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)

Up with the Christmas Decorations - we can have them all up in 15 minutes!

We received an email from our family with their Christmas wishes and telling us that they will be sending letters that we can open each day in December up through Christmas Day.  We received our first envelope of letters so we decided that is was time to put up our Christmas Decorations - which included our Elder and Sister Stockings that we received last year from our family.  It will be so fun to open a letter each day and will make our holiday special.  Thank you our sweet family - we love you all.
We listened to Christmas music all day Saturday when we were home in our flat.














We had four missionaries leave this week before our official departure day which will be in nine days on November 29th.  We will have 23 more missionaries leaving that day so we have been getting everything ready for their departure.  We also had trainers meeting on Friday and a Self Reliance class for missionaries departing in 6 months on Thursday so the office has been full of missionaries.

President Leppard, Elder Hoffmann, Elder Mkhulise, Sister Leppard

Elder Mkhulise and Elder Hoffman had to leave this week instead of on November 29th because their visas were expiring before that date.

It was inspiring to talk to one of the young sisters that came to the office for trainers meeting.  She was burned on her face and neck while she was cooking with oil .  I saw the and it caught on fire.  I saw pictures of her when she was in the hospital and when she came to the office she has healed quite a bit but you can still see the scars on her face and neck.  She has such a positive, cheerful attitude and a beautiful smile.  She was a joy to talk to and learn from her example.

Today (Sunday) I was able to talk  to my brother and sister-in-law, Laurie.  She has been battling cancer in her liver and stomach for the past couple years and she also inspires me with her optimism and positive attitude as she goes through this trial.  She goes in for surgery on December 6 and our prayers are with her and Doren.  We love you both.

Sunday - November 19
We had a munch and mingle after church and then had Elder Ashwell and Elder Clark over for dinner.   They serve in the office with us.  The best part of having them for dinner is hearing them give us their message they prepare.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - 
November 11th
Saturday we held our annual Thanksgiving Senior Social with the senior missionaries and our flat inspectors (and also our office elders and assistants) - What a lovely event.  This will be the last one that I plan. Out of the 37 that attended:  20 were from England, 15 were from America and 2 were from Canada.
The turkey's were British!

After the Thanksgiving Social we drove to Stourbridge where we attended a Canadian Night with the Stourbridge ward - we had Canadian food and two of the missionaries serving there entertained us with music - Elder Matwayachuk and Elder Matus



Happy Birthday to Ashlee today! - November 12th
She is 11 years old today.  She is a beautiful artist and has sent us many beautiful letters and pictures as we have served in England.  She brightens our day! (Ashlee is in the orange shirt)
She also brightened some other people's day yesterday as she raked leaves for them.

Giving service to others - raking leaves for five families

November has arrived

Happy Birthday to Nichol tomorrow - November 6th
We feel so blessed to call her our DAUGHTER.
We love you Nichol!




The highlight at the office this week was MLC - held on Friday, November 3rd.  We helped prepare the lunch for them and loved the time to see all the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders. Such an amazing group of Elders and Sisters. 


The week was busy finishing up all the projects that come with new arrivals that arrived last week.  Since it was such a large group - it took most of this week to get everything done.

  This weekend England celebrated Guy Fawkes Night - They celebrate with bonfires and lighting off fireworks similar to our fireworks on the 4th of July.
Guy Fawkes Night is annually held on November 5. It is sometimes known as Bonfire Night and marks the anniversary of the discovery of a plot organized by Catholic conspirators to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605. Many people light bonfires and set off fireworks.  He failed to blow up parliament but is the most celebrated villan in England.