Goodbye --- and Hello!
I'm still dragging, wondering if I will ever get enough sleep again!
But fortunately, our mission president is truly good to us. I helped Deb prepare for the farewell dinner this evening. It took a good portion of the day, and I didn't have much responsibility at all. I helped set places for 22 missionaries and peeled potatoes and washed and dried dishes, wrapped presents, and wrote out name tags. That is mostly it. Deb does this often - fixes dinner - a nice dinner for the celebrities of the day.
On this day, it was outgoing missionaries, on their way home. Home to Japan, Canada, Nigeria, Germany, and many other countries. I think there may have been three Americans among them. The office couple here are also amazing and played the lion's share in the cooking tonight. Sister Hartviggsen is an amazing cook....and I really mean amazing. She loves to do it and she not only makes things that taste delicious, they look beautiful.
As usual, I was so involved listening to the missionaries around me, that I didn't snap a picture, but once again, Deb set the table with lovely real bone china, crystal goblets and lovely silver. At the place of each missionary, she had a wrapped gift, a memento of their time serving here in the England London Mission. Fresh flowers, candles and English flags decorated the the centers of the tables.
The APs and the Hartviggsens served the food. First they served salads....not like I serve salads, but a small china plate with a beautiful mound of tossed lettuces, topped with 3 slices of cucumber, 3 cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese balls, topped with a light vinaigrette.
Next came piping hot rolls. The APs cleared the salad plates and forks, replenished our water, and then served each a plate with a large helping of tender roast beef in gravy, roasties (boiled potatoes which are crusty from being roasted in a very hot oven), a serving of shiny bright orange carrots. They were probably shiny because Sister Hartviggsen steamed them and then lightly sauteed them in butter, orange juice and brown sugar. Everyone loved it.
But that wasn't the end. Next the APs brought dessert, which was a lemon pudding/mousse in a clear little cup with a strawberry on top. Next to it on the little plate it sat on were three dollar-sized cookies, one light lemon, one chocolate chip and one a waffle with caramel inside....all delectable.
After we finished, everyone quickly cleared the tables and then set the chairs in a circle. I glanced in the kitchen where the cupboards were piled high with dishes, goblets, silverware and pots and pans of all varieties. I was going to help, but was encouraged to join the missionaries for their last meeting with their mission president and wife. I was so glad I did.
Dave opened the meeting and we sang together. The time was turned over for testimonies. Every single one bore their testimony, and they were incredible. Many said they weren't the same people they were when they came to the mission. Many talked about how much they loved the people they had worked with. Many talked about how very much they love Jesus Christ and how grateful they are for that testimony.
Just when I thought it couldn't get better, Deb stood and told them how very much she and Dave love them, how wonderful they have been, how hard they have worked, and how much they cherish each one. She told them specifically to do several things to maintain the spirituality they have felt while serving here. Her list was practical and also unique in some ways. Really positive things they could do to stay close to the Lord.
Then Dave stood and does what he tends to do best....speak and inspire. He told a wonderful story about arranging to have the prophet Gorden B. Hinckley speak at Madison Square Garden in the late 90s. I had heard a very brief account before, but this was a little more in depth. I think everyone was so caught up in that wonderful account, that we didn't want it to end. He finished by drawing an application to each of the home-bound missionaries. It was pretty powerful.
Dave and Deb walked over to Hyde Park Chapel with them to gather all of their belongings from the last 2 years and get them on a bus bound for a hotel near the airport. Sister Ernhart - a missionary who has ably served in the mission office - had given them each a packet with their travel plans, their passports and a letter to hand deliver to their mission presidents. They will spend the night at the hotel and then each one will board a plane for home, wherever that is. I am certain there are some who will never experience such a meal again in their lives.
In the meantime, the Hartviggsens had done - by hand - all of the china and crystal goblets and silverware. Deb usually does that when she serves a meal, but tonight she was busy elsewhere. I went in the kitchen for the last half-hour to help put away things and dry pots and pans - a few hundred of them....just kidding, but there were a lot. I don't think a single one of those good young people realize that this was Deb's gift to them, to treat them like the most important dignitaries in the world. I've seen her do that in her home in Connecticut, serve people on her best dinnerware and then when everyone has departed, stand at her kitchen sink washing and drying the dishes.
I just said good night to them. It is late. Dave had a lot of emails to answer, and so will probably be up much later. Deb is right there by his side.
Tomorrow? New missionaries coming in, new assignments, a welcome devotional for the new ones and their companions (who will come in from parts of the mission to get their newly assigned partners).....and lunch for 40!
I promise....I will not complain about the cooking I will do in Oxford.
p.s. SK spent three grueling hours this morning white-knuckling the steering wheel (on the right side of the car) driving on the left side of the road in busy crazy London traffic! He will have to pass a written exam AND a driving test in about 9 months. It is a very difficult test we have heard. He brought home a fairly thick book of driving rules to study.
OK....now I really will not complain - ever - about my assignment!
But fortunately, our mission president is truly good to us. I helped Deb prepare for the farewell dinner this evening. It took a good portion of the day, and I didn't have much responsibility at all. I helped set places for 22 missionaries and peeled potatoes and washed and dried dishes, wrapped presents, and wrote out name tags. That is mostly it. Deb does this often - fixes dinner - a nice dinner for the celebrities of the day.
On this day, it was outgoing missionaries, on their way home. Home to Japan, Canada, Nigeria, Germany, and many other countries. I think there may have been three Americans among them. The office couple here are also amazing and played the lion's share in the cooking tonight. Sister Hartviggsen is an amazing cook....and I really mean amazing. She loves to do it and she not only makes things that taste delicious, they look beautiful.
As usual, I was so involved listening to the missionaries around me, that I didn't snap a picture, but once again, Deb set the table with lovely real bone china, crystal goblets and lovely silver. At the place of each missionary, she had a wrapped gift, a memento of their time serving here in the England London Mission. Fresh flowers, candles and English flags decorated the the centers of the tables.
The APs and the Hartviggsens served the food. First they served salads....not like I serve salads, but a small china plate with a beautiful mound of tossed lettuces, topped with 3 slices of cucumber, 3 cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese balls, topped with a light vinaigrette.
Next came piping hot rolls. The APs cleared the salad plates and forks, replenished our water, and then served each a plate with a large helping of tender roast beef in gravy, roasties (boiled potatoes which are crusty from being roasted in a very hot oven), a serving of shiny bright orange carrots. They were probably shiny because Sister Hartviggsen steamed them and then lightly sauteed them in butter, orange juice and brown sugar. Everyone loved it.
But that wasn't the end. Next the APs brought dessert, which was a lemon pudding/mousse in a clear little cup with a strawberry on top. Next to it on the little plate it sat on were three dollar-sized cookies, one light lemon, one chocolate chip and one a waffle with caramel inside....all delectable.
After we finished, everyone quickly cleared the tables and then set the chairs in a circle. I glanced in the kitchen where the cupboards were piled high with dishes, goblets, silverware and pots and pans of all varieties. I was going to help, but was encouraged to join the missionaries for their last meeting with their mission president and wife. I was so glad I did.
Dave opened the meeting and we sang together. The time was turned over for testimonies. Every single one bore their testimony, and they were incredible. Many said they weren't the same people they were when they came to the mission. Many talked about how much they loved the people they had worked with. Many talked about how very much they love Jesus Christ and how grateful they are for that testimony.
Just when I thought it couldn't get better, Deb stood and told them how very much she and Dave love them, how wonderful they have been, how hard they have worked, and how much they cherish each one. She told them specifically to do several things to maintain the spirituality they have felt while serving here. Her list was practical and also unique in some ways. Really positive things they could do to stay close to the Lord.
Then Dave stood and does what he tends to do best....speak and inspire. He told a wonderful story about arranging to have the prophet Gorden B. Hinckley speak at Madison Square Garden in the late 90s. I had heard a very brief account before, but this was a little more in depth. I think everyone was so caught up in that wonderful account, that we didn't want it to end. He finished by drawing an application to each of the home-bound missionaries. It was pretty powerful.
Dave and Deb walked over to Hyde Park Chapel with them to gather all of their belongings from the last 2 years and get them on a bus bound for a hotel near the airport. Sister Ernhart - a missionary who has ably served in the mission office - had given them each a packet with their travel plans, their passports and a letter to hand deliver to their mission presidents. They will spend the night at the hotel and then each one will board a plane for home, wherever that is. I am certain there are some who will never experience such a meal again in their lives.
In the meantime, the Hartviggsens had done - by hand - all of the china and crystal goblets and silverware. Deb usually does that when she serves a meal, but tonight she was busy elsewhere. I went in the kitchen for the last half-hour to help put away things and dry pots and pans - a few hundred of them....just kidding, but there were a lot. I don't think a single one of those good young people realize that this was Deb's gift to them, to treat them like the most important dignitaries in the world. I've seen her do that in her home in Connecticut, serve people on her best dinnerware and then when everyone has departed, stand at her kitchen sink washing and drying the dishes.
I just said good night to them. It is late. Dave had a lot of emails to answer, and so will probably be up much later. Deb is right there by his side.
Tomorrow? New missionaries coming in, new assignments, a welcome devotional for the new ones and their companions (who will come in from parts of the mission to get their newly assigned partners).....and lunch for 40!
I promise....I will not complain about the cooking I will do in Oxford.
p.s. SK spent three grueling hours this morning white-knuckling the steering wheel (on the right side of the car) driving on the left side of the road in busy crazy London traffic! He will have to pass a written exam AND a driving test in about 9 months. It is a very difficult test we have heard. He brought home a fairly thick book of driving rules to study.
OK....now I really will not complain - ever - about my assignment!
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