Edvalsons in England: 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.