This is our last blog from England. We’ll finish things off from our Draper home
next week. It’s been a wonderful
experience being here for the last year and a half. We sure do love the British people and
especially our Staines Ward people.
There just aren’t words to describe how we feel about leaving. We are so excited to see family and friends
in the good ole USA, but the thought of perhaps never seeing these people again
in this life is “gut-wrenching”.
Today was a real wonderful, yet very emotional day. Sister Smart spoke in Church on giving a
generous fast offering. She ended her
remarks by telling the members how much she loved them and just barely kept her
composure. Elder Smart was spared the
talk, but was asked to bear his testimony just before the end of the
meeting. He had a hard time with his
emotions. It seems that we’ve both just
learned to love the people.
Following the block meeting the Bishop asked us to stay
around until he finished his regularly scheduled interviews. We took lots of pictures of the members to
pass the time. Then we waited. It was really worth the wait. The Bishop was extremely complimentary and so
humble with his remarks. He explained
how much we had personally meant to him in our efforts to serve and to change
the lives of the members. He said that
we had personally motivated him to want to serve a mission as an adult and was
really so kind and humble about our service.
It made us feel so glad to have served.
In the afternoon we received a call from our mission
president. He really wanted to schedule
an appointment for us to have an exit interview on Tuesday. We had tried to find out from the office
staff if we should plan on any kind of a meeting, but they told us just to
attend the temple and plan to leave on Wednesday. Apparently they should have coordinated a
little more closely with the mission president.
Oh, we’re flexible in our dealings so we’ll manage what is needed.
Tonight we had dinner at the Goodlets. They are simply one of the finest younger
couples in this ward and perhaps in the Church.
We can’t even begin to describe how much they have helped us and been
there when we needed a little help. They
have the cutest little son, Jonas. He is
now three months old and is really quite active. Needless to say, we will miss them.
Another event for the day was the ordination of CJ
Hamilton. Elder Smart was asked to
ordain him, as a new convert, to the Aaronic Priesthood and the office of
Priest. This was also the first time in
our service that we had the chance to share a copy of our line of
authority. CJ seemed impressed and we
felt good about this opportunity. CJ is
the kind of young man that has great potential in the Church.
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| CJ Hamilton - Newly Ordained Priest |
On Monday we spent the day doing family history work in the
Portsmouth area. We bought some
certificates, checked more records in the Portsmouth City record office and again
visited the Kingston Cemetery. One of
the reasons that we did all that was to find ancestors on the Major side. Another reason was that we were plagued with
the thought that we had misplaced a flash drive somewhere. Well we did misplace the flash drive. It actually never left London and when we
went into the Archive some of the missionaries had found it on a table where we
left it. Once again we were blessed.
 |
| Portsmouth City Records Office |
Most of the rest of the week was spent getting ready to
leave this country. Phone calls about
utilities, banks, haircuts, cleaning, early packing, getting boxes ready to go
to the US and on and on. On Tuesday we
met for the final time with our most recent supervisor, Keith Penfold. It took us about an hour to give him a
debriefing. We shared some key
information and challenged him in a couple of areas. We even stuck our necks out by telling him
that there needed to be some better screening and preparation for those coming
to England on family history missions.
We went so far as to suggest that, if they wanted, the two of us might
volunteer to help do the screening and preparation.
 |
| Keith Penfold - FamilySearch Supervisor |
Tuesday night, Paul fulfilled one his fondest goals of
coming to England. Many years ago, a
member by the name of Bob Hines had helped with ordering birth, marriage, and
death certificates from England for those frequenting the Family History
Library in Salt Lake City. Early in our
mission we had contacted Bob and asked to get together. Bob is now inactive and drives bus for London
Transportation. But a grand reunion was
held and Bob and his wife, Josie went to dinner with us. We had an enjoyable evening and left feeling
pretty good. We would love to have Bob
and Josie back in the Church.
 |
| Bob & Josie Hines |
We had the evening free on Wednesday but did our last “visiting
teaching” on Thursday evening. Annie and
our friend Katja Goodlet are assigned as visiting teachers at Jacqui, Jacque and
Doreen’s home. Annie was successful in
finally getting an appointment; however Katja was out of town. So Annie and Paul went visiting teaching for
one final time. It was a good visit and
we enjoyed meeting with these sisters.
 |
| Jacqui & Doreen & Jacque |
We had another free evening on Saturday, but Friday was
filled. The missionaries that normally
serve together in the Family History Centre in the National Archives invited
the two of us to dinner. We went to an
Italian restaurant in Richmond. It was a
nice evening and we enjoyed being with these couple a lot. They were probably closer to us than the
missionaries in our own mission. We saw
them multiple times a week and often enjoyed doing at least, a few things with
them weekly. Almost forgot Henry. We spent many hours in the basement digitizing with Henry Germain. Henry came into the Archive on Friday to see us. He has been digitizing in Yorkshire for the past few weeks, but stopped in for a "good bye" and to bring us a little gift. What a good man!
 |
| Seniors - Watt, Lee, Abbott, Crumley |
 |
| Henry Germain |
Guess that is about it for this week and for this
mission. Monday and Tuesday are days to
finish getting ready and to clean and say good bye. Wednesday we return home.
Our mission has been one with ups and downs and has
certainly had it blessings and challenges.
However, we do not regret having come.
We do not regret having served.
We are grateful for our testimonies which have grown. We are grateful for the blessings that have
been realized by our families and friends.
Thank you Heavenly Father for leading and guiding us and for our
wonderful family and friends.
Our love to you all,
Grandma & Grandpa, Mom & Dad, Annie & Paul,
Sister and Elder Smart
Ps Happy Birthday
this week to Lily and Keslee on 21 July, Matt on 23 July and Connor on 24 July
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