Edvalsons in England: 15 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