NEWS of the WEEK

Many busy days at the office. We have been run ragged and still can't seem to keep up. We continue to get home between 7:30 and 9 PM each day. The weather has stayed quite nice and just a few real rainy days and that helps us get around easier. This week is Transfers' week and so it has been and will be busy. But Sister Hawley has most of her letters out and the preparations for transfers in place. Brother Hawley has found four new flats for the four new proselyting areas that will be set up this next week. In addition he is moving three other sets of missionaries into new flats next week and closing up the old properties. This all requires much time and effort to locate the flats, negotiate the tenancy agreements and get the money transferred and payments made and the vendors approved by Solihull, (near Birmingham) the area financial control for the Church in England. We do not use checks, but electronic transfer of funds, but all the payment must come from Salt Lake through Bank of America to the banks in England. About a 4-5 day process. Some flats needed to be furnished and so we ask first for member help and donations, and then purchase what is needed that remains. The missionaries transfer mostly by train and it is quite a process for them all to move on the Wednesday morning of transfers and be in their new location by 2 PM of that day. The distances are not to great - not more than two hours for any train ride.

There were four baptisms into the Hyde Park Ward yesterday. A mother, grandmother and two teenage sons joined and were confirmed in Sacrament meeting this morning. The spirit of the Lord reaches out to many people to prepare them to hear the gospel. The missionaries and members are the finders to help share the word with those who have been prepared. Looking at the condition of the world, the gospel is so very needed as the the general population lacks direction and are just led in the passions of the world and don't understand who they are, where they are going or what their purpose in life really is. They need the gospel just to get through this life, not to mention preparation for the life to come.

We had five elders to our flat for dinner last night. Sister Hawley prepared a wonderful meal, including the "Murder Party" chicken. One brand new elder, Elder Avanesyan, from Armenia was in the group. He came to the MTC in Preston, but he didn't have enough English skills to understand what was going on in the MTC. He could not get visa to the U.S.A., so he could not be sent to the Provo MTC for language training. Instead he was sent to the mission and we will train him to speak English. Elder Hawley did that 45 years ago and was sent to Germany without any language training. We find he understands more than he speaks, and is making good progress. The Mission President has assigned Sister Urmurshadyan from Georgia in the Urkaine to teach him each day for an hour. She speaks Russian and some Armenian, and he speaks Armenian and some Russian. With the Lords' influence he is learning quite rapidly. He has been here one week. At dinner last night he shared with us one spiritual confirmation he'd received: when he opened his mission call letter, the Spirit told him he would receive the help he needed to learn how to speak English. He is a quiet-spoken, humble, faithful young man. He will be the companion of two office elders for the next 6 weeks, so we will have more time to get to know him better. We hosted the APs and the three office elders for dinner; before we began they prayed with us and shared with us spiritual messaged about the blessings of having the Holy Ghost with us. During dinner we spoke of the baptism they'd just come, and after dinner Sister Hawley asked them to share other spiritual lessons that have been blessings to them so far on their missions. Our senior AP, Elder Gietz, is being transferred this week to serve his final 6 weeks "in the field." He and Elder Monk have set the bar high in their dedicated service. Also being transferred our Elder Macias, who has only been in the office for 6 weeks, and Elder Weibell, who's been trainer and all around go-to-guy for us and so many others. They are all excited to further serve elsewhere, and although we will miss them we know they are meant to share their talents and testimonies with others elsewhere.

On Sunday night we will have the Britannia elders and sisters to dinner. One elder is from Utah, one from Canada, one from Georgia in the Ukraine, and one from Finland. A multi-cultural evening, to be sure. We hope they will bring their own versions of the spiritual highs we felt last night. And on Monday night it is our turn to host the couple missionaries' Family Home Evening. It's Columbus Day in the U.S., and since we are all Americans we thought our theme might come from this -- we have all come to England to explore and discover what England might be like for us. Sister Hawley will prepare her chichen main dish, and each couple coming will bring a bread, salad or dessert that they "would like to discover" in any part of the world they have "explored," or some food or dish that they would find in a country they want to "discover." It should be fun. During the evening we'll share our adventures about each couples' "world travels." And in our flat that comfortably might seat a dozen [which is a relatively large flat for London standards] is going to be warm-and-cosy for [so far] 22 people, some of whom are coming into the city from other areas. The more the merrier! Again we hope for laughter and love and friendship to be shared, all in the spiritual environment we love. We add a new Family History senior missionary couple last Tuesday. Brother and Sister Price are each on a second marriage, having their previous spouses pass away. They are both outgoing and friendly. He was a career Air Force pilot. One of our single senior sisters leaves in 3 weeks, and the "longest-serving" FH couple are to be released on 10 November; we will miss each one, as they have enriched our lives and become good friends.

This week we have 8 new missionaries coming down to us from the Preston MTC, none of which is American. There are three sister missionaries in this group. All are from Europe, England or South America. Next week we will receive an elder from Italy, who did go to the Provo MTC from Preston when it was discovered that he too could not speak English. His photo shows him to be a happy young man, and we look forward to meeting him and having him join us here in the ELM. Sadly, one of our hardworking elders is on his way home after only being able to serve 3/4th of his mission; he has some medical issues that need treatment at home, so Sister Hawley at the MP's request and direction, prepared the necessary paperwork, and we FedEx'd all to the U.S. Friday night. The office elders will drive him to Heathrow on Tuesday afternoon. One thing that we give the missionaries going home is a packet containing a personal letter from the president and all of the saved "presidents' letters," which covers a good record of their mission experiences.

We see how the Lord very quietly and subtly gets his work done. We see His hand in our work as problems arise and we are led to the solutions almost miraculously. We often remark at how well things work out when we have no idea how to proceed, but forge ahead after prayer or merely move ahead with a prayer in our hearts. The Lord is in this work and it is certain He is in charge. We just need to be better at obedience and willing to follow and do what is asked. Here is an example. Elder Hawley moved two elders to a new flat and instructed the elders to clean up the flat and take their possessions out by a certain date and leave the flat clean and ready for new tenants. Later, Elder Hawley received a letter from the angry landlord, because the elders took his instructions literally and cleaned out the flat and took all of the furnishing, and the landlord was accusing them of theft. Well, it was all a misunderstanding, as the elders thought everything belonged to the Mission, but it did not. It was a furnished flat. Elder Hawley called the landlord and explained the situation, but he needed to contact the elders to get some facts clear. It was late in the day and so the landlord agreed to a morning phone call to try and resolve the matter. We made it a matter of prayer that night. When the landlord was contacted the next morning, his dimeanor was softened and he was understanding that ii was an honest mistake. We offered to return the furniture or purchase new and restore what had been taken. He agreed to let the matter go if the Church would just reimburse him for the two beds that were purchased two years ago when the missionaries first moved in, and he agreed to write the rest off under wear- and-tear since these furnishings were old anyway. Instead of 2000 to 3000 pounds, he agreed to just 360 pounds to cover the beds. He wanted to know if we needed any rentals in another city in which he had property. The Lord had changed his heart and he was most friendly towards the Church, which was our primary goal . . . to maintain good public relations. We thanked and do thank the Lord for his help and blessings. The very nasty situation was turned for good because of the Lord's help.

We were assigned to represent the Mission in a building meeting about the master plan for the Hyde Park Chapel building. (It lasted three hours until 10 PM this last Thursday) It is evident that the Church is planning to put its best foot forward for the Summer Olympics to be held in London in 2012. Some renovation planned and and few changes inside, but most of it will not effect the mission offices which are on the top floor (3rd floor by US reasoning and 2nd floor as the British call it) of the building. We have about 1500 square feet to include the office, a small storage room, and the Mission President's office. There are four computer stations and files etc. as you would expect from a standard office. European keyboards and filing systems as one would expect, but it is easy to adapt to these differences. This meeting also discussed the building use and we discussed the issue of how food is eaten in many parts of the building that are carpeted. This gave us the lead in to discuss plans with the Mission President to blend into changes in the atmosphere in the office to make it more of a professional space. The missionaries use the office as a home away from home with food, clothes, sports gear all stored higglety-pigglety, and it is cluttered and messy. The President agreed that this was an opportunity to change direction. So from now on no eating by missionaries in the building except in the kitchen area and the office will be cleaned out from food, clothes and unrelated items. We can now rearrange the furniture and desks and make a clean professional office out of the space. We will be happy to make this change. The young missionaries were receptive to the change also.

Life is full of adversity and surprises. It is not that we will not have problems, but it is how we face them and stay close to the Lord so that we can solve them with His help and direction that makes the difference. He will also comfort us in our trials and give us strength and courage to go through the trial and learn the lessons that mortality has to teach us. "There is no witness until the trial of our faith." We love you all and pray the Lords blessing on our family in all of their circumstances and trials. Alongside this we offer humble thanks for all of the accompaning blessings and helps. How wonderful it is for us to realize that our Savior knows each of us personally, and that He stays nearby throughout all in His complete love for us.

Love, Elder and Sister Hawley