Week 48 - Christmas, Gone but not Forgotten

This week was special due to so many of you.  You will never know how much the emails, cards, calls and packages meant to us.  We are so blessed to have so many great friends and family.  


We started the week like any other.  To The Archives on Monday to work.  Annie stayed home on Tuesday to make pies for Christmas and rest.  We watched Christmas movies and read the Christmas story from Luke on Christmas Eve.  Our first family skype started this evening.  Andrew and his family skyped with us. We were not thinking and did not take their family picture on skype at this time.  Due to this lack of thought, their picture is missing from the skype pictures below.

The Paul Smart family has a tradition to always go to Temple Square on Christmas Even. .We were overjoyed to skype with Kathie and Matt and family, and Aaron and Becky at Temple Square on Christmas Eve. It was unbelievable that even while in London we could experience being there.

Christmas morning we slept in until 8:00 a.m.  We did the  traditional unwrapping of the Christmas gifts. After indulging on our favorite candies and goodies, Annie got to work in the kitchen making rolls.  At Noon Elder and Sister Watt joined us for Christmas dinner. They quickly returned home after we ate so that we and they could skype with the families.  It was just like being in Utah  to be in each of your  homes on Christmas morning. We sure loved this time with all of you. 

Annie making Christmas rolls in her new apron.

Christmas morning with our Christmas "stash"

The day after Christmas was one of pure lazy resting!!! It was wonderful.  It has a name -- Boxing Day.  On Friday we ventured out to do a little shopping and walked around discovering parts of Richmond that we had not yet explored.  Saturday was a busy day.  We had afternoon tickets to the "Christmas Extravaganza" at  the Royal Albert Hall.  Wow! The building was impressive.  The show was filled with music from the Royal Orchestra, dancing (from ballet to western can can) musical songs, and opera.  I guess neither of us are very cultural because we could have done without the opera.   They had fun and interesting light shows going on during much of the music.  Annie mostly liked the idea that she was actually at a performance in the Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Albert Hall

Inside the Royal Albert Hall

We then went on a round about train trip (due to many of the train lines being down for service)  to our Staines Ward for a baptism.  It was an awesome experience to witness and share in this.  After Jane Vera Murdin was baptized she asked Elder Smart to confirm her in church the next day.  He was honored and, of coarse, did a great job on Sunday.

Dee, Jane (newly baptized) and Annie

Spencer and Cyntha Stagg family skyped

Matt and Kathie Cherrington family skyped

                                                    

Eli  & Mikell Stagg family skyped

                                   

Velynn Matson family skyped

       

Steve and Rachelle Smith family skyped

Aaron and Audra Stagg family skyped

                   
                         







 
We are again grateful this Christmas season for our friends and family.  Thank you all so much for remembering us and sharing with us.

We know the Church is true and that the best Christmas gift we can give is to serve Christ.  We are grateful to be here serving.

We love you all!!!!

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart.

47 -- Twas the Week before Christmas

Just wanted to tell you Merry Christmas (we'll hold off with the Happy New Year until next week).  Anyway we are truly going to miss everyone -- if you only knew how much.  Guess the secret is to stay busy and to continue to get caught up in the work. The only problem with getting caught up in the work is that there isn't a lot to get caught up in. Everything closes down on Christmas and the day after Christmas (Boxing Day).  We do mean everything.  No buses, no trains, no National Archives (closed from 25 - 29 Dec), etc., etc. 

The latest news is our speaking in Sacrament Meeting today.  We have decided that we are the speakers whenever we celebrate something in relation to the Savior.  That means that we spoke at Easter and today we spoke for Christmas.  We're not sure if the ward is short speakers or we are just the ones that need to study more about Him.  Nevertheless it is and was our privilege to speak today.  Annie spoke on understanding the Shepherds and Paul spoke on understanding the Wise Men.  We both learned a lot as we prepared.  So many people were kind to us following the meeting.  Several of the members gave us cards and goodies.  We felt quite loved.

We also had a wonderful start to the week.  We left on mid-day Monday for the London Temple which is several miles away.  We spent Monday evening getting things ready for a group of Elders and Sisters who were coming on Tuesday for a session at the temple and a meal with the Mission President.  When we finished with our preparations, we were told that someone wanted some help with their family history, so we spent the evening (after going out to dinner at our favorite pub) helping a Sister with her family history.

Genealogy at Temple

Almost forgot to mention that on the way to the temple, we stopped by Hever Castle.  Had a great
experience and learned a little more about Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn.  They had it all decorated with Christmas lights.  The parish church next door was really historic as it dated back some 800 years.  We stumbled across a children's presentation where they were celebrating Christmas by riding the donkeys - cute!

Hever Castle

Hever Castle

Children & Donkeys

Children & Donkeys

 

Ann Boleyn?

Hever Church

Hever Church Interior

Preparations for Dinner

Tuesday came and we were back at work getting ready for the Elders and Sisters.  While they were in the temple, we were making serious preparations for feeding them.  Following a short program we were able to attend the temple ourselves.  We were honored to be the witness couple on the session.  We were also privileged to see the new temple film for our first time.  The session was unique in that we had 5 males and two females that made up the 6 pm session.  We stood proxy for two of Annie's ancestors that we had previously discovered since being here on our mission.  In the evening we spent more time helping the same Sister with her family history.

Missionary Luncheon

President Millar @ Missionary Luncheon

Wednesday was our day to return to London.  We took in one more session at the temple.  Again we were privileged to be the witness couple on our session.  Following the session the Carpenters took us to the train station and we made the trip back to our London home.  The Carpenters have been really good to us.  They will return home to Draper early in January, as they finish their mission.

We had previously purchased tickets through Groupon to view the Christmas lights in London.  So Wednesday evening we made our way downtown and took an open top, double decker bus tour to see the lights.  It was really a marvelous experience even though it rained for half the trip and we were on the upper open deck.

Tourists at London Lights

Thursday and Friday were regular days back at the Archives.  We even got a little imaging done on the cameras but ended up doing some evaluation for future projects and some family history for most of the days.  Annie wasn't feeling real well on those two days so she spent some of them home in bed.  After going to the doctor on Friday morning, we are happy to report that things are looking better for her -- naturally, since she did so well on her talk today.

Saturday was mostly a cleanup, shop, and get talks ready for the day.  We probably haven't mentioned it before, but Saturday and well as several other days have been baking days for Annie.  She is a real hit when it comes to making fudge over here.  As a candy maker, roll maker (with Kathie's help), pie maker, and all around general cook she has DONE WELL.

Once again our special prayers and thoughts go out to all of you  for a happy Christmas and a week filled with love and joy.  Do something wild and frivolous for us.  Have some extra egg nog, a nice piece of fruitcake, visit Temple Square, don't go to too many parties, try to visit someone that is alone or down and out, take a minute to put Christ back in Christmas.

Again, we'll miss you all, but we know that what we are doing is what we need to be doing at this time of our lives.  The gospel is true.  It's great to serve and to try to help others.  It's a privilege to be associated with all of you.  We sure love our children and grandchildren.  Even though we don't do the best job of supporting our friends and extended family, we love you too.

Elder and Sister Smart, Paul and Annie, Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom

Tourist at Hever Castle

Checking out the Sleigh

--

Manger Scene at Temple

Hold everything and stop the press.  We have just discovered that we did not "publish" our week 45.  So, if you're following this series, you didn't tell us.  So we will not only publish this, our Christmas message, but the one we thought we had shared with you two weeks ago.  It it/was all about our Isle of Wight experience.

Week 46 - Putting it all together

Elder Smart has had a very busy week trying to sort through all of the materials we gathered and copied from our Isle of Wight visit. The amount of information that we found is overwhelming and is taking a lot of time to organize, translate and take in. 

Since there is not enough digitizing our supervisor has been trying to make arrangements for changes in our mission assignments.  This has been going on for more than a month now. The other missionary couple, Elder and Sister Powell have been assigned to a German mission to microfilm.  They are leaving Tuesday. We have been feeling a little like we are not sure what our purpose is here. Then Annie realized  how much effort Paul has put into trying to find his Major family ancestors.  He has diligently searched for them for many years.  Having this free time, has allowed him to search areas in England that he has never been able to search before.  It has been a great blessing.  Annie feels that this time is a gift from our Heavenly Father to allow Paul to research and find his family. We know that all will work out with our mission assignments when the time is right.

We decorated our flat for Christmas this week. The decorations are simple, but so much fun!

Christmas doll #2

Christmas doll from Isle of
Wight

Tree(CD holder); wall ornaments made by Grandkids

Decorated TV console

Our Staines Ward had their Christmas party Saturday evening. The theme was Christmas around the world.  There are so many countries represented in our Ward that we learned a lot and enjoyed a lot of food, fun, and dancing.  Of course we did our little contribution and Annie did chocolate chip cookies and sloppy joes

Large Ward turnout for party

Philippino's sharing song in Tagalog 

Amelia Petchy and mother

We enjoyed a beautiful and moving Christmas Devotional and singing time with Staines Stake Sunday evening.

Happy Anniversary to Stephen and Rachelle this week.

We send our love this Christmas season.  We are so grateful for the birth of Christ.  We are so blessed by his love, life, teachings, example and atonement. We pray that we can serve him faithfully.


Grandpa and Grandma Smart, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

More Isle of Wight pictures.

Missionaries in the PUB

Bargeman's Rest Pub, favorite eating place

Location of Rope Walk in East Cowes

Paul & the Archivist, Mr. Smout

The rope walk is probably where John Major had his rope making business.

Smarts on the floating bridge

Floating Bridge between East and West Cowes

Dock on the Medina River, probably where John Major's family docked their boat.

Week 45 (Isle of Wight Family History)

While things are a little slow with the digitizing and with a sincere desire to move ahead with Paul's mother's family history, we decided to try to use our time going on site to the Isle of Wight.  This actually started on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving,  We started out in the morning and after a short walk, a bus ride, two train rides, another bus ride, a ferry ride, and one final bus ride, we made it to Newport, Isle of Wight.  We got their early enough in the afternoon that we managed to almost three hours at the Newport record office before it closed for the weekend.  It was a real thrill to think that we were in an ancient ancestral home and that our ancestors had once been on the island.

The island also has a local family history society and the society has a "resource centre".  It is only open on Saturdays during the middle of the day.  Yup, we were there on Saturday morning and learned a little about the family.  However, our biggest "find" was the computer list of members' interests.  Here we learned of three individuals that were interested in the Major family.  We also found an old directory of the area and learned that a William Major had lived on Quay Street in 1830.  We were excited!

We spent the rest of the day looking around town and even ran into the lighting of the Christmas Tree in the square and a small program of young children that were there to entertain prior to the tree lighting.  There was an ambiance in the air and the town that was amazing, to say the least.  We also took the opportunity to take a short walk to the LDS chapel so we would know how to get to Church on Sunday.

Bed & Breakfast on Quay St

B&B Bedroom

Our bed and breakfast place was on Quay (pronounced "key") Street.  In this country that means a room to sleep in and a nice breakfast the next day.  Often the people that run the B&B are also a big help.  In this case, they really went out of their way.  One of the breakfast servers indicated that her sister "had been" a Mormon and she directed us to the Church.  The manager of the B&B, Martin Sinclair, also took an interest in our research interests.  When he heard of our ties to the street, he recommended the lady across the street, Mary Ormandy, as the compiler of a history of the street.  When he learned of our interest in the Freemasons (John Major was a Freemason) he found us a member of his rotary group that was also a mason and could possibly put us in touch with the Freemasons and their records.

All of the above in just two days.

Sunday was a day of Church at the Newport Ward.  This is the only ward on the island, although  there had been a smaller unit at Ryde.  The ward was a good sized ward and seemed to have some great people.  We got acquainted with some of the members and found a Sunday School meeting of the ward family history consultants.  We enjoyed helping them and participating in their meeting.  Following the meeting we walked back to the center of Newport and caught a bus to East Cowes.  We had decided to travel to East Cowes on Tuesday.  They had a heritage centre in East Cowes and we had previously determined that John Major and his family had lived there.  Since the local county record office was closed on Tuesday we thought we'd use Tuesday as the day for East Cowes.  Did we mention that across the street from the East Cowes Heritage Centre there was a toy and gift shop that caught our attention and especially caught the attention of the female part of the companionship.  Needless to say, Sunday was busy and enjoyable and relaxing.

Monday was our first full day at the record office.  Paul spent most of the time using the rate books (books where money was paid to the parish for the care of the poor and other community expenses.  Every person was listed at his or her address in the community they resided and assessed a payment (like a tax) on his dwellings and other property.  This was often done three or four times a year.

Isle of Wight Record Office

Record Office Researcher

The books on the houses on each street that was mentioned previously (compiled by Mary Ormandy) were also discovered to be at the record office.  Annie spent most of her day going through these and having copies made and confirming that we were staying on the same street occupied in the 1700s by Paul's family.

Miss Ormandy & Research

Unfortunately the office closed at five.

As mentioned earlier, Tuesday was spent in East Cowes.  We spent the day reading information on John Major, rope making (John's trade), learning about the community, and making lots of copies.  We bought a book about East Cowes and had the opportunity of meeting one of the author's who later gave us a walking tour of the area including the area where the ropemaking took place.  Near the end of the heritage centre's opening, Annie made a beeline for the "Old Curiosity Shop".  She had previously spotted a couple of porcellin dolls and they still had her name on them.  It was really a fun shop and before we got out of the store, we became the proud owners of not one, but two porcellin dolls.

East Cowes Heritage Centre

Curiosity Shop with Dolls

Carisbrook Castle - Tuesday Night Walk

Wednesday and Thursday were spent looking at many, many records at the record office.  Near the end of the day on Thursday, Annie pointed out that we should likely stay another day.  She was right.  Originally we were to return on Thursday.  We checked out of our B&B and were ready to catch a bus in about and hour.  Just like that, we found out we could get our room for another night at the B&B.  So, we spent all day Friday at the record office.  Everyday, we searched more records building families, identifying christenings, marriages and burials, tracking movements of people based on the rate books and taking lots and lots of pictures.

Friday night, we grabbed Subway sandwiches, and then made the return trip back to London.  For the past couple of days, we have continued to marvel and discuss our experiences.  Both of us still marvel at all that happened.  It will take us a few more days to sort out all that was found.

In the mean time we need to get back to reality.

Today was a great Sunday.  We had our usual Church meetings with our wonderful ward members.  We had an older member of the ward offer us some decorations for Christmas.  We thought it might be fun to decorate our flat.  We didn't want to buy a lot, because this will be our one and only time to use decorations in this country.  On the other hand, we felt a little reluctant to take this kind sister's decorations.  She touched our hearts when she said that it was just too much work to put up any decorations and that her eyesight was bad enough that she couldn't see them anyway.  Yet, she attends Church every Sunday and every fast meeting, she bears her testimony, even though she has trouble getting up to the pulpit.

Guess we need to wind down for another week.  We want you to know that this is such a special opportunity to serve and to labor in behalf of the Lord.  Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and for all the other support that you render in behalf of us.  We stay busy but not too busy to reminisce about the dear family and friends from home.

We love you all,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Smart, Annie and Paul

Sea Street home similar to Major's

Sea Street Home - back side on harbor

Sea Street Rate Book - Major is 8 lines down