Leeds Institute Choir Choral Service

Check out this link to see all of a portion of our institute choir concert:
https://vimeo.com/album/4891576

Mission Christmas

            Classes at the Institute of Religion Leeds have been out for a week so we haven’t had the building full of students, but have still had plenty to do.  We just finished two days of Missionary Christmas meetings and socials.  One up in the northern area of the mission and one down here in the south. There are about 100 companionships in the mission and they recently had transfers so many of them have traveled to new places and have formed new companionships.  The missionaries are so happy to get together and see their old companions and leaders - especially President and Sister Turvey who surprised us by appearing at one point as Santa and Mrs. Claus. The Elders & Sisters also had a great time putting on talent shows, eating turkey dinners, doing activities and listening to scriptures, talks and music pertaining to the upcoming celebration of the Savior’s birth. Each Senior Missionary couple was in charge of an activity of their choosing.  We found some coloring/folding pages of a nativity and did a little arts and crafts so each companionship could have their own nativity to take home.  It was fun to sit and talk with the missionaries as they colored - just like I used to do with the grandkids.  :)  We also made blessing bags full of food, blankets, mittens etc to give to anyone in need in our respective towns. We are in the largest city in the north, Leeds so we also took three large bags full of blankets, mittens and socks to give away.  I put them in the back of our car.

          Last night several of the Senior Missionary Couples attended a production of “Christmas Carol” held in the small village of Selby about an hour from Leeds.  We all serve in different areas, but planned to meet at an old medieval building where the play was being held.  One of the members was our host, but he’d never been to this particular venue.  The director likes to produce shows in old, authentic buildings so none of us knew what to expect.  The night was clear, but not too cold.  However, when we finally found the over 1000 year old building, it was more of a barn  - kind of like a stable actually.  A few electric light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and about 20 chairs set up.  It was freezing in there.  Time for a miracle - I remembered we had 3 bags of blankets in our car so we brought them in and passed them out.   The production was fantastic.   The atmosphere perfect - Scrooge absolutely amazing.  We were so glad we went as well as glad we were warm and cozy in the blankets. This morning, it was announced in church that there was a family who had lost their house to some kind of gas explosion.  They literally lost everything so we unloaded our bags and gave them to this family.   

          Tomorrow for Christmas dinner we are having the Elders (from Mexico & Serbia)  in our district over for brunch at 11:00.  They have a dinner appointment somewhere else, but for our dinner here at 1:00 we will be having the Sisters also from our district (from New Zealand & Utah) and one of the American students from California who didn’t go home for Christmas.  In church this morning, I was sitting by a man from Iran who didn’t seem to know a lot of people so I invited him for dinner.  Meanwhile, Tim invited a man from Iraq - also not connected with anyone in the Ward.  The sisters may bring one of their Chinese investigators too.  An international Christmas.  We love that idea. 

So this month we have been able to visit the larger cities of Billingham and Huddersfield and the small villages of Grassington and Selby.  We also took the time to drive to beautiful Harrogate and eat at one of our favorite restaurant/tea rooms in the world, Betty’s.  It was lovely…and delicious as ever. So - HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.  We are so grateful for our knowledge and relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ.  We follow Him for we know who He is - Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  

Update

This past week has flown by for us and once again we are in our Friday evening stupor of thought that comes at the end of our week. 

Last Sunday evening was the performance by the Leeds Institute Choir of our Christmas Concert.  The Institute has a choir that rehearses every Thursday evening under the direction of one of our YSAs from Huddersfield, Jacob Quesne.  He is a returned missionary (Spain Madrid) who is now studying finance at the University of Leeds and commutes daily by train to the University.  He reminds us a lot of Michael Biancardi, for those that know him.  Since several members come from a bit of a distance, the choir did it's final rehearsal on Sundayafter church with the performance being held at 7 pm.  Most of the YSAs walk to church and it is a one hour walk for most of them to come, so rather than make 2 round trips, this was a much better use of our time.  Sister Edvalson and I spent the day at the Church and helped organize a luncheon of a British version of a baked potato bar plus salad only most prefer rice with toppings of chili, cheese and sour cream with their favourite (notice the British spelling!) soft drink called Vimto (a sort of sugary and carbonated juicy beverage from the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants flavoured with herbs and spices).  These are a really fantastic bunch of young single adults whom we have grown to love immensely in the short time we've been here.  A local member recorded the concert and it is supposed to be available to stream sometime later this month.

It turns out that they needed our help so Sister E. was a narrator and I sang with the men.  They each get a one hour credit for Institute by doing this choir.  By the time it was over and the post concert fellowshipping was done, we had been gone for about 12 hours so we were tired by the time we got home.

Monday brings us to our Family Home Evening activity.  The YSAs each sign up to do their part and carrying out the evening and they follow through well.  Our lesson was given by Adam Simcock, who is a returned missionary (Czech Republic) and is now studying music and composing at Leeds Beckett University.  He gave a great lesson on how the Gospel helps us answer life's hard questions and he got everyone involved in helping present their ideas.  We do prepare the treats, and this week it was Rice Krispie Treats.  Everyone hangs around until 10 or 10:30 visiting so we don't usually head up to our apartment until we've cleaned and secured the building.  We have a great time talking with each of them and how they're doing in life, so we really do get energized being with each of them.

Tuesdays there's a lunchtime class and lunch provided by the Institute which studies the teachings of the modern day apostles and prophets which our Institute Director teaches.  We only get 5 or 6 students at this class, typically but they are really great presentations and a chance for the students to take a break at their mid-day.  The paid staff take care of this lunch, so we are off the hook on this day of food preparation.  There's a library where students can study, and they all like it because it's quiet and not nearly as crowded as the library at the University, so it gets used each day.  There is also a pool table and ping pong room where they will occasionally hang out. 

Wednesdays we have our Leeds 1 District Council with the missionaries assigned to the Leeds First Ward.  There are the district leader and his companion, Elders Saylin & Brown (both from Utah), Elders Hinojos (Mexico) and Racevic (Serbia), Sisters Ligaliga (New Zealand) and Teh (USA/Philippines)--they are Mandarin speaking Sisters, Sisters Melgarejo (Spain) and Horrocks (Vancouver WA) and us.  This is a one hour meeting where everyone reports about their past week of teaching and finding, and gets ideas on how to hasten the work for the week ahead.  Some principles from Preach My Gospel are reviewed and everyone gets energized for the week ahead.  Since we are not directly proselyting, it's our chance to share ideas and encouragement from our life experience and especially for Sister E to share what it was like for her when she took the missionary lessons and joined the church.  It's an especially fun time for us to mentor these great young missionaries who are from such diverse places.

"

On Wednesday evening we hosted the first of our Christmas movie nights.  The unanimous choice was "Muppets Christmas Carol" for which we had 8 YSAs attend.  Only one of them had not seen it before but it's a very popular Christmas favorite with this group.  Once again, they hang around until after 10 pm visiting! 

Thursday was our big day.  We started food preparation at 9 am for the free Institute Christmas dinner and party.  We cooked 2 turkey "crowns"--basically the top half of the turkey--all of the white meat and no legs or thighs.  Quite a popular version of turkey preparation here.  And considering our ovens are quite small, although we do have 2 ovens, we elected to do it the British way!.  We did the 2 turkey crowns, 10 kg of mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, 2 oven dishes of roasted vegetables (eggplant, carrots, summer squash, peppers, onions, zucchini), a boatload of gravy, Costco rolls, 2 large trifles, a giant chocolate cake (also Costco), and sparkling lemonade.  Dinner was from 5 - 7 pm followed by Institute classes (Book of Mormon by Brother McMorn--Institute Director) and Missionary Preparation by Sister Edvalson and me.  After that, it was a big party with dancing, music, a chocolate fountain, more savory snacks and fruit.  We usually always prepare a Thursday evening meal for which they each pay 1.5 pounds but this one was free and an end of semester and Christmas celebration before the students start leaving over the next week for their Christmas break. We'll usually get 25 to 30 for dinner but this one had about 40 attendees.  By the time we were finished cleaning up, it was 11:30 and then we got to video chat with Marel for an hour before we retired for the evening after laundering all the dishtowels and table cloths.  (Thanks Marel, we were glad to talk!  And you too Allyson--we talked earlier in the week!)

The next morning (Friday) we provide a breakfast and devotional.  (The Christmas Devotional is live here at 1 am Monday morning!)  It starts at 8 am and goes until 9:15 or so.  We had 6 attendees and had Christmas tree shaped crumpets with bacon and eggs.  We watched 2 presentations from the First Presidency Christmas devotional, Sister Cristina Franco from the Primary General Presidency and Elder Kevin R Duncan from the Seventy, both of which were excellent, and the students especially related to Elder Duncan and some of the challenges which he faced as a missionary and a student.  They stuck around until after 10 am to talk some more.  Adam then helped us record a song all the senior missionaries will perform at the mission Christmas socials later this month.  They are putting Sister Edvalson's talents to work here in the Mission!  The Institute closes at noon on Fridays so we came upstairs and semi-collapsed and caught up with some of our correspondence and planning and started recovering from the previous 24 hours!   We are loving it but the quick turnaround from Thursday night to Friday morning stretches us! 

One of our YSA friends told us today that he feels like we've been here forever (in a GOOD way)!   And we agree.  It seems so good to be doing this and we are grateful to be able to be so well received by so many.  Thanks so much for all your support and prayers in behalf of all the missionaries.  There are to be 10 baptisms in our mission this weekend!  We are so excited to see the growth of the Church in England.

We hope you're enjoying this Christmas season!  As they say here in the UK:  Happy Christmas!

Cheers!

Elder & Sister Edvalson

More gravy, anyone?

More party revelers

Choir Rehearsal for Choral Concert

Christmas Dinner at the Institute

Super Moon over Leeds

The lovely Sister Edvalson

Brother McMorn and three institute students