Hellos, Goodbyes and Everything In Between

The trouble with waiting so long to send a newsletter is that SO much happens in between! So this will feel very scattered, but that’s sort of the way life is anyway—mostly regular life with some wonderful experiences and a few tough things sprinkled in.

Let’s just rip the bandaid off and get the goodbyes over with first. One of the realities of serving a senior mission, or any mission, is the temporary nature of where we are serving. We are each here for a season, and then we will go home. When we arrived four months ago, we were welcomed and encircled by two other OGC (Office of General Counsel) missionary couples who made our transition into missionary life not only possible, but they made it fun! We literally could not have survived without their help, guidance, kindness, and mentoring. The Lunds and the Salmons arrived here 18 months ago, shortly after the Europe North Area office opened. They were truly pioneers here as they just dove in and served in so many ways. Their season has now come to an end and we are so sad to see them go, but we are grateful that in just the 4 months we’ve served alongside them they have made such an impact on us, set an example for us to follow, and we have made lasting and eternal friendships. God speed, Lunds and Salmons!

We also said farewell to one of our sweet sister missionaries who has been in our ward for 6 months, Sis. Nuñez. She has completed her mission and is returning home to the Phillipines. She has been a stellar missionary!

And just for fun I’m throwing in a picture of four of us ladies at the office, on a day we all matched in our black & white. :) Sister Salmon on the left (she helped out with OGC billing), Sharon is a Church employee (from Ghana, a legal coordinator who is studying to be a barrister), and on the far right, Pam (the other legal coordinator, originally from South Africa, had been an attorney there and then taught school). Seriously, the best women!! I can tell you that these two legal coordinators are the heart and soul of the office, and also the humor that keeps us all smiling.

Back to the Lunds, our last little outing with them a few weeks ago was quite a memory. We drove to a darling little town, Henley-on-Thames, to go out to dinner. It was a perfect evening, the weather was lovely and the food was great. Henley is the home of the annual Royal Regatta which happens in July and brings people from all over to watch the boat racing, it’s very posh. We could see things around the town being prepared for the upcoming race weekend. After dinner, we decided to take a walk along the Thames and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We walked past a guy working on his boat and Elder Lund noticed he was wearing a Yankees baseball cap, said “hello” and then exclaimed, “Go, Yankees”. In typical Elder Lund fashion (let’s just say he’s not an introvert), he immediately engaged him in conversation and found out he’s from Brooklyn. We got a little snippet of his life story, along with some banter about religion when he realized we were missionaries. The conversation seemed to go down a not-so-positive path at that point. He seemed like he wanted to argue a little bit, but we did our best to keep it light and friendly, and after about 20 minutes we bid farewell on a friendly note. We walked farther down the path, and then needed to turn back to get to our car. We had a moment of wondering if we should go past his boat again and risk another potentially fraught interaction, or just go a different way. We ended up going the same way and planned to just walk past, say a quick hello and keep walking. But as soon as he saw us come back, he stopped us and said, “Hey, I need to apologize, I was probably being rude. Can I make it up to you and give you a boat ride on the river?” Well, that interaction took a turn!

Of course, we were all thrilled—not just for the boat ride, which turned out to be amazing, but for the opportunity to spend more time with him. It truly felt like a magical little experience to be riding down (or up?) the Thames on this beautiful boat with a new friend. He shared more of his story which gave us great insight about who he is, we shared a little more about what we do as missionaries, he told great stories about the area and the famous people who have lived and visited there (George Harrison, Sting, Phil Collins, etc.), we shared some laughs, and we left as friends. He even let Jon take a turn at the wheel after Jon told him he was a Sea Scout when he was a teenager haha.

Such a great experience and a memory that we will treasure!

Another fun memory happened on June 20th. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner and another friend from the ward. After dinner, I remembered that it was the Summer Solstice and that there was a yearly event that happens at Stonehenge, which is only about an hour or so away from us. We obviously couldn’t make it there in person, but we were able to watch it live on YouTube. Even though we were just watching it on TV, it was such a powerful experience to witness the beautiful sunset as it aligned with these ancient stones. There’s something special about these kinds of experiences that create awe. We made a goal to go in person next year!

And while the Solstice event was happening at Stonehenge, we got to see the same beautiful sunset right outside our balcony!

And if you want to see a few minutes of the beautiful sunset, you can watch it here: Summer Solstice 2024

On to the next thing…we had the best “hello” last weekend—welcoming our Denmark kids and grandkids again who came to celebrate my 60th birthday and Ryan’s birthday (he was born on my birthday and we don’t get to be together on our day very often!).

It was the best gift! The only thing better would have been if all my kids and grandkids could have been here. But we made the most of the time we had—Esther had me sewing up a storm making outfits for her stuffed wolf, we finished the quilt for baby brother, we read lots of books, had a proper British afternoon tea, Bubba got a makeover, we played at the park, climbed the hill near our house, visited London to see the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels, and took a boat ride on the Thames.

Another great “hello” was getting to meet another apostle who made a surprise visit to our ward last weekend. Elder Quentin L. Cook, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was in the area visiting on vacation because he had served as a missionary here long ago. He spoke at the end of our Sacrament Meeting and shared a powerful testimony of the Savior.

I was playing the piano for the meeting and during the prelude music, Esther and Auggie wanted to stand by the piano and watch me play. I told them they could as long as they didn’t touch any of the keys. Normally when I’m playing prelude, people are chatting and no one really pays much attention to the background music. But when an apostle is in the room, everyone sits very quietly waiting for the meeting to start—which means the only sound was my piano playing. Of course, at one point during the prelude, 2-yr-old Auggie just couldn’t contain himself any longer and reached his little fingers up onto the keys to plunk out a note. Elder Cook looked over and smiled and winked. And then at the end of the meeting, he came down and told me how adorable my grandkids were and that it was so precious to see them wanting to be next to me. It was a sweet reminder of how I think the Savior would be and how we all should be with the children in our lives—”Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”

♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheerio! ♥

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Words of the Week:

(Words or phrases we hear “on the street” that either delight, confuse or amuse us.)

Having a moan = complaining (we try not to complain too much, but I’m sure we do “have a moan” now and then haha)

Cuddle = a hug (The Bishop’s wife is famous in our ward for giving the best “cuddles”. She’ll say, “come on in for a cuddle!”)