Edvalsons in England: September 2018

Edvalsons in England Blog Entry---9 September 2018

Greetings from England! Although it is not yet officially autumn, the weather and foliage is acting like it. We are still enjoying a mixture of sun, clouds and rain but the days are rapidly growing shorter and the some of the leaves are starting to turn and start dropping. We are still on hiatus from our classes for the rest of this month, but we have started to have new and returning students begin to return to the Institute. The professional students (medicine & dentistry) are back in their clinics and the students of Leeds Beckett University begin classes this coming week. The University of Leeds undergraduate students still don’t start school until October 1.

On Monday evening August 27 we were able to attend the final performance at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate of “Pirates of Penzance”. It was fabulous and of course, we know all the words and story from Sister Edvalson’s having directed this show 4 times. The voices were wonderfully operatic. We took along 2 of the senior sister missionaries from our mission office and had a great evening together in this delightful old theater. The organizers of the event even came out and did a sing-a-long of several varied numbers from the G & S Songbook. It was a delightful evening!

For 3 days in late August, we had a “Mission Tour” by Elder Paul Johnson who serves as President of the Europe area of the Church, is a member of the Seventy and is stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. A Mission Tour is when a General Authority is assigned to annually review the status of the Mission and meet with the missionaries and mission leaders and give instruction and encouragement. Two meetings were held by Elder & Sister Johnson. The northern half of the mission gathered at the York Stake Center and the southern half of the mission gathered the next day at the Nottingham Stake Center. The final day was in Leeds with Elder & Sister Johnson meeting with the Mission Leaders (Zone and Sister Training Leaders). We had a wonderful meeting. The primary focus of the meeting was to promote unity amongst the missionaries. As of July 1 with the closing of the England London South Mission, the Norwich Stake was added to our mission from the England London Mission and the Leicester and Nottingham Stakes were added from the England Birmingham Mission. The UK and Ireland went from having 5 missions to 4 missions so there was a general shuffling of boundaries as part of that change.

Elder & Sister Johnson described the 3 different cultures in the Book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon when those that followed Alma (Sr.) and the people of Limhi united themselves with the people of Mosiah to form one new society. The mixing of these 3 cultures happened in a harmonious and spiritual way to the benefit of all. The Johnsons wanted the 3 mission cultures here to have an equally harmonious union after coming together and “likened the Scriptures” in this case comparing President and Sister Turvey to Mosiah and the opportunity to bring in these 2 other groups in a harmonious and uplifting way. It was a great message and was well received. Before the meeting they greeted each missionary individually as they entered the chapel and took a few moments to have an individual conversation about everyone’s assignment and where they were from.

On Saturday September 1, we were able to spend our “P” (Preparation) Day making a drive to the Northeast through the North York Moors National Park and on to the town of Whitby. It was home to an old Abbey and was the port from which Captain James Cook, the English Explorer, sailed his fleet. His ships were constructed here and it was also the port from which the coal mined in Yorkshire was shipped down to London during the heyday of coal mining. Today it is a tourist beach town and we picked a good day to come as it was about 75 degrees (F) and was the last truly summer like day that we have had. There is a nice beach plus a fairly big harbor and the Abbey and church which sit overlooking the town. We had a fun walk around the Abbey ruins with our tour guide (audio tour) narrated by Judi Dench.

We also held an organizational meeting to plan our welcome back to school week of activities known as “Freshers Week”. We will hold different types of welcome activities each night at the Institute the last week of September. This coincides with “Freshers Week” at the University of Leeds where new students are introduced to the many extracurricular activities of student clubs and societies in addition to their schools. The legal drinking age in the UK is 18 and we are told that alcoholic beverages are free and flow freely at these events and we want to provide an alternative to these events where our LDS students can be comfortable as well as discover all the Institute has to offer this coming year.

We continue to host our Home Evening group each Monday evening and a Wednesday evening dinner and social time. We’ve had up to 18 at our Home Evening meeting and a dozen or so for our Wednesday evening dinner. We showed “Singing in the Rain” as our movie on August 31 and we didn’t hold one this past Friday (see below for reason).

We were delighted to be able to host Dana’s cousin Tami Manning along with her husband Mark from Jefferson, Oregon who arrived on Wednesday evening (Sept 5) and departed this morning. We got permission from President Turvey to do some sightseeing with them while they were here and thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful time together. They arrived in time to join the other YSAs for our Wednesday dinner. Then on Thursday we drove to Haworth and spent a few hours touring the village and the Bronte’s family home (now a museum) and nearby church. From there we made circular loop through the Yorkshire Dales with a visit to the Wensleydale Creamery (think Wensleydale Cheese from the “Wallace & Gromit” stop action animation stories and movies). From there it was on to view each of the 3 parts of Aysgarth Falls and drive on to Thirsk for a welcome late evening meal at a nice hotel restaurant.

On this past Friday we toured Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey, 2 National Trust Properties that highlight an old Abbey which sits adjacent to an 18^th Century “Capability Brown” type formal English garden. These are both beautiful areas which were very picturesque and we got our 10,000+ steps in this day by having a good walk around each park. Studley Royal is also home to a large deer park which we drove through on our entrance to the car park. It also contains a great house which was home to hundreds of boys who were housed and trained to work during the Great Depression (a project similar to America’s CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)).

On Saturday we drove to York and visited the Shambles, the old city and spent a few hours in the York Minster, learning about its 800 or so year’s history of the current building along with the 1200 years of history of the site which was the home of previous churches and a Roman settlement.

This was almost like a 3 day vacation as we spent time with dear family members with whom we have spent many a pleasant trip. The Mannings had just completed a tour of Scotland, and since we were so close, they extended their time here in the UK by driving the 4 hours south from Edinburgh to see us and what kind of things we’ve been doing here as senior missionaries. We miss them already!

We hope you are all doing well! We feel like we’ve been so blessed to be here and serve with the Saints here in Leeds. We have welcomed a few new students in recent weeks. Mateo Llamas has come here from Northern Spain to have a year abroad at the University of Leeds, which is a sister university with his university in Spain. He served his mission here in Leeds about 4 years ago and has enjoyed seeing several of the members he knew during his mission. He is doing English Studies so he’s happy to be here. Katia Wesby has moved here from Miami to study for her Master’s Degree in Sports Psychology at Leeds Beckett University. She is originally from Argentina but has lived in Miami since she was young. And sadly, we said goodbye to our YSA student Melissa Morgan from Fremont California who has completed her Master’s degree in American Literature. Her parents came on Friday to pick her up. We met them and they left after Church today to tour the UK before returning home.

That’s our report for the past 2 weeks. It seems we’re always busy and it’s a blessing for us to be here. We send our love to family and friends!