Edvalsons in England: July 2018

July 15, 2018 - already?!!! THE BLOG POST

Don’t you just love summer time? We have the windows open most of the time. I still get chilly sometimes, but mostly it feels wonderful. We do miss the beach and our green, cool back yard in West Linn. We have a great view from our top floor flat over looking the campus and tree lined streets, but the front lawn is now burnt hay and the back is a carpark so there is no grassy area on which to luxuriate. That’s okay - we’re missionaries after all and shouldn’t be luxuriating too much.

It’s been Football Fever here most of the month and in an effort to keep the Institute viable, we’ve shown pieces of all of the matches on our big screen down in the lounge. We’ve had some pretty exciting pizza parties here as you can imagine. For the Family History class last week - when England played Croatia - we served Costco pizza and chocolate cake to about 15 World Cup Fans. However, in an effort to keep the integrity of the Family History experience, at Half Time we played “Ancestors Around You” a great game found on FamilySearch.org wherein everyone turns on their iPhones and sees if they are related to each other. That was a hit and Elder E and I found out we are related to several of the YSA - one from Fremont CA and three from this area - where both of us have ancestry so guess that makes sense. One came through my Dad’s line and three of them through our Mother’s sides. No Swedes here at the Institute. We also found out that we are 11th Cousins with each other as well.

This week we also had a couple English cultural experiences. Our friend, Oscar won two tickets to the Great Yorkshire Show and since he was busy that day, he gave them to us. I had been wondering if Yorkshire did anything similar to the Tillamook County or the Oregon State Fair. They do and this was it! So we spent the day at the show wandering around the booths, trying their different cheeses - they have about 800 different kinds here. We saw their cows and their horses, dog training was fun and we even went into the Grandstand to watch the Horse Jumping competitions. No Pig N Ford Races here. They did have Lorenzo - a French performer who stands on the backs of two large white stallions while surrounded by eight more other beautiful and quite large horses and gallops around the ring to DisneyWorld sounding music. Very entertaining. We loved the whole day and brought Oscar back a basketful of Yorkshire specialty breads, pork pie, cupcakes and other goodies. We also FINALLY got to hear someone sing “O Jerusalem”. heavenly. To hear and see Lizzy Jones sing this gorgeous rendition (similar to what we heard) go to https://youtu.be/T3cNV2VRykE.

Saturday we took our new National Trust Cards to a beautiful treasure house just a short drive away from Leeds. It’s called Nostell and includes over 300 acres of parkland, meadows, lakes and gardens. They were celebrating the 300th birthday of Chippendale who was born in Otley, a lovely town just outside of Leeds. The house includes over 100 items designed and supplied by him.

Lest you think this is more vacation than mission, we did have a wonderful District Council Meeting with our fellow missionaries this week, Elder E. taught an inspiring devotional on Patience by Elder Neil Maxwell and I finished reading The Book of Mormon for the second time since coming out here.

I must mention the fact that we missed the Trusty Family Reunion on July 4th. This was only the 3rd time I’ve missed this yearly event in my life. I heard it was wonderful - as it always is. My lesson on that very day in our Family History class was about the importance of giving children a strong family narrative. We had a wonderful discussion in our class about creating those narratives and the fact that studies have shown how helpful it can be in building confidence, competence and resilience in all ages. I have experienced that in my own life. My sweet class knew I was missing the reunion and after class they presented us with a thank you card and gave me a beautiful copy of my favorite “Pride and Prejudice”. So kind and thoughtful and they are quite our family here in England.

With love,

Sister and Elder Edvalson

Celebrate with Costco cake

Just like the Oregon State Fair

Watching the world Cup

The Great Lorenzo

More of the Great Yorkshire Show

Nostell

Walking around the grounds at Nostell

Blog Post: July 2, 2018

Greetings from Merry Old England!

We’re not sure where the time has gone, but see that it’s been 2 weeks since we last reported our doings. We’re happy to report that there’s been a British heat wave, which has meant that it’s been sunny and warm every day with daytime temperatures in the lower to mid-80’s but still cooling off at night into the 50’s. With our flat being on the 4^th floor just under the roof, we’re grateful to have several skylights that will tilt open to allow the fresh breeze to blow through the flat and help it cool off. (Heat does rise and it otherwise can get quite toasty by the end of the day). We were told that we’d get an occasional summer like day but not with any frequency or regularity but we’re not complaining. It feels like a Portland July or August, but the sun doesn’t set until about 9:40 pm so we’re enjoying it.

Our Institute Summer schedule continues unabated, but it is definitely a more relaxed routine with not as many students around as usual. The professional students (medicine, dentistry and nursing) are still either in classes or clinics, but the rest are done until late September. That said, we still get a pretty good turnout for our classes and Family Home Evenings and movie nights. Sister Edvalson has done most of the lesson preparation and delivery for our “Family History” classes and gives a 15 minute or so doctrinal review and then focuses on individual research help. We regularly get 8 to 10 attending, although who attends seems to fluctuate. We have a big family tree logo poster set up in the kitchen where everyone who has found an ancestor’s name to submit for temple work poses and we hang a picture of them on the tree with the names they’ve submitted being a leaf on the tree. We’ve had a good response so far with another month yet to go.

Our Thursday night meal and class on “Principles of Leadership”, taught by our Institute Director Joe McMorn has also been fairly well attended with 15-20 here each week. We still do our “Friday morning Devotional and Pancake Breakfast” (with Buttermilk syrup always—Thanks Marel & Tom) where we are reviewing “Classic LDS talks”. We’ve been highlighting the lives of the speakers and showing clips from their talks. So far we’ve done Chieko Okazaki (Cat’s Cradle of Kindness), Bruce R McConkie (The Purifying Power of Gethsemane), Gordon B. Hinckley (Stand Strong Against the Wiles of the World—Proclamation on the Family), Wendy Watson Nelson (Hope of Israel), Boyd K. Packer (The Mediator), and Jeffrey R. Holland (Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence). It’s been an adventure trying to pare down our favorites! If you’ve got a favorite—let us know and we’ll consider adding it to our list!

We continue with our Friday night movie nights too. We did “Hidden Figures” to the rave reviews of all our women professional students plus Oscar our resident actuarial student. It was a big hit. We followed up with “Return to Me” which everyone also really enjoyed. Then last Friday, for the first time since being here, we had no one show up! (Some had requested “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” but no one came…..we’ll take that one off the list). In actuality, June 30 was the end of everyone’s annual housing contracts and they had to move out by that date if they hadn’t renewed their housing for the next year…..so we had several YSA’s come by to “temporarily” store their things here at the Institute until they could move into their new flats this week).

We enjoyed a Saturday night event with several senior missionary couples when we went to the Pontefract Proms. It was an outdoor concert of classical music and show tunes or soundtracks performed by the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra at the Pontefract Castle ruins. It is an evening picnic and concert ending with British patriotic music and a musically synchronized fireworks display. Lots of flag waving at the end. Our host brought flags from Yorkshire, England, and the Union Jack (classic UK flag). They all sing “Land of Hope and Glory” at the end to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance”. One of the local members is gracious enough to organize periodic social or theatrical events for the senior missionaries. We have recently added 3 new senior couples, one in York, one in Sheffield and another one in Leicester. We enjoyed getting to know them and welcoming them to the mission.

We had our interviews with our Mission President and his wife Sister Turvey and it’s always a good experience to spend some individual time with them…..they love the missionaries so much and are great leaders in calling for “high love and high expectations” from each missionary. Speaking of mission news, our mission went from covering 7 Stakes to 10 Stakes as of July 1, 2018. We added the Leicester, Nottingham and Norwich Stakes to our mission with the dissolution of the England London South Mission. The rest of the British Missions were reconfigured geographically to accommodate that change. It will mean much more travel time for the Turveys and those that need to travel to Norwich, which is 4 or more hours drive time away from Leeds.

We traveled to the Preston England Temple on Saturday as part of our Family History Class. It was a lovely day to go there and it’s a beautiful journey of 50 miles to get there. It is in the boundaries of the Birmingham Mission, so we need permission from our Mission President to travel there. On our way there, we traveled through a heavily smoky region due to some wildfires near Manchester in the moors. It reminded us of all the smoke we had in Portland late last summer with all the wildfires we had in Oregon. Not a pleasant smell. They closed several schools near the fires as the air quality was so poor. These fires are in areas rich in peat, so even though the fire is extinguished on the surface, they can continue to burn underground and resurface elsewhere days later, so it’s been quite a concern.

We’ve been in the thick of the World Cup enthusiasm here in “real” football country. England is still in it, and we bought special England Football hats at the Leeds Costco to celebrate. We’ve broadcast a couple of the matches here after classes and FHE’s. Each of the wards have had viewing parties at various member’s homes. We’ll continue to enjoy the spectacle.

We’re enjoying our stay here in the UK very much. That doesn’t mean we don’t miss all of you immensely, but we thank you for your cards, letters, emails, prayers and support! We’ll miss the annual Trusty Family Reunion on the 4^th of July later this week and send our love and greetings to you all!

Have a great summer!

Love,

Elder & Sister Edvalson