November 2024 Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

• Stake Presidency Message
• Guest Editor’s Message
• Sheffield Stake Women’s Conference
• A Legacy of Love, Fun, Laughter and Learning
• The Start of a Wonderful Journey
• Roadshow 2024
• Light the World – Even Brighter than Before!
• Only in Utah
• 50 Ways to Let your Light Shine
• Stake Choir
• When ye are in the service…
• I am a Disciple of Christ
• Village Ventures
• Led by a Living Prophet
• Called to Serve
• Missionary Messages

Stake Presidency Message

Hello everyone. Can I ask you a question. Do you believe that the missionaries with our help can find 3 families to baptise before the new year?

I do, I really do…let me explain why.

I of course believe certain scriptures which say things like ‘If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them” (1 Nephi 17:50), and ‘for in his strength I can do all things” (Alma 26:12).

But I believe for a different reason. I have seen these types and even greater miracles happen on my mission.

I served in the Bristol mission in the early 90’s and something amazing happened in a small branch called Blackwood in Wales. It was so miraculous they had articles in the Ensign written about them, and the impact can still be felt there.

Blackwood were a small branch who met in a school and had 60 members each week attend. Then the Branch President tried some thing that we’ve all tried before. A reach out night.

He invited all the members to come along to the school on a Wednesday night and then they split off and went and visited members who were not attending.

Their message…’come back, we need you, we love you’. It was such a great night they did it again the following week, and then again the next week, and it kept going and going.

Miracles happened. In roughly 2 years of doing this every week with most of the branch, they grew to around 150, became a ward, and built a chapel. All the missionaries in the Bristol mission wanted to serve in that branch at the time.

I have been in wards where we tried exactly what this branch did, and it was great, but after about a month or so, the numbers coming out to visit grew less and less. That’s always the challenge with initiatives like this, keeping the enthusiasm going.

I’ve asked myself over the years what was so different about Blackwood Branch, and I have realised it was 3 principles:

• Faith
• Dedication
• Consistency.

It’s the consistency that I believe made the difference here. It was a relentless effort for 2+ years and it brought many to know Jesus Christ.

I believe. President Clare has issued an inspired goal to the missionaries, and we must play our part. I would invite you again to be called as ward missionaries and help the missionaries wherever you can, and pray individually to have more courage to love, share, and invite.

With love,

President Graeme Holt

Guest Editor’s Note

With Debbie sailing off to foreign climes for a well-earned break, it has fallen to me to put the newsletter together.

I’ve done my best but I’m old, rusty and out of practice.

There are a wide range of articles in this month’s newsletter and I wish to thank everyone who has contributed.

We have two big activities coming up in November. The Women’s Conference on Saturday 2nd November and the Stake Roadshow on Saturday 16th November.

A lot of work has gone into the preparation of both activities so let’s do our part by supporting them.

On a personal note, I am looking forward to celebrating Sister Mary Broome’s 100th birthday next month. She holds a very special place in my heart.

I am looking forward to reading about them all next month, when Debbie takes back the reins.

Brenda Nettleship

A Legacy of Love, Fun, Laughter and Learning

It’s almost one hundred years ago since a baby girl entered the world on a dark Autumn night to the sound of fireworks exploding in the streets outside.

Sister Mary Broome of the Worksop Ward celebrates her centenary on 4th November, and family members and friends will be gathering later in the month to mark the occasion.

Mary was born in Worksop to a Cockney father who moved north with his job on the railway, and a Sheffield-born mother.

She was named Enid Mary but decided to call herself Mary when she turned 21 as a way of marking the occasion! The family moved to Gainsborough when Mary was a young teen and eventually ended up living in Doncaster.

Towards the start of the Second World War at the age of fifteen, Mary joined the YSS (Youth Service Squad). One of her roles was to deliver vital messages by bicycle during air raids.

She got called out just once at 1am, didn’t get home until after 5am and was still expected to show up for school!

She remembers it being quite frightening cycling alone in the dark in the middle of the night!

She met Des on her way home from a dance. He followed her and asked her out in response to a dare from his friends, who were loitering on a street corner.

It was etiquette in those days for the man to walk on the outside of the pavement close to the road.

Not wanting to encourage the attention of a stranger late at night, Mary walked as close to the edge of the path as she could so that Des ended up with one foot in the gutter.

His persistence paid off, however, and six months after their first meeting they were married in St George’s Church, Doncaster.

The couple soon started a family and eventually became the parents of three sons and two daughters. Sadly, they lost their second son Gregory at the tender age of ten, a victim of Hodgkinson’s Disease.

Eight years into their marriage, in 1956, Mary and Des joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and became members of Doncaster Ward, where Mary remained all her church life until she moved to live with her daughter Deborah and her
husband at the start of this year.

During her Church membership, Sister Broome has served in many callings, including:

• Counsellor in the Young Women’s organisation
• Seminary Teacher
• Institute Teacher
• Relief Society President and counsellor
• Primary President and counsellor
• Sunday School teacher
• Nursery Leader
• Activities Committee member

At Stake level she has served as counsellor to the Relief Society President and as Visiting Teaching board member.

Before leaving work to be full time mum to her growing family, Mary worked as a payroll clerk where she developed the incredible ability to do mental arithmetic.

Even now she can beat many people hands down at adding and subtracting numbers in her head!

After her children were all at school, she returned to school herself where she trained to become a teacher, and she spent the rest of her working life until retirement working in schools.

Mary was well known for her writing skills and has penned many poems and written a number of plays and roadshows that have been performed by ward members.

Some of these were comedies, but her personal favourite was about a family’s experiences during the Second World War.

In 2001 she lost her husband Des to the effects of a stroke and around fifteen years ago, Mary was diagnosed with macular degeneration, which has robbed her of most of her eyesight.

Despite this drawback, she still manages to play Scrabble every week with her son Steve and she also loves to solve crosswords.

Exactly eight weeks younger than our beloved prophet, Sister Broome is proud to share her birthday year with him. Like President Nelson, she is slowing down somewhat now.

Her balance isn’t what it used to be and she needs a frame and wheelchair to get around. She sleeps a lot and forgets even more, but despite all the challenges that advancing years brings, she still enjoys life and looks forward to the dawning of each new day!

Her family and friends love her and are grateful for the legacy of love, fun, laughter and learning that she has created during her long and fruitful lifetime. So we wish you a very happy birthday, Mary, and thank you for the memories!

Debbie Singh-Bhatti, daughter of Mary Broome

The Start of a Wonderful Journey

There are In the summer of 1956 my husband Des and I took a step that changed the course of our lives and affected the lives of our children, our children’s children and future generations of our family yet to be born.

On the afternoon of Saturday 30th June at 2.00 pm we met in a building on Ellesmere Road, Sheffield, known affectionately as the Old Tin Tabernacle due to its corrugated iron roof, and were baptised as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We had first come into contact with the Church some 18 months earlier in March 1955, when two lady missionaries named Sister Massey and Sister Waldron knocked on our door one evening while I was out ballroom dancing with my friend Mrs Cowan, a neighbour of ours.

This was a regular Friday night activity for us, and I was most surprised when I returned home that evening to discover that my husband had been entertaining two ladies in my absence!

Sister Massey and Sister Waldron arrived at our home at 58 Wordsworth Avenue, Balby, Doncaster at a time when both of us were questioning the purpose of existence.

I was newly pregnant with our third child, and maybe it was the prospect of bringing new life into the world that made me wonder what life was all about.

I remember walking to the fish and chip shop one winter’s day, gazing through the windows of homes as I passed, watching all these different people getting on with their individual lives and wondering where it would all lead.

Why were we all here?

What was the point?

Where would we all end up?

Des was harbouring similar thoughts and concerns. When he
came home after a long and hard day’s work he would go to the
children to kiss them goodnight, and as he watched them sleep
the thought would pass through his mind that in a hundred years’
time he – and they – would be dead and largely forgotten.

What was life all about?

Despite the fact that we were obviously looking for more meaning to our lives, when these ladies came to share their message about the purpose of life, we did not immediately embrace it with open arms.

We irreverently nicknamed them the “Bible Thumpers”, and their arrival started an eighteen-month search for the truth. This led to a study of several religions – Christian and non-Christian alike – before we eventually made the decision to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We gave these two ladies, and the Elders who followed them, a difficult time, finding fault with their arguments and trying to trip them up at every turn.

But in the end, their perseverance won through.

We got to know a number of missionaries as the months came and went. I remember one time when a new set of missionaries came to visit us.

They arrived early and I still had curlers in my hair and Des wasn’t yet home from work. When he did arrive back he was in his work clothes – muddy wellies and a coat held together with 4-inch nails.

We must have looked a handsome pair!

But it was the arrival of Elder Merlin Kitchen that was to be the turning point in our investigation of the Church.

Not blessed with quite as much patience as his forebears, he bluntly asked us one day if we were going to get baptised or not.

Despite the weekly visits for the previous one and a half years, no one had actually posed that question before, and when he did we said, “Yes!”

Shortly afterwards I was baptised at the Old Tin Tabernacle by Elder Kitchen, and his companion Elder David Richards baptised my husband.

It was a small miracle that we actually made our baptism at all, as on the morning of it our four-year-old son Gregory tripped over and badly gashed his eyebrow on the tap of the gas boiler.

This was in the days before private telephones and family cars. We called for an ambulance and I accompanied him to the hospital at around 10.00 am, fully expecting to be away for hours.

Fortunately for us, the Lord was on our side and I was home again by about noon, giving me time to get ready to travel the 25 miles or so to Sheffield.

Although I agreed to be baptised, it wasn’t until several weeks after the actual event that I received my own personal witness that what I had done was right.

I was ironing, pondering over everything that Des and I had been taught, when suddenly the thought entered my mind: “I believe it! It’s true!”

So powerful and overwhelming was this realisation that I felt like throwing the iron up in the air and jumping up after it!

From that time I have never looked back and my faith has never wavered.

Like Joseph Smith I knew it, I knew that God knew it and I couldn’t deny it.

Joining the Church inevitably meant that we had to make changes to the way we lived our lives.

Our Sunday afternoons were now spent at Church instead of at work or visiting Des’s brother Alan and his family for tea.

This, and the fact that Des was now paying 10% of his income to the Church as tithing, caused friction between him and his brothers, with whom he ran a Breeze Block manufacturing business.

Eventually, the situation got so bad that six years after joining the Church, Des made the decision to leave the partnership with his brothers to start up business on his own.

We sold our home and bought an old farmhouse with a barn and field attached in Harworth, a farming village some 10 miles from Doncaster and our newfound church friends.

Joining the Church introduced us to a whole new circle of people, whose friendship no doubt helped us settle into our new way of life.

The Branch President at the time we joined the Church was Alvin Holton. I still remember the shake of his hand as we visited church for the first time, and his warm welcome, which impressed me very much.

Des and I became particularly friendly with the Murden family who always took the time to share a few words with us.

Des soon got involved in MIA, and attended faithfully every week, whilst I quickly became involved in Relief Society and so started my many years of service within this organisation.

Getting baptised into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in some ways the end of a journey, as it marked the fulfilment of our search for meaning and purpose to our lives, but in a much greater sense it was the start of a new journey that is amazing and great, exciting and wonderful.

What we learned about ourselves, God, and the meaning of life prior to baptism just touched the surface of knowledge and experience that stretches deep into the eternities, and how glad I am to be a part of it!

Enid Mary Broome, Worksop Ward
This account is an excerpt from Mary’s book ‘Looking On The
Bright Side of Life’, co-written with her daughter Deborah

Roadshow Details

On 16th November at the Stake Centre we are bringing back the roadshows! It will be a time travelling, alien busting extravaganza!

The evening will commence with a prologue where our hero and 3 companions find a strange looking box with very attractive levers and buttons.

Before they know it they are lost in time and space, trying to find their way home.

Each roadshow continues the story in a 10 minute Doctor Who-esque episode starting from exiting the Tardis onto a new world or point in time and ending with running back to the Tardis (maybe just in time).

What’s involved?

Generally essential would be an alien(s), a dastardly plot, an innovative twist and a lot of running.

• Digital scenery equipment
• Doctor Who costumes (Tom Baker and Jodie Foster)
• Coloured spot lights, smoke, sound effects and 2 radio mics provided (we’ll train a technician from each unit to operate these from a laptop)

Awards on the night will be presented, including:

• Best script
• Best alien costume
• Best prop
• Best digital backdrop/use of technology
• Best (over)acting

Further spot prizes will be awarded for:

• Dancing
• Singing
• Comedy appeal
• Audience participation

All of the above is encouraged, but not required by each act due to the short time frame necessary to allow all units to participate (even with a small cast of 5 – Doctor Who, three companions & one alien)

Finally, please book us in for a theatre workshop, maybe on a Tuesday night, where we can show our video, practice script and song writing with ChatGPT, demo the tech, make props from the contents of a ‘recycle bin’ and other fun stuff.

17 Invitations from President Nelson

President Nelson is the seventeenth prophet, seer and revelator to lead the Church in these latter days. Here are 17 invitations he has extended since becoming prophet.

1/ Stay on the covenant path
“Now, to each member of the Church I say: Keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Saviour by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women and children everywhere.”

2/ Repent Daily
 “I plead with you to repent. Experience the strengthening power of daily repentance — of doing and being a little better each day.”

3/ Hear Him!
Increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation
“In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting and constant influence of the Holy Ghost,”

4/ Gather Israel
The gathering of Israel is “the most important thing taking place on earth today… This gathering should mean everything to you. This is the mission for which you were sent to earth.”

5/ Let God prevail
“Are you willing to let God prevail in your life? Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life?”

6/ Build bridges of understanding
“We need to work tirelessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of segregation. I plead with us to work together for peace, for mutual respect and for an outpouring of love for all of God’s children.”

7/ Give thanks
“First, I invite you — just for the next seven days — to turn social media into your own personal gratitude journal. Post every day about what you are grateful for, who you are grateful for and why you are grateful. Second, let us unite in thanking God through daily prayer.”

8/ Strengthen your spiritual foundation
“If you and I are to withstand the forthcoming perils and pressures, it is imperative that we each have a firm spiritual foundation built upon the rock of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.”

9/ Increase your faith in Jesus Christ
“Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.”

10/ Maintain spiritual momentum
Echoing previous invitations he had extended, President Nelson suggested five specific actions that can help maintain positive spiritual momentum:

• Get on the covenant path and stay there
• Experience the joy of repenting daily
• Learn about God and how He works
• Seek and expect miracles
• Strive to end conflict in your life

11/ Take charge of your testimony
“I plead with you to take charge of your testimony. Work for it. Own it. Care for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it truth. Don’t pollute it with the false philosophies of unbelieving men and women and then wonder why your testimony is waning. Engage in daily, earnest, humble prayer. Nourish yourself in the words of ancient and modern prophets. Ask the Lord to teach you how to hear Him better. Spend more time in the temple and in family history work. As you make your testimony your highest priority, watch for miracles to happen in your life.”

12/ Focus on the temple and find rest
 “My plea to you this morning is to find rest from the intensity, uncertainty and anguish of this world by overcoming the world through your covenants with God… Worship in the temple as regularly as circumstances permit.”

13/ Be a peacemaker
“Today, I am asking us to interact with others in a higher, holier way. …Contention is a choice. Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to choose contention or reconciliation. I urge you to be a peacemaker, now and always.”

14/ Seek forgiveness and forgive others
“My dear friends, I invite you prayerfully to consider if there is someone whom you should forgive. Will you free yourself from a grudge you may be harbouring? I can think of no more fitting way to honour the Lord Jesus Christ this Easter. I promise that as you forgive, the Saviour will relieve you of anger, resentment and pain. The Prince of Peace will bring you peace.”

15/ Think Celestial
President Nelson invited all to have an eternal perspective and “take the long view” when making choices.
“Put Jesus Christ first because your eternal life is dependent upon your faith in Him and in His Atonement. It is also dependent upon your obedience to His laws. Obedience paves the way for a joyful life for you today and a grand, eternal reward tomorrow.”

16/ Reach out to ‘the one’
President Nelson invited all to prayerfully consider a few questions:

• Who do you know who may be discouraged?”
• Who might you need to reconcile with or ask for forgiveness?”
• Has one name been on your mind lately, though you haven’t quite known why?”

As these questions are brought to the Lord, “He will inspire you to know how to reach out and lift one who needs help.”

17/ Be a better version of yourself

• “Call upon God for the strength you need as you labour diligently to become a better version of yourself — a better disciple of Jesus Christ, a brighter light in the world,”
• Be patient
• Be persistent
• Be prayerful

Debbie Singh-Bhatti

Fun Facts About President Russell M Nelson

On Monday, September 9th, President Russell M Nelson celebrated his 100th birthday. To honour the occasion, I shared in our Young Women’s class the following facts and stories from his amazing and very interesting life. Some you may know already, but maybe you’ll discover something new. One of the Young Women was so impressed she exclaimed, “This guy is cool! I want to meet him!”

He became a doctor at the age of 22.
President Nelson completed his medical degree in three years, graduating with the highest honours at the age of 22.

He completed his surgical training at Harvard Medical School.
President Nelson attended LDS Business College and the University of Utah before receiving his PhD from the University of Minnesota.

He additionally went on to receive surgical training at Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was a surgeon for 35 years.

He met his wife Dantzel through theatre.
President Nelson was persuaded to join a production by his friend Gail Plummer. At first he declined because he was busy with his studies, but she persisted, and eventually President Nelson went along.

At one of their first rehearsals, he heard beautiful singing and asked his friend Gail, “Who is that beautiful girl singing up there?” It was Dantzel White, and the two were married 3 years later in the Salt Lake Temple.

He is a convert to the Church.
Growing up, President Nelson’s parents were not active members of the Church but still felt it was important for young Russell to attend Sunday School.

They often would send him on his way, only to have him skip Sunday School to play football with his friends instead.

However, a patient home teacher and kind sales clerk at Deseret Book helped introduce Russell to the Gospel and he was baptized at the age of 16.

He has performed nearly 7,000 heart surgeries.
After President Nelson completed his medical education, he quickly became a renowned heart surgeon. He has saved thousands of lives through his diligent work, including an open-heart surgery on then-President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Spencer W. Kimball.

He and President Oaks opened the doors to missionary work in Eastern Europe.
From 1985 until 1990, President Nelson helped establish the church in every country within Eastern Europe, many of which were still under communist rule.

He is a world traveller.
During his medical career, church service, and family life, President Nelson has always had a love of travelling and often takes a family member with him. It’s been reported that he has visited at least 134 different nations.

He served in the Korean War.
Soon after graduation, President Nelson served a two-year term of medical duty for the U.S. Army during the Korean War. In November 2014, he received a medal for his diligent service during the Korean War.

He is a father of 10.
President Nelson has nine daughters and one son. He has 57 grandchildren, and at least 140 great-grandchildren.

He served as an apostle for 34 years.
President Nelson served as an Apostle from 1984 until becoming President of the church in April 2018.

He was on the team that created the first artificial lung and heart.
While an intern at the University of Minnesota, he and his team developed one of the first machines that could perform the functions of a patient’s heart and lungs during open-heart surgery.

He has perfect pitch.
This means he can sing any note without needing to hear it first. He plays the piano and sings baritone.

Dantzel’s vision.
In the autumn of 1957, President Nelson’s late wife Dantzel woke in the night saying she’d had a vision that they would soon be having a beautiful baby boy.

At that time Dantzel was pregnant with their sixth child, and they both felt very excited to welcome a boy into their family.

But they were blessed with 3 more daughters before their son Russell Marion Nelson Jr. was born. On seeing him, Dantzel exclaimed “He’s the one! He’s the one I’ve seen and known all these years.”

He has lost two daughters.
In 1995 his daughter Emily died at the age of 37, the mother of five young children. Ten years later in 2005, President Nelson’s wife Dantzel died suddenly at home after almost 60 years of marriage.

In 2019, tragedy struck the family again when another daughter, Wendy, died at the age of 67. She was the mother of seven children.

He married Wendy Watson on April 6, 2006.
He and Wendy were robbed at gunpoint while visiting Church leaders in Mozambique. A gun pointed at President Nelson’s head misfired, and everyone’s life was spared

He has studied at least 12 languages.
These include French, Latin, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Hebrew, Bulgarian, Czech, and Romanian.

He is also fluent in Mandarin. While serving as the general president of the Sunday School, President Nelson attended a meeting where President Spencer W. Kimball urged those in the meeting to learn Chinese. President Nelson excitedly accepted the challenge and became fluent in Mandarin.

He loves technology.
He was one of the first General Authorities to get a computer and adopt new technologies. After becoming the prophet, he was the first to have Wi-Fi and a computer installed in the President’s Office.

He has lots of hobbies and interests.
He likes to garden and go fishing. He collects stamps and coins. He loves putting together jigsaw puzzles. He’s interested in photography and loves the outdoors and went skiing every winter until becoming prophet.

He is the oldest President of the Church.
In April 2022, President Nelson became the oldest president of the Church, passing President Gordon B. Hinckley who died at the age of 97.

In his years as the prophet, there have been over one hundred announcements and major changes, including the introduction of ministering, Come, Follow Me, the combining of the elders quorum, the shortening of Sunday meetings, a re-emphasis on the entire name of the Church, and temple-related changes.

Debbie Singh-Bhatti

Love and Kindness in our Hour of Need

My family and I have certainly received love and kindness from the Church in our hour of need very recently.   

My husband Pete went into hospital for a routine operation but whilst in theatre he suffered a massive heart attack that put him in ICU.

I asked our friend and Stake President Graeme Holt to give Pete a priesthood blessing.

The setting couldn’t have been more perfect, with the sun streaming in through the window onto Pete’s face. It certainly felt like we were being touched by the Holy Spirit.

Even though Pete was in a medically induced coma he began to cry! It was amazing.

This experience has so touched our eldest daughter Christina and her husband Mark who were there too. They have both said how special it was, so much so that Christina has been asking me a lot of questions about our Church, and when Pete is eventually OK to be left on his own, she wants to come to a service with me.

She is already watching some of the talks from past General Conferences in our Gospel Library. Who would have thought it – certainly not me!

My testimony has grown so much these last few weeks. I most certainly know there is a God because I saw and felt him in action! Pete is celebrating his 63rd birthday today and it’s a birthday we didn’t think would come.

Miracles do happen! I’ve seen it not once but twice over the last five weeks, when for some reason Pete went into a coma for a while and the doctors and nurses didn’t know why.

They told us to prepare ourselves again for the worst. Two hours later, he woke up by himself and he has been improving every day since.

Pete came back twice – first after a heart attack and the second time from a coma. Heavenly Father obviously still has work for him to do. He is very lucky to be here with us!

Sister Angie Firkins, Worksop Ward

New Relief Society Presidency in Mansfield

Sunday 1st September saw the sustaining of a new Relief Society Presidency in Mansfield Ward. Marian Gesto was sustained as President with Natasha Somerville and Lisa Harris as counsellors.

It’s with deep gratitude that we acknowledge the outgoing presidency for all they have given.

It often goes unnoticed the level of personal sacrifice and challenge that accompanies serving in the church and Carole Groves, Jeannette Price and Gemma MacDonald have given so much and stepped outside of their comfort zones to serve the Sisters of the ward and all others.

It’s through callings we can stretch ourselves and, through faith, grow in ways we would never be able to otherwise.

Thank you to the wonderful sisters of the outgoing presidency for all they have given, and to the new presidency for all they will give in the future to the building up of the kingdom.

Bishop Ashley Devine, Mansfield Ward

Farewell, Elder Basoah!

Sunday 15th was the final Sunday for Elder Basoah before heading off to the Preston MTC.

A special day with a munch & mingle so members of the ward could wish him well.

On Tuesday 1st October he will be flying out to Ghana to serve out his mission in the Ghana West mission.

As a ward we are incredibly excited to hear about his adventures serving the Lord and seeing him grow as an individual.

Bishop Ashley Devine, Mansfield Ward

Did you know Des Broome?

Next year (2025) marks the 100th anniversary of his birth, and to commemorate it, the family would like to produce a book that celebrates his life and legacy.

We are inviting anyone who knew and loved Des to submit their memories and photos so that we can help future generations get to know and love him as we do.

If you would like to be involved, please contact Debbie Singh-Bhatti at debbie@yourmag.net or by phone 07811 339282.

Robert Field

Cataract Surgery Programme

Wow, it’s been my race across the world, almost..

I chose to drive once again to Mali, taking much needed donations for our Cataract surgery programme. It was long and hard trip with many issues along the way, but with the help of everyone’s prayers and our Father in Heaven watching over us all, we managed to achieve great things, in my opinion.

Not only were we able to have doctors operate on 274 people and examine more than 1,270, give spectacles or sun glasses to everyone, and eye creams and eye drops to those who needed them, we were also able to help the keepers of the town  a little. The photo below is of a small group of lepers we met with.

I would like to add that without the support of the Branch President of our Bamako branch this programme would not have taken place. He supported me in everything. The whole team worked extremely hard under tremendously difficult circumstances. The heat was horrendous every day. It was a struggle for me, but somehow I hung in there.

A quick update on Ukraine… Just before leaving for Africa we sent money again to buy foods for the poorest. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone for the continued support..

Pam Young, Sheffield Third Ward

Called to Serve

Missionary Messages

Elder Joshua Marshall

Wow can you believe this?! Two emails in the space of 2 weeks??? So, this week has been crazy. Last week was chill – we just did the usual missionary work of finding and teaching. 

This week we had exchanges with the ZL’s so I went with Elder Hansen. We did some service for an older guy painting his fence and he was from Hull. So me and him were just teaching the other elders northern slang, which was great.

The exchange itself was amazing. We drove to Luton to pick up the Luton Elders for their District Council (DC) which we were able to go to.

And in that DC we were talking about how at the end of our mission we are gonna have to look prezzy in the eyes and tell him we did our best on the mission.

Me and Elder Hansen were also talking about how little time we have left. He came out one transfer before me. It’s crazy how time is just flying by and I’m loving that tbh.

Speaking of which, my trainer is going home this week which is flipping crazy. And before I know it that’ll be me.

Anyways, after exchanges we were just having a normal week… until we got locked out of our flat!! Fun! But it’ll be fine we’ll just call the Senior missionaries with the spare key and

they’ll let us in right? WRONG! They were in a meeting in Hyde Park and weren’t gonna get back till 10pm… THE NEXT DAY!! So we would have to sleep at the ZL’s flat.

Thankfully they had spare mattresses and we had volleyball at Enfield which was a lot of fun. But yeah, long story short we got back into the flat the following day.

Been an eventful week to say the least. But I’m loving the mission and can’t wait to see what happens next. Also been seeing SO many people from back home getting ready to serve a mission and that makes me so happy and proud of you all.

As always I love you and miss you all!

joshua.marshall@missionary.org