Beautiful Easter Sabbath

Easter started in Abbots Bromley with the chimes ringing. It had been a long time since I've heard bells; going back to Rexburg and the carillon bells at Ricks/BYUI. It was a lovely sound early in the morning.

As we headed to church in Lichfield, about 12 miles away, we saw church-goers walking home after their Easter services. I love little towns.

Favorite quote from Sunday School:

Comment from member quoting Neal Maxwell - "Sometimes we find ourselves in the thick of thin things."

Sacrament meeting was about to start - a very tall, dark, and handsome young elder asked if the seat beside me was taken? I asked him where he was from. Then I started to laugh out loud; Elder Bedford is from St. George, Utah. When we compared addresses, we learned that we live only about one mile from each other in the big city of St. George, Utah. I told him I'll contact his mother when I get home.

The other elder, from Sandy, Utah, has a winter home in St. George. He told us he had spent many times in Southern, Utah. He, too, lives a short distance from our home and from the home of his companion. We had a good chuckle over that.


The coincidences (are they really, though) don't stop there. After a wonderful testimony meeting, I thanked a lady for her beautiful and sincere commitment to the gospel. She asked where we were from; when we told her we were from St. George, Utah, she asked us if we knew...Royal Stocking.

(Now, bear in mind, that Allen and I have only been in St. George for a relatively short time.) Ha! Do we know him?!?!? In our former ward, his new wife and I were visiting teaching companions. "In fact," I said somewhat rather unabashedly, "my husband and I are responsbile for his meeting and marrying his new wife after his first wife died."

(Just a side note here: Allen and I are always trying to line people up. It doesn't usually work: but we have had 2 success stories, and one of them was the very person she was asking about!)

It seems that Royal (the man he knew from Utah) and his wife had worked for the church in England many years before, and Brother Manners (the man in England) had worked with him.

I am still amazed at how often we visit wards far from home, and meet someone whom we know or who knows someone we know. It's such a small world in the church! (The farthest I've been from home and met someone I knew was in St. Petersburg, Russia, and met my former babysitter from many, many years beforehand...that was astonishing that she was at the same church meeting I was!)

But, our Easter Sabbath was not complete yet.

We had been invited to dinner by Tony and Patricia Jayes; a lovely couple that are friends of the people whose home we are staying in. Tony and Patricia are classy, elegant, charming; just as you would expect an English couple to be. She couldn't believe that we don't drink tea. She can't live without her several cups of tea a day.

What a delicious and delightful meal she had prepared. Their home is so lovely and filled with china, pottery, knick knacks, etc., that she has collected from her travels all over the world.

A beautiful ending to a beautiful Easter Sabbath. I give thanks for our blessings and this opportunity.