Desciples of the Digital Age

This past week, we were able to bring everyone in our mission together for a special training meeting. We had Elder and Sister Brent Nielsen and Elder and Sister Kearon as visiting general authorities come. Elder Nielsen presided as they taught us about the iPads the young missionaries will be receiving this month. We thought it would be a list of what not to do and how to stay out of trouble etc. it was not! It was a very spiritually uplifting meeting. They explained that since we live in the digital age, we need to be part of it. The missionaries were taught about how to prepare themselves by making a plan. Their devices always need to be visible to their companions. There will be new ways to keep track of information and new ways to teach investigators. They will have their scriptures and pamphlets and videos all on their iPads and won't have to carry their DVD players. There were rules and suggestions like these. But also examples of being perfectly obedient and humble.  They taught how we can actually flood the internet which so much light and truth that the darkness will be smothered out. They told us how much trust the first presidency has in these missionaries and how much they are loved.  They also applied the scriptures and the white handbook to this new device.  It was quite a positive experience.
  Our lunch caterer worked out well so that we were able to serve all 250 people quickly within a few minutes. We had 7" buns with sandwich fillings, wrapped up, chips (called crisps here) little desserts all in a lunch bag plus a piece of fruit- apple, orange or banana and water bottle to pick up so the line moved quickly.
We had another little tender mercy as we talked to Elder and sister Nielsen. They knew my brother Dave and his wife Kayla while working in the Philippines as well as Dave works with him in the church offices with the missionary department. He also knows my brother Kimball as they served their missions together in Finland. When Kimball and his son Jon went to the Philippines a couple of years ago, to visit Dave and Kayla, the Nielsens came and they all had dinner together!
Elder Nielsen gave a wonderful talk in the latest general conference and shared a story about his sister Susan. What a good man from which to learn!

Family History Trip to Jersey

We had a Saturday and Sunday this week with all of our other work caught up -- so we talked to the President and flew off to the island of Jersey. Sister Cannon's great-great-grandfather and grandmother were both from Jersey (but didn't meet until the both converted and were off to Utah).

We met the Key family who live there (Sister Key is the DeLaMare we met at the temple) and they showed us around (first pic). This BlogSpot has very poor formatting that I can figure out, so I'm going to explain the pictures in order below. The harbor of the island is protected by two massive piers (2nd and 3rd pics) built by Philip DeLaMare and Francois DeLaMare (father) called the Albert and Victoria. It's difficult to see perspective, but the pier is about 60 feet high and perhaps 100 feet wide. It needs to be that high since Jersey has one of the highest tide surges in the world. From low to high can be as much as 40'. This is almost low tide -- at high tide, the ocean comes up to Sister Cannon's feet.

Pic 4 is the Grouville Church in the parish where the DeLaMares lived. You can't see it, but the church is surrounded by tombstones. The old ones are unfortunately weathered to far to read. Pc 5 is the Gorey Castle from the 15th century. The last pic is church on Sunday with the Jersey missionaries.

We're glad we went. Jersey is NOT like England. Names of towns, houses, and streets are mostly French. The country is quite rugged and volcanic. Tourism is big. While England has mostly brick houses, Jersey is all made from the local granite -- even if covered by plaster. They have their own money and their own government. While they are part of the United Kingdom, they jokingly refer to the English Invasion. It is more Norman than English. During WWII, Jersey was occupied by the Germans and there are bunkers and gun emplacements all along the beaches. On one of the bluffs we could look over 14 miles into France while England was 200 miles away.

 

Busy spring...

We've been quite busy these past few weeks with emergency transfers, zone conferences with a general authority in addition to all our normal office work. Our office motto is "the days are long, but the weeks seem to fly by!"

You may have read in the Deseret News about an English couple who were converted through watching the Shaytard blog videos. Here they are:  They came to the Visitor's Center to talk about their conversions and we got the chance to meet them: Lewis and Lois.

Friday the 13th was Red Nose day in England. It's a silly tradition to raise money for kids. Everyone puts on red noses. Here we are:

 

We did have the chance to visit the home of Rudyard Kipling for a few hours. We arranged for a lecture by the local historian for the home. Quite an interesting character. Here's the estate out in the country.

Well, the Gospel is true! There is a strong spirit of missionary work here among members and missionaries alike. We appreciate your support. Now, I've got a bad cold and I'm going back to bed!

Elder Cannon

Just to show you that it finally did snow in the England London South Mission. This is a real blizzard one morning that actually covered the drive -- well, almost. It took forever to melt -- at least an hour! I had to scrape the windows of our little car that you see here.

Elder Cannon just had to buy a hat for who-knows what reason. This is just after church.



These two lovely sisters are the recent additions to the office family. Sister Gilman from Washington is on the left and Sister Stewart from Midvale is on the right.

These are the current Visitor's Center sisters. Two are American (#2 and #3 from the left). The others are Portugal, Sweden, France, and Denmark.

We told you about the DeLaMare relatives from the island of Jersey that we found working here at the Temple; Brother and Sister Key. Sister Key is a descendant of one of the other (lesser) wives of Philip DeLaMare.

These are the two Digital Elders that work part-time in the office. They arrange travel for moves and a thousand other things for the mission. They still baptized a great convert this week. In the back is Elder Blair from Missouri and in the Front is Elder Foster from Salt Lake.

 

January joys

We have been slow to add things to our blog. Sorry! Here are some pictures that might tell a little of some things we did in January. We went on a "teach" with the missionaries one evening and needed dinner. We stopped at a McDonalds by Redhill and had our first Big Mac in England!

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