Edvalsons in England: 5 May 2019

Wow! We’re well into May now and we are starting to realize this wonderful experience of our mission is winding up. We’ve lots of things to report about since our last post.

The Institute was closed for 2 weeks around Easter….the week before and the week after. In the UK, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are “Bank Holidays”, meaning it is a national holiday. Leeds University was actually closed for a 4 week Easter break; not so the Institute. We spent the first week of our break from teaching by inspecting the 10 missionary apartments that are in the Leeds Stake. That took 2 full days visiting 5 each day. We spend about an hour with each set of missionaries (usually 2, sometimes 4). Sister Edvalson does the inspection itself, clipboard in hand and sees how they are doing with cleanliness, tidiness, state of repair (or disrepair), etc. while Elder Edvalson takes photographs of each room of the flat to submit to the mission office. We then take a photo of the missionaries to send to their parents so they can see how they’re doing. Sister E leaves them a bag of her homemade peanut butter balls as a treat and we make the 30 minute drive to the next flat. At lunchtime we sometimes treat the missionaries we’re with to fish & chips and it’s always uplifting and fun to be with these young and enthusiastic missionaries. (In our Zone we have missionaries from China, Germany, Serbia, Russia, Wales, The Philippines, Canada and the United States).

We also attended a Zone Conference on the day between our flat inspections. It was a long one lasting from 9 am to 6 pm. We love the Turveys (Our Mission President and wife), but there are limits to how long we can enjoy sitting and being instructed! We were going to go out to dinner with the other senior missionaries after that Conference, but we were all too tired, so we just went back to our respective flats!

On Good Friday, we held our Devotional and Pancake Breakfast as a Brunch, and had 25 turn up! We showed a collection of Church videos regarding Easter and the Savior’s atonement, it was very moving. Many of the YSA then went on an all day hike to Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Upon their return, we hosted a double movie night, with part 6 of the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice followed by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (finales of both series).

On Saturday April 20^th we took 3 of the office sister missionaries (Sisters Jackson, Lyle and Wassmer) on a trip to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We visited Bolton Castle, West Burton, tried to go to Aysgarth Falls, but all the parking lots were full, the Wensleydale Cheese Factory (where we had a delicious cheesy lunch), then drove home another way through Kettlewell, Skipton and Ilkley. It was a gorgeous day through some of our favorite country with temperatures in the low 70’s—a heat wave for here.

On Easter Sunday, we attended the Dudley Hill Ward in South Bradford where we spoke. It was a full house with a nice choir. Sister Edvalson was asked to speak about serving a senior mission while Elder Edvalson talked about the Savior and His Atonement. Then that evening we had an Easter Dinner for those that weren’t invited somewhere, with about 6 of us in attendance. One of the YSA that works at Lidl, a local grocery store, contributed a surplus turkey he’d been given so we enjoyed a feast. That evening we streamed the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s Easter concert, to which we had about 15 in attendance. We felt it was a lovely day.

On Easter Monday Elder Edvalson took our car in for its MOT (Ministry of Transport) test, think annual safety inspection and emissions testing. While there I met a young man about Marel’s age who was a roofer. He had a flat tire which needed replaced so while we both waited the hour for our work to be completed, we had a nice visit. He is from Rugby (the home of the sport of Rugby), and lives with his partner, a chef, and their 2 year old son. He showed me pictures of his son Elijah and I remarked how he was named after one of the most famous prophets of the Old Testament. That led into me explaining why we were here, about the Institute, and the Church. I learned a lot about roofing in the UK, and he thought it would be fine to have 2 of our young missionary friends come by to tell he and his family our message about the purpose of life. It was a fun conversation, and nice to do some “finding” while there, since most of our time we are spending with those who are already members of the Church.

For three days late in week 2 of our “break”, we were able to travel to North Yorkshire, County Durham, and Northumberland and visit places where our ancestors were from. For Elder E it is the Smurthwaite family, and for Sister E it is the Naisbitt family line. We visited multiple sites where Christening, Marriage, burial and census sites have been recorded and took pictures of each place and uploaded them to FamilySearch for all to see. It was a great time seeing these places where these parts of our families came from.

Mixed in with the family history visits, we also went to Beemish, the Living Museum of the North, which has an 1820’s coal pit town, a turn of the 20^th Century Edwardian town, and other historical venues. They were all connected by transportation types of the day, so we rode an old double decker bus one way and a tram the other way. It was interesting to walk down into the coal pit mine and see the working conditions of the miners. I’m so glad I didn’t have to do that…..but thank you to the ancestors who did and kept the family going.

We also drove to the northernmost town where we have missionaries in the mission, Alnwick. We had been here last summer with Marel to visit its castle, Harry Potter experience and gardens. This time, after having a great Italian meal of Roman style pizza (we met the chef from Rome), we visited the Cragside Country Estate near Rothbury which was the home of William Armstrong, a shipping and war materiel magnate who was also a prescient home designer. He constructed a hydroelectric power plant to be the first home to have electrical lighting, and many other firsts. It was beautiful and felt like a Northwest National Park setting. He had imported and planted hundreds of evergreen trees, rhododendrons, and azaleas so the grounds were outstanding. He also hosted Queen Victoria and her family in the day, for which he added lavish accoutrements to the home. It is well worth the visit should you ever venture to northern England.

Then on April 28 we spoke in the Leeds First Ward (our home ward). We spoke regarding the plan of happiness and the desire of Heavenly Father to give us the gift of Eternal Life. That night, we hosted a YSA Fireside at the Institute where the Stake Patriarch and his wife spoke and answered questions regarding Patriarchal blessings.

This past week, we were back at it teaching each of our classes, doing the meals and the visiting and mentoring that comes with being open from 10 am to 10 pm each weekday. It is nearly exam time now, so our library and other study rooms have been much more used this week as everyone is “revising” (studying for exams). On Friday, we hosted our last movie night before we depart and showed The Other Side of Heaven (about Elder John Groberg’s mission to Tonga in the 1950s) in preparation for The Other Side of Heaven, part 2 (about his time as Mission President in Tonga later on) which is debuting in June. It was well attended and is such a heartwarming and spiritual movie.

This weekend was the Leeds Stake Conference, so we were asked to speak about our mission experience here. We decided to read selected quotes from this blog that would give an overall flavor to what it has been like. Our first draft was about an 18 minute presentation. We were given 10 minutes to speak, so it took several edits to cull out enough material and still have a message that flowed. It turned out very good, and the visiting Area Authority Seventy, Elder Joaquim Moreira from Portugal loved it and got up to thank us while we were still at the podium. He was a most interesting and entertaining speaker, which we were happy to listen to with his interesting message. It turns out he was a professional clown! He is now employed by the Church as a Seminary and Institute Director in Portugal, much like Brother McMorn does here…..and they know each other from Europe CES training meetings.

That’s about it for this installment. We’ve just got 2 weeks of teaching left before we go down to London for a few days.

We send our love to each of you!

Elder & Sister Edvalson