England MTC- Elder Gareth Williams

With a slight temporary change to his assignment we made it to the departure day.  He made it very easy for us as he was so keen to get going on this journey. We know that he has a strong testimony of his Saviour, Jesus Christ and this is his reason for serving.  

Time for one last selfie before we walked him to the door.

He had the biggest smile on his face here with his MTC President and his wife, President and Sister Preston.

The Call- Part 2

I was in a rush and just wanted to put up the call so I didn't have time to write much the other day.

We are so excited that Gareth has chosen to serve a mission, and it really is his choice.  He has studied and prepared for this without nagging-unlike his school work!  We have met so many fantastic friends through LDS missions, young men who have served in our Branch, Senior couples who have left their families to support us over here in Wales and the families of those willing missionaries.  We are grateful that Gareth will have that chance to bless other peoples lives while he serves the Lord for two years in the California, Roseville Mission.

He will be far away but he will be protected and watched over.

I know he is doing the right thing for him at this time.

The Call

Gareth's mission call finally came.  We are so proud of him.

Panorama Champions 2013 Real Steel live at the Yaa Centre

This is my nephew, Jason (back Left) and his band!

End of an Era

Where did all the time go?

We put Gareth into his Stepaside uniform in September 2002.

Followed by Ross in September 2003

And now Martha has left and is ready to join the boys in Greenhill.  

How amazing to watch them change and grow.  

Togetherness

How fantastic it was to see our dear friends the Vingoe family at the weekend and to witness the marriage of Christopher to his beautiful wife Eve.

This family mean so much to us and we can only hope to emulate their example as a couple, as parents and as just all round lovely people.  We have very fond memories of the times we have spent together and the experiences we have been through together.  

We are better people for having them in our lives.

Thanks for letting us share your day and your lives.

World Record

I have always wanted to take part in a world record event.

This past weekend I took part in an international indexing project.  Here is an extract from the email I received today.

FamilySearch volunteers are amazing! On July 20th and 21st, FamilySearch indexers and arbitrators from around the world joined together to set an international record for the greatest number of indexing participants in a single day! We hoped to have an unprecedented 50,000 contributors in a 24 hour period. FamilySearch volunteers excelled, surpassing that goal by 16,511! That’s right—66,511 participants in one day! Incredible! We are grateful for the patience and persistence of many volunteers who faced technical difficulties due to an overwhelming response.

These generous indexers and arbitrators made a true difference. Each record and each name indexed and arbitrated matters. It only takes one to open the door to linking generations of families together. Without question, thousands of lives will be changed as a result of this day’s effort.

While the focus for this challenge was on the total number of participants, a tremendous amount of indexing and arbitration work was accomplished as well. Here are the results for the number of records indexed and arbitrated. 

Indexed: 4,682,746
Arbitrated: 941,932
Total Records Processed: 5.7 million

Our ancestors deserve to be remembered. You can be proud to be the one who made the difference for someone else who is looking for their ancestors. Because of you, they will know the joy of adding a new branch to their family tree. Thank you!