Christmas Day at President Millar's home

On Christmas Day, we had dinner at the Mission President's home. Invited were all the office and visitor's center seniors (12 of us). Again we did Christmas Crackers to honor the English tradition. Dinner was turkey, ham, yams, Snickers salad (my favorite), potatoes, beans, and a variety of relish choices. Sister Millar made a fabulous English trifle (she is English).

  These are the English Crackers on each plate

  The seniors all went together to give Sister

Millar a Lladro nativity.

Trip to London

On Dec 20th, we celebrated Mark's birthday by going to London for the afternoon. We went up in the London Eye (the super Ferris Wheel), walked around a few landmarks, and had lunch in a crowded Italian dive. London is about 45 minutes by train from our office. It was our first Saturday to be able to get away from the office. Life has been busy, busy, busy.

This is the London Eye











The famous Big Ben
        some strange lady on the sidewalk

  At the top of the Eye

       Some strange man in front of Westminster and an impish looking Sister changing clothes in a phone booth

Missionary Christmas in the London South Mission

Over the holidays we hosted four Christmas dinners, each for 1/4th of the mission. There are just too many missionaries to have them all at the Temple at once. Missionaries would arrive and attend the temple. 1/4th of the mission is exactly one full session of 72. After the temple, they gathered at the accommodations dinner room for a Christmas dinner cooked and prepared by Sister Cannon and helpers. After the dinner, a short program was held where we sang carols and had an impromptu bell choir using our pipe chimes -- lead by Elder Cannon.

The crowd gathering at the visitor's centre for the Christmas Kickoff event.  We had some Christmas messages given and we sang Christmas hymns.

It's already December!

Well it has been too long since we have posted anything on our blog! We stayed so busy in November with our moves week and getting the new rosters out in between our various practices and performances with our "mo-trav" group! It was fun to travel to Brighton and Reading for other performances and a couple other performances back here at the visitors centre.There were several non-members that attended these firesides, but it did take most of our extra time. We could barely keep up with our regular work!
England doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving so we had a regular work week. Our office is staffed with people from the U.S. So after work on Thanksgiving day, we got together and had a nice little turkey dinner. It was nice to still think about how blessed we are. We had some kind of big problems with some of the mission credit cards and other financial struggles but "Salt Lake" was closed for 4 days and everything had to wait until Monday afternoon until it opened again! We thought a 4 day weekend would be nice! No luck!
Last Saturday we picked up one of our new office sisters from the airport. We spent most of our Pday helping her get settled, grocery shopping, showing her around, etc. she is Sister Lana Stewart from Midvale, Utah. She will take Sister Cates place. Sister Cates has been a good sport! She was supposed to go home from her mission the 9th of November, but graciously volunteered to stay an extra month to train a new sister. We were so grateful! None of us know how to do her jobs. There is another sister coming on the 13th to also work with us, but I guess Sister Stewart will have to train her!
Last Sunday, November 30, we helped with a Christmas kickoff fireside at the Visitors centre. It was held outside. The night was cool, but not raining or icy. They had asked me to play on a very nice keyboard which was set up with amazing speakers. I accompanied a couple who sang a duet in between some speakers. Then I accompanied people as everyone just sang Christmas hymns. The VC sisters passed around little battery operated candles to everyone. They held up their lighted candles as they sang. There was such a beautiful spirit and the lights shining in the dark added to the special mood.
We will try again to post pictures on Sunday. We have to go to the office to do that and haven't had the time we needed on weekends so I just decided to post a little tonight on my iPad. Hopefully we will get pictures and more posted! We are keeping super busy and definitely feel needed. The next few weeks will be extra crazy as we do our mission Chrsitmas temple and dinner events. We are grateful for your love and support. We need those prayers!

Break downs, Breaks, and bravery

Last week I told you about our van breaking down close to London. We were still able to do that show as well as our fireside in Brighton. Our van is still in the shop so we had to rent another van to help with our upcoming moves. We already had our other mission car in the shop for repairs and had a loaner car we are using. The other office couple own a car that was in for repairs after it broke down. During the past week the visitors centre printer broke down, so they were using one of ours, We have one big, "dinosaur" computer that has been amazing. It prints very quickly, collates, makes booklets, copies passports with the two copies we need, etc. well, you guessed it. This week it broke down and died! People were getting a bit crazy and some even broke down. But we picked ourselves up and worked things out. We have our "frog" car back. Most people name their cars according to their license plate and this one says FWG. That's the one the elders usually drive. We had our newest mission car delivered which is a Toyota! They are all the same gray/silver color. On Friday, we had a little break. The Sr. Mission couples have an outing nearly every month. This month the outing was here at the temple grounds. We could attend some of it! Elder Cannon and I made it to their opening devotional and later to a workshop on symbolism in the scriptures. We were even able to make it in the picture they took of nearly all the Sr missionaries. It was the most they have been able to get together at a time since some are so far away. We couldn't quite take time for their lunch or temple session, but we will do that every week anyway. Then Saturday morning we went to a goodbye breakfast for three of our VC sisters who go home this week. After doing our cleaning, laundry, and shopping, we left at 3:30 for our "Mo trav" trip to do our fireside in Reading. Thank goodness it is mostly motorway all the way there. So we got there in plenty of time to set up and warm up. We had a lot of investigators there with the missionaries and they seemed to enjoy the program..

At church today they had to take one of our Sr missionaries to the hospital. It appears he may have had a stroke or other cardiac problems. His wife is with him. They were supposed to be the speakers at a VC fireside tonight. It looks like we may have to do our program one more time to fill in tonight. We shall see! Life is exciting. Our moves week begins tomorrow and I will be cooking for 25 tomorrow, 30 on Tuesday and just picking up fruit and sandwiches for 110 on Wednesday. Hope to put up a couple of pictures on this entry if they will cooperate! Love you! Love The Lord! Love the Gospel! Don't want to "break" anything.

This wasn't posting yet so I am going to add a postscript. Elder Nielsen was the elder who was sick this morning at church. He did end up having a heart attack, but they got him to London where they put in a stent. He is resting comfortably. His wife couldn't stay the night with him in his room, and she still wanted to fulfill her assignment speaking at the fireside. So President Millar who had stopped at the hospital to check on them, brought her to the temple grounds. We had our dinner nearly ready and invited her to eat with us. She hadn't eaten all day so she came. Then went over to speak about overcoming trials and adversity. She told the story about losing a daughter to cancer. Then told about her son and his wife who were in a terrible plane crash burning their bodies all over. Christian was burned and broke his back. Stephanie was burned over 85 %. The doctors said she wouldn't live, but  she has and even had another child. She has become one of the most famous Mommy bloggers. She has been on all the talk shows. But the best part is how she has shared her testimony. She offered to send people a copy of her favorite book. So far they have sent over 3000 Books of Mormon and has heard from many people who have actually joined the church thru getting the Book of Mormon and reading it! It was a wonderful fireside and our group did sing the musical number at the first!

Small miracles lead to bigger miracles

We had an interesting experience last night. Some background information first. We have some very talented young missionaries serving in the visitors centre here. One of the sisters has written a couple of beautiful pieces of music. She is just in the last weeks of her mission and asked the president if she could put together a musical program highlighting the various areas in the visitors centre. She wanted to take it around to some of the areas in the mission to get people interested in coming to the visitors centre. President Millar gave permission and she began putting it together. She asked those of us in the office to participate. Our office elders, elder Cannon and I, plus sister Cates all agreed. I was asked to accompany most of the music on the piano, while a few songs were done with guitar. They prepared a lot of slides to show as well as a narration. We pulled it all together in a couple of weeks' time and have performed it at the visitors centre. Last night we traveled to Wandsworth stake which is in greater London. We had the big 12 seater temple van and the 9 seater office van with our 15 people and all the equipment. We left in plenty of time to travel a couple of hours and still get set up and warm up. Elder Cannon drove the big van and the office elders drove the other through pouring rain in the dark. When we were 15 minutes away from the chapel, the young missionaries in the office van called to say they had broken down in the middle of the intersection in one of the busiest cities. They had somehow managed to push the van off the street into a side street that just happened to have a place to park! We had to turn around to get them. Turning around and going back in a London area is nearly impossible, but thanks to the SatNav (satellite navigator) we finally found them. By the time we arrived they had figured out who could stay with the van and how to rearrange the program so everything was covered. We left three of the Sr missionaries to meet the tow truck and figure out a way to get back home. The rest of us piled in to the big van with all the equipment and drove to the church! We arrived only a couple minutes late and quickly got set up. We had an audience of around 60 people with several investigators. The spirit was strong and the program was well received. We were so impressed with these young missionaries! Their attitude was one of adventure, excitement and determination whereas we Sr missionaries were ready to cancel the show and get everyone home. We felt the guiding hand of The Lord to present this message to bring souls to Christ. Now if we can make it to Brighton tonight for our next performance!

Here and There

Here our coins are penny, tuppence, 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound and 2 pounds. the paper money is all different colours (notice the spelling?) There all the paper money is green and the coins are penny, nickel, dime, quarter, fifty cents and dollar.
Here we drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car.
There you drive on the right side of the road and the steering wheel is on the left side of the car.
Here the area around someone's house is the garden.  There it is the yard.
Complaining here is called, "having a moan"
Here we hoover, there we vacuum
Here we park on the parkway, there you drive on the parkway
Here we have a carpark, there it is a parking lot. Your elevator is called a lift here.  Here we put our groceries in a trolley.  There you put them in a shopping cart.
Everywhere we turn, we are learning new things!  Here and There, Near and Far

We had an interesting Priesthood Meeting today (for Elder Cannon). A number of converts told their conversion stories. The first four were older men and they all indicated they had been converted during the years that I was a junior missionary! It was nice to hear of such success since Europe was a bit discouraging at the time.

This evening we had Elder and Sister Keys come to Sunday dinner.  Sister Keys is the one who is related to Philip DeLaMare.  They are from the Isle of Jersey and were both converted to the church when in their late 20s. She was searching for the right church and he was Atheist. Missionaries Knocked on their door and taught them the truth! They shared their conversion stories and invited us to come and visit them on the Isle of Jersey next spring.  We are going to get together with them some more and we'll share some pictures of them soon.


We love you!

Our flats

This week we're going to show a bit of our flats here at the London Temple Accommodations Center. Our first flat was very small. About the size of a bedroom at home. This included two twin-size beds, a bathroom, and a small kitchen counter. No stove or oven, but a small microwave and sink. The small fridge was in one of the cupboards. No freezer.

 We did have one chair as you can see. In any case, it served us well. Instead of a flat, we called this one a 'flit'.

After a month, we were able to move into a larger room (still one room of course) with a European king-size bed. This is the same as what we call a queen-size.

Next to the large bed is a large window that opens out to the office parking area. We hand grocery bags through it after we shop. The other missionaries call it the Order Window as in "Do you want fries with that?". We have not one but two refridgerators and two freezers. Most of the space belongs to the mission, but it is nice to have ice, a stove and oven, and a separate kitchen area. We have two large comfy chairs and (wait for it....) internet! Lots of closet space. Well, some closet space.

We (read Mom) cooked our first true Sunday Dinner two weeks ago. We fed two sister missionaries this past sunday.

We are still very busy with our mission office work. This week was all catch up from the previous two weeks of travel. We did a small musical fireside with a choir 7 sister and 4 Elder missionaries (including both of us -- mom played the piano this time.) No tenors, so dad had to hold up the tenor part and out sing the basses. It went OK, but not stellar.

The English phrase we learned this week is "having a moan" which means complaining. Cherio!

Sunday scenarios

We had quite a week and our Sunday kept it going. Briefly, we went to church an hour early to practice in our little group for our program next Friday. Apparently, I am accompanying them on 5 or 6 pieces. I only saw two of them for the first time on Sunday. A couple of pieces were actually written by one of the sister missionaries and they are beautiful! Our sacrament meeting was the primary program! It was so fun to hear the songs and watch the sweet children with their lovely Brutish accents! It made us miss home, but at least we were able to see a program and hope each of our grandchildren programs. The other church meetings were also good. I played in relief society again. Apparently that is my job now although they can't give us callings. After church, we came home and I worked on some dinner prep, then found an old piano in the basement to try and practice a little. At 4:00 we were able to talk to Scott jr and Aeden for a little while, then we had two sister missionaries over for dinner. They are very cute, one from Sweden and one from New Zealand. After dinner, we went to the fireside at the visitors center where I accompanied one od our office Elders on his solo. The second counselor in the mission presidency and his wife spoke. Our mission president, president and sister Millar, were at the fireside and afterwards had us take care of some business in the office before they leave for mission presidents training. While at the office, we learned that because of some problems elsewhere in the mission, Elder Cannon was assigned to be taken to Crawley, meet up with an Elder and accompany him by train and the tube to the Latvian Embassy. This young Elder has had several visa problems and has been in our mission waiting for his visa to his actual mission. So Elder Cannon leaves early this morning and get to go on another new adventure. I will try to keep to office going since it is our early week!
We have continued to have problems posting our pictures from my iPad to the blog even though I am doing this on the iPad and that is where the pictures are. Sorry to be so slow. We will figure it out as soon as we have longer than a couple of minutes to do it. We love and miss you! Have a great week and Cheerio from across the pond!

Zoning in and zoning I again!

This week was a mission tour with a general authority, Elder Detlof Adler and Sister Adler. We have 9 zones and they are divided into three groups, an eastern, a central, and a western group. When it is a mission tour, we have the three multi zone conferences on three days in a row. Elder Cannon and I traveled to each one to bring supplies and tablecloths, paper products, water ,etc. the stake Relief Societies in each area help by providing the meals. We met some amazing sisters who gave their all. We were very impressed by the conferences and the great missionaries involved. President and Sister Millar gave great messages and good instruction. This was the first mission tour for Elder and Sister Adler. They were nervous and a bit worried, but so humble! We loved watching them grow into their new responsibilities. We saw them be directed by the Spirit and change their messages for each group  they addressed. We had messages on being happier and remembering that this is a gospel of happiness; thoughts about being truly converted and truly repenting; as well as a message of love for others. We had quite a week of traveling but were able to see more new places. We drove home from Poole along the southern coast. Beautiful!

A moving experience

This week was all about moves! We started on Monday welcoming the 17 departing missionaries to the accomodation center and helped them weigh their bags and get some paperwork done. Gave them a little lunch. We had a terrific senior couple who came in from part of London to help us. Elder Fowler is so great with the missionaries and gets all that luggage under the required weight. Sister Fowler helped me with cooking as we fixed Minestrone soup, green salad, and bread for dinner and breakfast for Tuesday morning. Everyone helped transport all the missionaries over to the East Grinstead chapel where we served about 27 dinner. They had an FHE and watched Ephraims Rescue then ate root beer floats. We transported them back to their rooms in accomodations. Next morning they had breakfast, then went to the temple. They ate lunch at the temple while sister fowler and I made barbecue meatballs, oven baked rice, veggies and salad. We took everything back to east Grinstead and set up dinner while they all had their final interviews with the president. After dinner they had their testimony meeting while we cleaned up and prepared fixings for ice cream sundaes. We were able to hear the last part of the testimony mtg and it was so beautiful. President Millar is a great man and he gave them great advice about keeping on doing the good things. We transported everyone back ( it's only abou 7miles away but takes between 20-45 minutes). We had sack breakfasts ready for morning. 10 of the missionaries left next morning at 4:00 a.m. On a bus (coach) for the airport.  Two had parents picking them up. The other 5 were leaving at various times over the next three days. We left early on Wednesday to drive up to Staines, by London. This is where the rest of MOVES happens. Our 23 new missionaries arrived from Preston MTC and a couple from Provo. They have interviews and little classes as all the other missionaries who are being transferred arrive with their drivers. We have around 130 people coming and going. At this one I go pick up our sandwiches, fruit and water and set it up do those who don't have to wait for newbies can eat and leave. We stay most of the day, but Dad has to make an emergency run back to the office to get some important money cards - he makes it back just in time! It is so fun to watch the new missionaries march into the room while everyone cheers for them. After eating, and taking pictures, collecting passports, etc. president Millar has everyone come together and announces who the new trainers are and who they will be training. He tells something unique and interesting about each one and really makes them feel special. Dad drove us back to the office and picked up a departing missionary and drove back to heathrow airport. Thursday we spend updating the mission roster and printing up the new booklets, and delivering or mailing them. We had two departing sister missionaries still here on Friday and after they did more at the temple, we had them help us in the office. Dad took them to Heathrow last evening and since their bags took the whole space, I stayed home and did laundry. Today is Saturday and we have spent most of the day moving from our little flit into our little flat. It feels huge after what we have lived in. I love having a stove, oven and freezer now. The pictures below are #29 the little one and #14 the bigger. I hope tomorrow's moves will only be being moved by the spirit at church and our fireside. We are grateful to be here. It is good to feel needed and we love rubbing shoulders with these awesome missionaries! Sorry the pictures aren't working! I will have to send them next time!

A very moving week!

This week was all about moves! We started on Monday welcoming the 17 departing missionaries to the accomodation center and helped them weigh their bags and get some paperwork done. Gave them a little lunch. We had a terrific senior couple who came in from part of London to help us. Elder Fowler is so great with the missionaries and gets all that luggage under the required weight. Sister Fowler helped me with cooking as we fixed Minestrone soup, green salad, and bread for dinner and breakfast for Tuesday morning. Everyone helped transport all the missionaries over to the East Grinstead chapel where we served about 27 dinner. They had an FHE and watched Ephraims Rescue then ate root beer floats. We transported them back to their rooms in accomodations. Next morning they had breakfast, then went to the temple. They ate lunch at the temple while sister fowler and I made barbecue meatballs, oven baked rice, veggies and salad. We took everything back to east Grinstead and set up dinner while they all had their final interviews with the president. After dinner they had their testimony meeting while we cleaned up and prepared fixings for ice cream sundaes. We were able to hear the last part of the testimony mtg and it was so beautiful. President Millar is a great man and he gave them great advice about keeping on doing the good things. We transported everyone back ( it's only abou 7miles away but takes between 20-45 minutes). We had sack breakfasts ready for morning. 10 of the missionaries left next morning at 4:00 a.m. On a bus (coach) for the airport.  Two had parents picking them up. The other 5 were leaving at various times over the next three days. We left early on Wednesday to drive up to Staines, by London. This is where the rest of MOVES happens. Our 23 new missionaries arrived from Preston MTC and a couple from Provo. They have interviews and little classes as all the other missionaries who are being transferred arrive with their drivers. We have around 130 people coming and going. At this one I go pick up our sandwiches, fruit and water and set it up do those who don't have to wait for newbies can eat and leave. We stay most of the day, but Dad has to make an emergency run back to the office to get some important money cards - he makes it back just in time! It is so fun to watch the new missionaries march into the room while everyone cheers for them. After eating, and taking pictures, collecting passports, etc. president Millar has everyone come together and announces who the new trainers are and who they will be training. He tells something unique and interesting about each one and really makes them feel special. Dad drove us back to the office and picked up a departing missionary and drove back to heathrow airport. Thursday we spend updating the mission roster and printing up the new booklets, and delivering or mailing them. We had two departing sister missionaries still here on Friday and after they did more at the temple, we had them help us in the office. Dad took them to Heathrow last evening and since their bags took the whole space, I stayed home and did laundry. Today is Saturday and we have spent most of the day moving from our little flit into our little flat. It feels huge after what we have lived in. I love having a stove, oven and freezer now. The pictures below are #29 the little one and #14 the bigger. I hope tomorrow's moves will only be being moved by the spirit at church and our fireside. We are grateful to be here. It is good to feel needed and we love rubbing shoulders with these awesome missionaries! Sorry the pictures aren't working! I will have to send them next time!

Dads haircut

Somehow Dads post last week of his disastrous haircut didn't work. Here it is again. I hope it works this time. More on the blog this weekend!

Some firsts...

We have made a complete exploration of the temple grounds now -- all 32 acres of it. It's far bigger than we first imagined. We found this "Tree of Life" in a small clearing.

After an amazing walk around the grounds, we talked about a lot of "firsts" we have had in the past week or so.  We were invited to our first DA (dinner appointment), when some younger sister missionaries were unable to go to dinner at the home of the Visitor Centre Directors.  She invited us to come instead.  We had our first days on our own after sending the Adams home on Thursday. Elder Cannon had his first chance to go teaching with the office Elders while Sister Cannon went on our first ward temple night.  They schedule a separate session, just for the ward that is officiated by members of the ward.  We had our first time getting lost while trying to find the grocery store.  Elder Cannon had the first time rescuing the office elders when they had a dead battery.  Then as they were going to get the new battery, they had a flat tire and Elder Cannon got to change a tire - all in his white shirt and tie.  Sister Cannon played the piano for primary and Relief Society two weeks in a row.

This is a picture of the Adams "passing the torch" before they left for home! 
We had our first time driving and forgetting to look to the right as all traffic both ways stopped for us - thank goodness! First time buzzing Elder Cannon's hair since haircuts are expensive. And we attended our first "Hi and Bye" meeting put on by the temple presidency and workers where they honor those coming or leaving and have them speak to everyone. We are looking forward to watching general conference at the visitors centre at odd times (7-9 p.m. for Saturday morning session) Sunday morning to watch Saturday afternoon session, etc.  We love and appreciate the support of everyone and look forward to one day getting our first comment on this blog!

Second Week

We are beginning to feel more comfortable with our surroundings and assignments. Elder Cannon can pretty much take care of invoices from vendors, council tax bills, reimbursements for missionary travel, scheduling blocked rent payments, journal entries, checks, deposits, missionary funding cards, cell phone configurations, lost credit cards, lost phones, utilities, departing missionary travel orders, and petty cash disbursements. Whew! Still to come are transfer days (called "moves"), missionary arrivals, and all the brush fires that occur every 8 minutes.

Driving is still scary, but nobody has been killed or injured. The Elder who goes with Elder Cannon when he drives has developed a tick and seems a little jumpy. Driving on the "proper" side of the road isn't all that hard as long as you don't drop concentration for even a second. There are few stop lights -- most intersections are variations on the round-about. Nobody even slows down. The lorries are wide and the lanes are narrow. In our area, roads are tree-lined or have thick hedgerows so you don't see much of the countryside. The roads are paved cart paths that wind here and there so every turn is blind.

The above was from Elder Cannon.  Now this is Sister Cannon.  I just want to share some of the tender mercies we have experiences since we left Logan.  On our trip to Orlando, we were able to come out to the main terminal and meet with Rick, Julie and Robert who brought us some lunch as well as some of the wonderful taffy Rick makes.  It was gone in a wink when we brought it into the office here.  Then on the flight from Orlando to England, we enjoyed an extra seat on our row so we could spread out and relax a little bit more. I did get a chance to talk about the church for a few minutes in the waiting area before the flight. The couple we are replacing, Elder and Sister Adams, were there waiting for us as we ended up taking much longer to come out than expected.  They were so loving and welcoming!  Sister Adams reminds me so much of Aunt Virginia in her mannerisms, her laugh, and even in her looks.  Sister Adams is 20 years younger, but just having her to talk to made it feel like home!  We had three tender mercies our first week that brought us closer to home,  While doing laundry down in the basement of accomodations, I walked in and a couple greeted me asking if I had met the new office couple.  I told them I was half of them and they chuckled.  They are from Cache Valley and were visiting his sister who is serving at the visitor's center.  They are Kevon and Brent Miller and Scott worked with Brent at USU and in one of the USU stakes.  Then we met the mission president and his wife, the Millars.  They both knew many of the same people Scott had worked with at LDS hospital back when he was doing his PhD.  I needed to Skype with the president's counselor, President Martin to get some passports verified.  He ended up being the missionary who baptized Seja Puikkonen (from our home ward).  She had told him about us and we had a nice chat. Last Saturday I thought I was supposed to help clean in the office at 8:00 but when I got there, I was a half hour early.  I didn't want to wake up Scott who is still not well, so I took my first walk around the London Temple grounds!  It is absolutely beautiful!  It covers a huge area and I just walked around in the morning mist, through lovely English garden flowers on pathways over streams and ponds for a half hour.  It was so peaceful, it really calmed me down and filled me with joy.  Monday was a very discouraging day and we were both totally overwhelmed, wondering if we were even going to be able to fulfill our responsibilities. We came down to the reading room, opened our iPads and found many wonderful messages from family members, encouraging us and sending love. Thank you everyone that sent something!  We needed it! We were blessed with 10 days of warm weather, and no rain.  It has been beautiful! We have had the Adams show us how to get to several of the chapels we will need to use with conferences and transfer days and yesterday we went to Staines which is in west London.  The couple, the Boothes, who serve in the YSA there, have been serving missions for 14 years!  He was President at the MTC, and several other places but they know Craig and Renee Jessop and had a son living in Laie.  We were able to eat with them at an amazing restaurant called Tony Carver. Delicious!  We also had our first D.A - dinner appointment with the couple who run the Visitor's Centre.  Finally, we attended a session at the London Temple today and loved it!  It is very beautiful and peaceful.  It was a wonderful morning, then met the Fowlers.  They are another couple who will come and help us with "moves".  We know the Lord is watching over us and we can feel His constant care!

First Week in Mission

We've been here a week and are perhaps more overwhelmed than when we first arrived. There are significantly more responsibilities than we had imagined. This will definitely be a full-time job for both of us. We're still trying to figure out reliable Internet, so excuse the lack of Skype calls -- it will come I'm sure. we are living/working on the Temple grounds and they are fabulous!  The Temple is constructed on a large estate with wonderful paths, pools, gardens, benches, picnic tables. Buildings are the Manor House (where the temple presidency lives), The Lodge (where temple and Visitor's Center workers live), the Gate House (empty), and the
Accomodations Building (where temple visitors may stay. We live and work in the latter.

We attended church  today in the East Grinstead ward which is comfortable large and friendly. Lots of children, families, and missionaries. They don't need us there. It seems everyone has been to Utah and many to Logan. The couple we are replacing have been very good to us and are patient as they try to train us.  We will be moving into their flat (bigger than our current one) when they leave.  They are leaving several helpful things behind for us.  We love you and are thrilled for the chance to serve our Lord.  We love the beautiful, peaceful surroundings here although we do hear large jets and airplanes fly over us every few minutes all day and night.  Thanks for your love and prayers!

Croydon "Intermission"

We took part of Sunday, August 31 and drove up to Croydon, Utah to Join in the DeLaMare family reunion.  We were able to participate in their church service where we were able to hear insights and special experiences from those participating in stake or ward "Treks".  We heard from Lisa, Jon, Whitney, Amy, Karen and Kimball. Emmeline sat on my lap and slept for over an hour - that was a special Grandma time!  We ate a yummy lunch and shared some family time.  It was fun to surprise everyone with our visit and a time to share hugs and goodbyes. We stopped at Emily's house on the way home for Scott and Ben to give her a blessing.  She is going through some difficult procedures right now. " Elder Cannon" gave her a beautiful blessing.  We came back to the MTC in time for our evening devotional which was by Elder and Sister Holtzapfel of the seventy.  He was very enthusiastic and encouraged us to use a study journal in the MTC as well as in the mission field.  As we record the times the Lord speaks to us, we will recognize more of His guidance.  We will then be given more and more direction and knowledge.

Monday morning, September 1st, we began our 2nd week of training.  This time it was office training.  We had a group of five couples... Elder and Sister Butler who are going to Manchester England; Elder and Sister Mikelson, going to Brisbane, Australia; Elder and Sister Tolman, going to Sydney, Australia; and Elder and Sister Peel, going to Rancho Cucamunga (sp?). We have started trying to record our tender mercies each day and this training is a tender mercy in itself.  We are able to look at a computer program called iMOS which is the system used throughout the church in mission offices.  When we signed in, we could see our own mission and begin training using their names and information.  We learned our mission is big and we have over 315 missionaries.  A couple came and spoke to us about things they had done while serving as office couple on their mission.  She really stressed being sure the office is a place of spiritual safety for the missionaries. This couple encouraged us to record tender mercies and help the young ones also do so. They had a lot of suggestions of ways for us to be more involved in the missionary work. All week we learned how to create templates and do mail/merge for letters; how to work on a transfer board, how to do newsletters, how to record baptisms and confirmations/ how to send out referrals, etc.  Elder Cannon learned more about the financial programs, housing and cars. 
Tuesday night was another Devotional and this time we heard from Elder and Sister Don R. Clark.  He advised us to take off our missionary badge each night and look at it for a minute.  Notice the name Jesus Christ on it, then kneel down and report to him. We should each take the responsibility for all aspects of  the work of Salvation 1) Member Missionary work 2) Convert Retention 3) Activate Less Actives 4) Be involved in Temple and Family History Work 5) Teach the Gospel
We finished up our office training on Thursday afternoon and after packing drove to Paul and Vee's house to say our goodbyes to them.  They took us out to dinner and we enjoyed a couple of hours with them. We came back to Logan for a couple of days to see more family and finish packing for 18 months in England. Alex, Kimi, Rachel, Jeff, Teancum, and Gideon were all at our house and we enjoyed time with them. 

MTC first week

This was week one in the Missionary Training Center. We have been so impressed with the whole experience. This is such an amazing organized center! We had a great group of senior missionary couples preparing to go all over the world. We had instruction on Preach My Gospel all week. We were divided up into districts of four couples in each group. Our district had a couple going to  San Jose, California to work with Samoans, a couple going to 4 corners area to work on an Indian reservation and one couple going to Africa. We learned a lot about teaching the gospel through role playing, teaching volunteer investigators, presenting lessons to less-actives, using technology, studying various methods of teaching, etc. We had young, returned missionaries working as our trainers. They were so enthusiastic, yet very helpful. They gave great instructions and assignments, but also encouragement and positive feedback. It was fun, scary, overwhelming, but so needed. This is a picture of all the senior missionaries this week. I guess this is actually a small group!

Setting Apart and Family Dinner

We had a nice day today.  It was our Stake Conference and the first one conducted by our new stake presidency.  Good talks were given about checking up on ourselves and our family to see how we are really doing.  The choir was a Primary group of children ages 8-12.  Following Stake Conference, our Stake President, President Al Burns and our Bishop Mel Bohn came to our home for our setting apart.  Because President Burns had to leave town this evening, he needed to come at 2:00 in the afternoon.  Most of our children could not come at that time because of responsibilities in their home wards.  We did have Kimi, Scott Jr., Paul, Vee and their children Sefa, Nia, and Maile.  Scott and I were each given wonderful blessings as we were set apart.  There was a beautiful spirit attending us as we were given promises and encouragement. He blessed us with extra power to accomplish what would be needed.  After a pleasant afternoon, more family came for a dinner together.  We had Scott, Ivy, and their boys; Paul & Vee's family, Rachel and Jeff and their boys, Kimi and Alex, Missy and Sammy and their girls.  We feel very blessed with our family.  We are now full time missionaries!  We enter the MTC tomorrow! Here we go! It is so hard to leave our family but we have been given so much, it is our turn to serve the Lord full time!

Sacrament Meeting Talk

Sunday, August 17 Scott and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting for our "Farewell" talk.  We were so pleased and touched at the number of friends and family members who came to our ward.  I spoke first and used the theme, "Faith of our Fathers."  Since receiving our call to England, I have been looking through our ancestors who were from England and those who served there. My parents served in a different mission in England27 years ago.  I shared our feelings about going to England and decided to share a little about two of my Great, Great Grandfathers. 
First I spoke about Heber C. Kimball who joined the church in its infancy (1832).  He was very stalwart and faithful, supporting Joseph Smith even when some were turning against him.  In the later 1830s Joseph Smith came to him one day and said,

‘Brother Heber, the Spirit of the Lord has whispered to me: “Let my servant Heber go to England and proclaim my Gospel and open the door of salvation to that nation.”

The thought was overpowering.  He had been surprised at his call to the apostleship.  Now he was overwhelmed.  Like Jeremiah he staggered under the weight of his own weakness, exclaiming in self-humiliation: “O Lord, I am a man of stammering tongue and altogether unfit for such a work; how can I go to preach in that land, which is so famed throughout Christendom for learning, knowledge and piety; the nursery of religion; and to a people whose intelligence is proverbial!” He felt so weak that he was ready to sink under the burden placed upon him.

“However all these considerations did not deter me from the path of duty; the moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing that He would support me by His almighty power, and endow me with every qualification that I needed; and although my family was dear to me and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I felt that the cause of truth, the Gospel of Christ, outweighed every other consideration.”

I am so grateful for his faith and courage to do something so difficult.  He did go and was set apart as the head of the mission.  He was accompanied by Elders Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, and Joseph Fielding as well as 3 other elders from Canada.  Although they were only there 8 months, they baptized over 2,000 people.  After returning home for a couple of years, he also was sent back to serve another mission in England with several of the other apostles.  They checked on their earlier converts that were still there, then spread out to other areas.  Heber went to the London area and found it much more difficult to teach there.  Because of his powerful testimony, he was able to have success planting some deep roots of the Gospel there.  They were there for one year, but as they were getting ready to depart, they held a conference and determined the membership of the church in England was now 5,814 - not counting 50 who were not in an organized branch and 800 who had emigrated to the states. 

I also shared a bit from Philip DeLaMare who was a Frenchman who lived on the isle of Jersey which is also in our mission area.  John Taylor was serving a mission in England and had been sent to France preach and to have the Book of Mormon translated into French.  He enlisted the help of Philip DeLaMare who had recently joined the church.  Philip was a very successful blacksmith and bridge builder and was married with two children.  John Taylor asked for his help in the translating as well as financial assistance.  Philip agreed and also went with Elder Taylor to do an extensive study of the sugar industry to learn to manufacture sugar.  They had been requested by the leaders of the church to bring this industry to Utah.  They had enormous hardships and difficulties bringing everything across the sea and over land to Utah.  Philip also had to lead a company of pioneers across the plains at the same time. Later, after settling in Zion, Philip was asked to preside over the mission in the channel Islands where he served for nearly three years. He was always faithful and gave his all for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Scott spoke about some Whys in our lives.  Many of our children as well as students from the YSA wards would ask why they weren't getting answers to their prayers.  He gave 6 reasons to consider.
Precepts of Prayer
1. God will not infringe upon anyone's agency - even the wicked
2. What you ask may not be in line with God's goals for you.
3. You already know the answer to that question  OR he has already given an answer to that question in the scriptures and words of the prophets
4. God will not make most decisions for you - that would inhibit your growth
5. Do you lack faith because you feel God does not hear and answer if you are not worthy?
6. Perhaps you are receiving an answer - answers come in God's time and in God's way
Scott explained each of these more detailed.  He also shared the story of Richard Roland Kirtland who ws a hero in the civil war as he gave relief to suffering men on both sides of the conflict.

Emily and Rachel played a beautiful Piano/Flute duet of Love at Home.  We were able to enjoy friends and family at a brunch at our home following the service.  We feel so very blessed to have such love and support!

Calling

Scott and I received our mission call on may 28, calling us to serve in the England London South Mission to serve as office specialists.  We report to the Provo MTC on August 25, 2014.