4 months

Picture in my flat that reminds me of the lovely English Countryside

Four months have flown by - we entered the MTC four months ago this past Thursday.  We thank Heavenly Father each and every day for the brilliant opportunity to serve in the England Birmingham Mission.  





TRANSFERS this past week - 







They arrive by bus, coach,
bike, train and car - 












But they come.....



















so wonderful to see the missionaries give hugs, share laughter and tears




...And they go - DEPARTURES
Goodbye to Elder Lo and Elder Corso

President Leppard, Elder Lo from Hong Kong,
Elder Corso from Italy and Sister Leppard

On Tuesday, after all the missionaries go back into the field with their new companions, we get the lovely opportunity to have a testimony meeting with the departing missionaries (which is amazing) and then share in a departure dinner at the mission home.



One of the special moments in the mission office calling.
Our new arrivals are coming this next week.

OUR CHURCH CALLINGS IN THE TAMWORTH WARD:
This week we started teaching a new group of primary children - we are also called to be Faith in God Leaders (like our Achievement Days and Scouts).  We only have 1 girl so they all meet together.

IN THE OFFICE:
This week we have been working hard to get all the meter readings from over 100 missionary flats.  We are changing utility companies and need the missionaries to get their electric and gas readings each month.  The trial was finding all the meters, but they did it!  Amazing young Elder and Sisters.  As always, we absolutely love our visits with them in the office and cherish all the sweet notes they leave.  They touch our hearts.

Happy New Year 2017

 Happy New Year  &
Happy Birthday to 
Elder Willmore!
Also President Leppard's Birthday




Bought my new calendar 

yesterday-"Mums" ready for the New Year 2017


Catching up for the last two weeks:
Week before Christmas - Busy week at the office as usual.

• Friday - Dec. 23rd Closed the office at 3:30 for a Senior Christmas Social at Lichfield Cathedral - "The Cathedral Illuminated - The Angels are Coming".  We meet before and had dinner.  Fun and Festive night to share in the Christmas atmosphere.  We all meet at President and Sister Leppard's for hot chocolate and biscuits after to warm up - it was pouring rain, but cleared up for the illumination. 

Lichfield Cathedral Illumination

Lichefiled Cathedral Illumination

Cathedral Illumination

Christmas Social in the Mission Home

Willmores, Blumells, Spors, Walks, Leppards, Jones, Richards
at the Mission Home

Inside Lichfield Cathedral

Sister Willmore and Sister Jones eating at the Walkabout

• Saturday - Dec. 24th We sent out all the Christmas packages to the missionaries with the Zone Leaders - We ended up not having to shop for the missionaries who did not get packages - Wonderful people brought gifts to the office to brighten our missionaries Christmas.  Such a blessing!
• Took Elder Cohen and Elder Ashwell out for a Christmas Eve dinner - they were both sick but keep on going.  It seems the office has had a lot of sickness going around - We are taking lots of vitamin C and it is working so far.
• Sunday - Dec. 25th - Christmas Day - Picked up Elder Ey and Williams and went to our sacrament meeting at 10:00.  After our meeting we had Christmas Dinner with Elder and Sister Veater and Elder and Sister Blumell at our flat.  We had a quite Christmas and opened our precious letters from our family - the best gifts ever!  We will always cherish these special letters from children and grandchildren.

Best Christmas Gifts Ever

Poem with letters

Later in the evening we had a visit from Elder Griffin and Clayton.  We love these Elders. 

Christmas late afternoon (Christmas morning for them) we face timed with our Children and Grandchildren - what a wonderful way to spend Christmas.  We sure missed spending Christmas with them, we will have to live on the memories for a few Christmas.  We even talked to Jamie and Jeff who are spending Christmas in Jamaica.

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful letters and emails - we miss and love you all.

Week at the office - busier week than last week  (12-14 hr days)

• December 26th - Boxing Day - The office was closed but we spent the day preparing for a Elder Johnson and his wife visiting the mission for a mission tour.  We shopped for a luncheon on Tuesday - Taco Bar and then went to the office to clean so it was in tip top shape for our visitors.

December 26 was the day centuries ago when lords of the manor and aristocrats typically distributed “Christmas boxes” often filled with small gifts, money and leftovers from Christmas dinner to their household servants and employees, who were required to work on December 25, in recognition of good service throughout the year. These boxes were, in essence, holiday bonuses. Another popular theory is that the Boxing Day moniker arose from the alms boxes that were placed in churches during the Advent season for the collection of monetary donations from parishioners. Clergy members distributed the contents of the boxes to the poor on December 26, which is also the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr and a figure known for acts of charity. (Ireland celebrates December 26 as St. Stephen’s Day.)

New Holiday for us!

• December 27th - We went to a member of ward's home for dinner.  They are very humble and kind people.  They made us such a lovely dinner and we enjoyed our visit in their home.  Sometimes we take for granted all the blessings and conveniences we have in life.  We are blessed with such a nice home in America - our home is not large but we have come to realize that other parts of the world get by with much less than we have.  

• December 27th-29th -(MissionTour with Elder & Sister Johnson)   A week full of meetings.  We were also getting ready for all the end of month deadlines for finances and getting ready for transfers and new arrivals next week.  We had to get utility meter readings from all the missionaries because we are changing utility companies and will need them to get their readings from their flats each month.  Busy Busy Busy - but wonderful.

• December 30-31 - Celebrated Conley birthday by going out to lunch and celebrated the New Year quietly at our flat - listened to fireworks going off at midnight.  Felt wonderful after a very busy week.  

• January 1, 2017 - Happy New Year to All - May it be wonderful!

Merry Christmas to All

Since Christmas is next Sunday - I will not write a blog so we send our Christmas Wishes to all -

Merry Christmas to All

We want to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and send our love.  As we reflect on our Saviors birth, we are so grateful for his love, for his life and example of how we should live to have happiness and most importantly for his atoning sacrifice for us.  We are so blessed and feel his tender mercies in our lives each day.  We know that he is aware of each of us and that he knows our needs and even our desires. He has certainly blessed our lives and we find joy serving in the England Birmingham Mission this wonderful Christmas Season.  We are surrounded by amazing young Elders and Sisters who are sharing His glorious Gospel and sharing their light with our Father's children.  What an experience to be surrounded by these special missionaries!   We thank our Heavenly Father each day for this lovely and brilliant opportunity He has given us.

We want our dear friends and family to know how much we love each of you and are so blessed to have your influence in our lives.  Each of you have made our lives better by your friendship and love.  We truly miss each of you and want to express our love and gratitude for your friendship, example and the light you are in our lives. 

May our Heavenly Father bless each of you with His peace this Christmas Season and throughout the coming year.  

With all our Love,

Elder and Sister Willmore

(COMING SOON - Picture of Elder Willmore/aka Santa at the Ward Christmas Party)

Happy Birthday to Hannah on the 20th and Ryan on the 25th (Christmas Day)




Farewell to Our Dear Elder Turner

Elder Turner

Saturday one of our office Elders who is serving a Service Mission went home after serving for a one year mission.  He has truly helped us learn our office duties and has helped us every single day with questions about how to do certain procedures on the computer.  He has also written programs just for our mission to help us accomplish tasks easier.  He has magnified his talents that Heavenly Father has given him - he has a very unique gift and shares with others so freely and with such a sweet spirit.

Elder and Sister Veater, Elder Turner, Elder and Sister Willmore

We will miss him so much.  He lives in our mission boundries so we hope to see him once in a while if he happens to by driving past the mission office.  Thank you Elder Turner - what a blessing you have been in our lives!







Welcome to our new office missionary - Elder Ashwell -
Elder Ashwell arrived on Monday, December 12th and will be with us for four months.  He lives in our mission and will serve a Service Mission.




Packages, Packages and More Packages - Merry Christmas

Elder Turn, Elder Hellyer, Elder Wagner and Elder Cohen
Love Them All!

Our wonderful Office Elders and Assistants to the President keeping track and a watchful eye on all the packages delivered to the office.









The packages are piling HIGH and we still have one more week to go!  Merry Christmas to all the Elders and Sisters from their wonderful families.

Preparation Day This Week - The Black Country Living Museum

- 27 Acres of Original Buildings moved and rebuilt
The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands in England, West of Birmingham, including Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell. In the Industrial Revolution, it became one of the most industrialized parts of Britain with coal mines, coking, iron foundries and steel mills producing a high level of air pollution. It's said that the Black Country gained its name in the mid-nineteenth century from the smoke from the many thousands of iron working foundries and forges.  There was an old back to back house that was moved to this Museum.  This is like the house that Elder Willmore's GG Grandfather - George Willmore lived in downtown Birmingham.  They are very small with one bedroom upstairs and held over 10 people in a house.  On the back is another house. 

Elder Willmore in front of  a Back to Back house

Enjoying our fish and chips by a coal fire

Black Country

Black Country Pasty Shop

Old Coal Mine where many people worked in terrible conditions,
 even 8 year old boys worked for 2 pence a day

Stake Conference and Gathering in Supplies

Happy Birthday to Kurk
On December 16th



IN WITH THE SUPPLIES

This week we are starting to collect all the pamphlets, Book of Mormons, videos, pass-along cards and other odds and ends from the missionaries apartments - oh my! We asked for it and we got it - Only have 1 1/2 zones out of 8 turned in and our hallways and offices are full. I think Elder Willmore separated Book of Mormon's in 70 different languages. A lot of work left to do.  Late night at the office and Chinese take out. 

Elder Turner and Elder Cohen, our office elders, got to the point that all they could do was LAUGH - it was better than crying.





STAKE CONFERENCE IN LICHFIELD

Amazing stake conference - it is fun to see people in the congregation that we actually know and love. One of our favorite things was the beautiful singing - They are like the Polynesian people that sing with much feeling.  So lovely and especially with the Christmas music.  Even the familiar Christmas Songs in the Hymn book they have their own version of and sing with gusto.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH CHRISTMAS MUSIC THIS YEAR.  



Goodbye to the Brunts who are returning home to Idaho Falls, Idaho - Dec 7, 2016.  They served in Milford Haven and his sister and her husband
are replacing them as MLC missionaires.



Parable I loved from our Stake President:  SO TRUE

THE REDS and GREENS of CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND

Red Berries on Green Holly Bush on our walk

Green and Red German Pyramid-an at the
Christmas Market

The Red Double Decker Bus

The Red Church Door in our neighborhood

The Red Post to mail our Christmas Cards

Our Royal Mail truck delivering all the Missionaries packages

Our green and red lights on our Christmas Tree

Classic Red Telephone Booth - it really works

Arrivals, Departures and Meetings - Wow!

Arriving Missionaries

ARRIVALS, DEPARTURES & MEETINGS

Arriving Missionaries from the Preston MTC

It has been a very busy week with arrivals, departures, and Mission Leadership meetings.  We had a group of thirteen new missionaries come into the mission on Tuesday, and had a group of nine missionaries departing.  It was  busy but organized with many missionaries coming in on coaches to be paired up with their new companions.  We had a bus that was stalled because of a traffic accident so we had missionaries all day in the office.  Tuesday late afternoon we all met together and had a testimony meeting with those missionaries that were departing which was amazing.  We then met at the mission home for a farewell dinner for them.  Such wonderful young men and women.  Off they go to make their mark in the world. Wednesday started with a parent picking up their son and then President and Sister Leppard made three trips to the airport - morning, afternoon and evening. The rest of the week after arrivals and departures is a very busy one with all the paper work - getting their visas and passports arranged, all the information in our rosters changed, assignment letters sent out for Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers.  We also send an email to all the parents of the new arrivals to let them know that they have arrived safety.  Busy, hectic and fun times with the missionaries in the office.  We love those missionaries!

November 29th Arrivals

Departing Missionaries

Now that this week is over - we start preparing for the next group of arrivals and departures - a six week cycle.

Taking our office elders out to dinner after a long day at the office

Thanks to the Miracle of Modern Technology - We attended a wedding on Friday

Even though we were not able to attend Jairon and McKenzie's wedding, we had the miraculous opportunity to watch them come out of the temple, see them at their ring ceremony and reception.  It was beautiful.  Thanks to family, who included us through facetime.  Such precious moments!














Tamworth Castle
We drive past this castle every Sunday when we go to church and decided to visit it this Pday.  It was built in the 1100's and is a very medieval castle.  Another site that Eric sent us when he served here.

Tamorth Castle with the Veaters

Tamorth Castle - Built in the 1100's

Sister Willmore and The Knight

Off with her head