23 December 2018

Mission Blog Post for 23 December 2018

Dear Family and Friends:
We’re just hours away from Christmas day now…..so we send our love and greetings to you all.  We seem to sail from one day and week to the next with days full of activities and preparation for the next activity!  Highlights from the last 2 weeks include:

We enjoyed a faculty Christmas lunch at a downtown Italian restaurant.  We walked to the city center (it’s about 15 minutes away) and enjoyed a couple of hours together with our director Brother McMorn and our office specialist Marian Rider.  When we first arrived last November that would’ve been very difficult for Sister E who was still in recovery mode from pneumonia, but now it’s a pleasant walk and invigorating in the winter air.  We’re blessed to have good health in doing this work. 

For our last hymn class of December, we did a service activity and went caroling to a care home called Cookridge Court Care Home in the adjoining suburb of Horsforth, fairly near the mission office.  We had about 20 YSA come with us and were accompanied on the violin by Adam Smith who did a great job keeping us together.  Afterward the senior sister missionaries from the mission office were our guest chefs for the evening and we got warm with homemade soup, bread and brownies!  It helped bring on the Christmas spirit.

The next night we had an Institute Christmas Dinner at a downtown “carvery” restaurant which was highly anticipated.  50 of us walked downtown and enjoyed a meal cooked by someone other than us!!  (Last year we prepared 4 turkey “crowns” (mostly breast meat) and served those 50 people in our kitchen…..so we especially appreciated getting to do this courtesy of the stake YSA budget).  A carvery is like a buffet where you pick all your own vegetables and gravy but you are served a certain portion of meats and Yorkshire pudding by the staff.  You can get all you can eat on the vegetable portion but only the one serving of meat.  Many of the YSA piled their plates high for the experience!   (Some play football after Institute on Thursdays so are happy to have a big meal).

On Saturday Dec 15 we traveled to York for a mission wide Senior Missionary activity.  We gathered at the York Stake Center and made our way to the old city center to wander the town for a few hours.  We took some of those that hadn’t been there before and showed them the Minster, the Shambles and other environs.  York was especially beautiful with all the Christmas decorations and lights around town.  It was also especially frigid, as there was a fairly stiff wind and the threat of freezing rain/snow.  We assembled at the entrance to Bettys restaurant and, along with the York YSA, did some caroling for about 30 minutes.  There were a lot of shoppers out so it was well received.  We then returned to the Stake Center for a lovely meal and socializing.  The newest senior couple, the Palmers had just arrived in country about 2 hours before the event, and afterwards had to receive their mission car and drive 2 hours south to their assigned area of Nottingham.  We didn’t envy them that long drive after being up for at least 24 hours!  We were happy to get in our heated vehicle and do our 1 hour drive back to Leeds. 

On Sunday the 16th we enjoyed an evening meal with the Leeds First Ward Bishop and Sister Barker along with Ben and Rachel Terry and their daughter Eva.  Sister Barker is the Stake Relief Society President and the Terrys are here for a year while he is on a sabbatical from the University of Nebraska where he is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.  They serve as the ward YSA advisor couple and do a wonderful job of helping minister to our large group of YSA.  We discussed the needs and concerns for the coming year and had a nice evening together comparing Christmas traditions. 

On Wednesday Dec 20 we made a return trip to York to have our Christmas Social for the northern half of the mission (5 Stakes—Leeds, Hull, York, Sunderland and Billingham).  These are all day affairs with both spiritual and fun components.  We could all wear our P-day clothes and were encouraged to wear our Christmas jumpers (sweaters).  The British are very big on what we would call “ugly” Christmas sweaters and attire.  It was all quite festive.  There was a full on Christmas dinner of turkey with all the trimmings.  Then there was an afternoon talent show which went overtime, so we skipped the number Sister E had prepared.  (It was a parody of Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance which she called Modern Mission President.  It was very clever and up to her usual standards!—hopefully we’ll get to do it another time). 

Yesterday we made our 3rd foray past York to Castle Howard.  It’s about 20 minutes past York on the way toward Scarborough.  It is a treasure house that is very opulent and decorated especially for Christmas.  The theme was the 12 Days of Christmas and there were 12 different rooms decorated with the theme of one of those days.  There were also other decorations about the way the 12th day of Christmas was celebrated.  We went with Sisters Lyle and Lee from the mission office.  It was quite a pleasant day for the second day of winter, with sunshine and a temperature in the mid 40’s.   We had a nice meal and looked at the different shops after our tour of the house and grounds.  These are quite popular, especially at Christmas.  It was a fun day out after a whirlwind first 3 weeks of December. 

Meanwhile, in our regular assignment at the Institute, most of the students have returned home for Christmas.  However, there are some that are staying and others that have jobs and are still here.  For those, we have held quite a number of movie nights which have been well received.  We’ve watched:
Muppet Christmas Carol, It’s a Wonderful Life, Little Women, While You Were Sleeping, Nativity!.  There will be a few more to come before the break is over.

Well, that’s our report for now.  We love being here.  We’re looking forward to our Christmas celebration here.  We wish you all a blessed day remembering the “reason for the season”.  We’re blessed to wear a badge with his name on it every day and are trying to be good disciples and representatives of His church. 

Our love and hugs to each of you!
Elder Tim & Sister Dana

9 December 2018

To all our dear friends and family,

“Christmas bells are ringing..hear what they say to you…Jesus is born

In Bethlehem….in Bethlehem.    No idea why that song came out of my typing fingers since I haven’t sung it or even heard it this year, but there it is and it is Christmas time.   Last Movie Night we watched  The Man Who Invented Christmas.  It’s a fanciful story of how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol and it was quite good actually.  We enjoyed it.  It made us think of the years we produced  the musical, A Christmas Carol for the Lake Oswego Stake Play.  Needless to say - we are in England and they certainly recognize Christmas in many ways - some similar to us and some very different.  For example, the Elementary Schools put on a Nativity during Christmas time.  Not just private schools or church schools -all schools.  No one seems in the least concerned or peeved about it and everyone seems to have lovely memories of when they were in their Christmas Nativity program.  I think they look at it more as an historical story so religion doesn’t seem to enter in to upset anyone with different beliefs.

So here is the rundown on our last couple weeks here in the Mission.  Allyson and her family took off for London then home and we went for our annual “flu jab”.  That’s what they call the flu shots here and everyone is quite protective of the importance of vaccinations.  The mission pays for our “jab” so it was quickly taken care of.  Soon thereafter, we began to celebrate the season in earnest with Monday Home Evening spent decorating the Institute.  We divided the 25 or 30 students into teams and some of them put up the two Christmas trees in the lounge and eating area; some of them put together some water packages for our upcoming trip downtown to serve the homeless (more on this later)and some made gorgeous Tom Stock snowflakes.  The Student Council planned and ran this program and they wanted to do snowflakes so we got Tom to make us a tutorial from Alaska since he is the master snowflake maker and Elder E. taught one of the teams.  We played loud Christmas music throughout the building and brought in the Christmas Spirit!

The following week, we packed up our water packages, added some sock/toiletry bundles and some donated clothing and blankets and set off for downtown Leeds.  There is a lot of public help for the poor here, but in spite of that there are still many homeless people on the streets of Leeds - usually wrapped in blankets and lying in doorways or alleys.  Some have dogs and some ask for money, but mostly they just sleep or ignore the passing crowds.  There is a group in our Church Ward who goes downtown one Friday night a month and sets up a free shop with clothes, blankets, food, other needs on the steps of the public art museum and the Town Hall and the homeless come and pick out what they need.  I spoke with the woman who is charge and she gave me the rundown so we knew what to do.  She said they have taken hot chocolate down and of course, lots of them ask for coffee or alcoholic drinks which we don’t supply - but many of them told her they’d just love some clean water bottles so we brought those with bags of chips (they are called “crisps” here) some cookies (bisquits) and warm blankets or clothes - mittens, hats etc.  We had about 30 YSA with us and they would get down and talk to the men and women  and many were so appreciative.  Finally, I had one hat left and we had moved out of the area where most of the homeless were camped out, but I saw a hatless man walk by a garbage can and reach in and gab something out to eat so I asked him if he needed a hat.  He said, “Really?  I’d love that.” So he got my last hat.  I guess he was surprised because he wasn’t just lying on the street like everyone  else - he was foraging. 

We also held our Carol Concert this last Sunday and it turned out just lovely.  We packed the house and hopefully no one could tell we kind of threw it together in a month.  Our directors were great and I love productions, of course - but what I really value is when the process is as good as the production and it was.  The rehearsals were fun and spiritual and we all enjoyed ourselves so much, I think we’re going to put together an Easter concert for April.

Our classes are winding down before the students all leave this weekend.  Our favorite has been the Hymns Class and we’re going to miss it.  We have two more classes in January before we start the next semester.  For Christmas the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square always puts together a video that tells a story and has the choir supplying a musical soundtrack so we showed several of those and it was such a good addition to our Christmas festivities.   We would absolutely recommend you go online and look at these touching, amusing, sweet and beautiful stories with the background of Christmas carols sung by the choir: 

https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/watch-listen/watch-videos/christmas-music-videos.html

This next week before everyone leaves we are taking a break from our usual cooking, serving and cleaning up dinner.  Instead, we’re taking the hymn class and going caroling at a Care Home (memory care) where we went last year.  It was a beautiful place and all the residents were having  tea with the women in gloves and sweet hats.  Everyone loved the young people singing to them.  Then two of our dear Senior Missionary friends who work in the Mission Office are coming over to the Institute with homemade chicken soup and cookies for afterwards.  Thursday night instead of classes and more of us cooking etc.the Stake YSA  budget is paying for all of us to have a Christmas dinner at a local “Carvery”.  That would be a restaurant that specializes in roasted meats and all the sides that go with them - including Yorkshire puddings.  What riches!  A Whole week off from food prep and dish washing. Last year we prepared 4 turkeys so this year I think we’ll just fix one for our own Christmas dinner. 

And so we’ve spent this year teaching, learning, sharing and thinking about  the Savior, Jesus Christ and His wonderful Gospel.   Now we can celebrate His Birth and how meaningful it will be to us.  There is no downside to His Gospel:  Eternal Life eternal joy; eternal families.  The veil between us and our Heavenly Parents and our Savior is thin so the veil between us and our earthly family who has gone before us is also thin.

We are grateful for them and we are grateful for you. Thank you all for your support given in many kind ways.  You make a difference in our lives. 

Love from us Senior Missionaries, Sister and Elder E.

 

putting up the Christmas tree

Making snowflakes

Wrapping bottles

 

Carol Concert

YSA at the York ball