We arrived! Elder and Sister Pace, who serve as the Area Executive Secretaries, picked us up at the airport in the area van. We'd slept some on the flight, and it was 1:00 PM when we got to the office. Here is Scott in the front of the Europe North Area Office.
We started in the Canteen, with sandwiches, fruits and chips and cupcakes for lunch, as we got to know our Church History cohorts. Of course the Humphreys were there, they are training us as we are replacing them, and the Goughs, James Perry, the Area Church History Director, a couple who are service missionaries, an English Sister who has been working at the Church History Library, in SLC and of course, us. It was fun to meet them all.
Next they showed us the cubicle area where our desks will be.
Then it was off on a field trip to a nearby former church meeting place in Wooburn Green. (Woe-burn) This directional sign is actually placed into the grass of the Wooburn Green, which was the center of the town. A double house across the street had a very old house as part of it, 1700's, with a low door that was the home of an early member and a meeting place for Saints in the 1860's.
Here we see James and Sister Humphreys, as he talks about the area and what happened there.
He told us about a minister of the period who was very against the Saints, and regularly preached scathing sermons on the evils of the group.
This is his church. He once was peaching a sermon as the 'street ministers' where preaching theirs', one at a level that caused the man's parishioners to look out the window to see what was going on, and some actually left the meeting to go see.
Here's a detail from the building, these faces were around the doorway. I think this one is Mary, the face of Jesus on the other side was missing the nose, so not as attractive.
Here's the door. There are so many, many churches, some are small and very plain, others are majestic but I think there are more churches in High Wycombe (pronounced Wickham, just to the north west of London, outside the beltway) than there are in Orem, Utah.
A couple of home interest pictures of sites we found. Randy, this one is for you. Its a favorite restaurant for us in Provo, called La Dolce Vita.
...and this is for my book club ladies, it is a 'Little Free Library'. How fun is that?
We were taken to our apartment after our tour, and these two couples brought us dinner. I wrangled them into a little visiting, because, well, that's what Elder Perkins and I love to do. They are the Flanigans and the Eddys.
We ran out late to track down a curling iron and learned lots and saw lots, like these giant poppies.
At the office on Thursday we met Pedro, who is from Brazil and has 5 beautiful children. He and this sister are working on some kind of interesting project together.
Here I am with Sister Humpherys, both of us in black and white polka dots.
I saw the full version of this picture as a screen saver at Sister H's desk. If your connected to Finland you may notice that the couple on the left is Elder and Sister Watson, our First Mission Leaders in Finland, then the Humphreys when they were working in the Africa South Area with the Watsons, such a small world. I added the couple on the left to my cut because their name is Perkins.
On Friday we got a chance to be involved with the making of an oral history on line. We met with a gal in Norway who is a Church History Service Missionary. Of course its tricky to share pictures of folks from Europe, because of privacy laws, so I have replaced her with a gal from AI. It was a lovely experience, so fun to hear someone's incredible conversion story and to see the sacrifices individuals make for their church membership.
After the editing and submission process we were taken on a tour of the building. This grouping of temples in the Europe North Area has Helsinki front and center. In fact I thought it was kind of funny that the picture of the Helsinki Temple here is the same one I chose from the Internet to have my friend Rebecca paint for me for my temple painting collection.
That night Elder Humphreys took us over to the mall across the street to show us around. Here I am in my newly thrifted coat at one of the two thrift stores we found there.
Here's a cute charity shop that I purchased at both that night and Saturday. I told the owner that her shop was so cute and well curated that it didn't look like a charity shop. She said people tell her that all the time.
Scott found something that was more fun to wear for his picture.
Saturday dawned brightly. I wanted to go to a thrift store that was 'further away'. We'd found the map for the Salvation Army Store, we thought it was unusual that it was a 10 minute walk and a 5 minute drive. After driving to the store and driving around the block twice trying to find the store we went back toward home, when Elder Perkins decided to see if we could make the 25 minute drive to the office, since we'd be doing it alone on Monday. Elder Humpherys said it would be easier to practice on a less traffic busy Saturday. Well he tried and he did, after just riding twice along a fairly complicated route, he did it on his own without the aid of a GPS.
We stopped at Lidl on the way home ... where you can buy pancakes. And other amazing things. Which we did. Then we took the car back to parking lot at the apartment house. Put the groceries away, and headed out on foot. It turns out that the problem with driving to the Salvation army was that the straight route walking took you right through the huge mall (The one we had been in with Elder Humpherys Thursday night) as the Salvation Army Store was on the opposite side from us.
But before we could get into the mall we ran into the local missionaries. We introduced ourselves and made a dinner appointment with them.
Elder Sugianto from Indonesia and Elder Vang from Laos, I told Elder Vang that I have a great, great Grandmother Vang from Norway. I don't think he believed me.
I thought this view of Dad through the mirror on the wall was fun. This was at one of the three Charity Shops I shopped on Saturday.
I liked this 5 gabled house with a word on each gable ... Hen .. and.. Chickens.. Rebuilt..1888
Today the Flanigans drove us to the ward they are attending. It was really amazing ... the spirit was sooo strong.
The taller sisters invited us to share with one of their friends about the baptismal font. They had a new member there too, and it was lovely. Scott got to testify about his experiences about baptizing his little brother and his children.
This is the flat tour, the living room.
The master bedroom
The kitchen area opposite the living room.
Sister Humphreys thought it would be fine for us to have this rack that was in their apartment in ours for the duration. The items on it are a combination of: stuff from her apartment, stuff from our apartment, flowers that were on our table when we came in, and a few items I thrifted. Yep, I'm right at home now.
This evening we had a chance to hear Elder Kearon and his wife speak in the Hyde Park Chapel. It was streamed for members in England. He said it was his first time in that chapel, where he and his wife met, in 9 years.
Here we are enjoying his talk. He mainly talked about learning to hand over our deep sorrow and tragedies to the Lord. He said he'd recently heard from two good friends who were struggling with this situation. Did you know that his wife is American?
So its been a powerful long week. We've adjusted to the time change, and are sleeping well. With our mentors gone we're feeling a big unconnected, and would appreciate your prayers in our behalf. Thank you.
Family stuff.
Here's a blast from the past. I used to love this wallpaper in the Salt Lake House. This is a random picture, but Dad recognized it immediately.
Before we headed out, on Monday I went over and had a nice visit with Raelene DeWitt.
Dad and I did a little more work on the wall that afternoon.
That night we were thrilled when Emily and Sam et al, brought us dinner and a nice visit. They'll be here for a week, and we were thrilled to see them before we headed out on Tuesday.
Here's the All American Texas Grands.
Beki and Bennie
Becca was out doing Real Estate stuff, and stopped by for a bit of extra sister time. I love that we got the picture in front of the Memory Wall, even though it did not get done. Now I am thinking it will be perfect to have some memorial rock or brick from this mission, so I think that may be a blessing in disguise.
Now for some memories their family made while in town, here we see Abby and William as they ran into Cosmo at BYU because it was homecoming week. These two kids are hoping to go to BYU someday, so this was a dream come true for them.
Sam and Benny at Timpanogos Cave.
The family on the Timpanogos Cave trail.
Another picture on the trail, I noticed that Reagan went along too, yeah cousins.
The obligatory picture at the U, where Sam graduated.
And the crowning picture.
Another picture of Kimmy and her soon to be family.
We found these pictures on Facebook of your Dad's cousin Eric's middle daughter, Samantha, as she marries.
Both will continue to practice their religions, which I totally respect. Such good people.
They've dated for years.
Brittany, far right, surprised us by flying down from Boise and meeting us at the airport as we prepared to leave. The three of them hung out all day, going to Trevor and Nell's in the evening before Britt flew back home.
But after joining two of their brothers, they gave Dad and me, one of our favorite gifts, them singing our family song, which Brittany then posted on her Facebook page. I just love that my kids love each other.
Happy Birthday to Nell on Monday
Happy birthday to Brady on Wednesday
and Happy Birthday to Hannah on Saturday.
We hope you each had an amazing day, much love to you all.
