Edvalsons in England: 4 March 2019

Greetings from England!

We send our love and greetings from the land of crumpets and clotted cream (two things we’ll definitely miss after we return). But from what we read in the news, we’re grateful to be here. There has been only one evening where we had a few snowflakes, but we’ve had a couple of weeks with temperatures reaching to the 60s with the daffodils now in full bloom. Even though Leeds is about as far north as Edmonton, Alberta it has a much milder climate due to the Gulf Stream current giving England its milder climate than would be expected.

Our normal schedule continues with our teaching 3 classes per week along with keeping the Institute building open from 10 am to 10 pm on weekdays. We get some help along the way with our support specialist Marian Rider, who works from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm Monday through Thursday which gives us a chance to slip out to buy all the supplies and groceries we need for the meals that get served here on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and the Family Home Evening treats for Monday evenings and the ingredients for pancake breakfasts and movie night treats on Fridays. We’ve become proficient grocery shoppers as part of our calling. We will miss the meals we eat together with the Young Single Adults, but we won’t miss the “washing up” (as they say over here) and will be glad to use a dishwasher and garbage disposal once again!

One of our out of the routine events since last we posted was that our stake hosted a regional dance on Friday 22 February 2019. We had a number of challenges to pull it off though. We were all set to borrow a lot of Christmas lights from an adjacent stake which the YSA from that stake had promised us, but it turned out they didn’t have permission to loan them out…..so at the last moment and with the blessing of our stake presidency councilor over YSA … we made a quick trip to IKEA and procured a goodly number of strings of lights to decorate the cultural hall. We had 2 different kinds of music offered at the dance. There was a live band hired which plays “Ceilidh” (pronounce KAY-lee) band which plays Celtic music and has a caller roam the floor to do dance instruction. They would call this barn dancing and it was quite fun. Sister E and I even got out there and showed our moves! During the middle of the dance, while the band took a break, the YSA played their playlist of contemporary music and had a more traditional dance. Then the band returned and wrapped it up with another hour of barn dancing concluding with the “Holey Poley” (Hokey Pokey)….which was a surprising hit! The 2 Elders Quorums of the wards that use the meetinghouse were there at 11:30 to supervise the cleanup and did a great job. By the time we got back home and put some things away, it was 2 am before we went to bed. One thing about being YSA missionaries…..we keep YSA hours! (Which for us seems more routine than not). We had visiting YSA from 17 different stakes from as far away as London come to the dance….so in that sense, it was a success in bringing a large group together.

Last Monday we also got to go out and inspect a new prospective apartment for the sister missionaries in the Wharfe Valley Ward. It is also NW of Leeds about a 30 minute drive away from the Institute. They needed a new place to live, and this one turned out to be just what they need. So the mission office started the paperwork, and we hope it works out for them.

Yesterday we also got to teach a Temple Preparation lesson with 2 of our YSA who are preparing to be endowed later this year….Katia Wesby and Katie Clark. They are roommates and such fun to be with.

We also were visiting with one of our Zone Leaders who is from Hamburg, Germany. His parents are their stake YSA adviser couple and had heard that the Leeds YSA were famous in the Europe area for all the activities and things they are doing. It turns out that about 6 to 9 months ago, our area advisors the Skoubyes, who are stationed at the Church Europe area offices in Frankfurt Germany, had asked us to send a list of all the things we do in regards to YSA activities. We sent them what we did each week as a routine. They then sent it out as an example to all who work with YSA in Europe. So I guess we’re famous in the circles we run in! Actually, we’re very blessed to be serving in a dedicated Institute building. There are only 3 of them in the UK (London, Manchester and Leeds). With this facility, and the opportunity to live in the building, it becomes easier to offer so many different courses and social networking and study places that church meetinghouses can’t provide. Plus, we are situated about 1 block from the main University of Leeds campus, so our students come here to study between classes, eat their lunch, take a nap, play some pool, foosball or table tennis, and use the building Wi-Fi to help do their homework. So you can see why we feel this has been the perfect mission for us! Great facility, great faculty, and great students!

We visited 2 outlying wards the last 2 Sundays. We attend one of 10 different wards or branches which constitute all the units in the Leeds Stake. A week ago we were at Dudley Hill Ward in south Bradford and yesterday at the Keighley Ward which is a suburb to the northwest of Leeds about a 50 minute drive from the Institute. We keep a chart of which wards we’ve attended and now figure we’ve made our last visit to some wards. This has been another blessing of being here…..we’ve gotten to know so many great Latter-day Saints for whom we will always have a soft spot in our hearts. The Bishop of the Dudley Hill Ward Terrence Rooney was an MP (Member of Parliament) for a number of years and now serves as a Bishop after having served with his wife a full time YSA mission themselves to Birmingham. He invited us to return to speak on Easter to their ward about the blessings of serving a senior mission and about the Saviour (notice the British spelling).

In our Teachings and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon class we have reviewed how the Bible and the Book of Mormon both witness of Christ, teach about the blessings of prayer and revelation and our need to be spiritually reborn among other things. In our Doctrines of the Gospel we’ve discussed the Sacrament, the Apostasy and the Restoration. And in our breakfast devotional we’ve reviewed a classic talk by Elder Jeffrey R Holland called “Lord, I Believe”, a recent BYU devotional talk by Elder Ulisses Soares called “Always Remember Him” and a talk by Elder David A Bednar called “A Welding Link” (Family History---I bet you know who taught that lesson!). Then on Thursday evenings we served lovely meals of tamale pie (tamale ingredients with corn bread baked on top) and baked chicken with potatoes and sun dried tomatoes. We end up having about 24-28 sign up for our Thursday night dinners. There are usually 50 to 60 who come to Institute, but some don’t arrive until dinner is over.

By 10 pm each night, I have to make the rounds through the building, looking at my watch and reciting the line from Pirates of Penzance…..”I love you all with affection unspeakable……but it’s the top of the tide and you must be off”. With that, we clean up the detritus from the evening and clamber back up to our 4th floor apartment, and if we’re lucky, talk to Marel or Allyson for 30 to 45 minutes before deciding we need to go to bed!

We think we might just want to sleep for a while and stare at the ocean for few weeks after coming home! But….no time to think about that now….there’s another lesson to prepare! You know, of course, that we love YOU all with affection unspeakable…..Cheers for now!

Elder & Sister Edvalson