April 23-29, 2018 - First Outing to the English Countryside

Monday, April 23rd was preparation day and we rode the Temple van to the "Standen House" which is one of the historic sites preserved by the British National Trust.  We spent the morning there touring the home and seeing the grounds. James and Margaret Beale and their seven children chose an idyllic location in the Sussex countryside with views across the High Weald to build their rural retreat besides their flat in the busy city of London. Designed by Philip Webb, the house is one of the finest examples of Arts and Crafts workmanship with Morris & Co. interiors and decorative art of the period and was completed in 1894. There are still two artists that work for Morris & Co. and use the grounds for inspiration for new wallpaper designs. The grounds were stunning as there are about 10,000 tulips in bloom as well as a hillside full of bluebells. We didn't have time to take a wander on all of the footpaths or have lunch at the "Barn Cafe" so we will have to go back another day. Below are some pictures of our morning, it really was quite lovely! (Did you catch the "quite lovely", it is amazing how easy it is to adopt the frequently used English phrases.)

The next three pictures are of the bluebells that were blooming on the hillside although there were a few more trees than you find in Texas.

After taking a wander through these trees to see the bluebells we sat on a bench for a while listening to the birds and visiting with our van driver, Brother Whitehouse.  The Whitehouse's permanent residence is about an hour away, but they are full-time in the office so they have a flat in the Manor House.  He is an excellent tour guide.

This is the original part of the house that was built in 1894. The next four pictures are of the flowers in the courtyard and Sister Burkinshaw standing at the entrance to the house.

The next three pictures are of the studio in the home where artists from Morris & Co. still make wallpaper designs. Each room in the home is decorated with a different pattern. The pattern shown at the bottom was found in one of the rooms for the servants.

The next two pictures are of the kitchen and in the bottom picture is Elder Burkinshaw and Elder Whitehouse.

The picture above and this picture are of the back of the house. This one is just to the left of the back porch. Because the back did not have the obstruction of the courtyard the house was quite stunning as were the tulips in the backyard.

This was the back lawn just off the porch. It would have been a great hill for their children to play on as you can see from the children playing in the far right corner of the picture, great for rolling and ice blocking. The picture below is a panoramic view of the path between the back porch and the back lawn which also lead over the gardens.

These next two pictures were of the grounds behind the gardens and had walking paths and views of the High Weald which is one of England's finest landscapes. It is an area of natural beauty situated in south-east England covering 1,450 square kilometres and extending across the counties of Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex and Kent. In the picture below the white spots you see just above the fence are beehives used the pollinate the gardens. It was a little cooler and cloudy, but made for some great pictures.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw standing in front of the garden. They had trained the tree branches to run parallel with the ground and it was quite interesting. Again the tulips were amazing. The picture below is the British garden where they grown produce for the "Barn Cafe". We thought it looked like the garden in the "Peter Rabbit" movie we saw during our recent family reunion, although that seems like ages ago it has only been a few weeks.

Our morning at Standen House was a morning well spent and they have events all year long and during the holidays. While moving our paintings around in the apartment I found one of an English landscape which I moved into the Living Room and put above our small couch. They had a throw pillow at Standen House that would match our colors and add a definite English element to the decor so I figured that was worth another trip.

We worked the morning shift this week (8:10am to 3:00pm) so we set a morning schedule that has us up and out the door for our morning walk at 6:00am and encourages us to begin getting ready for bed about 9:00pm. This has helped a lot in adjusting to the time change and getting rid of the jet lag, and thus we feel pretty normal these days. We had nice weather the first part of the week before it turned colder and wetter at the end of the week. Today, Sunday, the high will be 47°F and is quite cold. We have not needed heat in our flat since we arrived and in turning it on it doesn't seem to be working. Probably just bundle up today and call the engineers tomorrow to have them check things out. They were very good about ordering and replacing our oven that was also not working. We got a brand new Bosh convection oven, which is small, but very nice. Sunday afternoon with a new oven and a large bag of chocolate chips from my Costco shopping adventure this week made it possible to make biscuits (cookies) for the first time - delicious!! We figured it was a good way to do a little ministering. 

Working in the temple everyday is such a wonderful blessing. There really is no better place to spend your time. We have both been passed off on performing the ordinances complete with London Temple procedures and will begin training as coordinators this week. Because the temple is larger than ours in Oklahoma City there is a coordinator for each of the ordinances along with a shift coordinator. The shift coordinators also use "white" cellphones to communicate with the ordinance coordinators (who have land lines) to keep things running smoothly. It was a busy week with most sessions being good size. We had a group of french members come and stay the week so that provided the larger numbers. 

One of Sister Burkinshaw's new experiences this week was working for several hours Saturday morning in the temple cafeteria. The food is actually quite good. Working in the cafeteria does not happen often, but it was fun. The cafeteria is only open for two hours from 12:00 to 2:00pm during the week, they add another half hour on Saturday's and open at 11:30am. They have a salad bar, a soup of the day, baked potatoes with toppings (chili, cheese, etc.), twice baked potatoes everyday and then add one or two other main dish items to the menu plus some desserts. I made one of Uncle Tony's favorite dishes cheesy cauliflower and it was delicious. It was fun to see how things are put together and provided an extra 5,000 steps for the day. 

Friday evening Sister Burkinshaw did a little ministering (formerly known as visiting teaching with Sister Brenda Linford of Casper Wyoming and Saturday evening we went out to dinner with Elder and Sister Wolsey (Barry and LuAnn Wolsey from Raymond Alberta Canada) to a Thai restaurant just a mile from the temple. It is just a little place on the side of the road and we didn't even think about reservations. We arrived at 6:00pm and there was only one other table filled. They said they could seat us if we could be done by 7:10pm. We agreed to their terms and enjoyed a delicious dinner and great company. For (Home Teaching) Ministering we are assigned as companions and given another couple to minister to (some have a single sister also). We are the Wolsey's ministers so we will have the opportunity to get to know them better, they are wonderful and have actually ministered to us more then we have to them since we arrived they just live three flats down.

On Sunday afternoon, we were invited to dinner with the Wallaces from Sandy Utah, who have been serving in the London South Mission Office since the beginning of the year.  Because the London South Mission is being absorbed into the London Mission effective July 1, they will be moving into downtown London at Hyde Park, where the mission office, visitor's center and Hyde Park stake center are located.  They currently live about a mile and a half from the temple grounds in a very nice bungalow rented from church members.  We met the Wallaces when walking the temple grounds one morning and we had an immediate connection since we had served in the mission office in Vitória Brasil.  They have 3 couples and two single sisters in their mission office and so they we amazed when we told them that we were the entire mission office staff.  We drove to the Wallaces with the Ludlows, who serve on the A Shift at the temple.  We serve on the B Shift.  The Ludlows live in Layton but Sister Ludlow is originally from Nottingham, just south of Sheffield.  Elder Ludlow had served his mission in London but they met at the University of Utah.  They have been at the temple for about a year and Elder Ludlow has been preparing to obtain a UK drivers license so he has shared some very helpful information.  We had a wonderful dinner together and visited for several hours.  It has been very nice to have the social interaction particularly compared to Brazil where we were the only missionary couple.

This was the serving table for our dinner with the Wallaces and the Ludlows.  It was a traditional English dinner of roast beef, potatoes and gravy (notice the InstaPot!) with vegetables.  For dessert we had a Cadbury Flake cake with ice cream!!

The Ludlows on the left and the Wallaces on the right.  Sister Wallace had just completed the quilt on the wall behind us before leaving for England.

We love you all and invite you anytime for a visit. There is plenty to see and do in London so it would be worth saving your pennies. There is also no place like  temple having across the parking lot is awesome!!

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw

April 16-22, 2018 - First Week at the London Temple

We have completed our first week at the London Temple and it has been wonderful!  We began by attending church meetings at the Crawley ward, riding the van provided for the missionaries here at the temple, with several other temple missionaries. The Crawley ward is well established and although they are use to having temple missionaries they were very welcoming. We were invited to have dinner with Elder and Sister Janda following church.  Sister Janda is from Montana and Elder Janda is from France.  They served a delicious meal for us and Elder and Sister Page (from South Jordan, UT) who are serving as the B shift coordinators. We enjoyed getting to know both couples a little better, they both work on the B shift with us so we will see them a lot.

Monday was spent getting our apartment a little more organized and put together. Most of this post will be pictures so you can get an idea of our living space and the temple grounds which are both great!

The kitchen came completely furnished with everything but food. he sink is on the left behind the door. The refrigerator is small, but there is a large freezer in the utility room. They have a room at the accommodations center office filled with household items that have been purchased for the missionary apartments as well as things that have been left by other couples. We check there for anything we need before making purchases. Our oven has not been working, but we are told they have ordered a new one-cookies anyone!

The Living Room is nice although we weren't crazy about the mauve carpet, but it actually coordinates with the color scheme for the London temple.

Our view from the Living Room window. We are on the back side, top floor of what they call "The Lodge" Flat 16. The flats (apartments) on the front have a view of temple, but not as much privacy. They call this wooded area "The Sacred Grove". The trees are just starting to bloom so each day the view gets a little greener.

Bathroom, nothing fancy, but very functional.

Bedroom - a king size bed, which is comfortable, and a nice size closet. We found that you can order from UK amazon and it is delivered in a day so I did a little bedroom remodel. We moved some pictures around and ordered a new duvet and matching curtains. It lightened up the room making it seem bigger and it actually matches the carpet.

We also have a small utility room with a stacked washer and dryer, freezer and shelves; a coat closet and a nice walk in storage closet with shelves big enough to store our suitcases  and set up the ironing board so it is handy and ready to use. The flats are well maintained and will be very comfortable for the next 18 months.

The temple grounds are beautiful. The temple sits on 30 acres although not all of the land has been developed. Originally the temple parking was to be across the road (A22 or Eastbourne Road) towards which the temple faces. However, even 60 years ago, A22 was a main thoroughfare to London with relatively heavy traffic, they put an entrance on the side of the temple and the parking in the back. We have mapped out a mile walk around the paved portions of the grounds for our morning walk. There are walking paths that extend further into the trees, but since it rains here a lot we prefer keeping our shoes from getting muddy. The tulips and daffodils are beautiful right now as you will see in the pictures although we have been told they will be changing out the flower beds in the next couple of weeks.

Front of the London Temple. The actual temple entrance is on the right (west) side.

Side View of the temple with the entrance. The building on the right has flats for the temple patrons of which there are about 60 studio apartments. They rent them for £9 (about $12.60) per person per day for those coming to attend the temple. The white tag temple missionaries (intermittent local missionaries that serve regularly such as 2 weeks on and 6 weeks off) also stay here. Black tag missionaries (full-time missionaries from other countries) are those serving for 6 months or longer and typically live in the Lodge.  

A morning picture of Moroni in the sun. It has been unusually sunny and warm all week. Several people have said we have now had our British Summer. Hopefully not, but a British summer has much to do with sunshine and we have had an abundance this week. 

This is the Manor house where the temple President and Matron live along with several of the single sister missionaries. The other two members of the temple presidency and assistant matrons live in the Lodge with us. This picture is taken from the sidewalk at the front entrance of the temple.

The next two pictures are of flowers on the outside brick fence of the temple grounds.

As we turn the corner along the path at the far south end of the temple grounds, this  flowering bush comes stunningly into view.

The next four pictures are of the grounds on the side of the temple opposite the manor house. In this area they have a paved walking path that provides a nice wander (walk).

Shopping on Monday (P-Day) at the Sainsbury's supermarket in East Grinstead, which is about 4 miles from the London Temple Grounds.

Our first week at the London Temple has set the tone for our mission.  Everyone was very thoughtful and kind.  President Christopher Freeman, second counselor in the London Temple Presidency and a retired engineer with Phillips Petroleum UK, and his wife Susan who is the Assistant Matron, picked us up at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning and transported us to our new flat at the Lodge.  They left us a supply of food for the weekend and were very helpful in answering our questions and setting us at ease.  Sunday meetings at the beautiful Crawley meetinghouse, which is also the stake center, were excellent and dinner at the Janda's with the Pages was delicious and continued to provide us information about our service here at the London Temple.  Monday, Elder and Sister Page kindly took us to the grocery store and helped us figure out where things were and helped us with nomenclature (i.e. potato chips are potato crisps, powdered sugar is icing sugar, etc.)  On Tuesday, before attending the 10:00am endowment session, Michael R. Otterson, the London Temple President and former Managing Director of LDS Church Public Affairs, set us apart and blessed us with the ability to feel the Spirit and recognize the unspoken needs of the patrons we will serve.  Following lunch in the cafeteria, our shift began at 2:30pm that afternoon.   Brother and Sister Wade were our trainers and they kindly recognized that we were very familiar with the ordinances but not with the protocols of the London Temple, which is about four times larger (42,652 sqft with four endowment rooms and eight sealing rooms) than the Oklahoma City Temple.  It was easy to get lost during our first week!  But there was always someone there with a smile on their face and some helpful directions.  On Thursday morning, Elder Hardy (British) kindly drove us and several other workers to the grocery store in the Temple van.  And Sunday evening, most of the ordinance workers (more than 60) met for a "Hi 'n Bye" where new workers introduced themselves and those who had completed their service bid farewell to the group, there were two coming and two leaving. 

We were asked to introduce ourselves at the "Hi 'n Bye". Each of us took a minute to tell where we grew up, that we had been raised in the church and shared that both our gospel lines flow back to the UK. We also shared that our lives merged while attending BYU in Provo, we moved to Oklahoma for employment, had seven children who are now scattered across the US and 27 grandchildren with number 28 arriving in May. As we are grateful to be here and serving in the temple we ended with a short message on the temple quoting President Nelson who said, "Now, to each member of the Church I say: Keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere. As a new presidency, we want to begin with the end in mind. For this reason, we're speaking to you today from a temple. The end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in a house of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God, that of eternal life. The ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family, and your ability to resist the attacks of the adversary. Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path." (Media Broadcast announcing new first presidency, 2018)  It has been a great start and it has already been a life-changing experience.


Elder and Sister Burkinshaw

April 6-15, 2018 - Missionary Training in Salt Lake Temple

On Thursday, April 6, we moved all our belongings to storage and checked out of our house. Aunt Julie made dinner for us and we once again said goodbye to Bartlesville for 18 months.

Our storage unit with all our earthly possessions just before we locked it up for two years.

We spent the weekend at Sarah's home and were set apart as missionaries by President Matthew L. Bell of the Bartlesville Oklahoma Stake in Claremore at noon on Sunday, April 8.

Following our setting apart as missionaries by President Matthew L Bell on Sunday, April 8, 2018.

After our setting apart, we drove to the Fair Oaks Ward in Broken Arrow for the baby blessing of Noah Oliver Wright, our twenty-seventh grandchild.

Grandma Stacey with Noah Oliver Wright.

Grandpa Jeff with new baby Noah on his blessing day, April 8, 2018.

Following the Fast and Testimony Meeting where baby Noah was blessed, we headed for the Tulsa International Airport. Packing for an 18 month trip with baggage limits is not an easy thing, but we managed to only have one of the four bags over-weight by one pound, which thankfully the ticket agent let it slide. We will make some adjustments as we probably won't get that same courtesy with our next flights.

We checked into the Radisson Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City on Sunday evening and spent Monday picking up a few last minute items and enjoying lunch and dinner with family. 

Our training started bright and early at 7:30am on Monday morning in the Salt Lake City temple. Brother and Sister Alldredge, former President and Matron of the Salt Lake Temple, conducted the training.  We met in the upstairs chapel of the temple and behind the rostrum  is a full wall portrait of the Savior with outstretched arms standing in the sky. For one of the opening hymns we sang several verses of hymn #6 Redeemer of Israel which along with the portrait provided a powerful message: 

Redeemer of Israel, Our only delight, on whom for a blessing we call, our shadow by day and our pillar by night, our King, our Deliv'rer our all!  We know he is coming to gather is sheep and lead them to Zion in Love....The Tokens already appear. Fear not....for the kingdom is ours. The hour of redemption is near. Restore, my dear Savior, the light of thy face; Thy soul-cheering comfort impart; and let the sweet longing for thy holy place bring hope to my desolate heart. (A side note I was asked to play the organ for the opening hymns which is one of my dream assignments in the temple. It went well and I was even able to do the foot pedals without any problem.)  We spent the morning tuesday training on the Initiatory ordinances and then served as initiatory proxy for five deceased family members, most of who were born in the UK. Afterwards we had lunch in the temple cafeteria.

After lunch, we heard from President and Sister Wixom, the Salt Lake Temple President and Matron followed by training on name issue.  The insights shared were profound and centered on the concept that in the House of the Lord we strive for all of our Father in Heaven's children to feel loved and uplifted as they participate in the ordinances of salvation and exaltation.  This phrase from President Thomas S. Monson was shared "It is better to break a rule than to break a heart."  We feel blessed to have been taught these great truths.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw at the Salt Lake Temple for temple missionary training.

Eating a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Apple with Robyn at the City Creek Mall.

On Wednesday, our training focused on the endowment and we went on the 10:00am session.  Aunt Robyn and her friend Sharon were able to join us on the session.  Wednesday afternoon was focused on the temple baptistry.  That evening we met Gerry and Candy Roberts for dinner at the Garden Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  The Roberts were at the MTC last week and training on records extraction this week.  They will be heading to Fort Wayne, Indianan for six months to make copies of rare family history books next week.

Dinner with Gerry and Candy Roberts at the Garden Room.

After dinner with the Roberts, we met with Lehi Ramos who had served with us in the Brasil Vitória Mission and left his home in Fortaleza to study here in the United States.  He's passed the TOEFL examination (meaning his English is very good) and will be starting at LDS Business College in the Fall.  It was a sweet reunion and he's doing very well and is even dating a young lady from Utah who had served in the Brazil Fortaleza Mission and therefore speaks Portuguese!

We had a great visit with Lehi Ramos from Fortaleza and who served with us in Brasil and is currently studying English and will begin at LDS Business College for Fall semester.

Thursday morning focused on sealing ordinances and we did sealings in Room 3 of the Salt Lake Temple, which is up the stairs on the west end of the Celestial Room.  Brother Lake was our sealer and it was an insightful experience.  Thursday afternoon, Elder Jorg Klebingat of the Seventy, who is Assistant Executive Director of the Temple Department spoke to us. He told his conversion story and gave some interesting background on the construction of temples.  Since Elder Kelbingat served as mission president in the Ukraine and secured the site for the temple in Ukraine, he had some unique insights on temple building particularly since the announcement of the first temple in Russia.  He also shared the following scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 132:50, "Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you...."  In our willingness to serve, despite many imperfections, this brings comfort and hope. We completed our training session on Thursday afternoon by visiting the Talmage Room and receiving final instruction in the Assembly Room of the Salt Lake Temple.  It was a deeply touching experience.

The ten couples and three sisters that trained with us and Brother and Sister Alldredge (former Salt Lake Temple President and Matron) who presented our training and Elder and Sister Lund who were the Church Service Missionaries who coordinated our training. We were the only ones assigned to the London temple. Other temple assignments were: Manhattan NY, Ecuador, Panama, Palmyra NY, Nauvoo IL, Samoa, Finland, Germany, France, and the Philippines. We were told that there are about 600 temple missionaries worldwide, but around a 1,000 are needed.

Thursday evening we were able to have dinner with President and Sister Young but we forgot to take a picture.  We visited for over two hours, catching up on the Youngs, their family, their current and future plans.  We will always have a fond place in our hearts for the Youngs and the things we learned from them in Brazil.

Friday morning we left for the Salt Lake Airport at 8:30am and flew to Las Vegas where we had enough time to eat lunch and then depart for LGW (London Gatwick airport).  We arrived at about 10:00am GMT+1 and were greeted by President and Sister Freeman, who took us to the temple apartments.  We have been assigned to Flat 16 of the Lodge, which are very nice living quarters.  We unloaded our luggage and walked around the temple grounds trying to stay awake.

Tired from the long flight but happy to be at the London Temple

Elder and Sister Page, from South Jordan, Utah, who are our shift coordinators took us to the Sainsbury Supermarket in East Grinstead to buy groceries.  We unloaded our groceries, ate a light supper and went to bed about 8:00pm. We were exhausted but so grateful to be here and to serve in the London temple.

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw