W#2 Sherlock Holmes - Baker Street

Good Monday Morning, No, this is not Sherlock Holmes, we'll get to him later.  Meet James, our fearless leader.  We had a meeting with him in the morning at the office, where he shared more information with us and made assignments to do some newsletter articles.  James later in the week told us that he is a man of patience, and if we needed to be shown five times, he will happily show us six times.  We, unfortunately, need his patience, as we slowly figure out what we are to do.

This is the book that he has written, I am very excited to read it.  Of course I love good historical writing, and did I mention, that James directed much of the writing of Saints Four.  Yes, he's that good.

At lunch time our office mates set up their demonstration that they have been working on in the office.  The bought a dog balancing exercise teeter totter. Then they filled bags with rice that represented various responsibilities in our lives.

Here they are.

The device.

Someone working on their balance.

Can you see I got mine to balance.

After lunch we began with a teams meeting with those with whom we will be working, hopefully overseeing their work on doing oral histories.  One of the men is Norwegian, and has been very helpful in keeping the church apprised of Christian activities that are going on in Norway.

He mentioned that the Artist CCA Christiansen, who did the huge murals of church history starting in the 1870's he is the subject of a new book coming out written by his descendants.  I am excited to see it, because CCA Christensen pretty much took over his 'calling' from what Philo Dibble began in the 1840's.  Philo, who is Scott's GG Grandfather was directed, by Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff to commission large paintings (6 by 10 feet) that would be rolled up and taken on a traveling show, first in Missouri and then in Utah, to show a sympathetic version of events in which the Saints were misreported or victimized. he made up a list of several paintings but only three were ever actually painted. The Nauvoo Legion, The Assassination of Joseph Smith and the Mormon Battalion, and Philo took them along with the Prophet Joseph's and Hyrum's death masks, as he toured from 1849 until 1879.

I don't think the project was all that different from the way the Church is now using huge, wall size art to establish feelings of connection to our history.  While in the MTC we saw, and indeed were photographed in front of such pictures, if you look at our MTC week.  This wall is in our lunch room here in the area office, and several others of this majesty are through-out the building.

It was this project, of Philo Dibble's that CCA Christensen took over from Philo's beginnings in 1878, doing the paintings himself and traveling around Utah. I think it was in the 1970's that his family donated these paintings to BYU where they hang today.

It made me think of the wall sized murals in the MTC and here at our office of church history scenes.  I guess they have the same impact as those the Philo toted from town to town.

https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/in-their-promised-canaan-stand-outlawry-landscape-and-memory-in-c-c-a-christensens-mormon-panorama?shem=aimgspe,

Here is the article I referred to.

That night we got together with several of the Senior Missionaries who work in the area office and live near us for a family home evening. So many nice and interesting people.

This couple are the Pace's they are the area secretaries.

and she too is 100% Norwegian, but sadly, according to relatives-around-me, we are not related. Her family is from Bergan and there abouts, while mine are from both Trondheim and Christiana (Oslo)

Scott met Mike Pierson on Tuesday.  Mike has a daughter who served her mission in Germany under President Ace Moyer, who is a kid who grew up in our ward in Cottonwood Heights sooo many years ago.  She is now serving in the Preston England MTC. You know how Scott loves those connections.

Here I am taking a twinning picture.  This sister is a widow, as is her companion and they are two of the most interesting people I have met in a long time.

After work on Wednesday, I trekked over to the mall across the street while Dad worked on his navigation and train tickets for the next night.  These orange and black outfits in the front window of the cutest Charity Shop, The Florence  Nightingale Shop, they were very clever.

That evening we participated in a meeting with other missionaries that do what we do, this one was at home, from 7 to 8

Thursday night Scott went to the train station as the first step of a journey that would end up with him at a Barbershop Chorus Practice in London.

Here's the interior of said station.

That eventually led him to this tube station on Baker street, at the actual address of the not so actual Sherlock Holmes.  I guess Doyle chose this impossible address on purpose, and there are fun silhouettes of the fictional detective included in the decor of the station.

This is a show picture of the chorus that he practiced with and tried out for.  After it took him a total of 8 hours for the trip there and back and the 3 hour practice, he was relieved, when they said he was not a good fit for them.  There are two other choruses in town ....

I know Dad had a good, though exhausting time, but due to his phone dying, and therefor leaving his location on my stalker ap, at the place he had last used it, I was in distress.  Before the advent of  Cell phones I would often worry when Scott was expected home, but was a half hour, or hours, for that matter late.  I worried, and am able to complete the story starter to a dismal degree evidently.  Scott used to call it my 'Dead in a ditch' capability, because that is usually where my train of thought took me.   Since cell phones I have rarely gone there, but that day, with Scott actually riding a train, and the fact that it took him 5 hours to travel what would be easily traveled at home in less than an hour, and given that my ap had him stalled at the same point in the midst of London, near the Thames, it was easier than ever to go there.

My illustration here is of my friend Robin and her granddaughter Lily.  I sent her and another friend an account of my dire frightened evening on Marco Polo, and afterwards, Robin sent a light hearted clip in return.  However as Robin was in Florida on a trip with her Granddaughter, Lily heard my vid, and afterwards, when Robin was explaining why I thought Scott was dead in a ditch, and her MP app was recording her, unknown to Robin, it was fun to hear Grandma share what it was like before Cell phones.  It was actually pretty cute.  Thanks for your support Robin.

First thing on Saturday we headed out to ASDA.  It is a store that was once owned by Walmart, and is similar in format.  The Harrises came with us so that he could give Dad some driving tips, and show him how to gas up afterwards.  If you're surprised to see me in jeans, its because I used AI to create this picture, as I forgot to take one.

When we got home and good our purchases put away, we headed to the mall just to discover ...  loved this half a table and two half chairs display. I'm not sure how many trips it will take before I am familiar enough to be able to go directly to the stores I was to shop in.

At the Sketchers store we thought of our daughter Ashley, a disc golfer who loves these shoes.

At this TGI Fridays in-store display we thought of Brittany, Ashley and Darby who all worked the restaurants.  And yes we also saw the restaurant alive and well here.

Tabletop Republic, made us think of Jeff ....

When we got home we decided to find out which temple this abstract print hanging in our apartment portrays.  I thought the moon and stars might be from Australia, but no.  It turns out it is the Preston Temple.  The one that we and the Moes found in Chorley back in the late 1990's, when we toured England together.  We finally found it after a helpful shopper said, "Do you want the one with the gold guy one top?" Yes, yes we did.

Here we are at Church with the Harris' with whom we went driving yesterday.  We went to a former Walmart owned grocery store that has a similar feel to it.  Scott also got gas for the first time.

The Eddys gave us a ride, as they attended for the last time... they head home on Saturday.

Here are the sister missionaries, and the one on my right is from Cambodia.  I told  her about how Spencer and Brittney lived there for 5 months, and loved it.  Then named their daughter Cam in honor of that country.

The Sunday School teacher is a lawyer, and a great teacher.  I am so thrilled, my Sunday School junkie self got goose bumps.

Tonight we got to have the Eddy's come over for dinner.  They are amazing, and we will definitely miss them when they leave. She has done addiction recovery and he is a psychologist.

And now for the family bits.

Lu had her 16th birthday on Monday,

Both our Boise girls came down to attend a concert with their sister Becca.

Here they are in front of the Garth Brookes Poster.

Sam had his 42nd birthday on Saturday.  Wahoo for you!!

Of course, had we not gone on a mission Dad would have been at this game. This is the part where the fans stormed the field, including our kids.

Trevor and Nell were there.

And met up with friends.

Of course I am sure that Nell's Dad is glad he took over Dad's season tickets.

And here is Dad recovering from being up so late checking out the updates on the game ....having sweet dreams of BYU being ranking 2nd in the coaches poll, no doubt.

W#1 - Great Expectations

 

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.