Time
We are feeling the rapid passage of time! We now very much relate to some of the experiences our missionary children had and what we have heard from other young missionaries. When we first arrived in February of last year, it was dark and cold and everything was new, leaving us feeling overwhelmed. The days seemed long and challenging and time passed slowly. After a few months, we settled into a routine, and made lots of plans for all the things we wanted to do as missionaries, the places we wanted to visit, and the people we hoped to connect with in our ward and in our office. Time seemed to stretch out abundantly before us. Now here we are, with 3 months left in our mission, and I can hardly bear the thought that we will be leaving this place and these people. Cue the tears! So…I will continue in denial for a little bit longer and just treasure the experiences we’re having here and now.
Which include…no surprise, flowers! Lots of flowers! Elder VW claims that I have left no British flower unphotographed. That is a mission I am happy to accomplish! :)
We got together with our OGC pals, the McMurrays, for a Saturday trip to Dover Castle and the White Cliffs of Dover. We’ve been there once before, but it’s always fun to share a place with someone who hasn’t been.
The highlight of last month was being able to make a quick trip back to the U.S. to go to Spencer’s BYU graduation. As most of you know, when you serve a mission (even a senior mission), you typically stay where you are for the full time commitment and only travel home for emergencies or special circumstances. Senior missionaries have more flexibility than the young missionaries. Our youngest’s graduation from college was definitely a special circumstance! It was wonderful to be with most of our family during our visit and to see our “baby” accomplish this great step in his life. Go Cougars!
I love BYU graduation so much! Give me all the pomp and circumstance!
We just had a short time together, but we visited the Tulip Festival (because we don’t get enough flowers haha!).
And then it was time to say goodbye and head back to London (got to fly part of the way with Spencer & Laura!). Farewell, America, until we see you in August!
We returned to beautiful springtime weather here in England, and just in time for the blooming of the bluebells. Someone in the office had told us about a little grove of trees not too far from the office so we had an impromptu OGC picnic lunch outing.
We adore these people! I think in the future when I look back on our time here and think about specific memories, this somewhat ordinary but also magical experience will be among my core memories! Elder VW and I will be sitting in our rocking chairs and I’ll say, “Remember the time we had a picnic and strolled among the bluebells in England?” Cue more tears!
On May 2nd, we had another memorable experience—we celebrated our 40th anniversary! If you would have told our newlywed selves that we’d be spending our 40th anniversary in England, we wouldn’t have believed you!
That was then, and this is now…on a grand 18-month date as eternal companions.
We had a lovely afternoon in the London Temple, and then visited the nearby Wakehurst Gardens. Stunning! Gorgeous! Dripping with flowers!
We had dinner at a nice little restaurant and then caught the very end of a beautiful sunset.
Later that weekend, our kids organized a Zoom call to share some sweet memories and say nice things about us. :) We’re all spread across 4 time zones right now, so this was better than any gift they could have given us!
Last week we had visitors from Roseville—our long-time friends, the Ferrells. The best part about having anyone come visit us is to be able to show the people and places we love here to the people we love from home. It feels like it connects both of our worlds in a wonderful way!
Finally, this past weekend we had planned to go hiking but Jon came down with a stomach virus to beat all stomach viruses! It knocked him flat for the last 4 days, but thankfully he’s on the mend. So I did what any devoted wife would do…I ditched him on Saturday and went on my own little ramble to a cute village nearby that was having an art festival. In my defense, I was trying to stay away from any germs!
I was pulled towards this house at the end of the street just to get a closer look at this amazing wisteria, and then I was surrounded by its beautiful scent.
Just look at those blooms! They only appear for 2-3 weeks each year, so when they do, they put on a spectacular show!
The owners were outside doing some yard work and I complimented them on the beautiful flowers. The wife told me that a few years ago this vine had suffered some damage when one of the roots had been accidentally chopped apart by some construction workers. They thought for sure the vine would die or be permanently damaged. But to their surprise, it survived! And, in fact, it came back even more glorious and lush than it ever had before. She said it was almost as if it needed that stress in order to trigger something that made it fight back and grow and become stronger.
Such a great parallel to us! It brought to mind a beautiful General Conference talk by Elder D. Todd Christofferson (click on the name to watch a short little story he shared). Sometimes we face accidental trials, sometimes we bring challenges upon ourselves, and sometimes we’re placed in situations that test us. We wonder if we’ll make it through. But often to our surprise, we not only survive, but we come through stronger and better than before. I truly hope this is happening for us. We don’t always see the growth when we’re still in the thick of things, but I hope when we look back on our experiences here—both the wonderful ones and the really hard ones—we’ll see that we have blossomed in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
♥ Until next time, we love you! Cheers! ♥
Words of the Week:
Poorly - this is a word I heard my Grandma use all the time, but it’s also very much said here in place of the word sick, “I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling poorly!”
Natter - talk casually, especially on unimportant matters; chat, "they nattered away for hours"
Chin-wag - a friendly conversation, a chat, “we need to get together for a good chin-wag”
I love all this! Those woods looked amazing! We had an absolute dream time with you two! I will never get over the beauty of the Cotswolds! Watching you two on your mission was so fun! Thank you for sharing it with us! I will continue to dream about it all! We will miss you until you return home and buy a house in Roseville CA!
I love this recap! Everything about it made me smile except the fact that Dutch was sick.🤢 That’s never good.
What a blessIng your mission has been for you guys but also for us who have enjoyed it through your emails and glorious pictures. ♥️ And again Happy 40 years together and eternity to go!