Smith's England Mission Minutes

We just found out that we have the date of our return flight. June 28th is the last we heard! To stay focused on what we need to do is becoming harder each day, but we are determined.

This spring has brought some beautiful surprises for us here in England. The earth has awaken and flowers are blooming! First, daffodils were coming up spontaneously. Next, we found a forest floor full of blue bells. The rapeseed (canola oil plant) is a beautiful yellow. We, of course, took advantage of the photo op. Thought you'd appreciate it.

The Ashbys and Smiths are busier than ever. We have a huge house that we are working on and we have a deadline, which is pushing us. We also continue to have other jobs to do around the farm from time to time.

We are trying to take advantage of this time to study better, get closer to God and each other and learn more what it means to be fully committed to God.

This month, Marsha and Marcos came to visit. Having never been gone from our children for such a long time, the joy in seeing them warms our heart more than we can say. We were able to see many things in England with Marsha and Marcos and hope they enjoyed their time here with us...we did. We even got to watch the play "Wicked" in London. We went up the Tower Bridge and rode a boat down the Thames (pronounced "Tems") for the first time and drove through many beautiful county sides.

Elder Ashby and Joe putting up a new fence with a couple of gates.

Sister Ashby and I organize about 500 keys for the farm and all the different homes, barns, offices, etc.

Joe was impressed with my organizational skills of putting the tools in a bucket while I'm fixing cracks at the ceiling so much that he thought it was a photo moment!

One of the extra jobs was to seed these hills that surrounded a huge grainery. The dirt was a bit soggy and hard to navigate, so Elder Ashby is pushing the cart with the grass seeds and Joe decided to be the ~~donkey~~ puller.

How do you celebrate a birthday and still get a lot done? Of course, paint the sign on the wall! Happy Birthday to my honey, my partner, my companion! Sigh!

Birthday cake-British style. Warm chocolate cake with warm creamy pudding poured over the top. Has a fraction of the sugar that America has, but it is very lovely!

We saw this magical steam train going through the country side.

At Wicked

Lincoln Castle/Cathedral

Tower Bridge. We go up one side and cross the middle at the top and go down the other side. In the middle, there is a glass floor where you can see the ocean. On the bottom of the bridge, it opens up for boats to cross. Apparently one of the first in London.

Marsha, Marcos and us. (and a random photo bomber) We look happy and awake, but we're all zombies.

The mail boxes are getting ready for the upcoming coronation of the new King on May 6th. (Someone crocheted this crown on a pillow!) Everyone I asked was more excited about the day off. Lol!

Ashbys and Smiths decided to go to Dover and we were able to see Dover Castle outside of our hotel window!

The English love to walk and we found this beautiful trail that has a cute overhang. Of course we HAD to pass under it!

When were in Dover, we wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover and we heard that the best way to see it was by boat. We booked a rubber outboard boat. It was chilly, but thankfully we didn't get wet. I had on 11 articles of clothing on and wasn't really warm! But it was really beautiful and I had such an incredible sense of gratitude for these experiences that the Lord has given us.

They call the White Cliffs of Dover, the "Chalk Cliffs" since it has chalk qualities in it. They are very treacherous and many ships sunk here. They even have been bombed many times as it is a major gateway into England and through the centuries, many people attacked though this port.