Dudley, Michelle

We are detectives!  We have a ‘prehistoric’ ward list we are using to try and find and invite returning members.  It is challenging.  We call phone numbers which are incorrect, drive to addresses that either don’t exist or the member hasn’t lived there for years.  We get up the next day and repeat the process.  We call their ministers for any information, invite them to be friends with us on Facebook, use Facebook messenger, which is the main source of communication that most people seem to use here.  Little by little we are finding some…and it makes us so happy.  Some aren’t interested in returning, others come for a week and drop off, a few may come and stay.  We will just keep visiting and inviting! Mike has created some incredible google sheets to help us tract our efforts and to help update the ward roster.  He also created a birthday list.  We bought birthday cards, cases of MARS candy bars, and deliver to all our ward members we c...

SHEEP…SHEEP...SHEEP… they are everywhere!  Beautiful lush green fields, hedgerows, very narrow lanes you ‘share’ with oncoming traffic…and walkers.  Rarely can two cars pass each other.  You just blink your lights, pull over until they have passed by, and then continue on..until the next car in a few more yards! Our little neighborhood looks out along the Menai Strait water which flows into the Irish Sea (which looks freezing).  Beauty everywhere.   It’s a quiet time of year for missionary work.  Families are preparing and celebrating Christmas, Boxing Day, and the New Year.  We were invited to the Gills for Christmas Eve dinner/festivities and a few days later to the Quilters home.  They are so inviting and generous, and are teaching us a lot about living here and about the ward. MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM WALES!  This is our very first Christmas we have ever celebrated together -just the two of us!  We bought a little tree, put our Chri...

We’ve arrived in Manchester, England - with LOTS of luggage and felt ‘upside down’ from the long flight and time change.  We were met by President and Sister Johnson who took us to the mission office where we loved visiting with them, meeting the office couples, took Covid tests and were given our assignment of where and what we would be doing during our mission service.  We are going to be serving in Wales, on the Isle of Anglesey!   We then went to a hotel for two days to quarantine until the results of our Covid test was in. We were able to walk outside a bit as we tried to adjust to the time difference.  After receiving a ‘negative’ test, some senior couples drove us to our flat, which is about 2 hours from the mission office, and the furthest away!  We all ate lunch together in a pub around the corner.  A group of Welsh singers were there sitting around tables playing their guitars and singing Welsh Christmas carols.  They came to our table and sa...