Edvalsons in England: 1 August 2018

Blog Post – 1 August 2018

Summer marches on and here we are in August! The past 2+ weeks have seemingly flown by and we have finished our Summer Term courses. We had steady attendance at the last 2 weeks of our courses where we finished up “Family History” (taught by Sister Edvalson), “Friday Devotional and Pancake Breakfast” (shared teaching with each of us alternating weeks), and Elder Edvalson substituting for our Institute Director Brother McMorn and teaching one week of his course on “Principles of Leadership”. We also still prepare and serve a meal to those who sign up on the Thursday evenings before class that night. Everyone loves any Mexican food we serve….it seems to be some of the most popular menu choices.

We had a strong finish to the Family History Course with almost all of our students submitting names for temple ordinances and attaching their submitted names on leaves of a big poster of a family tree in our kitchen. We had about 8 to 10 students in attendance each Wednesday evening following a meal that the students prepared. We are continuing Wednesday evening family history workshops during our 2 month interlude before Fall Term classes start in October.

We held our first Zone Conferences since the England Leeds Mission was reconfigured on July 1^st. With the closing of the London South Mission, all the other missions in the UK were reconfigured. That meant that we went from a 7 Stake area to a 10 Stake area. We inherited the Norwich Stake from the London Mission, and the Nottingham and Leicester Stakes from the Birmingham Mission. At our July transfer, each of the new Southern Zones had a new missionary come to them from our old mission and one of their companions transferred to a Northern area to begin a melding, both physically and spiritually, of the new mission. For the Turveys, our Mission President, it means much more travel to visit the Southern areas. We now have 3 regional Zone Conferences instead of 2. We are now in the Central Zones area, whereas we used to be the Southern Zones. At any rate, we gathered in Huddersfield as the Leeds, Huddersfield and Hull Zones to receive instruction from our Mission leaders, mostly President and Sister Turvey. As Senior Missionaries, we help direct the flow of traffic and get the lunch served in a timely manner which this time was delivered Subway sandwiches. They are all day events, starting at 9:00 am and ending around 5:00 pm. Each of the newly arrived and the soon to depart missionaries are asked to share their testimonies at the conclusion, which is always a highlight. The young missionaries have a great time seeing many of their friends in one setting.

We also concluded our Friday devotionals reviewing “Classic LDS Talks”. These have been fun for us to look back on talks that stood out to us and others as more or less timeless. The last “classic talks” that we reviewed were “Cast Not Away Your Confidence” (Jeffrey R Holland), “Sunday Will Come” (Joseph B Wirthlin), “Patience” (Neal A Maxwell)—shout out to Cousin Mary Ward, “Filling the Measure of Your Creation” (Patricia Holland), and “Them of the Last Wagon” (J Reuben Clark) combined with “Modern Pioneers” (Dallin H Oaks). These have been a joy to review and prepare. We usually review a biography of each speaker and it helps the students get to know current and past Church leaders that they may not be familiar with. “The Principles of Leadership” class Elder E taught was regarding the principles of delegation and righteous decision making. That was also fun to prepare and discuss with lots of references to Christ like attributes and counsel from General Church officers.

We also attended a Barbecue with the Leeds 1^st Ward, our home ward, where the majority of our YSA’s attend. That was a fun night out…..and the British heat wave and dry weather have continued, although we have had a couple days of rain recently which were welcomed. We also got to meet the parents of several of our YSA students since our last blog entry. We met Lydia Smith’s mum who is from Hull. Lydia is from a family of 11 children and she just graduated with a degree in Chemistry. We met Andy Lau’s family from Hong Kong as they were here to attend his graduation from the University of Bradford with a degree in Physiotherapy before his return home to work. Andy served his mission in Melbourne Australia. Andy’s father works for Mattel (toys) and oversees toy manufacturers in China, his brother just got his mission call to Toronto, and his sister is attending BYU (Provo) after serving a mission. We also met Elysia Kirby’s mum and brother who were visiting from Chester (near Liverpool). Elysia just completed her 4^th year of dental school, with one more year to get her degree. We also met the family of Jordan Whitaker, who is from Birmingham and will be attending the University of Leeds this fall. He just returned from his mission in the German speaking Alpine Mission (Austria, Switzerland & southern Germany). As you can tell, we have a very diverse student body and it’s really fun to meet people from all over the world while serving here.

Last Saturday we had our quarterly gathering of Senior Missionaries serving in the mission. With the addition of the 3 new stakes, we now have 27 senior missionaries serving here! It’s so interesting to see the variety of people and assignments we all represent. We have Sisters Hibbert and Hunt (2 widows who are literally sisters) assigned as companions to strengthen the women’s auxiliaries in Middlesbrough. The Metcalfs who are the Branch President and Relief Society President in Peterlee. Sisters Nelson and Wynn (2 widowed best friends from Boise) who are also serving as women’s auxiliary specialists in Hartlepool. Elder & Sister Fox who are YSA (Young Single Adult) and MLS (Member Leadership Support) missionaries in Hull (we were together in the MTC with them). The Abbots who are MLS missionaries in Stamford. The Mauldins who are Military Relations Missionaries in Thetford (He’s a retired 2 Star Admiral). The Jubbers who are YSA Missionaries in Sheffield. The Littles (from the UK) who are MLS missionaries—and she is the Mission Nurse—who are in Newcastle. The Crocketts are YSA Missionaries who are serving along with their special needs daughter in York. Then there are the office missionaries the Flockharts and Sisters Lyle, Lee and Jackson. It’s quite a group! We visited Kirkstall Abby and the adjoining Abbey House Museum which shows off life in Victorian era England. We also had a slide show of each missionary’s family and a 2 meals together at the Turvey’s home in the Adel neighborhood of Leeds.

We had our Interviews with the Turveys and our Zone Instruction time this past Tuesday. The Mission President interviews each missionary in the mission once per transfer period (6 weeks), so with nearly 200 missionaries, that in itself takes 8 days to happen. We never cease to marvel at how busy the Turveys are each week of the mission. They also visit each Stake whenever there is a Stake Conference—that’s 20 Sunday’s per year and they host a monthly musical fireside for the mission each Fast Sunday held at their home and broadcast on Facebook Live each time. President Turvey calls their schedule “relentless”. They do a wonderful job managing this active and diverse group of missionaries. Speaking of diversity, they published a list of the home countries of each of the missionaries. I’ll include it in the photos for this week’s entry. It’s remarkably diverse. The majority are from the USA, with 102 missionaries. Then 12 from the UK, 10 each from the Philippines and Canada, 7 from Germany and then 1 to 3 from 33 other countries!

We continue with our weekly Family Home Evenings (FHE) on Monday evenings where a spiritual message is given and discussed, announcements of activities for the week ahead are reviewed and some socializing, refreshments and games are enjoyed. Friday evenings are our movie nights, and we saw Jane Austen’s “Emma” last week with “The Terminal” (Tom Hanks) scheduled for this coming Friday.

A couple of weeks ago we also accompanied one of the missionary’s friends (investigator) from Yemen who is seeking refugee status here in the UK. He wanted someone to be with him while he had to describe and have documented his injuries received during a kidnapping and beating while he was trying to seek medical care for his mother and her hip fracture in Jordan. He needed to document his injuries with a local physician at the hospital who could send a report to his solicitor. He was beaten and tortured by a group that opposes his refusal to work for one of the opposition forces in the proxy civil war in his home country. His name is Sameer and he was trained as an aeronautical engineer in Europe. He is such a sweet and gentle person. He now is trying to recover from his physical injuries and the accompanying PTSD that he incurred. The documentation was to support his application for asylum here, as he will likely be unable to safely return to his home country. We were so heartbroken to listen to his story but he was grateful to us and the others he has met at Church for the welcome and emotional support he has received and to have someone just listen and help him share his story.

Elder Edvalson was saddened to hear of the recent passing of his mother Angela’s last surviving sibling. Uncle Doug Smurthwaite lived his life in Baker City, Oregon and passed away at the age of 87. While we’ll miss being able to attend his memorial service, it’s been good to hear from several family members and share our memories of life with Uncle Doug. He was a consummate story teller and wonderful musician (saxophonist), playing in several combos in the jazz and big band genres.

We didn’t feel like we’ve been as busy as our fall and winter terms were, but when I look at what we’ve documented here, it seems like there’s always a lot going on! We’re still loving it here and appreciate the cards, letters, packages and emails you send! Thanks for keeping in touch. The half-way point of our mission comes on August 6^th---hard to believe!

Love,

Elder & Sister Edvalson