It is Wednesday, September 13th and we are headed towards our home. We decided to swing north a bit and visit the oldest chapel in our church called Gadfield Elm. It has an incredible history. A group of 600 people in the 1840’s built this chapel and called themselves the United Brethren. I believe it was Elder Wilford Woodruff who met a gentleman in Canada who had a brother in England named John Benbow. When Elder Woodruff came to England, he was welcomed by John Benbow at his home. Elder Woodruff was invited to preach to the United Brethren and eventually all 600 were baptized in a pond on John Benbow’s land. The chapel was then used by the church for many years until it was sold to get funds to help english saints migrate to America. The chapel became a barn for many, many years and became in very bad disrepair. Later, a group of members of the church bought Gadfield Elm and began to fix it up. After it was fixed up, they deeded the property over to the church and the church manages it today as a historical site where people come to camp, hold fireside’s and so on. It is way out in the middle of farm land on small little roads. But as the church does, it is really kept up and nice. There was no one there while we were there. But in the window there was a piece of paper that had about 6 or 7 church related questions that produced a letter or a number. This was used to enter the combination of the lock. It worked like a champ and we were in. Inside the chapel area were benches, a pulpit and and electric piano\organ. Guess what…I played it. It has been 2.5 months since I touched a keyboard and it was really fun to play a couple of hymns that I had practiced before coming on the mission here. It was well worth the extra time spent to drive over there to see this site. Well…that’s easy for me to say as Pat did ALL the driving. I can’t say how much I’m grateful to him for doing this. 11 days of lots of driving in a foreign country and we are still alive…well done Pat!!!
Our trip from Gadfield Elm was a straight shot. We arrived back to our flat at the lodge around 3:30 PM or so. It is nice to be back but sad to know our trip has concluded. And our travel partners were the best. Thank you, thank you Wallace’s for such a good trip and seeing so much with us. Forever grateful we are to you both. And we look forward to working together again soon in the temple!
Pictures:
Entry hall into Gadfield Elm Chapel. It had some nice displays of history information about Gadfield Elm. But the Christus Statue was amazing of course.
Outside Gadfield Elm.
This is the narrow street that took us to this site. It felt like we were out in the boonies.
The questions that needed to be answered to create a code to get into the building.
Me testing myself to see if I answered the questions correctly.
A couple of the history boards that you can expand and read.
The piano man….not!!!
The little chapel inside….
Outside Gadfield Elm.
An old water well that was found outside the chapel.
A memorial plaque.
Happy missionaries….
The miracle boot (trunk). Each time we loaded it, we were amazed that it all fit! Well done little Audi!
Happy travelers at the end of a wonderful journey. May God bless the Wallace’s for their wonderful service that they are rendering here at the temple and in the Epsom ward that they are assigned to.
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