Merry Christmas to All

This blog is for the last two weeks and we would like to share some of our "happenings" in the mission.


Saturday - December 16th for our p-day we went to Coventry and walked around the market, went to lunch, went to a Christmas Concert in the Coventry Cathedral, then went to a play "Wind in the Willows".  A very lovely day and evening out with Elder and Sister Blumell.  Coventry is where Lady Godiva rode through the town - something new I learned.  I have heard her name, but didn't know the interesting story HaHa.  Also learned about peeping Tom - never knew where that phrase came from until today




On Sunday - December 17th we were invited over to Brother and Sister Maughan's house (a family in our Tamworth ward) for dinner.  She taught me how to make Yorkshire puddings.  Delicious meal and fun company.  They showed us Eric's signature in their guest book when he ate at their house back in 2015.

Monday - December 18th - Office Meeting 

Dressed up for Office Meeting

Elder and Sister Willmore

Eric told us we could find great suits in England so we took his advice and bought one for Elder Willmore - maybe we should have waited for Eric to help us pick out the perfect suit for Elder Willmore???


























On Tuesday - December 19th -We had Mult-Zone Conference at the chapel next to the mission office - we helped prepare and serve them lunch and then watch their Christmas skits.  If is always a treat to have the missionaries around.  They had some pretty impressive Christmas jumpers (Sweaters).  In the evning we went to another Christmas Concert at the Wylde Green Ward and heard some of our young missionaries sing in the choir.  It was amazing to hear some of their beautiful voices.  We have loved going to the Christmas Concerts this year.




















Happy Birthday to Hannah on the 20th - We opened our special letter from her on her birthday.  She is quite the artist and she loves to do artwork at her new desk that her mom just restored for her.  We love you Hannah!















Also, Happy Birthday tomorrow on Christmas Day to Ryan who is serving his mission in Bolivia - we send our love and wish you a Merry Christmas as you serve our Heavenly Father.  Love you Ryan




Some other cards from our grandchildren this last two week:

From Payton

From Sami

From Lauren

From Allie

From Brooklyn

We also received special letters from Madison, Jeff, Katelyn, Melissa, Brandee, Kurk, Kenzie and Colby.  Thank you for "lighting our world".  We will open our last letter in the morning by the Christmas Tree from Jamie.  What a blessing you are in our lives.

Also, thank you for the wonderful emails and letters from our dear family and friends.

Friday - December 22 was our ward Christmas Party - Look who's Santa -
 HO HO HO - he was also Santa last year and he did a great job.












Oh My - We are seeing Elder Willmore in many different kinds of suits this Christmas Season.


Saturday  - December 23rd we started the day by going to President and Sister Leppards for a full English Breakfast with the office staff and with their daughter and her family who are visiting from Utah.  Sausage, Gammon, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, eggs.  Delicious!!  Then we went to the office where the zone leaders were picking up all the Christmas packages for the missionaries.  The pile of packages has been growing in our back room since the first of November.

Elder Ashwell and Elder Clabaux

Elder and Sister Willmore with the Christmas packages

Merry Christmas Eve
Today - Christmas Eve -We just watched some videos on the Mormon Tabernacle website - one in particular is "Oh Come Little Children".  It touched us and made us think of the sweet children that touch our lives.  All the month of December, we have opened a very special letter each day from our children and grandchildren.  It has been a wonderful experience to have them wish us a Merry Christmas and express their love to us.  How grateful we are for these Children and Grandchildren in our lives.  Thank you for the amazing things you do for us and for your love.  You are truly a blessing to us and we thank our Heavenly Father each day for you by name. 

We received a special homemade card from one of our primary children today which touched us also.

We wish you each a Very Merry Christmas.

We are looking forward this week to a very special visit from Eric and Kaeli!  Hopefully they will help us eat all the English Chocolate we received for Christmas.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Happy Birthday to Kurk - December 16th
We love you and hope our day is wonderful.

Seven new Missionaires:

Sister Whitney Smith from Idaho

Tuesday, December 5th, we welcomed seven new missionaries into the England Birmingham Mission.  One of them is a granddaughter of some friends we had when we lived in Pocatello, Idaho on Darrel Loop.  Their daughter, Amy Bird, is Nichol's age and Amy's daughter, Whitney, is now serving with us.  It is such a small world.

Arrivals - December 5, 2017

Charolette's Christmas Concert - After we were finished with our arrival group on Tuesday, we drove about 40 minutes to Swadlincote for a concert that one of our primary children was performing in.  What a wonderful way to spend an evening - listening to a children's choir singing Christmas songs.  Charolette has a gorgeous voice and she sang several solos.  Charolette is the one in the in front of the organ waving at us.

Charolette's Christmas Concert

Saturday - We rode the double-decker bus into Birmingham to walk through the German Christmas market.  We enjoyed the sites and smells of Christmas and then headed home to attend Stake Conference in the evening.  

Elder Willmore enjoying his bratwurst - eat your heart out Kurk

Birmingham's German Christmas Market

Today we woke up to Snow - we had about 2 inches, which is enough to cancel our church meetings - which was supposed to be our Stake Conference.  We spent the day enjoying our flat with the Christmas lights on and beautiful Christmas music playing while we wrote letters to family and friends.  We later went for a walk in the Winter Wonderland which we had not seen since we arrived in England.  Last year we only received a skiff of snow which lasted only a few hours.  Pictures of our Winter Wonderland Walk:

Some young men sculpting Olaf

Looking out our bedroom window

New Hall covered in a blanket of snow

Our wonderful Christmas Letters this week
We received such precious letters from Tyler, Kaeli, Nichol, Ashlee, Eric, Jairon and Caden.  We are sharing the pictures on some of them.  These special letters "Light up our World" every day. 

Ashlee - 7th Day of Christmsa

Caden - 10th Day of Christmas

Tyler - 4th Day of Christmas

Our Special Christmas Letters - Let them Begin

Another Transfer and Departure happened this week 
November 28 & 29, 2017- our six week cycles go by so fast.  One of the highlights of our mission is attending the testimony meeting of the missionaries that are departing and share a departure dinner with them as the mission home. This departure was a big one.  On Wednesday we had twenty three missionaries leave to greet their families.  We also had five other departures earlier in November.  Our trips to the airport started at 3:30 am with Elder Borrelli and Sister Clarke (she had to catch a coach to Gatwich Airport near London).

Farewell Dinner at the Mission Office - Table 1

Farewell Dinner at the Mission Office - Table 2

November 29th Departure group

Elder Claubaux checking out the departing missionaries - he came into the office last week and will be with us for this next transfer.

Mission Leadership Council was held on Friday - another opportunity to see these amazing missionaries.  We love them!
(picture coming)

25 Christmas Letters

Merry Christmas - December 1st arrived on Friday and we were able to start opening our special Christmas letters from our family.  We get to open one letter a day for 25 days - they are "lighting up our world"!

Brynlee - 1st Day of Christmas

Jaxon - 2nd Day of Christmas

3rd Day of Christmas - We received an amazing,
heartfelt letter from Scott.  Thank you so much to
all of you for these special gifts.

We had a transfer of Sister Missionaries in our Tamworth Ward this week - we now have Sister Martynenki joining Sister Smyrnova.  They are both from Ukraine.  Welcome to Tamworth Ward!







Happy Anniversary to Jairon & Kenzie - their 1st Anniversary was yesterday - December 2nd and also to Kurk and Nichol on December 7th - they are celebrating their 21st Anniversary.
 Treasure each other!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Doren and Laurie this week as Laurie goes in for surgery.  As I was fasting today, I had the unmistakable impression that Heavenly Father loves those we pray and fast for - even more than we realize.  His desire is to bless them also.  We just need to ask for His blessings to be with them and have Faith that He is aware of them and his Will will be done.
They are in His Hands.  I felt comfort as I had these thoughts as I was praying for Laurie and others that have been on my mind.

Preparing for Departures

Preparing for Departures - I can't believe it is time for another one.
The week before departures is one filled with preparing the returning missionaries departure packets filled with their certificate, assignment history, The Crest, medical information, letters they wrote to president and letters president wrote to them, Recommendation letters and their itinerary.  We put all this on a USB for them to have a backup of the documents.  We make sure all travel arrangements are finalized and that hotels and transportation to the airport is arranged.  Since we have 25 missionaries going home this next week, there were also final interviews with the President so he could fit them all in before Tuesday.

Elder Clark with Elder and Sister Willmore

Farewell to our Office Elders - again

Elder Johnsen with Elder and Sister Willmore

e also had another change in the office - we had two of our office elders return home and President brought in another missionary to serve with Elder Ashwell.  Elder Johnson and Elder Clark returned home this week.






















Friday we had our Assistants to the President over for lunch - it was the only time they had on their schedule.  Elder Turnbow will be leaving to return home on Tuesday.  The AP's work so hard and are amazing young men.

Elder Turnbow, Elder and Siste Willmore, Elder Kjar

Tamworth Ward First Baby Shower Ever

On Friday evening, I went to Tamworth to a baby shower that the ward was giving to a member of the ward.  There has not been a birth in the ward for many years and baby showers are not very common in England.  It was the first one they had held in the ward.  It had to be the fanciest baby shower I have ever been to - they say baby showers are more of an American tradition.  I had to leave early to make sure the Sister Missionaries from the Tamworth Ward were home before 9:00 but they were still playing games when I left.

Pday - Saturday - November 25th


We drove to Skegness on Pday with the Veaters for them to check out a new flat for the missionaries.
Skagness is on the East coast of England - it was a cold, windy day but it was fun to see the North Sea of the Atlantic.  It is about a three hour drive from our mission.  On the way we stopped at the Bunby Hall Manor House.  They had Christmas decorations.  I took pictures of the Christmas Bells - which really are the old bells the servants had in their quarters when the Lords and Ladies wanted them to come to their rooms.

Gunby Hall Manor House

Elder & Sister Willmore in Skegness on North Sea Beach

Elder Willmore on North Sea Beach in Skegness

Light the World - Christmas 2017
We received a picture of some of our family spending time together seeing the lights at Temple Square - a favorite family tradition.  It warms my heart when I see them together.

As we come to the 1st of December this Friday - may we watch the church video "Light the World"  and make our plans for giving service 25 ways in 25 days.  My lesson in Relief Society today was on service - President Monson said:
 "Let us ask ourselves the questions, 'Have I done any good in the world today?  Have I helped anyone in need?'.  What a formula for happiness!  What a prescription for contentment, for inner peace...There are hearts to gladden.  There are kind words to say.  There are gifts to be given.  There are deeds to be done.  There are souls to be saved."

Each day may we ask ourselves and members of our family -
"What Have I done for Someone Today?"

May we follow the example of our Prophet and also our supreme exemplar, Jesus Christ.

Light the World - mormon.org



The most treasured gifts are the wonderful moments we create with the people we love. They become priceless memories decorating our lives. (from Jamie's post on facebook)