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.