NEWS of the WEEK

Here is Elder Pichon with Elder Hawley in front of Elder Hawley's desk.  To the right is another photo of Elder Pichon [from Bouches-du-Rhone, France], seen here studying PREACH MY GOSPEL.  The England London Mission is a fully-committed PMG mission.

This week has been cold and especially breezy, which makes it feel considerably colder.  It even continues to snow a bit, but little sticks to the ground.  One day this past week the snowfall did make the streets and sidewalks quite slick and icy.  Sister Hawley has become a convert to wearing a scarf around her neck and says it really helps.  [She's going to continue wearing her scarves when we return to Utah winters.]  We are glad we are not out in the cold like the young misisonaries!

This past week we had MOVES [Transfers], and now we have a new AP threesome:  [L-R] Elder Tyler Monk [from southern California, USA], Elder Paul Jentzsch [from Kabelsketal, Germany], and Elder Guy Morley [from Coventry, England].  They are fun to be around, and are good young men and hardworking missionaries.

An update on Sister Hawley's crashed computer:  Dell sent an technician (in England it is an engineer) to replace the hard drive which could not be recognized by the computer.  We received the three reinstallment disks from the Church Area headquarters in Soliholl and we have worked to get it back up and running.  We still cannot get the printer drivers to allow us to print and will need some help. Many of the recovered files proved to be corrupted and so Sister Hawley will have many hours recreating all of those files.  She has the calendar for the year put back together and we are able to get the Church Data Entry program for baptisms to take the data again.  The special Outlook program for emails is working, but all the email addresses were lost, and these addresses will take time to recreate.  We use email a great deal to communication with SLC, Utah for travel, info on new missionaries, and a miriad of other uses, including communications with missions throughout the world.  I think she will be very busy for many weeks getting everything back to full operational capacity.

Wednesday we went to dinner at an Argentinean steak house near the South Ken tube station, a few blocks away from the mission office.  The Bird's, the Campbell's, and the Miles joined us and we enjoyed a very pleasant 2 hours with them.  P.S.  The steaks were GREAT!

We were to go to Wembley today to visit the Miles, who are from SLC, but when we got to the subway (tube) station on Kensington High Street many of the tube lines were down for repairs on the weekend and both tube running to Wembley were out.  Wembley is about a 40- minute tube ride north west of London. They have about six inches of snow there.  We called them on their cell phone and made arrangements for another visit in a few weeks.

We note how difficult the missionary work is. Speaking with the office elders who labor in the Hyde Park Chapel area, they report that when street contacting only about one in 20 will talk to them, and many who will speak to them have no interest, saying they haven't got the time to listen.  The world has turned this message down from Adam's time to our own. Even few listened to the Savior Himself when He was on the earth. In the Spirit World they will all be so very sorry that they did not recognize the truth when it was offered. They will have more interest then, if they are honest in heart and truth seekers.  However, the gospel remains true and the Lord has given prophecies that few will listen, only one here and one there will receive.  The mission baptized 237 people in 2009.  The worldly cares and prosperous times do not lend people to be humble and teachable.  One can see the pride of relying on one's own flesh and power to make it in the world.  Only if they could realize the joy and blessings the Lord has for them and to realize their true potential, who they are and why they are here on earth.  The message of the gospel is sorely needed.

We accepted an offer to sell our former home in Orem and are proceeding with the process.  This will be a blessing to have that matter taken care of and not have to worry and ask our children take care of it and check on it.  Jason, Rob and Debbie have so kindly taken turns to check on our homes each week in our absence.  Thank you, Kids, for your help in managing things so well in our absence.

We are looking forward to challenges in this new year. We are happy and optimistic as we know the Lord will bless us and our children and help us solve all the problems and obstacles that come.  Through each trial we become stronger and see the hand of the Lord in our lives. "Burdens provide opportunties to practice virtues that contribute to eventual perfection. They invite us to Yield 'to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and [put] off the natural man and [become] a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and [become] as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.'  Thus burdens become blessings, though often such blessings are well disguised and may require time, effort, and faith to accept and understand." Ensign, Nov 2009, Elder L. Whitney Clayton.

From the Land of Tiny Tim, "God bless you everyone!"