All Things Bright and Beautiful
We recently spent a long weekend criss-crossing Yorkshire, an amazing area about 5 hours north of us.
Our trip wasn’t specifically mission-related, but it was necessary for a really important reason—Jon needed to take his driving test. Because we’ve now been here for over a year, we can no longer drive on our U.S. licenses, so time is ticking. He took a test a few weeks ago and unfortunately didn’t pass. So for now I am the designated driver. As I mentioned when I talked about my driving test, driving in England is not for the faint of heart. Between the narrow roads, driving on the opposite side, the surveillance cameras everywhere waiting to catch you speeding (we’ve avoided any tickets so far!), and the ridiculous DVSA (their DMV) system that makes the California DMV seem like a model of efficiency, well, let’s just say that it’s been quite an ordeal! And an expensive one at that. We’ve had to pay for a few driving lessons for each of us to prepare for the driving test. And pay for each written and driving test. And it’s near to impossible to get a driving test anywhere near where we live, so we’ve also had to drive hours away and spend the night in a hotel the night before to take a driving test early the next morning.
We finally found a test that was coming up in a few days, in a town called Scarborough (of “Are you going to Scarborough Fair?” song fame). So we grabbed it and made plans to go up and spend the weekend since we had to drive so far. Halfway there, Jon got an email that the test on Thursday had been cancelled and rescheduled for Friday morning. Ugh. Thankfully we had already made hotel reservations to stay there for two nights. He was able to drive around the town and get his bearings, which he hoped would help him during the test. But unfortunately, he still didn’t pass. Sad day! He’s chalking it up to 40 years of California driving habits that apparently aren’t up to snuff for the British driving authorities (who are notoriously picky and difficult to impress). Either that or he just likes having me as his Uber driver? ;)
In an effort to console him, one of our wonderful fellow OGC missionary friends, Elder McMurray, sent him this text which should be a template for anyone needing to send a pick-me-up message to someone. It was just what Jon needed :
When the Lord allowed Charlene and me to come for only one year, it must have been in answer to my yet-unthought-of and yet-unspoken prayer, "Please, duct tape me to a bed of nails, banish me to the North Pole, send the plagues of Egypt, or throw me in the briar patch, but please, please, please don't make me take the UK driver's test." It looks like he answered and said, "OK. Don't worry. I'll let Elder Van Woerkom take it once for you, once for Charlene, and once for him." I never realized that the prayer of faith can cause so much grief for someone else. Hang in there, my friend. When you're through, I'll treat you to ice cream and give you a coupon for a free pony.
It put a smile on his face and gave him the courage to sign up for another driving test (a few weeks from now). He’ll take all the prayers he can get! And if he doesn’t pass this time, he’s definitely taking up Elder McMurray on his offer of an ice cream and a free pony!
But looking on the bright side, we did get to take a little time to explore this gorgeous area of the country, so here are some pictures from our weekend in Yorkshire.
This is the beautiful seaside town of Scarborough. We’ll remember it for its beauty, not necessarily for its ease of driving. :/
Since the test was cancelled on Thursday, we took the afternoon to drive a little ways up the coast to a town called Whitby. There’s a cool abbey/ruins there which was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was a beautiful coastal town, which we would have loved to have spent more time in.
From Whitby, we took an old steam train ride through North Yorkshire Moors National Park, stopping at a train station that was one of the filming locations for Harry Potter’s Hogsmeade.
On Friday, after the disastrous driving test, I got to put my driving to the test by going literally over “hill and dale” into the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This area must be where that phrase comes from! And also, if you’ve ever seen the BBC series, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” (watch it, it’s so delightful!!), you’ll recognize the landscape. So beautiful!
And here’s just a little taste of what it’s like to drive in Yorkshire!
We stopped in the village where the real James Herriot lived and visited his veterinary surgery (James Herriot is just his pen name, his real name was James Alfred Wight). And then we went to another village that was the filming location of the series. All we needed was the sweet background music to feel like we were transported back in time.
On the way home, we stayed overnight in York and spent a few hours exploring the city and the beautiful cathedral there—it’s called York Minster, and is home to the largest collection of medieval stained glass in the UK, some dating back to the 1200s. We also hiked up the 275 steps to get a view from the top. As we like to say in our family (a line from my brother Eric), “take it to the top”!
We’ve been here over a year and, while Jon might be reaching his cathedral limit, I don’t think I will ever tire of visiting these beautiful churches and cathedrals! They are awe-inspiring and fascinating!
Our visit also coincided with the Annual Viking Festival. Good timing! It’s always fun to have Vikings roaming around a village.
And finally, we made a quick stop on the way home through Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. Cue the song: Little John and Robin Hood walking through the forest…
If it seems like much of England looks like it belongs in a fairy tale, we think so too! It really is a magical place (not perfect, because nowhere is), and we feel so lucky to call it our home for right now. And so lucky to get to visit so many beautiful parts of the country, even if some of the reasons for those visits involve not-so-lucky experiences of taking driving tests. We hope we’ll have good news to share next time!
In other news, we continue to plug along with our regular missionary work activities. We had a fun gathering of the senior missionaries for Valentine’s Day.
Jon is busy every day at the office with his legal responsibilities and I’m busy processing missionary recommends. We also spend our after work hours feeding the missionaries, doing some ministering assignments, and we just received the assignment to serve as the Sunday School teachers for all the youth in the ward. I’m not sure if they’re thrilled to have the old folks as their teachers, but we’re thrilled to get to know them better and love them! We have about 15-20 kids in the class, with maybe 8-10 attending each week. Our ward is beautifully diverse—a word that has been politicized, but it should be celebrated, especially in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We feel so blessed to love and teach these wonderful youth from all over the world—the U.K., India, France, Ukraine, Germany, etc.
I’ll end where I began, with the words to this sweet little hymn:
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful,
the Lord God made them all.
♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥
Words of the Week:
jobsworth - someone who always obeys all the rules of their job even when they cause problems for other people or when the rules are silly - someone used this word in reference to the driving test examiner
peeved - annoyed, irritated, miffed
Thank you for taking us on your journey with pictures and words.
What do you do if a car is coming the other way on the narrow roads?
Ha! It didn't make me sign in with a Handle today!
That looked like an extremely fun trip even with the disappointment.
You got it next time for sure, Jon!