Edvalsons in England: June 2018

We had a wonderful week with the Marel and her family. Here’s the quick rundown: They arrived Monday night just in time for Family Home Evening. Oscar taught a great lesson on looking beyond the obvious which involved a little sight trick. The room was full of baffled YSA and oldsters like us and Marel and Tom, but Celia (10) knew the trick. That was fun for us and for her too. Then Marel and Tom were on the “Hot Seat” which is a stool where the victims sit and everyone throws crazy questions at them like - “Who’s your favorite Harry Potter character and why?” Or if you could have any super power, what would you pick and why?” etc. Marel and Tom were fabulous and everyone got to know everyone very quickly which was good because Marel spent some time with the YSA women finding out the best places to get English fashion - cheap. Then she took me shopping, something I hadn’t done for 6 months at least (except groceries, of course)

Tuesday we drove 2.5 hours to almost the Scottish border to Alnwick Castle (pronounced ANN-ick), where they filmed the flying lessons scene in Harry Potter. We toured the state rooms where the 2014 Downton Abbey Christmas special was filmed, the kids made clay tiles and we learned that a clay tile could take several months to make because they would have to build a new kiln for each tile set. Then the kids took flying lessons - quite extensive and hilarious. They let all of us in on the technique which is simple, but effective. Then we went to the beautiful, magical garden and ate in the treehouse. Luxury!

Wednesday we went to Brimham Rocks which was probably the kids’ favorite place -huge rocks hanging over cliffs on which they could scramble, jump off and cause multiple heart attacks for their poor Nana. Next to the Rocks is Fountains Abbey which was absolutely gorgeous and interesting. A beautiful abbey ruins set in acres of green wild grounds complete with river, swans, ducks and lovely prospects.

We made it back to the Institute in time to teach our Family History class.

Thursday, We drove to York, explored the Shambles and the 3 Harry Potter stores that have popped up there since the street was the inspiration for Diagon Alley. We spent some time in the beautiful York Minster and found out kids and ministers (meaning missionaries) get in free. The kids got backpacks full of maps and things to explore every corner of the church so we did. We then went to everyone’s favorite tea shoppe, Betty’s of York. The girls had “afternoon tea” with all the trimmings and I flashed back on the first time we went there when Allyson and Marel were about that age and had their first “afternoon tea”.

Friday was the Royal Armouries - described in our blog when we visited it last fall. We went out for pizza and got home early so everyone could watch our Friday movie, “Moana” with the YSA except Caleb who went to bed.

Saturday we headed out to the Skipton area to ride an old-fashioned steam train to Bolton Abbey. It was a beautiful and interesting trip. The train took us through the Dales and we even got to ride in an old fashioned compartment similar to when I backpacked around Europe in the ’70’s. The train drops you off at the sheep pastures where you walk with the sheep and through gates (or in our case, climb over since we got a little lost) then along the river to Bolton Abbey, a very popular spot for picnicking. The kids participated in a 1-mile "Welly Walk" that was a hike through the trees with an obstacle course every few yards (ie: tube slides, stepping stones, balance ropes, etc.). The kids would have happily done the full trail, but we still had to walk another 2.5 miles back to the train station. We caught the last train back around 5pm and had fish and chips in Skipton (voted the best village in the UK this year) . Full and fun day.

Sunday after church we had a lovely dinner and took some pictures, then put the exhausted kids down early and we stayed up playing Codenames - Marel and Tom have this game and so do we so we’ve played it before. We ate some peanut butter balls and other goodies and reminisced.

Which bring us to the end of the visit. We took them out for lunch at Toby’s Carvery which is like a meat and potatoes buffet and off they went to Norway. Then it was Tuesday again, the wifi in the Institute wasn’t working as happens occasionally, our Wednesday chef was not feeling well so we made pizza, Thursday was a Zone Conference with the missionaries, Friday was a Power Women day as our devotional featured Wendy Watson Nelson speaking on the gathering of Israel and at night we watched “Hidden Figures” for the movie. The full house of women and one mathematician man were thrilled.

P-Day Saturday, we headed out in a hired coach with 25 YSA for the annual Beach Trip. This year we went to Bridlington about 2 hours away and met several other YSA who had driven cars there. The weather forecast said rain, but we went anyway and it was partially cloudy with sunshine enough. The beach is large, on the North Sea and include lots of ice cream and other kinds of shops along the promenade, donkey rides - a very British phenomenon and extremely aggressive seagulls hanging out at the food stalls. Elder E and I went paddling in the water - which was a bit warmer than our beloved Oregon beach. It’s rather like a bay with still water, lots of little sailboats and Pirate Ship rides for the kiddies. Some of the YSA put on wet suits and dove into the water for some real swimming and some of the others went down the promenade to another spot and dove into the water off cliffs. We didn’t watch this display, but stayed on the beach watching the fish and chips.

Love to all in the States. I am praying for the captive children and wishing so much I could do more. Missionaries are not political, but they are, certainly,

moral. Cheers dear ones,

Sister and Elder Edvalson

The bamboo maze

The ruins of the Abbey

Marel and Tom in the hot seat

Together again. A new book, “The Highway Rat”

Does it look familiar?

Fountains Abbey

Flying ala Harry Potter

Training

YSA Beach trip in Bridlington

Caleb at Brimham Rocks

Chinese Hot pots for dinner

The Shambles, York

Betty’s of York

On the sheep paths

At the Institute

Summer Term has begun. We teach an hour long “Introduction to Family History” class on Wednesday nights. We’re using an old 2012 manual and it is so out of date that we only use inspirational thoughts from it. Technology has completely changed Family History to the point where we really only need to inspire the class to do it and then show them all of the tools that practically do it for them. If you get connected in FamilySearch, ancestry.com or any of the other FH Sites, the technology will do a lot of the research for you and all you need do is keep it all together, check on the accuracy and record it. So much fun. I’m inspired all the time and although really busy doing other things, I am able to do lots of Family History here and there. The sites keep sending me names to do and most of the names are from England. Since I believe the veil between earth and heaven is very thin, and my family in heaven is intimately connected to me, I figure they’re clamoring for me to find them and “sort them out” as we say here in the UK.

Last weekend, I finished doing some FH work, closed my computer and the next time I opened I saw the “dreaded question mark on the folder” sign from Apple. That means my operating system is missing and not in action. Luckily I backed everything up about a month ago, so we took is down to the apple store and Max, the Genius figured out that we could wipe the drive clean, put in a new OS and add my files etc. later. They would also fix a scratch on my screen - and all for nothing. Now I know why I do Apple. This is, of course, also why I believe I’m lifted up by celestial help.

In other technology news - I got to speak at Allyson’s daughter, Clara’s baptism last week. Yes, she was baptized in Texas where she lives, but I was able to speak from a video hookup so we could watch the baptism and she and everyone else could watch me giving the talk about the interesting fact that I, Dana Jay, was baptized on May 26, 1971, Allyson Jay was baptized on May 26, 1989, and Clara Jay was baptized on May 26, 2018. We are so organized.

So many blessings on the mission. I’m also grateful that my health is much better and thank you for your many prayers in my behalf. Our Chinese friend, Andy, is soon to graduate with his degree in Physiotherapy and return to Hong Kong. We wanted to do a HotPot gathering before he left so Elder E. And I went to the Chinese supermarket and bought a HotPot and piles of food for the party to be held this Wednesday. We did HotPots a few months ago with the Mandarin speaking Conference here at the Institute and were wanting to do it one more time to learn how to do it ourselves. After the shopping trip, Andy took us to a great Chinese restaurant and ordered dim sum. We actually ate Deep Fried Squid Tentacles, Salted fish and chicken fried rice, some kind of pork wrapped in eatable Saran Wrap (it looked like it) and some kind of crab or prawns balls..not sure. Elder E. Loves this kind of adventurous eating, but I’m not so hot on it. However, it was great. I loved everything and when we were done and said goodbye to Andy, we walked home which meant going up 60 steps. Ha! I laugh at those steps. Yes, I was breathing heavily, but relaxed on the mile walk back home. It felt great to get outside and walk.

So today is a big day for us. It’s the day Marel and her family arrive at the Institute. We’re pretty excited. A lot of the students are finishing exams and going home so the population is down a bit and we have time to travel around with the Stocks. We’re off to Alnwick Castle tomorrow to take Harry Potter flying lessons so really looking forward to spending the day up north at one of the Harry Potter movie sites. We’re also going to Malham Cove, another HP site close to us and a steam engine trip to Bolton Abbey and various other sites around this area. We’ll tell you more about that in our next blog. Love and blessings to all.

Sister and Elder E.