NEWSFLASH
It’s still raining!
We have come to the conclusion that the easiest job in the world must be a weather forecaster in England.
The neighbors probably think we are crazy as we continue to sing “Singing in the Rain” as we stomp through the rain puddles trying to re-enact the famous Gene Kelly dance scene … as you can imagine its not a pretty sight! If you don’t know what we are talking about check out the video below.
The bottomline is you gotta laugh at the rain just to keep ourselves from being depressed at the rather gloomy weather … oh California sunshine where are you? Oh yeah, in California!
Had to believe that we have been serving as full-time missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for five months already! Even though the days are long, the weeks and months are absolutely flying by! We have experienced so much in such a short period of time. Hope you enjoy the following account of what we have been up to since our last posting so here goes ….
Elder Oaks
We attended an amazing Tri-Stake Conference with the Birmingham, Lichfield and Coventry Stakes on June 5 with Elders Oaks and Kearon, along with their wives, and Elder Phillips. We had the opportunity to coordinate and participate in a Young Single Adult choir during the conference made up of representation from the three stakes. We had so much fun and it was truly an inspirational experience.
Sister Oaks began her comments by saying, “I wash the Apostle’s socks.” She was such a crack up! One of the things she said that stood out the most to us was when she quoted Elder Holland who said at a mission presidents seminar recently; “salvation is not a weak experience and now is the time that we become like Jesus Christ.”
Elder Kearon opened his remarks by asking all of us to read, listen or watch Elder Oaks’ last conference talk on the role of opposition in our lives. He added, “there is power to be derived just from being nice to someone. … as we consider the opposition in our lives, we should think about the opposition in theirs.” Then he encouraged us to be “good Christians in gentile, kind and good ways” and then reminded us that “after much tribulation comes the blessings.”
As always Elder Oaks was amazing! He spoke for 45 minutes without any notes! As he approached the microphone he said, “What I say is less important than what the Holy Ghost speaks to your heart.” A lot of his comments focused on keeping the Sabbath day holy. He also explained that we need to better understand what “we are doing when we take the sacrament” and recognize that it is an important priesthood ordinance that we are participating in.
I really appreciated this simply yet profound statement he made; “Learn the doctrine and have faith to act upon it.”
It was a great conference. It was so good to be so close to Elder Oaks.
Summer Institute
We have been enjoying teaching summer Institute. We provide dinner and then a lesson every Wednesday in Birmingham and then we teach, but no dinner, in Lichfield on Thursdays. It continues to be an amazing experience for us as our friendship and love for these amazing YSA continues to grow along with our increased knowledge and greater understanding of the Gospel. The theme we chose for summer Institute is, “Everything in Life Testifies of the Truthfulness of the Gospel.” Our lessons include recent scientific and archeological discovers as well as ancient Jewish literature all of which provide independent proof of the truthfulness of the Gospel. We will do a special posting in the near future with a summary of the summer program and a few amazing examples.
Young Single Adults
Not sure how we are going to do this, but we plan on bringing all the young single adults home with us! Our love for them grows and grows. When we are with them we feel like we are at a family reunion.
Jordon, who is from Wolverhampton, leaves for his mission in Alpine, Germany in less than nine weeks and to say he is excited is more than an understatement! At age fourteen he was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. His battle was long and hard, but he never gave up. The very day he received a clean bill of health from his doctors and declared cancer free he submitted his mission papers - yes that very same day! As he looks back at his four year battle you can hear the excitement in his voice for all that he learned and how it all gave him a greater appreciation for life. We anxiously look forward to going to the temple with Jordon and attending his missionary farewell.
To kick off summer we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for the YSA prior to Institute and they loved every bite of it! We even introduced them to Mike’s Hockey Burgers. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about let us explain … several years ago while living in Southern California a great friend of ours by the name of Mike Canepa took Steve to lunch to a famous “greasy spoon” sandwich shop in downtown Los Angeles (it was in one of those areas that you would not venture into at night). The place is called Mike’s Sandwich Shop. Mike, the shop owner, is a former NHL hockey player, who created his now famous Mike’s Hockey Burger, which is a grilled hot dog on top of the hamburger patty and, of course, all the trimmings. We told everyone about them weeks in advance and we wondered if anyone would like them - much to our surprise they were a huge hit! In fact, we couldn’t make enough of them.Thank goodness for Costco because not only did they like the hockey burgers, they fell in love with the hot dogs. In fact, they were amazed by them and had never had anything like them before.
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| Thanks Mike Canepa for introducing us to this heart-stopping (literally heart-stopping cholesterol filled) amazing Hockey Burger, a once a year treat! |
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| "Smokey the Bear" hard at work? |
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| Hope they serve Hockey Burgers in Heaven ... maybe not! |
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| Camie was an immediate fan of the Hockey Burger! |
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| Sharoon is a big fan too, but then again he eats anything! |
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| Sarah loved them as well! |
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| Oh yeah! |
Last week after Family Home Evening we played the Mormon version of “beer ping pong.” It was hilarious!
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| Bradley chugging a cup of water. |
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| Jamie dreads the thought of chugging another water while his team mate Cameron hangs his head in despair. |
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| Tina drank a lot that night! Mark stand in the background waiting his turn. |
Next month we will be joining 30 Young Single Adults to a cool campout. It will also include a half-day canoe trip down the River Wye through the Forest of Dean and then we will hike up to British Camp at Herefordshire Beacon in the Malvern Hills - no doubt we will have plenty of photos to share on our next post. Never in our wildest imaginations did we ever think we would have so much fun serving a mission.
As fun as that will be, our favorite part of mission life is actually teaching investigators. We are currently teaching Maria who is from Portugal and speaks very little English. Her daughter has been translating for us and guess what? Her daughter is going to start coming to church with her mom this Sunday. We are also teaching Paulette who is from Jamaica She is being baptized next month! Lastly, we are teaching “Tash" and believe it or not, she is actually from England! She is also being baptized next month!
Wedding
We are so thankful that we were invited to attend the wedding of two of our YSA. This was our first experience here in England and it was, to say the least, “interesting.” The law here in the UK requires civil weddings entirely open to the public before being sealed in the temple.
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| Meet Mr. & Mrs. Linekar |
"Marriage is a relationship that cannot survive selfishness, impatience, domineering, inequality, and lack of respect. Marriage is a relationship that thrives on acceptance, equality, sharing, giving, helping, doing one’s part, learning together, enjoying humor.”
David O. McKay
David O. McKay
While Joseph and Julia were on their honeymoon we organized a small group service project where we went to the home of the newlyweds to spruce up their front yard. They were so surprised when they arrived home only to be welcomed by some newly planted flowers and not the weeds that they had left behind.
After
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| Before |
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| The work crew ... LUNCH TIME! David, Kynna & Jared |
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| Jared making the ultimate sacrifice by offering up the last piece of chicken. |
Play Day
We took a day off last week and hung out with Elder and Sister Spors. They are currently serving in Kidderminster and they are from St. George, Utah. We had so much fun with them and even treated ourselves to a really good Italian lunch and later in the afternoon to milkshakes! Before pigging out we visited the J.W. Evans & Sons Silver Factory in downtown Birmingham’s historic Jewelry Quarter. The factory was founded in 1881 by Welshman J. W. Evans. The company became famous for making beautiful silverware. The facility has been kept just as it was the day that it closed its doors for business … dust, dirt, grime and all. It even had the smell of the old works it was like stepping back into “a lost industrial world, represented by the surviving workshops where machinery, stock, stamps, dies, pattern books, business records and photographs remain.” They were literally artists in silver! We highly recommend a visit if you are ever in the neighborhood.
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| The above two pictures are of some of the Evans employees taken in 1905. |
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| Front of the Evans Factory right in the heart of an old residential neighborhood. To say the least we were totally surprised by what we saw on the other side of that blue door! |
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| This room was packed with hundreds of dies. |
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| Final assembly and etching area. |
England Today
There is so much going on throughout England right now. Let’s start off with the good stuff. Last weekend was the official celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday and boy oh boy do these Brits love their queen. Tell ya what, these people know how to throw a party - just check out the pictures below!
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| The birthday girl celebrating with family ... |
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| ...and a few close friends ... like maybe 10,000 of them! Hard to believe we weren't invited! |
Football
If there is one thing the Brits love more than their queen its football - soccer to you “Yanks!” Last night England won one of most watched football games of the tournament as they beat Wales 2 - 1. Had England lost no doubt there would have been rioting in the streets … well, maybe not rioting, but some really unhappy mates!
We have learned that sport’s fans are just as crazy throughout Europe as they are back home in the states! They celebrate victories and mourn losses the same way, violently! Police arrested 37 people after one of the Euro 2016 games the other night where riot police fired tear gas and charged at hundreds of English fans. The tournament organizers, fearful of terror threats, have threatened to disqualify England from any future games if there is anymore violence.
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| Super-sub Sturridge with last minute winning goal. England 2 - Wales 1 |
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| The BIG game ... England vs Wales |
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| Violent Celebrations |
In or Out
Then there is vote next Thursday on the big referendum to “Stay In” or “Get Out” of the European Union. There are as many opinions on this as there are people. We have asked a lot of locals to explain it to us and how they feel and their opinions are literally all over the map!
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| The election is filled with emotions! |
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| Water fight between the Ins and the Outs! |
The referendum is being held because Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold one if he won the 2015 general election, in response to growing calls from his own Conservative MPs and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), who argued that Britain had not had a say since 1975, when it voted to stay in the EU in a referendum. Many claim the EU has changed a lot since then, gaining more control over daily living in the UK so the Prime Minster has said: "It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics.”
Only 201 days until Christmas … yep, its time to break out the Christmas music. This will come as no surprise to our kids, but that is exactly what we are listening to right now!
