Edvalsons in England: 17 April 2019

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.