. Just Imagine the Good Neighbor: More of England, Then Wales

Thursday morning we packed up our stuff in backpacks for our three-day trip through England and Wales. We had limited space for seven people but we managed to squeeze in some snacks, bagels, cream cheese, etc. Our first real stop was Stratford-upon-Avon about 75-80 miles from Cambridge.

Stratford-Upon-Avon has been a medieval market town since it was chartered in 1196. It's most famous citizen, William Shakespeare, was born in 1564 on Henley Street.

This is the place where Shakespeare spent his childhood and lived the first few years of marriage with his wife, Anne Hathaway.

While we were walking around exploring the area, it began to rain and continued throughout the remainder of our visit here.

We ducked into this cute Christmas shop for some respite.

After we left Shakespeare's home town, our plan was to drive through the Cotswold villages and see the monument to William Tyndale in Gloucestershire. He was the great scholar who translated the Bible into English so that the common people could have access to scripture and truth. He gave his life for the cause and his contributions had a huge impact on Christianity and the world. His story, "Fire In The Bones," by Michael Wilcox is one of my favorite books. All of that said, however, we all opted to drive directly to Gadfield Elm Chapel, the oldest extant chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. located near the village of Pendock, in Worcestershire, England. It was built in 1836 by the United Brethren and later deeded to the LDS church when 599 of its 600 members joined the church after hearing Wilford Woodruff preach.

The chapel was the center of activity for the church during those early years. It was sold in 1842 to help fund the emigration of British Latter Day Saints to America.

The building was privately owned until it was purchased in 1994 by the Gadfield Elm Trust, a group of LDS church members interested in preserving the chapel. The Trust renovated and restored the chapel and it was dedicated by apostle Jeffrey R. Holland on April 23, 2000. In 2004, the Trust donated ownership of the chapel to the LDS Church, and it was rededicated by church president Gordon B. Hinckley on May 26, 2004. The chapel is operated as a historical tourist site by the Church and admission is free.

If you arrive at the church during hours when it is not open, you can gain access through a code which is determined by answering a number of questions. The first question is what is the middle initial of Heber __ Kimball? Cameron easily answered all of the questions and kept track of the code so that we could enter this charming restored chapel.

We believe that church groups hold firesides, gatherings and youth conferences on the property.

There is a fire pit and benches with an ample area for games and activities. We were spiritually uplifted during our visit and were grateful to see the oldest Latter-day Saint chapel in the world still standing.

The area surrounding the chapel had extremely narrow roads which would only handle one car at a time. If another car approached, one would have to backup into narrow driveway of a nearby property or pulled aside if the vegetation allowed.

Our next stop was Ponthir, Wales where we had rented a vacation rental home. It was a beautiful, green, 50 mile drive to Ponthir.

After we arrived at the home which had enough beds for everyone, Tricia and McKay went for a long walk and we played games with the kids.

The kids found this broom and they proceeded to perform flexibility tricks with the broom. The tricks didn't look that hard so Steve and I tried to follow Jessica's pattern. Reality was not a pretty sight but we got a lot of laughs from trying.