The beginning of the year...our halfway mark...brought many changes to our mission.  Elder and Sister Long, who have served in our office, completed their mission.  They were here before we came, and kept things running smoothly and efficiently... finances, cars, and flats, to name a few of their many tasks.

We wish them well in all they do in the future.

 The next week, we said goodbye to another dozen of our valiant missionaries.

(Front row, l.to.r.:  Elder Seale (Utah), Elder Piredda (Italy), Elder Larsen (Arizona), Elder Worthington (Utah), Elder Halaufia (Florida).  Back row, l to r.:  Elder Moffett (Idaho), Elder Nylund (Sweden), Elder Nygaard (Washington), Elder Hummer (Utah), Elder Wangsgard (not leaving yet!), Elder Ackerman (California), Elder Zito (Italy).



We also said goodbye to Sister Van Eeden, going home to the Netherlands.

Bright and early the next morning, we received 11 new missionaries from the Preston MTC....

Elder Bradley (England), Elder Weihing---pronounced Wine (Utah), Elder Weichers...pronounced Wickers (California), Elder Setu (Australia), Elder Nasman (Finland), Elder MacGill (Colorado), Elder Fairbourn (Utah), Elder Blatter...pronounced Blotter (California), Elder Boehme...pronounced Bay-me (Arizona),  Elder Schiller (Utah), Sister Toleafoa (Utah).

 We also had Sister Mee come to us from Manchester to work in our office...what an amazing woman!!!

And Elder and Sister Tufts came to run the Center for Young Adults.  They are going to be such a blessing to the Young Adults in the Birmingham area.  This is truly an inspired program if ever there was one!!!

We will miss our missionaries who have gone home...we feel privileged to have worked beside them.  We welcome the wonderful new missionaries who are already hard at work and having great experiences.  What a wonderful experience this is for us. 

HOLIDAYS 2010

 What an exciting Holiday Season!  Alisa's family arrived the day before Thanksgiving.  We broke with tradition a little... but did eat our Thanksgiving dinner at a 'traditional' English carvery.  The food's not quite as good as homemade...but it sure is a lot easier, and cheaper as well. 

 It was icy cold the whole time they were here, but these Arizona kids enjoyed playing in the snow.

We took them to St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Life (above), Warwick Castle, Cardiff, and the Church historical sites within our mission.  Here they are at Benbow Pond....

They were excited to be here for our December Transfers.  No one was going home at this time, and we welcomed just three new missionaries...Sister Whitaker from Nevada, and Elders Tulip and Roberts from England.  They are a great additon to the EBM.  Elder Tulip's uncle was a past president of this mission...President Munday...so he was no stranger to the Mission Offices or Mission Home.

Here they are on the Rameumptom....joined by Elder Brooke from England on the far left (he came mid transfer), and Elder Larsen from Arizona in the middle.  Elder Larsen goes home this next transfer, but told us that since he had come in between transfers, he never got to stand on the Rameumptom....... it was his last chance!

Our other Arizona kids...Jacy's family... came on December 15th.  This was the first time Papa had seen little Kendall...now 17 months old.  How wonderful to have them with us for Christmas.

This picture was taken in one of my favorite villages in the Cotswolds...Bourton on the Water.  Even the name of the town oozes with charm.

We've heard this has been the coldest winter in England in more than 30 years...I believe it!!!  But these kids enjoyed the novelty of snow as well. 

How do you like their President and Sister Ogden snowmen???

It was fun for them to be here for our annual EBM Christmas Party.  (They were also a HUGE help to me.)

The most entertaining part of the day is the Talent show.  I wish I could put up a video of the whole show...it was a fabulous variety of talent...amazing, crazy, funny, and beautiful! 

Elder Walton and Seale did a great job as Emcees.  Our "Islanders" did the Haka dance.  Elder and Sister Henry showed us talents we didn't know they had!  We had vocal, violin, double bass, piano, guitar, and harmonica solos...one Elder even played the harmonica through his nose!  We had beat boxing, break dancing and ballet dancing (I use that term loosely!).  We even had a magic act.  What a talented and creative goup of missionaries.  They are so much fun!!!

The only unfortunate thing was that, along with all of the missionaries, we had lots of unwanted guests. Germs of all kinds spreading through the crowd.  Sunday and Monday after Christmas, my phone was ringing non-stop with calls from sick missionaries.  I think in the end, we had more than half the mission out sick.  The good thing was that most of them recovered quickly, and at this time, we're pretty much back to a full complement of healthy missionaries...all ready to make 2011 the best year ever in the ENGLAND BIRMINGHAM MISSION!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF OUR DEAR FAMILY AND FRIENDS...

The third week in October, we had our annual Mission Presidents Seminar in Dresden, Germany.  Because it ran from a Tuesday through Friday, and fell on our Transfer week, we received our new missionaries on Monday, Oct. 17th.  The previous evening, we had our three departing Elders for dinner and a testimony meeting. 

Elder Leeper went home to Basingstoke, England, Elder Clancy to Dundee, Scotland, and Elder Westwood was alone as he flew back to his home in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We really miss these three fine Elders.

On Monday, we were so happy to receive into our mission (L. to R.)  Elder Anderton from Norfolk, England, Elder Burgess from Utah, Sister Hedemark from Sweden, and Sister Rose from Iowa (and Utah),

In addition, a week before they came, we finally got Sis. Lauritzen here.  She was supposed to come in June, but injured her knee in the MTC.  She had surgery, and has been undergoing rehab.  We were so thrilled to get the call that she was finally able to come.  She comes from my home state of California.

(Sister Pope and Sister Lauritzen are reunited.  They were companions in the MTC.)

The new Elders and Sisters stand on the "Rameumptom" for a rousing welcome.  To the far left is Elder Holland.  He arrived in our mission between transfers.  I don't know where to say he is from...he's lived in 17 different places!

The next day, we were off to Germany.  We got a VERY early start...in other words, had to get up in the middle of the night to get to the airport in time.  A pleasant flight, then we arrived in the beautiful and historic city of Dresden. 

We stayed in the lovely Steigenberger Hotel in the middle of a cobbled plaza.  We were surrounded by the history of the Reformation...including a statue of Martin Luther. 

Of course, we're never any farther from our missionaries than the telephone!  Our Assistants did a good job of diverting as many calls as they could, but I don't think Pres. Ogden would know what to do if he had a day without ANY calls!

We had a little time for sightseeing...fortunately there was much to see right around our hotel.

(Wouldn't you know I'd have a McDonald's cup in my hand...)

We were also able to go to the Freiberg Temple.  Since many of our missions don't have Temples within their boundaries, they always plan these seminars near a Temple, so we can at least go once a year.  There was a wonderful surprise for us when we arrived  at the Temple.  Our Elder Brokatzky's parents came to meet us and brought us a lovely gift...a traditional German Christmas decoration.

The best part of the Seminar was the wonderful instruction by our Area Presidency...Elder Kopischke, Elder Causse, Elder Texeira, and also Elder Kevin Pearson of the Seventy.  We were so inspired and uplifted...so much insight to share with our missionaries.  It was wonderful as well to spend time with the other mission presidents...especially the ones we came out with.

A busy---wonderful---week!

EBM FOOTBALLERS

Our semi annual football tournament was September 27th...what a fun day!

At the north end of the Mission...we had:



TEAM NOTTINGHAM





 


TEAM COVENTRY

 


TEAM  LEICESTER

 



TEAM BIRMINGHAM











AND THE WINNER---TEAM LICHFIELD!!!

And in the south, we had...

TEAM MERTHYR TYDFIL





TEAM CHELTENHAM





And the winner....TEAM CARDIFF
(But we're missing two of the star players...Elder Ruesch and Elder Garroway...where are you???)




 





The beautiful Sisters of the EBM...



One 'naughty' Elder...(I don't know who is the naughtiest...Elder Williams with his 'tattoo', or Elder Rapana for his artwork!!!

AND...the one and only casualty!  (Its dangerous sitting on those sidelines...)











SEPTEMBER TRANSFERS...ALREADY!!!!

The 'dearly departed'...Elder Amuah ( England), Elder Gerber (Utah), Elder Beatson (Canada), Elder McNichol (Australia), Elder Stevenson (Scotland), Elder Ezard (England). 

We had a wonderful evening with them before they left...they each bore incredible testimonies in our closing fireside.  We are anxious to see what is in store for them as they begin a new adventure...

OUR NEW MISSIONARIES

Sister Perera (Sri Lanka), Elder Gama (Swaziland), Elder Collins (South Carolina), Elder Tibbitts (Idaho--my 2nd cousin once removed?), Elder Jean (Hawaii), Elder Jacquish (North Carolina), Elder Grudzien (South Carolina), Elder Mansfiels (Utah).

WELCOME...WE'RE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU HERE!!!

We were also pleased to welcome Elder and Sister Henry from Utah.  They are working diligently to help strengthen  the wards here in our mission...

TRAINING

We've had a SUPER busy month.  Along with our usual schedule, we were also sent some new training from SLC...training that supports Preach My Gospel, and is designed to help the missionaries teach with the Spirit, and teach people, not lessons!  It was well received, and gave some exciting ways to refine our teaching.  We've met with several groups of missionaries so far, and eventually will present the training to all of them.  Next May, the missionaries in the MTC will receive begin to receive this training, then when they arrive, we'll all be on the same page. 

This training also gave us a reason to have all of the sisters come in together.  They don't very often get a chance to be in one place and share ideas and experiences...as well as friendship and testimonies.  It was wonderful to spend a few days with them.  Left to right:  Sister Strein, Layton, Pope, Kottambagahagedara, Babbage, Perera, McKelvie, Nadsady, Bioleome, Van Eeden, Clark, Morgan, and Nemec.  They come from the US and the UK...also from the Netherlands, Croatia, Germany,and our two sisters from Sri Lanka.