Thanksgiving

     I KNOW THANKSGIVING HAS PAST AND CHRISTMAS IS QUICKLY APPROACHING but we owe our loved ones some news of what has been going on in our lives. We had a mission tour by our Area President Jose A. Teixeira and his wife. They spent four days with us. Tuesday November 26 we had a MLC (mission leadership council). We then had three days in a row of multizone conferences: first the three eastern zone, Crawley, Maidstone, and Wandsworth, then the three western zones, Plymouth, Bristol, and Poole. Lastly we met with the three central zones, Staines, Reading, and Portsmouth. We had a bit of travel involved especially the second day when we had to drive two hours to Poole and then back that night. That was on thanksgiving day.  The real special treat was that the Poole stake relief society cooked a full turkey Thanksgiving dinner for the nearly 100 missionaries. It was marvelous.

    We received excellent instruction from both Elder and Sister Teixeira. Although it seemed stressful as we were planning for them to come, it actually was very relaxed and enjoyable. I feel that our missionaries gained a lot from the tour.  This quarter is also the time for interviews so Sister Millar and I have been on the road a lot..  We interview three zones the week before the Tour and four zones last week. Last week to do the four zones, which included 106 missionaries took us four and a half days.  Most of the days were at least 14 hours or longer. It usually takes about 15-20 minutes per interview.  Ther are 26-28 missionaries in each zone. Mingled into all of this is reading the 250 emails that they send each week.  I have never missed reading every letter each week. Occasionally a little of night work.
     This week and next week we are bringing the whole mission into the Temple for a temple sesiion and then feed them a nice dinner and then send them back to their areas. With 300 missionaries, counting our Senior couples, we can break them into four groups of about 76 per group.  That is the maximum that we can fit into a temple session and the limit of what we can seat in the accomidation center at the London Temple. We had a marvelous session yesterday with the first group.  Today we recieved two new missionaries that needed to be placed. Tomorrow we have another group coming, then on Friday we have two senior couples coming and another senior couple coming on Saturday. There is never a dull moment.  Next week we will have two more groups and then the next week is Christmas.
     It sounds like all work and no play, but Sister Millar and I took a night last month to slip into London to see the musical "Wicked". A friend we know Savannah Stevenson, played one of the lead roles of Glinda the good witch. She is also the one who plays Mary the mother of the Savior in the bible videos that you can watch on lds.org.

                                                   The Stage and curtain for Wicked
   We are healthy, happy, and getting older by the day. It is really suprizing to think that we are nearly half finished with this assignment.  It seems like we are just beginning to get a feel for what we are doing. Our blessings are great. We both had to shed more than a few tears as we looked around the Celestial room in the temple at 76 missionaries all dressed in white. What a sight and a memory for Christmas.
   We wish you all the very Best wishes for Christmas, We wish we could be with everyone of you, but we know that that is impossible, We have invited all the office senior couples and visitor center couples to the mission home for Christmas day, Hopfully it will be better for us than last year, The missionaries are always invited to members homes, so we got first dibs on most of the senior couples this year, Although we are frantically busy, it will be lots of fun to be with everyone, Last year we spent it alone, Most people thought we would enjoy the rest and quite for a change, but that made it harder, seeing as we don't watch tv, and our reading selection is limited.
     God Bless everyone.       President and Sister Millar, aka Doc and Val.

Frantic Fall

Dear family and friends,
       What a frantic pace we keep, and yet we are managing to survive somehow, Things seem to be slowing down as far as opening new areas, and we seem to have reached our full compliment of missionaries for the moment. Now we are just trying to keep on top of things.
 We got finished with interviews and three tri-zone conferences, and now we are preparing for another round of tri-zone conferences because we are having the Area president, President Teixeira of the Seventy, coming to do a mission tour for four days the week of 25th November. He wants to meet, and talk with all the missionaries. He and his wife will also be staying with us.

Huge pig farm near Stonehenge

M25 beltway at sunset. Just passing Heathrow Airport

      December is approaching very quickly and we are having the missionaries come in four different groups to the accommodation center on the Temple grounds for a Temple Session and Christmas Dinner, We can only accommodate 70-75 at a time in the Temple or the accommodation centre, so that is going to be a lot of traveling and quite an expence getting the missionaries here, but it's a wonderful time and worth every penny.
        We have been tied up every Saturday and Sunday with Stake Conferences, so we have been traveling around the mission quite a bit. Sometimes when travel is too far to get home, and then be back the next morning for the Sunday Meetings, we stay overnight.

    It's hard to believe Christmas is around the corner, so if you think Thanksgiving is too early too start Christmas, you should have been in Costco in August, Because they already had their Christmas decorations up, Trees and everything,
      We love to drive through the little towns and villages around Southern England at Christmas time, they literally look like a "Currier and Ives" Christmas card. With it getting dark at 4pm, it really is magical, As the days get shorter the sun rises in the south east and sets in the south west,

    Last Friday we managed to change our schedules so we could go with the Senior Couples, on their monthly outing. One of our couples who work with the YSA (Young Single Adults) and are living in Oxford, took us on a walking tour of Oxford, and then to Christchurch College, where we were shown around by the Bishop of one of the Oxford Wards. He happens to work there. He then took us into the dining hall where they got the inspiration for Hogwarts Dining Hall in the Harry Potter Movies, and were some of the filming took place. We then
 had "High Tea" there,  clotted cream scones and chocolate eclairs with hot chocolate. We were very glad of the refreshment by then as we had walked about 2 miles in absolutely pouring down rain and we were soaked, and feeling rather waterlogged.

 Christ Church dining hall Oxford University

One of the oldest trees in England.  Christ Church gardens.

September

Dear family and friends,
       We can't believe it's been so long since we last wrote to you, We are sooooo sorry, but in all honesty it just seems like last week, things are really hectic with all the new missionaries, our compliment with the Senior couples and Visitors Center is now at 314.
      We have 254 young Elders and Sisters, with 2 more arriving in 10 days, and we now have 68 sister missionaries, and at the moment 8 of them are Sister Trainer Leaders, which is the equivalent of a Zone Leader, They are able to do exchanges with the other sisters in their zones and attend Mission Leadership Council which is held at the Mission Home the Friday after transfers.
       Since we last wrote we have been doing missionary interviews, this involves us traveling  throughout the mission and scheduling each interview session to coincide with each Zones training session. and usually we try to have it on a day when the Stake is having it's Stake Correlation Meeting that night, so that we don't have to make the long trip back another time.  With 10 Zones, including the newly formed Digital Zone it takes a good 3 weeks, The President starts interviewing at around 9:30am and breaks for just enough time to address the Zone, then he continues on until all are interviewed, anywhere from 24 to 28 in each zone. This usually takes 7 - 8 hours.
   We prefer to go to the missionaries in their zone rather than having them travel to the mission office as it would take too much time, as well as be too expensive.
      That usually give us enough time to grab a bite to eat before the correlation meeting starts. Usually then we can drive home later that evening, even though it gets quite late, but some places we have to stay overnight.
      We have gone through 2 transfers and Mission Leadership Councils since we contacted you all last. It's hard to believe that much time has gone by.
We are talking at Wards most Sundays so that is a bit of travel, also Stake Conferences have started for the Fall and so we are involve in speaking at the Saturday Evening sessions as well as on Sunday,  and Roger usually has to speak at the Saturday afternoon Priesthood Sessions as well.
    September 10th to the 13th, was our Missionary Presidents training seminar in Versaille, Paris, France for four days three nights.   We flew to Paris, It was wonderful, We met in the conference room where the Treaty of Versaille was signed in the 1930s, The Hotel was on the grounds of the Versaille Palace, and we were able to go and tour it and it's fabulous Gardens one afternoon. The next night before we left, we were all taken by bus into Paris, and had a dinner cruise on the River Seine, it rained a little but was marvelous.

 OUR HOTEL

 The Versaile Palace

 The Effeil Tower from the Seine river boat

President  and Sister Millar on the dinneer boat on the Seine River

       The highlight of our meetings, was the presence of Elder's Ballard and Oakes of the Quorum of the Twelve and their wives, along with Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the  Presidency of Seventy, and Elder Davies of the Presiding Bishopric. We had a wonderful and spiritual 3 days of talks and instruction from them.
   When we got home on the Friday evening, as we were unpacking it occured to us that we had to re-pack, as we were leaving the next day for Poole to speak at their Stake Conferences.
 The next week we continued with interviews and then left Saturday morning to fly to the island of Jersey, off the coast of France for 2 days for their ward conference, and we had a wonderful time. What a beautiful place.

       The Gardens at the Greenhill Inn B&B  the isle of Jersey

     more of the gardens

The Stake Leadershiop at the Channel Islands conference

    This last week is usually are most active and busiest, we had 9 missionaries leaving,  four elders and 5 sisters, and because the Temple is closed for repairs, we took them into London for a sightseeing tour, which was fun for us as well. We always have a family home evening with them, and show the movie 17 miracles, about the Willey and Martin handcart company, then Wednesday was transferday, we had 27 new missionaries arrive,
      Thursday is usually planning and grocery shopping, (thank goodness for Costco), Then yesterday was Mission Leadership Council, which takes most of the day, We feed them breakfast and a big lunch, there are usually about 35 hungry people including us.
      After they left we drove down to Portsmouth on the coast, (about an hour or hour and a half depending on traffic) that was about 5pm, we went to a Chinese night at the Portsmouth Ward, and it was wonderful, we have 9 Manderin speaking Elders, and quite a few Chinese investigators and members, They showed videos of China and shared their culture and costumes, they make traditional food to share and taste, and one of the elders from mainland China played his Sheng, a traditional Chinese instrument that goes back thousands of years, and is made out of bamboo and reeds all tied together. it was a wonderful night with a lot of ward members present, Afterwards we drove home.
     Today is our 18th wedding anniversary.  We are taking a little trip to London to take in a play. I've been out teaching with the misssionaries this afternoon. We were teaching about the Book of Mormon to a man from Ghana. It is always good to be with the missionairies and to feel the spirit in the work of salvation. Looking forward to General Conference this week end.  We send our love to all.  We are healthy and happy.  We are blessed.  Thank you for your prayers, we need them.

RIDING THE WAVE

Dear friends and family,
      As usual it's been a frantic month, where is the time going?, Friday we went into London to the Moorefield Eye hospital for the President's appointment, that takes most of the day, We catch the train here about a mile from the mission home, in the little village of Oxshott, at 9:30 am and it's a 35 - 40 minute train ride to Waterloo Station, we then catch the tube (underground) train to Euston underground  Station, and then get another to Old Street Station, which is the nearest to the Eye Hospital and is only a short walk away, we are usually there about 2 hours then reverse the train rides to come home, stopping at a local deli to get a baguette and drink to eat on the train back home. We usually get home anywhere around 3:30 - 4 pm.
    Since they dilate the Presidents eyes we don't do a lot of driving for the rest of the day. But the phone is constantly going, both our home phone and especially the President's cell phone. Since the President does most of his office work in the mission home office, there is plenty to do.
   On the 6th August we had four of our missionaries leave 2 weeks early, as they needed to get back to spend a few days with their families before starting school. One was an AP,( Assistant to the President) one a Zone Leader, the other two were Trainers and District Leaders. We took them for a session at the Temple, which we do with all departing missionaries, It is such a blessing for us to be there with them and quite a bitter-sweet experience. Sending each of our missionaries home is like saying goodbye to one of our children.
    On Saturday we had to go to a meeting in the Hyde Park Chapel, in London to meet with President Teixeira ( President of the European Area) and Elder David F. Evans (Director of the Missionary Executive council and a member of the 1st quorum of the Seventy) and their wives, along with President Jordan and his wife,  (London Mission President). That meant we had to drive to Epsom about 6 miles away to catch the train to Victoria Station, then we only had to catch one underground train to get there, instead of the two we would have had to catch if we had gone to our local railway station which only goes to Waterloo Station. We are finally figuring out the train and underground system,
       Sunday was another busy day we went to church in Orpington, then in the evening we had a visit from the former Elder White and his family that are visiting from Mapleton, Utah. What a wonderful evening that was. Michael White was one of the AP's when we got here, and we grew to love him as one of our own.
    Monday was a busy day, with the President starting to read all the letters from each of the missionaries, as he does every week, and I was getting ready for a special dinner that night for the London Mission President and his wife, and Elder David Evans and his wife Mary, who we have known for a great many years.  I actually made an English trifle which I haven't made for ever because it takes so long. Anyway I started Saturday and finished Monday, and it turned out OK.
    Elder and Sister Evans stayed with us that night. Then the next day Elder Evans wanted to go and tour the Visitors Center and Mission office on the Temple Grounds. We then drove to the nearby Crawley Stake House, there he had asked to speak to some of the missionaries. What a spiritual feast that was. It lasted about 5 hours and we had about 100 young missionaries plus about 10 Senior Couples. Afterwards we went to the Temple with them and then drove them to the airport.
  This busy week will end with us picking up 2 new Senior couples at Gatwick Airport Saturday morning, having a quick bite of lunch with them, then driving to Paignton, a good four hour drive, for a baptism then a musical evening fireside. Sunday we are speaking in church, having lunch with the Bishop and his family then driving back to Cobham.
            We send our love to each and every one of you, We feel very blessed, and love working with the missionaries, The Church is true, we know that more and more every day.  God Bless,
                      President and Sister Millar.  ( Doc and Val )

Heat Wave

It's good to take a short pause in our busy schedule and report our activities.  Since the 4th of July we have had another transfer with the arrival of 30 new missionaries and only12 going home, 8 were new Sister missionaries. The interesting thing is that they came from 6 different countries: Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Croatia, Finland and the USA.  We continue to love the diversity. The number of lessons taught each week has continued to increase to a new high this past week of 1890. The number of member's present for lesson teaches is up.  The number of baptismal dates is increasing.  Our hope is that the number of convert baptisms will start to follow.  We are very close to having the highest number of baptisms for the month of July than we have had in the mission since we arrived 13 months ago. The Work of Salvation training video for members has been very good in helping us get the members more involved in the work. We continue to search for ways to be more productive.
     The weather has been very hot for England; We have been having a heat wave, UP TO 35 DEGREES Celsius. That is 95 F. and it is very humid. They do not have air conditioning in our homes or Chapels so we feel it, especially at night. It also has been very dry, not much rain. The lawns are turning very brown as they don't have sprinkler systems.
     We are in the midst of Zone conferences, we had two last week and will have our third one next Tuesday.  We have three zones in each one with about 80 to 100 missionaries in each.  They usually start at 10.00am, break for lunch, then continue till about 3pm. We attended a baptism Thursday and we are going to another one tonight.  We talk in church tomorrow in the Catford Ward, Wandsworth Stake.  There is another baptism after church in that Ward. It is always nice to be with the Saints in their wards.  The culture is so diverse.
     The mission continues to grow.  We are now at 230 young sisters and elders, with 21 couples.  That number will increase to 260 by October 2nd. It is hard to get to know all of them by name and background.  We have had 95 new missionaries in the past 90 days. Over half of our companionships are training new missionaries.  This seems to be the pattern all over the world.  It is what is know as the "Wave". This shows the board in the Office in the Mission Home. The ones tilted are going home next transfer.  The yellow means they go home in 2012, green is 2014, and blue they go home in 2015.

     The next picture is another wall showing the 60 new missionaries coming in the next two transfers.

      The British Pageant starts next week in Chorley.  It is entitled "Truth will Prevail". It depicts the early history of the church in the British Isles.  We would love to go but we can't leave our mission.  Sister Millar is quite disappointed since it is in her home town.  It will be on the grounds near the PRESTON TEMPLE.  We love our missionaries.  We also miss our family and pray for you all every day. The busy schedule and long hours are worth it because this is the work of the Lord, and Truth will prevail.

Year Two

It is so hard to believe that we have been here a year. Time moves so quickly. The mission continues to grow.  Next week is transfers.  We have 30 new missionaries coming and 12 going home. This will bring our total for young sisters and elders up to 224.  That is a number I watch because it is the number of weekly e mails I get to read. To read all these letters is time consuming but is so rewarding.  Sometimes I laugh and sometimes I cry, but they are always entertaining.  Here is a short excerpt from one of the letters.  You can't make this up.
     President, I would like to share a miracle with you.
          So, right after we did our 4 week reports at the chapel, we are walking back to the bus station.  Usually we are watching for a bus but we just weren't at that moment and we missed our bus. Frustrated we thought of what to do. We know there is a less active member down the road and we're deciding whether or not to go. We decide to check it out.  We see their car is not there so that is not a good sign.  We knock.  No answer. So we decide to make our journey back home.  Elder Reed suggest, should we cut through the park? Ehhhh, maaaaaayyybbbeeee. Sure, why not.  As we were going through the park we see a rather large man sitting alone on a bench. I ask, should we talk to him?  We need to catch our bus. After another minute of debate, I ask Elder Reed what kind of pass along card he has? He pulls one out and says "Where Do I Go When I Die?" Nah, do you have any others? He pulls out one that says"Does God Really Know Me?" So I take it and start heading towards him.  We show him the card and start talking to him. He is 100% against us being there for some reason.  He keeps asking stuff like "Why are you here?" "What's the point of this?" "Why are you talking to me?" etc. After a little while of explaining we are God's servants here to bring him a message, he says ".....You guys aren't going to believe me...but not more than 3 minutes ago, I typed into Google "God, please help me" and then minutes later, you two show up.......IS THAT NOT AMAZING?!  We weren't even supposed to be there! We missed our bus, and instead of going to the closest station, we go to the less active family, then to the park, and happen to get the perfect pass along card! His name is Chris and we are going to teach him this week. That was such a strong moment where both me and Elder Reed knew we were guided by the hand of the Lord.      Elders Hagedorn and Reed
      I thought you might like to get a feel for what goes on in the mission field on nearly a daily basis some where.
       Since last we posted, we have travelled through out the mission doing interviews.  We have a new car, a Toyota Avensis station wagon.  It had 5 miles on it when we picked it up last week. Just as we were driving over to the temple to turn in our old car, the odometer turned over 77,777 miles.

     Sister Millar has also had some health challenges.  She developed flu like symptoms but the GI problems went on for 6 days and she was getting a little dehydrated.  We took her to the GP who had her admitted to the hospital where she spent the next 6 days in the care of the NHS. There were a few frustrations encountered that we will not elaborate on.  She is schedule for some additional diagnostic test the next `Monday. Overall she has been a bit tired but is doing much better.  She was able to go on a trip to Plymouth earlier in the week.
      We are happy with the flowers in the yard, will attach some photos. The work in the mission continues to grow in number of teaching opportunities, and Baptismal dates. We are looking for a good week today of about 10 baptisms for the week.

 Some but not all of our Sister Missionaries. In total we have 54.

 A swan on black pond, where we like to take a walk. It is about a half mile away from our home in the woods.

 Begonias  by our back door.  Lovely.

Prettiest flower in our back yard." Brilliant", through the kitchen window from the yard.

   We love you and send our best to all.  The gospel is the Truth the Way and the Life. We feel the touch of the Master's hand in all we do.

Special Visitor

Don't be too shocked. I realize it has not been a month since the last posting, but we need to tell you about our good fortune to have a visit to our mission by one of the Lord's  special witnesses, Elder M. Russell Ballard. Nine days ago I received a  conference call from the area presidency executive secretary, informing me and Pres, Jordan of he England London Mission that we might get a visit from Elder Ballard. He had come to Sweden for a regional conference and was scheduled to go to St. Petersburg Russia on Monday but they had dated his visa two days late.  They were trying to get it changed.  If they couldn't the backup plan was to fly to London and to meet with both missions at the Hyde Park Chapel.  We would not know for sure until Monday at 10:00 AM.
     We had to put our missionaries on alert so they could respond quickly if the call came, it being a
P-day. Now there are two missions of missionaries praying for the visa not to be sorted out. And, it didn't. We were able to get 6 out of our 9 zones into London by 2:30 PM.  Elder Ballard had Elder Teixeira from our area presidency with him.  They met with the London Mission at 2:00 PM then had us join them at 3;30 PM. He talked to the combined group then to our mission alone for 45 minutes, then they left and gave the mission president time to train our missionaries alone. It was a special time.  Many of our Sisters and Elders had never seen an Apostle in person, or heard them speak.
     Elder Teixeira instructed us setting higher expectations and to do more to further the work in England.   Elder Ballard talked about the association of the companionship between the Prophet Joseph and his older brother  Hyrum. He talked aout his mission to  England in 1948.  He also told stories of his ancestors who found the church in England and immigrated to Utah. It was full of faith and testimony. He challenged us all to treasure up chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel so we can be prepared to teach the doctrines of the restoration in any place, and in any situation with confidence , and to do it in our own word. Our testimonies of the restoration and the role of the Prophet Joseph was strengthen. Our desire to serve with faith was increased.  We were fed by the spirit in great abundance.
     We were moved by the fact that Elder Ballard didn't look at the problems with the visa would be an opportunity to get some additional rest, but that he looked for additional servants to minister unto. He brought us the Love of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson, his counsellors and the Quorum of the Twelve. We were richly blessed.
     May I say that I know the work we are involved in is the Work of the Lord.  We see miracles every day. Truly God does hear and answer his children's prayers.

Summer is here

I was  surprised and dismayed to see that it has been a month since we last posted on the blog.  We have been through our largest transfer since we arrived in the mission. We received 36 new missionaries in the month of May. The main day was the 29th although we had some arrive two weeks earlier.  Thirty-four came on Wednesday the 29th.  It is wonderful to see their eager and excited faces. Two days later we held Mission Leadership Council. (Used to be Zone leaders council) This consists of ten companionships of zone leaders and four Sister Training Leaders. They come to the mission home, and we feed them a light breakfast and Sister Millar cooks a big lunch (dinner), this takes a full afternoon of Costco shopping the day before, it is 14 miles away from here and takes most of the afternoon, plus doing a lot of the prep work the night before), there are usually about 30 in attendance, and we accomplish about 6 hours of training.  This week we are starting interviews along with each Zones individual conference.  We have done three zones: one on Tues, Wed. and Thurs.  This amounts to about 7-8 hours of non stop interviews plus driving sometimes 2 hours each way, and fixing a sandwich and chips and fruit with a drink .  It is like going to school again where we pack our lunch and go for the day.  We have three more zones next week and three more the week after.  Sister Millar interviews the sisters now that we are getting a lot more.  I still interview them as well.  Sister Millar ends up with several hours of patiently waiting for the President to finish.  She is wonderful and a good companion.
     I wish I could say that everything is always smooth, but it isn't.  There are always some illness problems, discouragement, homesickness, and others. Nothing too serious but it all takes time to sort out as they say here.  We have found 25 new flats this past month.  We opened 15 flats  in new areas this transfer and we will open ten more in five more weeks.  It is a big job to find the furnishings, bedding, kitchen things, get new area books, DVD players and supplies to open a new proselyting area. The master plan for moving bodies around the mission is mind boggling.  The office elders are amazing that we haven't lost anyone. especially on such a tight budget as we have. How they get all the luggage moved around is still a mystery, I think they must have Harry Potter's magic wand,
     The weather has finally warmed up.  The trees are in full leaf and there are lots of flowering  trees and shrubs. Here are some pictures of our back yard.

 This is our front yard Wisteria bush, just outside our office

this rhododendron bush is just down the street.

This is the main road going though our neighbourhood, all the streets are like this, with houses tucked in behind the trees. Below is one of the challenges we meet quite often driving down the street.

 This is one of the white horses carved into the hills, around Southern England, we saw this on the way to Bristol when we went for that YSA fireside about a month ago.

This is the front of the house with the wisteria in full bloom, it's on either side of the office windows. Below is our side entrance, looking toward the back garden, The garage is on the left, and that is a pink clematis in full bloom.

This is our neighbours home,
 We don't seem to have very much time to ourselves these days, but that is just fine, we are happy and very much involved in the Lord's work. Many nights it is very late when we get home, and a lot of days we leave home around  7:30am, with lunch bag in hand, We are having a great time with each missionary and love them all dearly, they now represent 53 countries, what a blessing this call has been in our lives, We love you all, and wish all of you our love and prayers, a very happy birthday to all, congratulations to George and Preston who became Elders on May 19th, and a special congratulations to Dezzie who got baptised yesterday.  We love you all, President and Sister Millar. (Doc and Val)                                                                                                                                We hope you like our little bit of England

Happy Mothers Day

Dear friends and family, How time flies, We want to wish all you Mothers, a very Happy and Wonderful Mother's Day, Today has been as busy as usual with a correlation meeting at the Staines Stakehouse at 7.00 am, ( That is 45minute drive away) then church at our home ward, Kingston. Then home for lunch, Then off to Wandsworth, near the Thames River, to meet with an Elder who is having some problems, then back in the car to drive to Aldershot to give another Elder a recommend for a patriarchal blessing, finally got home after 7.00pm and I'm just starting to get dinner ready.
      Last weekend we drove to Bristol, a good 2 hour drive away, we spent Saturday night there, and joined a YSA conference with youth from all over the country, there were over 350 young men and women there, we had sacrament and testimony meeting in the morning with Elder Kearon speaking, he is the 1st councillor in the area presidency, in the afternoon there were workshops with the Temple Presidency, and in the evening President Millar gave a fireside on Miracles, Medicine and Prophets, Mostly it was about the men who happened to be in the right place at the right time to help the Prophets when they had life threatening problems, and then he emphasised that whatever job or profession you go into, you need to be the very best you can be because you never know when your particular skill will be needed. we spent Sunday night in Bristol and drove back to London on Monday morning, The afternoon we spent with the AP's putting the final touches on plans for Zone Conference the next day,
          Tuesday was the Staines, Reading and Portsmouth Stakes Zone Conference, Wednesday we drove to Winchester (an old Roman Fort town and it has a Cathedral that was first started being built soon after the time Moroni was hiding the gold Plates in the Hill Cumorrah), for a baptism and we were invited to dinner at the ward mission leaders home afterwards, thats an hour and a half drive each way so we didn't get home until after 10.30pm, and Monday and Wednesday we also had President  Martin stay with us, He is my husbands 1st councillor and spoke at each of the conferences,  Thursday was the Crawley, Maidstone and Wandsworth Zone Conferences so that kept us pretty busy,
    Life is good, the Devil is working really hard on all our Missionaries and even the Leadership are not immune,
      Friday we caught up with some laundry and housekeeping and drove to the office to catch up with things there, Also drove into London to help out some of the sisters who are having some cultural clashes, Saturday we drove into Chichester (another Roman Fort town with a very old Cathedral) anyway we needed to see an Elder who hasn't been feeling well, we need to find some private medical care for him, even though he is English the National Health system won't take care of him, We are having a lot of problems getting health care even for English Elders,  The word is that the Church is going private for all Missionaries to make sure they get the proper treatment, that should be in effect by the end of the year.

Chichester Cathedral, Beautiful bluebells by our back door, and my little "Foxy" coming for some treats. Love you all, thanks for your Love and prayers, President and Sister Millar, aka, Doc and Val.

Summer is coming

Dear Family and friends, So much has happened since we last reported.  We had our largest transfer ever.29 new missionaries arrived on April 17th. There were over 100 missionaries affected with the transfers to accommodate all the new ones.  We had 14 Elders going home.  We took them into London on Monday, to the Temple on Tuesday, had departing interviews followed by a testimony meeting..  On Wednesday the new ones came and we put the departing Elders on the plane for home.
     During the past two weeks we have had two new senior couples arrive;  The Adams, who will be in the office, and the Homs who will be working with the YSA program in the Wandsworth Stake. Our dear office couple, the Kearls, went home to Canada this past week.  This brings lots of mixed emotions. They have been so good to help us get going the past 9 months.

Seeing the Kearl's off at Heathrow airport. what a Bitter-Sweet day.
     It was quite hectic to find 8 new flats for this last transfer.  We will need 12 more by May 29th. We have received instructions to include Sister missionaries in our leadership councils.  This past week we had what used to be called the ZLC (Zone Leaders Council).  It is now referred to as the MLC (Mission Leaders Council).  Sister Millar feeds them a light breakfast and then lunch.  We had 30 people this time.  It takes a Costco run and lots of work.  She did great!!!!! That was on Thursday last week, The weather was gorgeous, we hope that wasn't our summer!!  Friday, President Millar had his eye appointment in London, which takes most of the day, by the time we catch the train at 9am, then a 35 minute ride to Waterloo Station, them 2 tube rides on the underground, to get to the Eye Hospital in East London. then after the appointment we reverse the travel and get home about 3pm.  Saturday we needed to visit some missionaries to talk face to face.  The problem was that they were in Redruth, which is in Cornwall, 250 miles aways.  We drove for 10 hours that day, not counting the time we spent there, because we had to be back to speak in sacrament meeting today in the East Grinstead Ward. Our lives are very busy but we have a peaceful and fulfilled feeling in our hearts.  We know this is the Lord's work and that we do not labor alone.
  The days are getting longer.  It starts getting light at about 5:00 in the morning and the sun goes down about 8:30 and gets dark by 9pm in the evening. We had summer one day this week, it got up to 23C which is 74F. The nights still go down to 6C some mornings, which is 38F.  We have a very busy next two weeks with three multiZone conferences, a national YSA conference that we need to participate in down in Bristol. We will write and tell you about it next time.
We love you all, drop us an e-mail sometime when you have a minute, it's always good to hear from home. We are also off to the London Mission on Tuesday for a Conference in the Hyde Park Chapel, with all of our Senior Couples who are doing YSA assignments. (Young Single Adults) in all of our Stakes, they are doing such a valuable work, We also have 2 Senior Couples doing family history at the National Archives, and they help out in the wards to which they are assigned on Sundays. We also have a few Senior Couples doing Leadership work in the wards and Branches that are smaller, we have 3 Senior couples in the Visitor Center 20 Senior couples altogether and 2 Senior Sisters (office staff).

This is Hyde Park Chapel and Visitors Center, it's also the Mission Office for the London Mission, and it's just down the street from Hyde Park, the Royal Albert Hall, and across the street from the British Museum,      Love to all, President and Sister Millar.

Greetings everyone,
        Well another week has come and gone, We can't believe how quickly time is passing, Last week was General Conference; wasn't it wonderful? We went to the Visitors centre to see each session, it was nicer to do that than watching at home alone, Many of the Temple workers were there as well as the Office and Visitors Centre workers, so it made it a good group, we also had a number of investigators there as well.
        President Millar has finished interviewing each of the missionaries, as he does before each transfer, so we have been very busy with lots of travelling, We are also working on a new program that the Church is starting that will be on line and media related, We are getting instruction from Church media workers in Salt Lake, in person and via skype, At the present time it is just for the London mission and our mission, London South that will be doing it, so we are in the process of making another Zone (Area) that will be computer and media related.
       Next week will be transfers and 14 missionaries going home, (as well as 30 Sisters and Elders coming in), that is going to be a hard day as not only are they most of our great leaders but young men we have come to love very much. They are from all over the world and we will miss them terribly.
      Tuesday we went into London to see a Dermatology Dr, as the President had a small cyst on the bridge of his nose and wanted it checked, so we got to see all the media blitz that the Church has put up on advertising Mormon.org.uk, It is in Charing Cross station, Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.

This is some of Charing Cross Station

 This is advertising the play "The Mormon's are coming" not a very flattering portrayal of the Church

 This is one of the tunnels in the underground

Waiting to go down to the underground at Oxford Circus Station

 underground stations, as well as on 250 buses.
      The weather is starting to gradually warm up, although the trees and flowers are a good month behind schedule, The daffodils still cover the grass wherever we go, they are so beautiful, and there are so many varieties,
       The days are getting longer now, it starts getting light at around 5:30am and doesn't get dark until around 8:00pm. occasionally we have a beautiful sunny day, but mostly they are overcast, and today it's quite rainy, although the weather is getting warmer at long last.
       We will include some pictures, We hope you get them ok. Our love to everyone and the very best wishes to all our birthday family. Love and God Bless, President and Sister Millar. aka Doc and Val.

 Just wanted to share some daffodils with you, sorry they are a little blurry, I took them through the windshield.

Easter cold

Sorry to be slow in posting a new episode in our lives as Mission President. Since we last wrote, we've had transfers.( Ten new missionaries. ), Zone leaders council, and have been trying to get interviews done. Last Thursday week, we drove to Bristol, interviewed missionaries in two different location, then attended a Stake leadership meeting and then drove home. We left at 7:30 AM and got home at 2415 hrs.  That was a long day.  The next morning we did interviews in the Staines Zone which was closer but still took the whole day. Each zone has 16 to 22 missionaries. If each interview is 15 minutes that usually amount to 5 hours of non stop interviews. Some need a little more time to discuss their concerns. It is very rewarding but taxing.  Sister Millar does a lot of sitting talking to the other companion while I'm with the missionary. She often learns more than I do about what is going on. Last week we interviewed in four zones, requiring two overnight stays in hotels. Next week we will finish the last three zones.
     We are trying to make arrangements to receive 30 new missionaries on th 17th of April.  We also have 30 coming May 29th and another  30 on July 10th.  One of biggest problem is finding new flats to house all the new sisters and elders. The Book of Mormon musical opened in London last week and the church is launching a huge media advertising campaign that will drive many interested persons to Mormon.org.UK.  We are trying to gear up for more missionaries to be able to work on line with chat and social media proselyting. These are the things that keep us busy. Oh, we always have a few health challenges: we've had two different missionaries with the chicken pox, one had minor surgery, and colds, flu, etc.
   

Easter COLD

The weather man has informed us that this is the coldest Easter on record. It was snowing a little yesterday. We had a lovely day at church in the Kingston Ward.  Sister Millar was one of the speakers.  She did really well, prepared her own material and gave most of her talk without too many tears. It is amazing to see how much she is growing as she has to be doing more things out of her comfort zone.
     Since our last posting we have had transfers with 10 new missionaries, zone leaders council, and we are working on personal interviews in the nine zones. On Thursday March 21st we left for the Bristol zone at 7:30 AM.  We got home after midnight.  We interview the missionaries, attended a Stake Priesthood leadership meeting and then managed to take a wrong road due to construction resulting in a 30 mile detour.  I think we actually ended up in the Birmingham Mission for a while and didn't get home until after midnight. We interviewed the Staines zone the next day on Friday. Last week we did four zones. We travelled to Plymouth on Monday, stayed overnight since it is a 5 hour drive. Did interviews on Tuesday, drove 3 hours to Poole staying overnight again. Interviews the next day then home.  On Thursday we interviewed in Crawley then Friday back down to the coast to interview the Portsmouth zone. It is a busy time but very rewarding to spend individual time with the missionary. Each zone has 18 to 24 missionaries so you can see it takes a few hours. Next week we will finish the last three zones.
     The Book of Mormon musical opened in London last week.  The church is doing an advertising campaign to see if we can generate increased interest through Mormon.Org.UK.  We think it will increase the number of people wanting to talk about the church by chat.  We are setting up a few companionships that will be able to proselyte using digital and social media: chat, Facebook, Blogs, etc. It truly is a new age for missionary work. Never mind that older people like Sister Millar and I aren't exactly fluent in these technologies.  We are learning as we go and we do not work alone. Well these are the things that keep us busy and away from the computer talking to all our family and friends.
      Let me share with you some of the things that make us Happy. It is amazing to see young missionaries arriving in the mission, timid, scared, and wide eyed.  Two weeks later seeing them talking to strangers and loving it. We see miracles every day of finding those who are seeking for help in this troubled world, We attended a baptism of a young man who joined the church hoping to bring happiness to his family who are non christian and not really approving of his decision. We have several converts from China. There are a lot of students in the UK.  We have 6 Mandarine speaking elders and one sister that speaks Cantonese.  Sister Millar recounted and we now have missionaries from 51 different countries in the mission or are coming in the next two transfers, We have an Elder coming from the Peoples Republic of China, a Sister from Kirabati, and Elders from Mozambique, Nigeria, and Madagascar. Know that our health is good and we are Happy, but we sleep well.
     We will try to get you some more pictures next time.

Marching On

     It is hard to believe that it is actually March already. Since we last visited we have been to Germany. February 27 thru March 1st. we flew to Frankfurt to attend the interim Mission President's seminar for the thirty missions in the Europe area.  We had the privilege  of having Elder Jeffery R. Holland with us for two days. What a blessing to be instructed by one of the twelve apostles. He is very spiritual and quite entertaining as well. He taught us how powerful the Book of Mormon is in the teaching of the restored gospel.  There is so much doctrine even in  the first two books of First and Second Nephi. The second day he talked about the Fall of Adam and all the consequences of it, and how they are all overcome by the atonement of Jesus Christ.
     The Area Presidency trained us on how to help our missionaries improve their daily planning and how to teach with clarity and simply.  It was all very good.  We also attended a session in the Frankfurt Temple on Thursday night .  I will attach some pictures.

Frankfurt Temple at night.

 

 Strange three wheeler

 Lotus

Mini original very small

    We got home on Friday, had a new Sister missionary from France arrive on Saturday and we were right back to work.  After getting the new sister settled in we drove to Slough for a baptism, and then on to Oxford, where they had four baptisms that day. On Tuesday we had a senior couple arrive and another Sister from Albania.  We got them settle in only to make a trip to Exeter on Wednesday.  It is a 400 mile round trip in one day.  We needed to talk to one of our sister missionaries about some family problems and it wasn't appropriate to handle it over the telephone. We crossed over the 22,000 mile mark this week. On our way home from Exeter we stopped for a break at the Haynes automobile museum.  I've never seen so many different cars.  Many of them I had never heard of.
     To get a little break we went into London on Friday to attend a Chinese musical ballet called Shen Yun.  It was very good and very well done. We took the train and 2 underground trains to travel to the Barbicon Theater in central London.  Great adventure.  Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It is the equivalent of mothers day in the USA.  Since missionaries can call their mothers on Mother's day we let the British missionaries call today and the rest can call in May.  Some of them try to get a little creative and try to do both.  Most of them are very obedient and aren't a problem.   But their are a few that bear watching.
 This week is transfers: we have one going home and 10 coming in.. We will open five new areas.  In April we are up to 30 coming and even more in May.  We are frantically looking for new apartments (flats).   Know that we are healthy, happy, and loving life.
     We wish all Mothers a wonderful day no matter when Mothers day is, and a Happy Birthday to all our March Birthday people, we think of you all often and miss you tons, but it helps being busy as we don't get time to dwell on things at home, and start felling homesick, Know that we love you all so much and pray for you always,     God Bless,      President and Sister Millar.

Feb 24,2013

    How did February disappear so rapidly. Since last writing we have held three multi zone conferences: one in Poole for the three western zones, one in Reading for the three central zones and one in Crawley for the three eastern zones. It is wonderful to get the missionaries together and to see them interact with each other. It is awesome to hear them sing "We are as the Army of Heleman"and "Called to Serve". We give them counsel, call them to repentance, instruct them, love them and send them back to work. Oh and for sure we feed them.
   Last Sunday we travelled by train and tube into London for a meeting with the greater London Stake Presidents and Bishops.  The area presidency was there and they gave a preview of the advertising initiative that is coming soon.  We stayed overnight with the mission president in the LONDON  Mission; President and Sister Jordan.  Monday we took a long walk in Hyde Park in the morning and then had a meeting with the area presidency in the afternoon.  We were linked by video with the other four mission presidents in the United Kingdom.

     We are anticipating the opening of the musical, The Book of Mormon in March. There has been some interesting advertising.  The church will initiate an advertising campaign of it's own in April.  We anticipate a lot of traffic to Mormon.org.uk.  We are allowing our missionaries to go on the website for one hour a week to become familiar with the contents so they can respond better to questions that will arise and will be better able to help the members engage their friends in conversations about the church and it's doctrines and values. I can't find any good pictures to sent right now.
     You would be so proud of Sister Millar, she did her first ever  power point presentation on the iPad  with a remote control of the slides from my iPhone .  She was awesome. Her presentation was on cleaning your flat. She is getting much more comfortable in speaking, even on short notice.  Grandma has arrived in the digital age.
We want to congratulate George on his mission call to Bolivia, He will be entering the Peru MTC on July 31st, this year, We are so proud of him, and wish him all the best, We know he will be an awesome missionary. Grandma Val and Grandpa Doc are thrilled.
   This Thursday we fly to Frankfurt for two days for an area conference with the area Presidency and all the 30 European Presidents and their wives, along with the other auxiliary leaders from around Europe, we will be home Saturday.
Does anyone know where the Hansen are going yet? with 58 new mission just opening up we would love to hear, We can certainly relate to what they are going through right now, Unfortunately none of the new ones are in England, our are just getting bigger.    
       God Bless to you all, we always love to hear from you,      President and Sister Millar.

The Ides of February

      I'm sorry that two weeks have quickly fled past. It has been eventful.  The first Sat and Sun in Feb we attended Stake conference in Reading. Two weeks before it was scheduled but was cancelled due to weather, snow and ice.  It was sunny and bright that day.  Sister Millar and I both were asked to speak. We were invited to dinner at President Aitchison's home.  We had a wonderful time getting to know them and his counsellors and their families. The next Wednesday we had Zone Leaders Council here at the mission home. We feed them, 20 young men, breakfast and lunch.  We also have intense leadership training with emphasis on the large influx of new missionaries over the next 60 days. By the end of May we anticipate 74 elders and sisters to arrive and only 20 going home.  We will have to find trainers for 74 and new apartments for 25 companionships. We are having great fun. Sunday the 10th we were asked to speak in sacrament meeting in the Bath ward.   It is about 120 miles west of here.  We had someone walk in off the street and it was a good meeting.  We ate with the Bishop and his family.  We decided to stay overnight in Bath at an old Georgian Hotel that must be over 150 years old.   It is called Limpley Stoke Best Western now. I'll include some photos.  The next day we looked around the city of Bath. It gets it's name from the hot springs that come up there.   The Romans had built a large public bath there in 40 AD. After 400 years it was abandoned and covered with debris.  It wasn't  until the 1800s that it was discovered and excavated, finally rebuilt. I will include some pictures.

 Limply Stoke Best Western Hotel that we stayed in.

Roman Bath  in Bath England
     The temperature of the water is 46 C, which is  about 114 F. The spring produces enough hot water to fill a bathtub every 10 seconds. It is amazing to see and contemplate the history involved with this place.

     On Tuesday we received a new mandarin speaking Elder that we met at Gatwick airport, fed him, oriented him and took him to his new companion and area in Oxford. (another beautiful place). It seems we get new arrivals every Tues.  We had a Senior couple come on the 7th, The Elder on the 12th and we have a new couple coming on the 19th.  On Wednesday we had a three zone conference in Reading. It is always great to have the missionaries together. There is a feeling of love and the spirit abounds as we learn from each other what the Lord would have us do in the work. We are focusing on obedience and the training of new missionaries. As the daffodils are pushing their way up through the earth we anticipate the newness of spring and the newness we are looking  for in the England London South Mission.  We sense new growth and expansion in the work of the Lord.
     One of our office elders is very gifted at origami.  Here are some examples of his work.  The nativity he made at Christmas time won awards in the USA

     These are all made from folded paper. They are about 9 inches tall.
We miss you and think of you always. Our love to all and thanks for the emails they keep us pumped up.