Season of Inspiration

Meet Paul, our neighbor

As you can see Paul always has a smile on his face despite the fact that he deals with a severe case of Epilepsy that has required multiple surgeries with even more debilitating results. Yet each day, he heads out to help others who are suffering from Epilepsy. Not long ago we found him unconscious in the road (not far from the bus stop on a very busy thoroughfare adjacent to a school and community centre). As we diverted traffic, the neighbors called for an ambulance. When he regained consciousness, he smiled as well as 'thanked' people for helping him and stated matter-of-factly that this was his third episode that week. It was the first time I noticed that his baseball cap was in fact a 'hard hat' meant to protect his skull from the constant falls. Paul's attitude is reflected in his statement on how he deals with the effects of the disease when he says, "What can I do about it?  Just make it as good as I can." He lives independently, volunteers at clinics, runs an Epilepsy support group, helps out at the hospital, and gives us courage by facing his daily challenges with dignity and humor.

Paul is always positive and his attitude certainly makes us humble when we consider our blessed life.

Stake Young Men and Young Women Event at the Sheldon Ward

Our ward hosted the Birmingham Stake Young Men and Young Women Christmas event on the 7th of December. We had about 40 young people turn out to enjoy a world cultural night of games, food, music, and socialization. Different countries were represented through their unique foods as well as traditions of Christmas.

Guess what foods were represented by Great Britain? United States? Germany? Italy? Switzerland?

Part of the Stake event was to decorate the boxes being donated to the Crisis Centre by our ward's young women and young men.

Then we delivered the 'hampers' or boxes of Christmas care to the Crisis Shelter in the Digbeth area of Birmingham.

Joanna is the Young Women's President (on left) and the two Young Women are Gulia Camisani and Amy Wilkins who enthusiastically collected 10 boxes of 'necessities' for those in the shelter. What is remarkable about the collection is the joy that is produced by the sacrifice of those who have so little themselves. You just cannot believe how little these members have, yet they would give the 'shirt off their backs'  believing they are rather well off. The recipients of the hampers are blessed by the goods they receive and those who sacrifice truly enjoy the spirit of Christmas as evidenced by their smiles in the photograph above.

Westminster welcomes the Family Values Award recipients of Rev Canon Ann Easter and David Burrowes MP on 10 December 2014.

Thirteen members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons joined in the celebration. Included in the prestigious group were the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, a retired Archbishop of the Catholic Church, several Church of England clergy and Elder Patrick Kearon of the First Quorum of the Seventy along with Elder Clifford Herbertson, an Area Seventy.

In what was the largest Family Values Award ceremony in the history Great Britain, nearly 60 people gathered to honor these two outstanding family values advocates. 

Gabi (Gabriele Sirtl), Director of Public Affairs for Europe, Malcolm and Joyce wait to get through security outside the Palace of Westminster.

Malcolm and Dan carry the Family Values Statues into the Houses of Parliament

It was a pleasure to meet in person President and Sister Millar of the London South Mission. President Millar is a renowned heart surgeon from St. George and has said that he knows the 'good' hearts of several general authorities as he has held them in his hands.

Our table included Craig Whittaker MP, Brad and Vicki Roos (prominent American business people), President Steven Hunt (Canterbury), Vivian Pattison of MediaWatch and a former recipient of the FVA, and President and Sister Anatsui (Wandsworth).

We were honored to be included in this world-class event as the guest list of dignitaries was far above our station in life. As Public Affairs missionaries for the Church in the United Kingdom it was our opportunity to help plan this event.

London - The British Museum, Harrod's and the Royal Albert Hall Christmas Concert

We took a short 'cultural break' for preparation day on Monday the 15th of December and stayed overnight at The Rembrandt Hotel (it is right across the street from the Victoria and Albert) so we could enjoy some museums and the Christmas Concert at The Royal Albert Hall just a block from the Hyde Park Chapel.

We had a great day at the museum... The next sequel of 'Night at the Museum' will feature the British Museum and its antiquities. Fortunately security let Joyce bring this 'old fossil' home with her.

I know it is difficult to see any of the the hieroglyphics(ancient and modern Egyptian plus the Greek) on the Rosetta Stone, but this small stone unlocked ancient Egypt's language for the modern world.

Joyce thought our little Rachel would love this photo with a magnificent sculptured horse head from the Parthenon.

These two were the most precious and beautiful items in the museum... Notice the Parthenon antiquity in the background. We can only imagine what the governments of Greece and Egypt think of their treasures being on permanent display in the museums of London and Paris.

I stood up to take a bow, but nobody clapped... Hurt my feelings until I salved them by purchasing 'Ben and Jerry's' ice cream at the Royal Albert Hall which exclusively sells this American treat to its patrons.

The concert included stars from the West End, the Royal Philharmonic and the London Concert Choir. Plus the audience got to sing along with all the Christmas Carols... It was a lot of fun to share the experience with our friends and fellow missionaries, the Jolleys. We enjoyed Alfie Boe in concert in Birmingham last week, so Joyce's effort to try to give me some 'cultural experiences' beyond having yogurt every morning has kicked in to full gear!

The Christmas windows at Harrods are simply works of art... ZCMI in the old days took their lead from these magnificent displays that go on for a huge city block in Knightsbridge. Notice the only thing we could 'afford' in Harrod's are the small sacks of chocolates purchased in the in-store Chocolate Shop that must be as large as normal-sized grocery store.

The Christmas Truce commemorations throughout the United Kingdom

As you will remember from a previous post, the National Director of Public Affairs had an idea to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Christmas Truce that took place during the first Christmas of World War I. Nearly 40 stake and ward productions were produced throughout the United Kingdom where thousands of people gathered to acknowledge the good of mankind through video, speeches and choral presentations. Dozens of Mayors, councillors, MPs (Members of Parliament) and dignitaries came to our chapels along with friends and neighbors to participate in these commemorations. The goodwill and exposure of the church will be felt for a long time as local newspapers gave positive reports of the events.

The Solihull Ward Choir presenting music for The Christmas Truce.

Brother Dunn and his daughter perform a duet of carol music. Interesting to note that Brother Dunn grew up in Dan's hometown of Brigham City, Utah and is an international business executive stationed in England.

We met this lovely lady while searching for flats for our senior sisters and as we spoke she indicated that she had been a Solihull Borough Councilwoman for twenty years and was the current Mayor. Kate Wild said that she hadn't been to our church in many years and would love to attend any events we were presenting. Her Lord Mayoress, the honorable Kate Wild, not only attended but spoke at the presentation. Notice the impressive gold chain signifying her office as the Mayor of the entire borough which includes a number of cities.

Our Sheldon Ward Party on the 19th of December

Since the Activities Committee is part of my calling in the bishopric, Joyce and I enjoyed the blessing of organizing the Christmas Party. Thank heaven for the following who made the event happen: Celia and Dean Jolley for always being there to support, the young missionaries for helping with the decorations and set up, Costco for the American food, the bakers at Morrisons and ASDA, Samuel Stilger for the games, Dolly and Sian for always being dependable to the very bitter end (of the clean up) and David Sumner for the video set up. Take a look at the fun and great people we have come to love...

Joyce, baby Mansea and Samuel

A typical Ward Party with lots and lots of food.... Interestingly enough the English 'polished off' the Baps (yummy rolls with Ham, Turkey or Beef), fruit, sausage rolls, desserts but left all the salads and  veggies untouched! Thought they would like crisps (potato chips) and dip... we had tonnes (English spelling) left over. Guess we have a lot to learn about party food!

Jeremiah got his face rubbed 'raw', stuffed, shaved and was a great sport during one of the games.

Everyone wears Christmas 'jumpers' or sweaters and it is customary to select a winner of the jumper contest at every Christmas event. Thank goodness for Cadbury Chocolates (Birmingham is the origin and corporate home of this delicious chocolatier) which were presented to the winners.

Patrick Carroll and his adopted son, Timmy, in their Christmas 'Jumpers.' Obviously Timmy is happy about being in the contest and enjoying the Christmas spirit.

Mary and Michael Reynolds-Jones with Maria Jones (in the middle) are wonderful. He is a former Bishop of the Ward and with Mary are the Single Adult / Young Single Adult Advisors for the ward. Eighty years old and still smiling and serving with dedication. We have 59 YSA and 142 Single Adults (over 31 years of age) on the rolls of the ward with about 25% activity.  Maria is a faithful single mother supporting her missionary son (in McAllen Texas) and is a pianist in the ward. We love these three great examples of goodness.

Two of our four good missionaries who helped set up for the ward party... Elder Burke and the District Leader, Elder Farley. 

Christmas Eve and Day

Following the Ward Carol Concert on Christmas Eve we went to our flat with friends to have a lovely Swedish meatball dinner and exchange a few small gifts. The highlight of the evening (other than Joyce's excellent dinner and the rousing caroling) was the Skype session with Jameson, Laura, Rachel and Carter who celebrated their Christmas a day early thanks to Rachel informing Santa that her daddy was working on Christmas Day. Two observations: 1) Santa has always been very generous and accommodating 2) Don't you love the pure innocence of children with their extraordinary faith.

Santa does come early to St. Louis and Rachel was very happy along with her ever-smiling little brother, Carter.

The next day started early as we picked up two of our elders at 7:30 a.m. due to the fact that Elder Burke is from Australia and needed to Skype with his family at 8:00 that morning. Following his Skype call, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of sausage bake, fruit, yogurt and juices. Joyce didn't tell Elder Kennedy that there is cheese (which we later understood he doesn't like) in the sausage bake and he only had three helpings. The sisters were supposed to join us but they came down with bad colds... such a shame, especially on Christmas. But we later delivered dinner to them at their flat.

I drove thirty minutes to pick up the other set of missionaries for dinner at 1:00 p.m. while Joyce fixed a delicious Stuffed Pork Chop dinner with carrots, mash potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, apple pie, pumpkin pie, brownies and of course my favorite, gravy! We added A&W Root Beer to the mix for dessert and they ate all of the above including having 'floats' with the treasured soda pop.

We gave the missionaries gifts of ties, orange chocolate balls (a hit everywhere), Shloer (a European favorite soda), snack pretzels and then played the game mystery 'practical 'gift exchange (pictured below). Elders Kennedy (from Lethridge) needed to call home and had arranged for the call at another member's home, so Dan took them to Sister Pat Sheridan's house. 

In the meantime, Elder Kircher (Munich Germany) arranged his call with his family from our flat and Elder Farley (Tooele) followed for the next hour. Thank heaven for technology! We cleaned up and then Dan took these two elders home while Joyce consolidated and washed the dishes. An hour later... now 7:45 p.m. we started opening our wonderful gifts from family and friends causing us to marvel at the generosity of friends here and at home who give so freely. It's humbling to recognize this great tradition of the exchange of gifts was started by wise men seeking the prophesied Christ. How grateful we are for the opportunity to to be recipients of His supreme gift to each of us.

The day ended about midnight (after watching the Christmas episode of Downton Abbey) with a call with Brittany who is in St. George with Corey, kids and Corey's brother and his family. Just a perfect Christmas Day as we could not ask for anything more while serving as missionaries. 

Have a Happy New Year!