Beautiful England

I have been excited to see the colors of Autumn unfold.  Now we are seeing the change from green and more green to bright red, orange, yellow, and gold.  The grass stays green all year round, so it makes a beautiful contrast to the fall colors.

The Virginia Creeper has now lost most of its leaves.  Only the red stems remain.  We pass by this row of flats every day as we travel on Low Lane.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller" dance

Wednesday nights we started having some dancing after institute classes are finished.  So far there was one on Salsa, then Jenny Boyd taught the Michael Jackson "Thriller", then we went back to Laura Thornley and her ballroom dance partner teaching the cha cha and other dance moves.  It has attracted some fun kids who really want to learn how to dance.

Human Battleship and Human Checkers were two of the games the activities committee organized for our Opening Social.  Their philosophy is "Keep it Simple".  It has always worked.  These kids participate and always make it fun.  There was a sheet dividing the room and separating into two teams.   The kids are the battleships, then they have a bean bag they throw over and try to hit a battleship.  If you get hit, you're out.  So goes the game until one side destroys all of the ships on the other side.

Human Checkers involved some leap frog moves and piggyback rides.

All in all the evening was a success with good food, lots of laughter and visiting, some guitar playing, and of course the christening of the pool table.

There were over 100 that attended.

Last Day of Manchester Convention

Wish we had pictures of the Sunday Meetings, they were wonderful.  Elder Teixeira and Elder Kerr area seventies were with us, one from Frankfurt and one from Scotland.

We sat all day listening to talks and the choir and only at the end did we realize our legs and bottoms were suffering.  

Here are a couple of the groups doing their service projects.

More Service Projects

Painting a logo on T-shirts for a school in Africa, and tying off quilts which go to a shelter.

This is one of our YSAs, Michelle Coke.  (you've got to love her name)

Some of our favorite youth from the Huddersfield Stake.  All have gotten real active in the last little while.  We love these kids.  The boy without a hat is waiting for his mission call.

Manchester Convention - one of four service projects

They made these little Nativity Sets for hospital rooms.  They turned out cute.  

The red head is a girl we've not seen much at the institute, so we were glad she went to the convention.

Here we have a picture of Jainan, Clio, and Bethany.  Dad helped Jainan with his dissertation .