Week 52--One Year into Our Mission

We are BUSY again.  We met Keith Penfold (our new supervisor) at the Hyde Park chapel on Monday morning.  He explained a little about our new calling to work with the stakes in the London Temple district and try to instigate goals and training in Family History.  We are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead with this assignment, but realize that nothing will happen unless we make it happen.  This is the challenge we are pursuing.  We have several events already scheduled and hope to  meet and plan with each stake high council representative and member of the stake presidency assigned to oversee family history work.

We were sent home from our Monday meeting with a car.  We have already put 150 miles on it.  We traveled to the temple, to Catford for a family history fayre (British for fair), and to church.   I think we can easily get used to a car.  Of coarse there are problems with adjusting to a right sided steering wheel and driving on the left side of the road.  Elder Smart has done it before on his many visits here.  He is doing pretty well.  We both marvel at having not driven a car for almost a year and then climbing in one that has everything backward (controls, etc.).  Sister Smart navigates with the GPS.

Our new car with the chauffeur

Tuesday  and Wednesday  we worked at the Family History Centre.  Elder Smart has been asked to "mentor" the Senior Missionaries that are assigned to work in the London FHC.  While he mentors Sister Smart fills in for the missionaries being mentored at the centre (British spelling).  We also worked downstairs in  the digitizing area.  Annie finished a small project that she started a few weeks ago and Paul continues to analyze  projects at the TNA that could possibly be digitized in the future by FamilySearch.

Elder Smart with his new transportation

 Wednesday evening we drove to the home of a Sister in the Ward.  She fed us dinner and we helped her and her non member friend with their genealogy challenges.

Thursday Paul continued to analyze records for family search and Annie took the day to clean and cook.  We both spent the afternoon and evening doing genealogy in the London FHC.

Friday we traveled on the underground to downtown London for a Senior Missionary outing.  We met at an Italian restaurant for lunch and then walked over to the British Library and explored.  On the way to the Library we stopped at the King's Cross Station to see Harry Potter's 9 3/4 Station.  We left the group early to get home to drive  to the London Temple. 

Issac Newton statue with  fan

Garden at the British Library

lunch with the senior missionaries

Elder Smart at the British Library

 After arriving at the temple we both did initiatory work for family names we had researched.  We then went to dinner at one of our favorite English Pub's.  We stayed in the temple accommodation center Friday night.

Saturday morning many of our Ward members met us at the temple for a session.  This was in conjunction with our Ward Conference this week. We watched the 2nd new temple film in our session -- very realistic and insightful.  We love attending the temple. 

Saturday afternoon, with the help of our GPS, we drove from the temple to Catford (East London) to present at their family history fayre.  This is the second time that Catford has sponsored a family history fayre while we have been here.  They advertised and set up with refreshments, but the teaching and training was left up to us.  It was a fun and enjoyable afternoon.   We then enjoyed dinning out with Elder and Sister Bradford, a senior couple serving as MLS (missionary leader support) missionaries in Catford.  The drive  home was quite an experience.  It was dark and we were driving through busy London areas with no idea where we were and how to get home.  We followed the GPS, but still got mixed up on a turn or two and had to be rerouted. We finally ended up at our door, but we have no idea where we actually drove.  We were surprised when we suddenly saw our street after driving for over an hour.   (Have we mentioned how much we love having a GPS?)

We taught our Temple Preparation class today, but most of the class members were not present.  We hope to have better attendance next week, or we will look into offering cookies or candy next week to boost attendance......haha.  It was still good and worthwhile.  We sure have learned to love and enjoy the people in this ward. 

We made it  home from church by 2:00 p.m. due to our car.  That was a first to spend Sunday afternoon at home and not on a train or bus.

Happy Birthday this week to Stephen.


We love serving here.  We know that this is Christ's Church. We know that Christ restored his church in these latter days through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Love to all of you,

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

Elder & Sister Bradford at platform 9 3/4

Platform Nine and Three-Quarters (Platform 9¾) is a platform at King's Cross Station in London. Magically concealed behind the barrier between Muggle Platform Nine and Platform Ten, this Platform is where Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry students board the Hogwarts Express on 1 September, in order to attend school

Possible "Light" at the End of the Tunnel - 51 Weeks

With another week come and gone, it's time to look at next week and the possibilities that might lie ahead.  Before sharing some of our hopes for the next week we'll share our activities of the past week.

We stayed busy on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday by working in the Family History Centre.  Paul taught a class on Tuesday about using birth, marriage and death records from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to solve family history problems.  Each class taught requires a powerpoint presentation and a handout.  Seems like it takes nearly two days of work to get it ready and then four people show up at the class.

Friday was also a new experience for us.  One way to use us is to take each of the Family History Centre staff and have them spend one-on-one time with Paul and have him try to help them with their own British research.  However that takes one of them away from their Centre assignment.  So, who better to cover for the one that is with Paul than Annie.  Friday had four of them go through this rotation and Annie heard good comments from several of them.  Where possible, we'll likely continue this new effort.

Monday, Annie spent most of the day in the FHC doing genealogy.  Paul spent the day in the basement doing some records evaluation and taking sample images with the idea that we might want to image them in the future.

On Thursday, we got in a little late.  Paul had to go in for his skin burn-off.  He continues to get little growths or patches on his skin that could turn into skin cancer.  So we made a determination to find a skin doctor and have them burned off.  Best part of it is that it's free here in England to have it done. 

Must mention that on Friday night we went out with two other couples from the Staines Ward, the Maythams and the Badens.  Wonderful people!  We went to an Italian restaurant in a place called Twickenham.

Saturday was our day to catch up on things.  We went to Richmond to do some early birthday shopping for Annie.  All we accomplished was "looking", no buying.  We tried also to find a calendar for us to keep track of appointments.  Again, no success.  We should probably mention that we can buy calendars but they are quite confusing.  Each week starts with Monday instead of Sunday.  We thought we could handle it, but we are constantly thinking that Sunday appointments should be written on Monday and Saturday appointments should be written on Sunday.  Anyway it's still hard to teach old people new ways of doing things.  Guess we'll end up printing our own calendar from MS Word.  Spent the rest of the day grocery shopping and preparing for next Tuesday's family history class and Sunday's Temple Preparation class.

Today is our wonderful Sunday.  Still think its the best day of the week.  We made our way by bus and train to and from Church.  Got there early enough to set up for Sunday School.  Taught our class.  Need to mention that we have four young men in the class.  Two or three of them will leave on mission in the first half of this year.  One other young man will likely marry in the year.  Four sisters are in the class who will probably take our their endowments this year.  Needless to say, it is a down right privilege to teach them.  Following in our three hour block, the Bishop asked to speak to us.  He was concerned that  he had heard that we might be leaving him.  We think he did like what he was hearing, because he so appreciative of what we were doing and had done for the ward.  He told us that when we got home and looked back on our mission that the one thing we needed to keep in mind, was those whose lives we had touched in the Staines Ward.  Needless to say, we love our Staines Ward.  We stayed after the block and Paul went to choir practice and while he was there, Annie ended up making appointments with the missionary Sisters to come to dinner today and with a sister to help her with her family history on Wednesday evening.

Forgot to mention a most welcome phone call that came on Friday.  In fact this phone call was mentioned to the group we had dinner with on Friday, which is probably why the Bishop was concerned over losing us.  The phone call was from Keith Penfold who oversees the Priesthood Genealogy aspects of family history in Britain.  He said he would be here on Monday with a car for us and to explain what it was that he wanted us to begin doing with the stakes and wards here.  Sounds like we may soon have a new assignment instead of the digitizing and that it may get underway shortly.  He also told us to purchase a GPS so we can get around in the car.  We did this on Saturday, having faith that the car would be here on Monday.

We look forward to a new week with anticipation of a new beginnings.  Isn't it interesting that the Ensign's First Presidency Message for January is all about new goals and new beginnings for the coming year.  We have much to look forward to.  Although there is still considerable amount of work to do here, we also look forward to meeting or re-meeting family and friends later this year.  Yes, on Tuesday of this week we will have been on our mission for one year.  Hope that we can accomplish a lot in our remaining six months.  We would love to wear ourselves out in the Lord's service during the next few months.

Our love goes out to our wonderful family and friends as we sign off for another week.  We love you all.  We appreciate your prayers and love in our behalf.  We promise to keep doing our best to be good examples and to serve the Lord.

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

The Group at Twickenham

Baden's at Twickenham

Maytham's at Twickenham

At Twickenham

Week 50 -- Turmoil!

Enjoying dinner and company

Taking it easy

This week we have been in a "turmoil" trying to find out what our mission assignment is.  We have had two months of no real assignment.  The digitizing stopped the first part of November. We worked fast and efficient and worked ourselves right out of a job.  We have kept busy doing our genealogy, helping other people with their genealogy and doing other assignments when asked.  Paul has done some analyzing of records at The National Archives and sending samples to Salt Lake to help them determine if they wanted to contract to digitize them.  Annie has done some digitizing to fill in for Henry who was on vacation.  We  worked hard to try to find things to keep busy and were getting more than frustrated and even somewhat depressed.  Our digitizing supervisor told us that he could not provide us with any more digitizing.  The  other missionary couple was transferred to Germany, but a  promise had been made to the director of The London Family History Centre to keep Paul here to help with the family history classes on Tuesdays.

It was felt that Paul's talents and knowledge could be more useful helping train the stake and ward family history leaders in Great Britain.  Our supervisor presented this to the FamilySearch Priesthood Genealogy coordinator, for England.  The idea seemed to be accepted by all.

The biggest problem with this transfer was a lack of communication and too many hands in the fire.  We were waiting and no one was contacting us.  We found out that our new supervisor did not want us unless we had a car. No one could find a car.  Our old supervisor thought that the new supervisor was working things out.  Salt Lake thought that all was well and things were moving forward.  We were still waiting and nothing was happening.  No one wanted to take responsibility to make this happen.  All leaders thought someone else was taking care of things.

Finally, we realized no one was going to do anything and we suspected that no one really had work for us to do.  There is an Elder in Salt Lake that is assigned to periodically contact the senior FamilySearch  missionaries to make sure all is well.  We made a call to him and shared our woes.  Paul also contacted a friend, that works in the temple department to see about the possibility of working in the London Temple.

These two contacts really got some feathers up and things moving in a circle direction.  Salt Lake had no idea we were sitting and our two supervisors thought the other one was taking care of us.  The temple department said that a transfer to the temple would be very possible if our mission president would talk to the temple president.  We then emailed our mission president, who said he would talk to the temple president.

A few days later we heard from our (new) second supervisor that said he would love to have us help  if we had a car.  Our first supervisor had almost given up on a car and realized there used to be cars at Solihull, the former Church headquarters in Great Britain.  He contacted those in charge and sure enough, one car was left and was going up for sale.  It was supposedly agreed that they would let us use it and sell it after our mission.

There are still big concerns on our part.  First, we have been told so many things that did not really take place, that we are not believing anything until it happens.  Second our mission office says you can drive in Great Britain for one year on your USA license but then must get one of their licenses.  We will have been here a year in 3 weeks.  That means in three weeks we can't drive, even if we get a car.  We have also been told it is a lengthy and expensive process to get a license.  We are not sure if this is going to happen in a timely manner.

In the mean time we have been taking shifts in the London Family History Centre helping patrons.  One couple went home and their replacement has not, yet, arrived. The director feels sorry for us and said she will use us at least two or three days at the centre.   Although she feels sorry for us, we know she likes having Paul's expertise.  

We spent Saturday at the temple with our ward.  They placed an emphasis on having the youth and new converts participate in doing baptisms for the dead.  We started teaching another temple preparation class today.  The Bishop is very kind and expresses regular appreciation for our help.  We sure love serving in our ward.

We forgot to mention Rachelle's birthday this past week.

Love to all of you; the Gospel is still true!!!

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

Hard at work (London Family History Centre)

New converts that did Baptisms

 

Some of our Christmas tour pictures

Oxford Street

Regent Street

 

               

       Herod's at Christmas

Sloane Square

    








  

More Oxford Windows

Store window on Oxford Street

                                      

Oxford window again

   

Happy New Year!! -- Week 49

Well it's happened.  We made it through 2013 and 2014 is now upon us.  What does it hold?  We guess only time will tell.  One thing is for certain, we are ready to move ahead.

A lot didn't happen this past week.  We continue to try to stay busy with little projects.  These range from helping others with their family history to doing a minimal amount of digitizing, at least until our full time employee, Henry, gets back.  He returned to work on the 2nd, so we'll just finish up what we were doing and then we'll both be back to piecing.

Frankly, the high light of our mission is going to Church on Sunday and working with the members.  Fast and testimony meeting was wonderful.  Sunday School and Priesthood and Relief Society were great too.  We get such a spiritual recharge when we attend our meetings and hope that you at home have a similar experience.

Our mission assignment is another story.  We had a call from our family history supervisor on Friday.  His peer, here in England, is responsible for working with Priesthood Leaders and family history.  He told us that we would be working with him in the future.  He also said that this person over the priesthood leaders would be in touch with us.  We hope that this really happens.

In the mean time we do what ever we can to make things happen

Tuesday was News Years eve.  We decided that we would leave the archives right at quitting time and head to Wimbledon and go to dinner at Chipotle.  Bad decision.  We spent a just over a half hour getting their by train only to find out it was closed.  Who would have thought that a restaurant would be closed on New Years eve?  Anyway, we would like to tell you how much we enjoyed Burger King in Wimbledon.

Everything was closed on Wednesday so we sat home on a very wet and  cool New Year's Day and watch all of the "Love Comes Softly" movies.

Yesterday we said good bye to our friends at the temple visitor's centre, the Carpenters.  They fly home on Monday.  Tonight we said good bye to one set of the missionaries from the family history centre.  They fly home on Thursday.

Ron & Hildred Cobia

Carpenters

Guess that's it for this week.  We still love you all and miss you all.  The Gospel is true and we hope to be able to continue to share it in whatever capacity the Lord has in store for us.

Grandma and Grandpa, mom and dad, Elder and Sister Smart, Paul and Annie