Purpose

We’ve made it through our first full week! Which if you know about driving in England, that feels like a great accomplishment! We’ve only had a few slightly terrifying experiences and have come through them unscathed. Other drivers are (mostly) kind and patient and can probably tell when someone is a left-side-of-the-road newbie so they give us the right of way. Bless their hearts! By the end of the week we felt a little more comfortable, and we have a driving lesson with a local member this week, so hopefully we’ll have it mastered soon.

We got right to work on Monday morning at the Area Office. Jon has been “drinking from a fire hose” as he learns his responsibilities, but he works with wonderful people who he’ll learn so much from.

First day of “on the job”! They have this fun phone booth in the office, just for the purpose of taking cheesy photos. : )

The Area Office is still undergoing some renovations and this beautiful mural of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove was installed this week close to where my desk is located. It makes me just want to sit in those chairs all day and spend time among the trees.

I go to the office with him every day and have started on a few family history projects. One of them involves building family trees on the back end on FamilySearch using English records (finding sources, adding names and information) so that when someone goes on the website to find their ancestors, some of the work has been done for them already and then they’re able to take those family members’ names to the temple to have the ordinance work done.

The first family I worked on was a Wallis family from the 1800s, which coincidentally is the last name of our new daughter-in-law. (We’re going to figure out if there happens to be a connection, wouldn’t that be cool?) After a little research, I was able to verify some new dates and places for most of the family members, as well as identifying names of grandparents that hadn’t been found before. I also found a son in the family who had previously not been a part of the family tree. I love the feeling of finding and restoring that which has been lost. Families are central to God’s plan, and the work of bringing families back together in both digital records and someday in real life feels like such a blessing and a miracle to be a part of. (If you ever want any family history help, hit me up!!)

These two have been waiting 170 years for someone to find their marriage information, connect it to their family tree, and make it possible for their temple work to be done.

Also this week I was given a new assignment in addition to my family history projects. I’ll be helping with incoming missionary applications from the Europe North Area—reviewing them for any missing information, correlating with the medical advisers who also review them, and then preparing them for the Area President to review, approve and send on to Salt Lake for assignment. Having sent 3 children on missions and now serving ourselves, this will be a sweet way to serve and help get these young (and not-so-young) missionaries one step closer to their goal. Many of the missionaries in the areas we cover (such as from Cape Verde and Portugal) have challenging issues to overcome in order to be able to serve—financial, visas, family support, etc. It’s inspiring to see the desire in their hearts to leave everything behind and serve the Lord.

Yesterday (Saturday) was our p-day (preparation day)/day off. As I mentioned last week, we’re planning to take every possible opportunity to explore and see as much of this beautiful country as we can (even if it includes driving down terrifyingly narrow country lanes haha!). We joined the National Trust membership and made our first visit to a beautiful estate on the River Thames just 20 minutes away—Cliveden Estate (pronounced cliff-den). So dreamy! Spring flowers are just starting to bloom and I can imagine in a few weeks it will be even more stunning.

Enter here to an enchanted garden!

We may not be the Lord and Lady of any manor, but we feel like we’re living a royal dream!

Today after church we took a walk through the central area of town and then up the hill to the cemetery. If you know me, you know I LOVE cemeteries. As soon as we walked into the gates, we could both feel such a sweet spirit there.

The cemetery dates back to the mid-1850s. We didn’t go through it all (we’ll come back again!) but we saw quite a few markers of young men who had died in World War I and II. We saw mothers and fathers and grandparents. We were especially touched by the sweet sentiments on many of the tombstones: "Reunited", "Life is eternal and love immortal", and “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.”

We loved this grieving angel with a bouquet of fresh daffodils. So tender.

And then we walked into the “Snowdrop Garden”. This is an enclosed area for the graves of babies and young children (many were stillbirths/”born sleeping”).

As we walked through the markers and read the names and dates we were both overcome and we wept. All the trinkets and toys and memorials left on these graves would be all that the parents would be able to give their babies for now. They will wait until the next life to be with their children again. It broke our hearts to think of their grief and loss.

"We'll see you when we get there." ♥

We also felt incredible gratitude for the five healthy children we’ve been blessed with and have been able to raise to adulthood. We’ve never experienced the loss of any of our children. But what a great gift to realize that these parents will most certainly see their children again, that through Jesus Christ and His atoning and redeeming power, He can restore that which was lost. He can do it here for us now, and He will do it for us in the future.

This brings me back to the title of our post this week…Purpose. What is our purpose here? Our ultimate purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. We’re not doing some of the things that typical young missionaries do, or have done in the past, like knocking on doors and teaching lessons to people interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But we have seen this week that Christ allows us to partner with Him in blessing and inviting people to come to Him in so many different ways. Legal work may not seem like a very obvious “missionary” activity, but we’ve come to see the absolute necessity of making sure that as a church we’re complying with all the laws of the many nations we’re in, that we’re being good citizens, and making it possible to have the foundation of church buildings and temples and missionary work and humanitarian outreach. And as I serve in family history and missionary work assignments, I know I’ll see miracles as individuals and families are blessed by the knowledge of who Jesus Christ is and what He can do for each of us. We’re so grateful that we can do just our small little part here to fulfill that purpose.

♥ 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.)

Bits and bobs - sundry little items, tasks, or chores, “I had to pick up some bits and bobs at the store.”

Cheeky - slightly rude or showing no respect, but often in a funny way, “She’s got such a cheeky grin.”