Edvalsons in England: May 2018

Blog Post – May 20, 2018

This past Saturday Sister & Elder Edvalson had separate activities for the day. Sister Edvalson hosted a viewing party at the Institute for the Royal Marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle while Elder Edvalson went with the Priesthood holders of the Leeds First Ward for an Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration activity of hiking around Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales National Park followed by a barbecue at Bishop Barker’s home. It was a gorgeous day for both events with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid 70’s.

Elder Edvalson’s report of the hike:

I picked up John Price, our Institute Council President and the 2 full time Elder missionaries serving in our ward, Elder Barlow (from Nauvoo, Illinois) and Elder Clain (from Reunion Island—in the Indian Ocean relatively close to Madagascar) to join the rest of the group at the church for our drive to Malham. It’s about 31 miles from Leeds but takes about 90 minutes to drive there due to the windy, narrow roads to get there. We did an 8 mile loop hike from the Yorkshire Dales National Park office and went to Janet’s Foss (a waterfall), Gordale Scar (a steep walled gully with the stream that serves the waterfall (Gordale Beck) where you hike up the waterfall itself (think Zion National Park) and on to the top of the canyon where we then hiked to a lake called Malham Tarn. From the lake it was a completion of the circle back to Malham Cove. Malham Cove is a limestone curved wall formation that was formed by a waterfall carrying meltwater from glaciers at the end of the last ice age. There is a large limestone pavement above the cove where a scene from the Harry Potter movie (Deathly Hallows Part I) was filmed. It’s quite scenic and a very popular hiking venue. We hiked for about 6 hours and saw some beautiful vistas, streams, lots of sheep and a few cattle, plus 2 other wards from the Leeds area doing a similar outing! We also had elevation changes of 1235 feet, part of it rugged climbing over the Scar. Our bishop wanted to see which site (waterfall or tarn) would be the most comparable to the waters of Mormon in the Book of Mormon! After our drive back, we enjoyed a manly feast of cooked meats (hamburgers, chicken, sausage and vegetable skewers) at the Bishop’s home. We had a few young boys and overall a group of about 20 make the hike. I really appreciated the chance to do the hike but my muscles haven’t felt this tired in quite a while. I’m grateful for naproxen sodium to give some relief to sore muscles! I hope you get some appreciation for the beauty of the area from the accompanying pictures.

Rapt attention for the festivities

Sister Edvalson’s report of the Royal Wedding:

Scones and sparkling water

Looking for celebrities

Okay – I know it’s a million dollar (more) wedding full of pomp and circumstance (not so much this time), but hey! It’s a cultural experience of the first rank – that is it doesn’t happen all that often – and this was one unusual. To begin with, what are missionaries doing watching weddings on TV in the middle of the work day in the first place? This wedding has been the subject of discussion over here in England since last fall at least. Our fabulous (English) Mission President, President Turvey sent out an email last week informing the missionaries that – as a cultural experience – they could watch the wedding. So I quickly put a notice on the Institute Facebook page informing everyone that we would be streaming the whole thing beginning at 11am on Saturday. Scones, cakes, cream and strawberries would be on hand. Friday night for our usual Movie Night, we showed a repeat of “Coco” since many were at a YSA Conference the last time we showed it. We had a full house for that so many of them said they’d be at the wedding the next day. Most of the English members went to family/neighborhood garden parties in celebration so attending the festivities, we had five missionaries (4 from USA counting me, 1 from Mexico), 3 University students (2 from USA, 1 from El Salvador) and 4 English students, 3 of whom came in late. One English woman, Tracey, was there the whole time and told us when to stand up, when to sing and who all the royal guests were and any other pertinent gossip. Later I ran into one of her old roommates – also English who said we didn’t really have to stand up that much. For the record, I didn’t. I’m old and can away with a lot. It was all very exciting. Everyone loved the dress, the music – particularly the gospel choir and the cellist. The hats were works of art although I wondered how anyone could see around them. The bride and groom were appropriately sweet, beautiful, handsome and in love. The Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced everything in the British way and – finally – the American preacher. Some were thrilled, some applauded, some were shocked, some confused and some didn’t really know what to think. I believe all of those reactions mirrored very closely to the reactions of everyone attending the wedding. My first thought was it seemed a little inappropriate for him to hijack the Brits big celebration and it was a bit long. However, the message was good and President Turvey approved so I’m going with my Mission President.

That’s it for this week. It’s sunny, warm, beautiful here. Elder E and I have actually been outside TWICE – in the trees and I knew I loved it here! PS – Institute did have their Graduation Celebration this week. It was lovely. We don’t start classes again until next week. Love you all and wish you were here. Don’t you?

Cheers!

Elder & Sister Edvalson

P.S. Elder E passed his UK driver’s license exam (squeaking by!), so now he’s street legal for the duration of our stay.

Janet’s Foss (waterfall)

Gordale Scar (hiking through the waterfall)

Pavement Stones on top of Malham Cove

Elder E at bottom of Malham Cove

The Institute Choir performs

We are so grateful for the beautiful weather we have been having here in Yorkshire after an unusually cold, snowy winter. But it is May at last and we’ve seen several days over 75 degrees and even opened up our windows to make sure the flat stays cool enough to get a good night’s sleep. I only wish they had screens on the windows here - you know - bugs gets in, but it’s been fine. We finished up our classes and big dinners and have taken the extra time to teach a wonderful YSA who cannot get through the doors and up or down the stairs at the institute because she lives as a quadriplegic in a huge wheelchair complete with oxygen and braces. She joined the church about a year ago and is very excited about learning more. We bring our computer with the powerpoint lessons and just run through the lesson with her. She’s also really interested in Family History so this week as Elder E. goes off to take his final Driver’s Exam, I’ll go over to Issy’s specially designed flat and help her do some Family History. She is at Leeds University studying Linguistics so she lives on campus and has 24 hour care and really is a joy to be with.

When we first were called on this mission, I thought about my experiences in Institutes of Religion. For one thing, I joined the Church in an Institute at the University of Oregon and Elder E and I met in an Institute in downtown Portland so I started thinking about the programs I had experienced that I found valuable and enjoyed. We had a program called Friday Forum in Eugene wherein a speaker was invited to join us for lunch and give a somewhat informal lecture on a topic of interest to us. Who could I get to do that in Leeds. The natural person was a guy who grew up in our Ward, was about Allyson’s age, the son of one of my dearest friends and in a PhD Program at the University of Edinbrough. He also had spend several years working for the church on a history project called The Joseph Smith Papers, a comprehensive study of the teachings of our first Prophet and one of the most exciting pieces of church history to be published. So I contacted Jeffrey Cannon to see if he would come down and speak at a Fireside. (don’t be confused - we’re not roasting marshmallows around a fire, singing camp songs - a “Fireside” in the Church is simply a meeting in which a compelling speaker shares their expertise and testimony with an audience of interested attendees.) So Jeffrey, his wife Amy and their wonderful children, Henry, Eloise and Ruby came down and spent the weekend with us and then Jeffrey spoke at the Fireside on Sunday night. We hadn’t seen him since he got married so I only knew how wonderful they were from his mother, my friend, Jackie. Saturday we visited “Temple Newsome” which is a large estate just outside of leeds. They are trying to travel around here as much as they can before he finishes his PhD in a couple years so we just joined along. The estate includes a working farm, acres of beautiful, grassy area, gardens, water features (which we didn’t make it to) and a playground for children (which we definitely did)

After dinner at the Institute on Sunday, we went to our church building and found a roomful of all ages as the leadership of the stake felt compelled to invite everyone they knew for this really wonderful once in a lifetime opportunity to learn more about this historical project from someone directly involved. Jeffrey’s talk was masterful and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. He talked about the importance of asking questions and learning and the blessings we have in the church due to revelation. Monday night at Family Home Evening, I lead a discussion on some of the most interesting points of the talk. Here is some of what the YSA liked and remembered: “When we pray and ask Heavenly Father questions, don’t forget what you already know.” “Prophets and Apostles go through the same process to get revelation that we do.” “It is essential to be humble before the Lord” The JS Papers Project highlights the Greek translation of John 21: 15 - 17 whereby the Lord in speaking to Peter uses the “Agape” or higher type of Love while Peter uses a more informal type. But the Lord still asks him to “Feed my Sheep” nonetheless - thus we see that God takes us as we are and uses and teaches us, step by step in order to bring about His will for us and others.”

“Keeping records is important.” “Be humble and teachable - we learn line up on line and precept on precept.” “Only the Saviour was perfect on this earth, but He has used imperfect people to bring about His Gospel.” Ask the right questions and do not use faulty logic. ….and so much more. I thank Jeffrey for sharing his knowledge with us and I thank him and Amy for allowing me to have some time seeing and playing with their fabulous children. I may be a missionary, but I’m also a Nana after all.

There are two Temples in England - one in London and one up here about 40 miles from Leeds, the Preston Temple in Chorley. Today the Institute Director, Brother McMorn took us on a Temple Trip. He attended Law School in Preston about 10 years ago so he gave us a quick history tour of the area first. We saw where the English Saints were baptized in the River Ribble and many other historical sites, including the house where President Hinckley lived and received that famous letter from home which read, “Forget yourself and go to work” in regard to his mission in Preston. I’ve always wanted to see that house and there it was..looking pretty much the way I thought it would. The Temple is beautiful, of course and we spend a couple hours of peace and knowledge inside out of the rain - which came despite the beautiful sunshine we left behind in Leeds.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow and the next day we will spend in Sheffield inspecting the missionary flats and no doubt teaching them what mold looks like and what to do about it. It’s fun to see the young missionaries and feel their lively and sincere spirits as they endeavor to do the very best they can - in housekeeping as well as in teaching. We also need to start preparing for our next class which starts in little more than a week. It’s called Introduction to Family History and you know I love that. There’s a lot of tech stuff in doing Family History so Elder E. can handle that part of it and I can regale them with how much I love family stories. So in that line of thought I would like to close by wishing my dear Aunt Jean Happy 95th Birthday!! We are sad to not be there to celebrate with her as we have in the past. I think of her every day and pray for her every night and send her love across the Atlantic Ocean and all the way to the west coast and I hope she feels that.