Happy New Year

Happy New Year from wet and windy England, The last few weeks have been very windy and blustery with gale force winds and lots of rain, which of course is causing lots of road and property flooding, the soggy ground can't absorb any more moisture, The main road through our little town of Cobham was closed over the holiday's and still is on and off because of the River Mole flooding it's banks, Most of the river's in southern England have breached there banks and have flooded many homes and businesses. We feel very blessed, and ALL our missionaries are safe. Many people have had their homes damaged.We had severe gale force winds just before Christmas which uprooted one of our beautiful Silver Birch trees in our back garden. Fortunately it's was behind the hedge which saved it from falling on the house, but it was leaning at such an angle and bouncing up and down every time the wind blew that we were glad when they removed it about a week later. If it had come down completely it would have taken the guttering on the house and broken the kitchen and main bedroom windows. It wasn't a very old tree but the base was over a foot across

This is the tree in our back garden, then the broken trees in our next-door neighbors yard, Then some of the flooding in Cobham before it got too bad and flooded the street, As you can see the fields are all under water.

Our neighbors home Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve found us doing our usual Christmas delivery to the missionaries so that they would get their very latest packages before Christmas, We were trying to get through town to get to the main road to Portsmouth when we took the above picture, but they were diverting all the trafic and we had to turn around and go another way, We went to Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth on the South Coast, and the office Elders went in another direction, and the assistants in another, to make sure all the packages were delivered, We figured over 40 missionaries would not be getting anything from home, so it was fun playing Santa, A BIG THANK YOU to all that helped financially with this worthwhile and much needed project.
    While we were in Bournemouth we went to our favorite fish and chip shop, Chez Fred's, The food is wonderful, and it is a sit down restaurant as well as a takeout, That was the icing on the cake for our Christmas Eve celebration, and we were able to get home after the 2 hour dive back by about 8:30pm Christmas Eve.
   Bournemouth is a very special place for me, because that is were I spent quite a few Summer holidays with my parents when I was young, my brother Geoff, was probably working and not able to be with us, but there is something about the place that evokes some very sweet memories for me, even though we don't get to see much ot the town or beaches.

    We only had 2 missionaries going home at Christmas, Christmas Day was our official transfer day, but we weren't getting any Missonaries arriving and only 2 going home. One to Liverpool and one to Moldova, Russia, so we released them on Dec. 18th.  so they could be home for Christmas, that meant when we had our one Mandarin Elder come to us on New Years Day, we had transfers then.
    We have started doing transfers at the Staines Stake House because there is more room, and the railway station is just across the street, making the transfers less of a hassle with all the luggage. Even though we only had one Elder coming in, it involved about 90 different missionaries transferring because some had been in areas 9 months and we tried not to move any at Christmas.
  Two days later we had our MLC, (Mission Leadership Council) also at the Staines Chapel, this involves so many leaders now that we don't have room for them at the Mission Home,
    We now have 10 Zone Leaders, (9 Zones and 1 Digital Zone, with 2 in each zone) 11 Sister Trainer Leaders, and now 2 Chinese Trainer Leaders, for our Mandarin speaking Elders.
   In October we baptized 36, November 36, both the highest in about 2 years, then in December we had 44 baptisms, bringing the years total to 330, the highest baptising year in 3 years.
We are well and happy, (just keep the oil can handy) and thank goodness for Tylenol, or as they say over here, Paracetamol, We send our love and best wishes to everyone for a wonderful happy and safe New Year,          God Bless you all,
                 President and Sister Millar    aka Doc and Val

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.