A
month from today will be our last class here at the Institute, but let’s not go
there yet. I’d rather begin at the
beginning of April because May will come soon enough. We are looking forward to going home, but we
know we will miss our Senior Missionary life here in England.
April
6 and 7 was the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and we had full houses of YSA as we streamed the conference here in the
lounge live from Salt Lake City. Since there
is a 7 hour time difference, our two sessions ended each day at 11:00pm. We also served a dinner in between sessions
here so no one needed to leave. Saturday
we had pizza and Sunday was make your own sandwich bar. Since then we’ve had a fair amount of
discussion on which talks were the favorites.
Elder E’s favorite conference talk
was by Elder Kyle McKay of the Seventy. The title of the talk was, “The
Immediate Goodness of God.” This was the
first time we had heard Elder McKay speak and he was a compelling speaker for
sure. One of the main phrases from his
talk was: “Even while we are
patiently waiting upon the Lord, there are certain blessings that come to us
immediately.” He started by telling
a story about his young 5 year old son coming to him and announcing: “Dad, I’ve figured something out. I’ve
figured out that soon for you is a very long time for me.” He proceeded to talk about how time can
sometimes seem long to us if we are waiting for a certain blessing but we can
be assured in so many different ways that the Lord is there, is aware of us and
is sending blessings - some easy to recognize and others not as much - but
still as loving. He concluded his talk
in this way: “I bear witness that
Jesus Christ is the Great Deliverer, and in His name, I promise that as you
turn to Him with real intent and full purpose of heart, He will deliver you
from everything that threatens to diminish or destroy your life or joy. That
deliverance may take longer than you would like—perhaps a lifetime or longer.
So, to give you comfort, courage, and hope, to sustain and strengthen you to
that day of ultimate deliverance, I commend to you and testify of the immediate
goodness of God”
Mine was the talk by Sister Sharon
Eubank of the Relief Society Presidency about the light of Christ in our
lives. She spoke of how all of us have
times of darkness. The Lord said, “Fear
not, doubt not.” She ended in this way: “I testify you are beloved. The Lord knows how
hard you are trying. You are making progress. Keep going. He sees all your
hidden sacrifices and counts them to your good and the good of those you love.
Your work is not in vain. You are not alone. His very name, Emmanuel, means
‘God with us.’ He is surely with you.
Take a few more steps on the covenant path,
even if it’s too dark to see very far. The lights will come back on. I testify
of the truth in Jesus’s words, and they are filled with light: ‘Draw near unto
me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask,
and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’”
The next week started a three week long Easter
Break for some of the University students.
Many, especially the younger ones - went home for the break, but we have
still had plenty of students here. The
first week, our good friends from home, Jackie, Mike and granddaughter,
Brittany Cannon came to visit for a couple days. In their supportive way, they jumped right
into the activities here attending our Chinese Hotpot dinner and our “Book of Mormon” Class. The next day we took off for one of our
favorite spots, York complete with visits to the Harry Potter stores on the
Shambles and, of course tea at Betty’s.
Also lots of good conversation and story telling.
We finished off the week attending our
Institute Director’s 8 year old son, Barnaby’s, baptism. Brother McMorn is about Marel’s age and has 4
delightfully active and hilarious boys.
We are teaching no classes this week so Elder
E. And I are inspecting missionary flats.
Of course, we love these young missionaries - the same ages as our YSA
and full of faith, energy, humor and goodness.
I bring them peanut butter balls, Elder E. Fixes anything broken and we
make lists of what they still need in their flats - be it floor lamps or mold
spray.
This week we also went over to East Yorkshire
to visit our friends, Elder and Sister Fox.
They are from Sacramento serving YSA and supporting the Ward at Hull
which is about 60 miles from Leeds. We
became friends at the Mission Training Center and since we are all in the
England Leeds Mission, we see them periodically at conferences, but have not
had a chance to get together. They are
leaving a week before us so they invited us down for dinner and to see the
William Wilberforce House/Museum since they share our admiration for this
courageous 18th Century philanthropist who lead the fight to end the slave
trade in Britain. The museum is well
done, comprehensive and inspiring if you ever have a chance to stop in Hull or
take the opportunity to watch the fabulous Michael Apted movie made in 2006
called “Amazing Grace” - one of Benedict Cumberbatch’s earlier films. (He plays Wilberforce’s close friend, William
Pitt who became Prime Minister.). Seriously, you will love this film.
We are looking forward to Easter where we will
be speaking in the Dudley Hill Ward
Speaking of talks, we will be giving our Mission Homecoming talk in our home ward - Willamette - Sunday,
June 30th at noon in the West Linn building.
We will be home on Memorial Day weekend, but our kids come into town end
of June so that’s how we scheduled it.
Now back to reality - the mission.
Thank you dear friends for all of your support. We can feel the prayers here on the mission. We are truly blessed to be able to serve the
Lord Jesus Christ in this way. Love,
the Edvalsons
Ps - again - major thank you to our cousin,
Miriam Walther Clark for facilitating this blog for us.
 |
| Visiting the William Wilberforce House |
 |
| Fun with missionaries at Zone Conference |
 |
| YSA watching General Conference |
 |
| In front of the York Minster |
 |
| Tea at Betty's with the Cannons |
