Trip to England Part One: Manchester

Jeff served his mission to Manchester, England, and for as long as I have known him, he has wanted to go back to visit the people he met. Last year my dad was asked to be the director of the BYU London Study Abroad for Summer and Fall 2009. As soon as we found out, we knew it would be the perfect opportunity to go back to England. We planned a trip for late July, and now that I'm expecting, it turned out to be the perfect timing - minus my being so sick!

Jeff's parents agreed to watch our kids for ten days (yes, they are saints!) so that we could go alone. Thursday night we drove down to California to Jeff's parent's house. We got there late, slept for a few hours (had to be up at 4am), and we were off to the Ontario airport. We slept most of the way to Atlanta, where we had a six hour lay over. We knew we couldn't wait at the airport, so we bought tickets for the MARTA (local train system) and went off to explore down town.

We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and then walked down to the Centennial Olympic Park. It was a really nice day, and we were happy to stretch our legs a little. Then we headed back to the airport for our all night flight. Neither of us could really sleep, and the next morning we were in Manchester!

Ihrfan and his wife, Hannah, picked us up from the airport. Jeff had taught and baptized Ihrfan while he was on his mission. Hannah's dad was the bishop of the Stratford ward back then, and a few years later, after Ihrfan served a mission to London, he married Hannah. They live in York, but they came and stayed at her parent's house (the Saunders) in Manchester, and arranged for her parents to watch their kids so they could host us for the weekend - and we stayed there, too. So nice of them! Really they were just amazing to us.

We were really tired when we arrived, but we knew we had to stay awake most of the day to get used to the time difference. So, they took us downtown in Manchester and past several places Jeff remembered from his mission. Then we ate at a kabob shop - something both Jeff and I had been craving since we planned the trip to England.

Saturday afternoon we visited Janet. She had been inactive for decades, and Jeff and his companion visited her and helped reactivate her. Since then she has served as Relief Society President in the ward. She was so sweet and fun to visit with.

We took a short nap in the afternoon and then went to an indoor skiing place called Chill Factore. I've never seen anything like it. Then went miniature golfing and ate at a huge mall there called the Trafford Center. It was a really fun day, and we were definitely ready for bed that night.

Sunday we went to the ward there in Manchester. It was pretty small, but everyone was so friendly! Several people came up and welcomed us. Jeff recognized many of the ward members from his mission. And we had a "small world" moment. There was a couple there serving a mission. I knew the wife looked really familiar and it took me a second to figure it out, and then it hit me. They were the Hafens from Las Vegas. Their twin daughters, Julianne and Marianne had gone to BYUH with us. Marianne dated Jeff's roommate/friend, and in the summer we all met up at the Hafen's house in Vegas for a few days and stayed with them.

Anyway, church was great, but I was starting to feel the jet lag. It totally made me think of the general authorities and wonder how they are able to travel all over the world and be tired and jet-lagged and then sit through hours and hours of meetings!

Ihrfan, Hannah, and two of their kids (I think it was Luke and Marianna?)

After church we went back to the Saunders, and they fed us a full traditional roast dinner with yorkshire pudding, roated potatoes, gravy, etc. It was delicious!

The Saunders - you could not find nicer people! That evening Jeff and I were heading to Conway Castle in Wales, and we had planned to take the train. Ihrfan and Hannah absolutely insisted on driving us. After several attempts to try to get them to just drop us off at the train station we gave in. They were too good to us, and we hope we can return the favor and host them here in Vegas sometime.