25 Feb 2018

It’s been a couple weeks since our last Blogpost, but the time goes very fast here and we are busy all the time.  This is a good thing, by the way.  I remember talking to Marel about us going to Leeds, Yorkshire, England - way up in the north to work in the Institute and her saying she hoped we weren’t just sitting around inside this big, empty building while it rained outside day after day. 

First of all - it doesn’t rain as much here as it does in Oregon although it is bitterly cold here a great deal of the time.  We have very heavy, warm coats and we wear them.  We go shopping a couple times a week because we cook dinner every Thursday night and our “guest chef” volunteers from the YSA) cook every Wednesday night and we supply the ingredients.  Most of the time we spend inside the Institute and it is anything but empty.  During the day students come and go and use our library or the lounge quite a bit for studying.  We have our regulars who come to Family Home Evenings on Mondays, lunchtime class held in the lounge while they eat sandwiches, Friday breakfast class held while they eat  mostly pancakes - sometimes crepes or French toast and Friday Night Movies. (last week we watched “Chariots of Fire” in honor of the Olympics.)  The three main classes are held in three different classrooms upstairs and include those core students as well as students or YSA from other Stakes around Leeds - some who live an hour away.  The largest class is taught on Thursdays by Brother McMorn, the director - The Book of Mormon -  and usually has around 40 students -  many of whom have dinner first and stay after for different activities - this last week we had Karaoke - that was fun. Everyone’s favorite song was Queen’s “We are the Champions” so that’s familiar.  There is also a small class on Thursday called Mission Prep with high school students from around the area who are preparing to leave on missions  also taught by Brother McMorn.  We teach the Wednesday night class on Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel and those students are mainly core students from the Institute - usually a dozen or so.  It’s a perfect size for great discussions and we’ve gotten to know this group very well.  

Occasionally, we go on field trips with other senior missionaries. Last weekend we went a couple hours north to Durham where we toured the amazing 1000 year old Durham Cathedral.  Our guide Brian was fabulous and gave us great background information of this beautiful, historical edifice and the people who built it.  We also saw a performance of “Magic Flute” presented by University students in Durham.  The voices were beautiful and powerful, the direction was interesting and modern (using cell phones for example) and we enjoyed the experience.  We hear they’re doing some Gilbert & Sullivan next term so we’ll be back.  We also enjoyed walking around the city center of Durham City.  We meet with the Leeds Missionaries once a week and they drop in at the Institute whenever they’re teaching YSA. 

All this to say that we are certainly not bored - ever!  We’re both speaking in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow, I’m helping find accommodations for a Mandarin speaking Conference here at the Institute in April, we are hosting a Fireside speaker coming in tomorrow night -( in May our fireside speaker will be none other than Jeffrey Cannon so everyone’s pretty excited to hear from him and we look forward to seeing him too. ), we also have meetings with students, missionaries, institute staff and visiting YSA who have just moved here and are looking for a place of refuge and friends.  Last week we had a visitor who is looking at colleges for next year and stopped by to see what our program looks like.  For now - it’s going on midnight and I’m off to bed.  Enjoy the pictures.   How’s its going over there anyway?  I see you had several snow days last week.  I was really missing home because I always loved snow days.  It’s supposed to snow here this week, so we’ll see what happens.  

Love, Sister & Elder Edvalson  (pictures: ice sculpture of Dumbledore, us in front of the Cathedral, students playing Twister (some things never change) and making Valentines

11 Feb 2018

Greetings from merry old England!  This past Sunday we visited the Leeds 3^rd Ward on Sunday.  The other members of our missionary district are assigned to this ward. We were warmly received and able to meet some new young single adults, one of which came to Institute this Thursday.  Marlon is just coming back into activity and is originally from Brazil.  He attended the Missionary Preparation Class on Thursday evening.  The sister missionaries in Leeds 3 are teaching a new investigator and he also came to Institute this week.  Victor is from Nigeria and is studying electrical engineering here as a graduate student.  It turns out he is a roommate in a large house with Oscar, our favorite dessert maker from El Salvador.  Oscar is a great member missionary and invited them both to visit us at Institute and gave them each a tour of the facility. 

We went to visit some other YSAs who haven’t been out for a while but they weren’t home so we left some cards and treats for them.  Monday brought us a new week at the Institute and we watched a recording of a recent CES worker training with Brother McMorn, our director, Marian our Institute specialist (who coordinates regional Seminary and Institute communications and has her office here) and a local Seminary teacher.   We heard a motivational fireside with Elder D. Todd Christofferson from a week ago.  It was a great talk about the importance of truth and how precious a possession it is.  He described his work with Judge Sirica back in the Watergate trials when he clerked for him.  A prescient message for our times.

I then had to take our car (a Hyundai i20) in for its 20,000 mile servicing.  As senior missionaries, we pay $150 per month to use the mission car, plus all fuel and oil changes and other maintenance costs.  The mission pays for new tires and other expenses.  By the way, gas costs about $6.50 to $7 per gallon, depending on the exchange rate.  I also received by provisional (learner’s) UK driver’s license this week and signed up to take the first 2 examinations for my regular license.  You take a computerized test on the rules of the road and then a 2^nd computerized “Hazard Awareness” test, which sees how accurately you perceive potential road hazards that would cause you to slow down or use caution.  I’ve been studying some DVD’s that take you through examples and give you sample tests.  So far, I’m passing them.  That exam takes place in early March.  Once you pass those exams, you can sign up for the driving test itself.  It’s a long process but we can drive on our US licenses for the first year in country, so there is time to get it all “sorted”, as they say over here.

We attended the Tuesday noontime class about how the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve spend their days and a typical week for them.  It is very topical with the recent change in the First Presidency.  We spend Mondays, Tuesdays and early Wednesdays preparing for our Wednesday evening class.  We had 11 in attendance this week where we taught lessons 7 & 8 in Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel.  (Jesus Christ—God’s Only Begotten Son in the Flesh and Jesus Christ Fulfilled All Righteousness).  We each take a topic and divide our teaching accordingly.  We both assemble our lesson plan on power point and are having fun adding pictures, videos & charts to help guide our discussions.  Not being a formally trained teacher myself, I am learning appreciation for curriculum development and all that goes into that process.

Our evening meals have been a good experience in teamwork as well.  The Institute students carry out the meal prep on Wednesdays as guest chefs.  This week, our cook’s bus was severely delayed so everyone pitched in to peel, chop & dice all the ingredients for chicken pot pie.  It turned out to be delicious and was a crowd favorite.  Several wanted to buy the leftovers!  Thursday we reverted to the first meal we served when we arrived in November---one of our family favorites of baked ziti.  It was a loaves & fishes kind of night, as only 12 signed up online but we ended up serving over 20!  Fortunately, we had just the right amount of food.  We probably had 50 in attendance that night so the place was hopping after class and they all socialized for 90 minutes playing pool, foosball, board games & just hanging out in our lounge.  We finally had to shut it down at 10:15 so that we could empty all the garbage cans and get ready for our breakfast devotional which starts at 8:00 am on Friday.  It’s usually a pancake breakfast with bacon, juice, etc.  They all love it, although we only get between 3 and 10 each morning.  Sister E. led the presentation of Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s first and last General Conference talks as an apostle.  They are powerful messages about the divinity of the Savior and timely advice for practical discipleship in today’s world.  We highly recommend them!  

On Friday afternoon, we were able to go to York to see our friends Elder & Sister Hansen and have lunch at our favorite restaurant—Betty’s (of York).  It was a cool and brisk day and we were glad that they could show us around the city.  They will be going home next month to Georgia.  This is their 3^rd mission.  The first was in Atlanta running a regional bishop’s storehouse, then they were in Russia, and now here.  They’re a wonderful couple and he always likes the jokes I collect (Thanks Dave Ward for all the puns!).

We finished off the week with our Friday night movie night, where we showed “The Other Side of Heaven” which was very well received.  It’s such a moving story about Elder John Groberg’s mission to Tonga and the wonderful experiences he had while there.  We have 3 young YSAs who have their mission calls and will be leaving in March.  It is a good thing for them to see before they leave.  One is going to Baltimore Maryland, one to Australia, and the other to London.  They’re all excited to go.

On Saturday we attended the baptism of a new family….a mom and her two 8 year old twins.  We were able to sit in on one of her lessons last month and she is excited to be a member.  Her 14 year old son is not interested yet.  He is a rugby player and does that most Sundays.  They were confirmed members today and were well received in Church.  Two of our stalwart YSAs were the speakers in Church today plus we had 2 new YSA members move in.  One is here from Northern Arizona University as an exchange student studying drama.  The other sells vintage clothing from the 90’s.  I had to ask him if vintage clothing was from the 1890’s or 1990’s!  I guess some of my wardrobe back home is now vintage!

We saw a 5 minute recap of the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies on the BBC….interesting to not see 1 minute of anything American in any highlights.  Wishing you all a great week from our penthouse!

Love,

Elder & Sister Edvalson

View from our window at Betty’s in York

One of several Harry Potter themed stores at The Shambles in York

Elder & Sister Hansen and Elder & Sister Edvalson

Saturday, February 3, 2018 - Leeds, England

Another week went speeding by and we had intended to do something touristy today, but awoke to pouring rain on the skylight in our bedroom so we kind of settled in.  I had wanted to go to  York and visit one of our Senior Missionary friends who had fallen and injured her elbow, but we’ll have to put that off to another time.  I prayed this morning that we would be able to serve in some way on this rainy Saturday.  A short time after the prayer, Elder E. informed me that he saw the sister missionaries leaving on our spy-cam in the parking lot.  These cameras allow us to see when anyone is coming or going from the Institute.  On the cam we can see the back parking lot and other areas and doors around the Institute.  There are alarms hooked up to the building and a noise sounds when the front or back doors open.  During the week, Marian works in the front office and welcomes visitors. Elder McMorn’s office is across from Marian’s.  Most of the YSA come through the back door. The bottom floor contains a kitchen, lounge, billiard room, bathroom, dedicated missionary teaching room and various storage closets.  The upper floors are classrooms, bathrooms and a few offices - including the office of Elder Tunnicliffe, the regional director for England Seminaries and Institutes.  It’s a very beautiful office and since Elder Tunnicliffe lives in York and only uses it occasionally, we use his office as our classroom. 

So - back to the story - Everyone walks everywhere around here.  There are buses and trains and Ubers. Only a couple of the students own cars and within the mission, only senior missionaries, mission president & wife and a few missionaries who work in the office or serve in more rural areas have cars. Our area sisters, (LigaLiga & Barnett) are assigned to this area and use the Institute to teach and also rest when needed.  Sister LigaLiga was hit by the rampant cold bug going around and hadn’t been feeling well.  She saw a Dr. who advised her to stay indoors, but there they were.  So we grabbed them, found out they had not gone to pick up their cold medicine and when I suggested they go home and have some tea, toast and chicken soup, they said they didn’t have any of that in their flat so we took them to the store and then dropped them at their flat with instructions to stay indoors and for Sister LigaLiga to sleep!)  We then stopped at our favorite Fish n Chips store by their flat to grab our takeout lunch.

This week we had a great turnout for all meals, devotionals, classes and spent a lot of time getting to know everyone better and helping all of them to get to know each other better as well.  The English students know each other fairly well by now.  Many are from this area and grew up together and many had siblings who attended Uni (University of Leeds) or other schools in the area so they are familiar with the Institute.  But we have many from out of town and out of country and as we attended the Institute Council Meeting this week, we were pleased to hear one of the leaders of the group encourage everyone to focus on “friend” activities and welcome anyone unfamiliar or new and include them.  We invited one of the students from Skipton (the little town we visited last Sunday) to join the council and suggest ideas.  As a result, we have scheduled a visit to Skipton in April to take some walks around the Dales and see the new lambs.  We will rent a large bus and all go together.  I know she was thrilled as she and the other students from Skipton have to ride a bus or train for nearly an hour just to get here every week.

The weekly “Come Dine With Us” guest chef program is working out great.  This week, Adam made chili and Oscar, who is the dessert specialist, actually made a Tres Leches cake.  If you know anything about Cafe Rio in Provo, Utah, you know it’s a featured dessert there.  Elder E. was pretty excited as it’s his favorite.  The whole meal was very tasty and our next week’s chef already signed up to make Chicken Pot Pie.  Also the weekly “Friday Movie” activity is getting very popular.  Lots of participants and a few who just came to hang out and not watch the movie, but play pool together.  We watched “Zootopia” and it was a crowd pleaser, then everyone stayed late getting to know each other better.  We’re happy with the warm, inviting spirit they all bring to this home away from home. 

So it’s another week crossed off the calendar.  Elder E. is prepping for his driving test.  You can drive on an American license here for a year, but after that you must get a British license and they are very picky.  One of the Senior Missionaries waited too long, then didn’t pass the test the first couple times and so they had to take the train or walk everywhere - not practical.  It’s expensive to take the test and expensive to get the license and they are very strict.  It’s also really crowded here and as Elder Flockhart - who manages the cars for the mission - explained, “England is about the size of Utah (he’s from Utah via Scotland) but in Utah there are about 3 million residents and in UK there are 65 million.  In Oregon - larger land mass than UK - there are about 4 million and I manage to scratch and dent cars frequently - so I’m not getting a license here.  :) 

We held a Fireside here last Sunday to show the Worldwide Devotional held by Elder and Sister Uchtdorf.  The students love their stories and are inspired by their relationship with one another and of course, by their testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is a privilege for us to be here working, serving and enjoying getting to know these amazing young people.  They work hard, are serious about their education, their future and dedicated to serving Jesus Christ and learning more about Him and His Gospel.  They are kind to one another and circumspect about the world they are preparing to lead.  The Church is in good hands..and we are blessed.

Our Mission District - countries represented include UK, USA, Serbia, New Zealand and Spain

Oscar and his Tres Leches Cake. I got the recipe too