll make up the difference. He said it was prideful to worry about whether we can capably fulfill a church assignment. We shouldn't worry about how our performance will look in the eyes of man. If we are being obedient, we are good enough! But all of us need the Savior and the Atonement to make up the difference.

Aberdeen, the Granite City - March 19, 2010

The Archive has run out of books to image!! First time in 11 years. This "break" will be short-lived as the contract negotiators from the Church and the National Archives have met and we will soon have a collection of new books to image. There are thousands and thousands of books yet to image . . . just have to go through the "proper" channels to get the "proper" authority to do it (everything is "proper" in the UK). So we have some more time off - this time we're off to Aberdeen and a Zone Conference in Dundee.

Aberdeen is a sea port now bustling with North Sea oil business. We drove there via an inland route and returned via Dundee along the coast. The inland route took us to the Highlands, where we have not been before. The Highlands are the highlands because they geographically are the high part of Scotland. Above, the highest place we went through, is a pass called "Devils Elbow," and they are still skiing next to it. The pass is an amazing 2,161 feet above sea level. There is a mountain near here that tops out at 3,471 feet. For a Utahn, we were not impressed.

Aberdeen is known for its granite structures. The stone has something in it, maybe mica, that makes it sparkle - especially when the sun comes out after a rain. This church is right across from the Premier Inn, where we stayed.

Another example of the granite stone. Makes a pretty city.

This is the harbor at Stonehaven. From here, it is just a 2 1/2 mile walk along the sea cliffs to Dunnottar Castle. Stonehaven is just south of Aberdeen and a pretty little place. Our kind of village - small and quaint.

Dunnottar Castle - A Favorite!! - March 19, 2010

Dunnottar Castle looks like what a castle ought to be. It was a storybook castle! It was built on a rock in the North Sea to provide greatest protection from adversaries. It was sacked, however, by Cromwell on May 26,1652, after a seige of eight months - the last Scottish castle to fall to him. Between Cromwell and King Henry VIII, they really made a mess of the abbeys and castles in Scotland and England. So sad.

The only approach to Dunnottar is a thin strip of land down this hill and up the other side. Most of the castle is protected by the seawall around most of its perimeter. We hiked 234 stairs to get to the castle on this very windy but gorgeous day.

Some of the remaining structure. More fun to walk around it than look at a photo.

More of the castle. To the right is the water supply. There was also land inside the castle for gardens, military drills, etc. We wondered how children growing up in the castle could be kept from falling off the cliffs into the North Sea.

Looks like a fun place to play hide and seek. 120 religious political prisoners (Covenanters -Reformists) were marched to Dunnottar from England. About a fourth died on the march up. They were held near the place of this photo. Twenty-five escaped from Dunnottar, of which two died in the attempt, and fifteen were recaptured and tortured. Eventully those in custody were sent to the West Indies and sold as slaves.

Arbroath Abbey - March 19, 2010

Arbroath Abbey was completed in 1233. It was built by King William I as a part of his effort to consolidate his control throughout Scotland. He cited his reason to build as inspiration from the murdered Saint Thomas Becket and from God. It is a huge abbey, but time has not been kind to it. Though it flourished for nearly 400 years, it fell into a steep decline after the Protestant Reformation of 1560 and most of it is now gone. Of note, Scotland's declaration of independence known as the Declaration of Arbroath, was finished here on April 6, 1326. It is still today the Scot's rallying cry for independence: "For as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any condition be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom."


This is the part of the Abbey where the Declaration of Arbroath was composed and signed. It was sent to the Pope, hoping to secure his support of Scotland's independence from England, to lift the sentence of excommunication from Robert I and recognize him as king of Scotland (Robert the Bruce). The attempt floundered, but was finally achieved in 1329.

One only gets a glimps of the grandeur of the ediface from the sketetal remains.

This shot was taken from a tower we climbed. Much gone, but still impressive.

Rosslyn Castle and Chapel - March 13, 2010

Rosslyn Chapel has recently risen in fame as it was featured in the "Da Vinci Code," which it undoubtly contributed to because of the massive sealed underground tomb below the chapel that has never been opened or entered for hundreds of years. Speculation is that it holds more than the remains of the St. Clair family ancestors (perhaps the Holy Grail, Templar treasure, Ark of the Covenant, etc.). Our guide was not convinced anything is below the chapel but old skeletons and not even the St. Clair family have entered the sealed cavern for centuries. The chapel was started in 1446 and was built over the next 40 years. It was never completed, not even a third of what was envisioned, but what was done, was most interesting . Its history is, perhaps, of even more interest. It was Catholic, but had an eclectic architecture of pagan, Masonic and Templar influences, before the Protestent Reformation that prohibited Catholic services and eradicated the Catholic altars and trappings. Between the Catholic and Protestant eras, was 200 years when it wasn't used at all and fell into serious disrepair.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed pictures in the Chapel, but we had a great guide. The intricate stone carvings around this doorway suggest what is inside. But only suggests. It is one of Europe's most famous examples of sculptured stonework.

About twelve years ago, a massive renovation project was started. It is getting near completion and will preserve this edifice. The scaffolding will go down before we leave our mission and since Rosslyn is very close to us in Edinburgh, we will go back when it is completed to see the finished project. The ceiling of the Chapel is perhaps the most famous part of the work, and it is now covered.

This shows part of the covering that was built over the entire building to allow the stone to dry out. The roof had leaked for centuries allowing moss and mold to grow inside. It is now dry, after 12 years, and is being cleaned. It was actually very unique and interesting to be able to go up on the scaffolding and look down onto the spires of the chapel because of the renovation.


The Castle of the St. Clairs, who built the Chapel and are buried there, was destroyed by General Monck, under Cromwell's direction, in 1651. The location of the castle was very protected until the cannon was invented, which took it down by shooting from the higher hills around it.

Unexpected Bonus - A Week in England! 6-11 Mar 2010

At the beginning of our mission, we were told that we could go anywhere we wanted to go, as long as we did not leave our mission - Scotland. And we have been doing that! But it was a most unexpected treasure to find that a Family History Seminar was planned for us at the Preston England temple complex. We were not planning to attend the temple for 18 months, and we were not planning to visit the missionfield of my youth, either.

Here we are arriving at the temple complex. We stayed at the Accommodation Center on the left, had meetings in the Stake Center behind the building on the right, and attended the temple in the background three times before we left.

The five couples doing digital imaging from Edinburgh were joined by four couples doing the same thing in London. Here we are in our meeting room taking a short break. Conference subjects ranged from presentations on improving our skills, to signs of a heart attack or stroke. For our part, we presented evidence of the Egyptian temple endowment, which we gleaned from our trip to Egypt.

The three above, in the restaurant we used for dinners, made the seminar both possible and a delightful go. For us, the most important part of the conference was the painting of the bigger picture of the work we are engaged in. We were shown in detail how the work we are doing contributes to the massive Family Search project that the Church is engaged in worldwide. The Church has a huge commitment - manpower, expertise and resources - to tie together the family of humanity in eternal bonds sealed in the temples of our God. We have never felt better about our mission calling to help with this work.

Family History Seminar continued

London and Edinburgh Sister Family History Missionaries at the Preston Temple.

These are their less attractive counterparts.

The Preston Temple is a large temple and located in the cradle of the Church in the British Isles. It stands as a beautiful edifice to all of the thousands who embraced the Gospel at the time of the Restoration. A majority of them immigrated to the States and formed the backbone of the Church in those early years. Many of us today find them in our pedigree as we research our ancestry.

Traveling to Preston - March 6, 2010

There is nothing prettier than driving through the countyside on a nice day in the British Isles - just a few shots on the way down to the Preston Seminar.


One of many quaint old churches.

England and Scotland have a lot of "Public Footpaths." You see them all the time - through the fields and up and down the hills. They love to walk. It would have been nice if the USA had preserved their old right-of-ways. It's a nice idea.

Just a shot to show the extent the Brits go to make their "Public Footpaths" accessible.

Yes, spring is here (or coming) and it is the start of lambing season. And there are more sheep here than people. Twenty to one in Scotland. The little white lambs bouncing around out in the fields is so fun.

Peter Rabbit in the Lake District - March 6, 2010

Engand's Lake District served as the home and the inspiration for many artists and writers. Most notable are William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. This trip through the Lake District, we stopped at the home of Beatrix Potter, author of Peter Rabbit and a host of other self illustrated children's tales. She left her home, furnishings and estate to the National Trust with the provision that no one lives in it and that the personal effects stay. We have seen many historic sites with period correct furnishings, but this is the first with the real stuff from the owner herself. It was great.

She called her estate "Hill Top." Here we see its pretty country setting. It was narrow roads and twists and turns to get there.

This is where Beatrix Potter wrote and painted.

She often got her inspiration from the things she saw around her. This gate is in one of her stories and one of her paintings - Jemima Puddle-Duck.

This post box is in the story of Peter Rabbit's Almanac. It is also just plain British country. What a fun visit! It made us want to read all of her children's tales and see if we could spot drawings of the things we saw at her home in her books.

Visiting our friends in Yorkshire - 7 March 2010

Forty seven years ago, Ned was asked by his mission president to lead a team of four missionaries and dedicate the Wharfe Valley to the building of a ward. The Lord blessed them greatly in the three short months he served there and they found several families who joined the church and have formed a core nucleus of that branch to this day. Those families have now grown up and are beginning the fourth generation since those first baptisms. We were able to attend that branch (still a branch, but a faithful and strong one with their own chapel finally after all these years and hopes for a ward yet) and the members have not forgotten Ned's ties to their beginning and welcomed us so warmly.

We attended a Sunday dinner welcoming home one of these family's daughters who just returned from her mission to London. It was special to be gathered together with their extended family and share the day with them. This is the third returned missionary from one of those first baptisms and the amount of missionary work done by this one family alone is remarkable. It's few returned missionaries who get to see and interact with the fruits of their labors in this life more than Ned has. And that association with these good Saints in England through the years has blessed our family in so many ways.

Cousins, sisters and a newly returned missionary.

A father and two righteous sons. The one on the left recently returned from a mission to Ireland.

Youngest in the family and planning on a mission. In the meantime, he's still enjoying his youth and is proudly showing off his marble race contraption.

Preston Tour - March 10, 2010

Seven missionaries were sent to the British Isles by Joseph Smith in 1837. They started the work in Preston, England when they arrived on July 22. The first sermon was preached on July 23 and the first baptisms were performed seven days later. The first branch of the Church in the UK was organized on Aug. 6th, 1837, just two weeks after the missionaries arrival in the UK.


This is the Wilfred Street lodgings where the missionaries found acccommodations on July 22, 1837. It was here that the devil tried to stop the work. Early in the morning of July 30th, Elder Isaac Russell was troubled by evil spirits, then they attacked Elder Heber C. Kimball, who fell unconscious to the floor. When he revived, Elders Kimball and Russell, along with Elder Orson Hyde watched the devils in vision, coming in legions, gnashing their teeth and reviling against them for one and a half hours. That night, they left that place and took lodging with a new convert, Ann Dawson, who was among those baptized later that same day.

This is the site of the first baptisms in Preston (and in the British Isles). They took place in the River Ribble, pictured here, on July 30, 1837, on the far shore this side of the trestle bridge. Nine converts were baptized and about eight thousand town people gathered to watch the novel open air baptisms.

The upper floor on the left side of the pictured home is where President Hinckley lived early in his mission to England when he received his life-changing letter from his father telling him to "forget yourself and go to work."

This oak tree and the pictured plaque, located in Preston, is dedicated to the 20,000 missionaries that have labored in the British Isles between 1837 and 1987. I was one of them, serving in Yorkshire, England between December 1962 -1964.