Isolation - March 31st 2020

Matt and Joan Thompson

Peter and Maggie Stokes

Doreen, Sister Jensen, Karen Larsen and Bardens

Lynn and Alma Don Shurtleff 

Doreen Taylor and Pat Fitzner

The last night altogether as missionaries in London March 12, 2020.

We have  decided to continue the “blog” as we had planned that it would be our means of keeping a record of these two years and if the virus and isolation back in our home is part of it - so be it and on we go.

Two weeks has now passed since our return from London and, other than our daily walks, we have been home bound. Cindy and Paul had initially stocked our home with food and have kindly replenished things as we have needed. We read, clean, phone or message people and stay in regular touch with the children and grandchildren. Their lives have also been altered by this pandemic and they too are mainly home bound. The men are largely working from home online or not at all in Brendon and Liza’s cases. The children and Cindy cannot go to school and are or will be doing online schooling and everyone is to limit their exposure to others and only go out for food our emergency needs. Leaders throughout the world are working to stop the spread of this disease and everyone’s lives are changed. Thousands of missionaries throughout the world have been brought home. In some countries the church has chartered numerous airline size planes to get not only the older missionaries but young missionaries out. All the Temples are closed. The world economy has been greatly affected as the main individuals still working are essential services such as medical people, grocery stores etc. Airlines have pretty well stopped flying internationally and are even limiting flights within countries. This situation is unprecedented in the history of the world.

Despite all that is happening many good things have happened as well. Everyone has had to slow down, spend more time with their families and really evaluate what is important. All public entertainment, sports events, large gatherings and even church services have  been cancelled but with President Nelson’s introduction of  the “Come Follow Me” home centered/church supported gospel study program just over a year ago, we all had the means of having home church. In homes where there are priesthood holders, we have also been told to have the sacrament and the sacrament to  be provided at least once a month to others. We have FaceTimed into each our our children’s homes on Sundays and given talks or brief thoughts to be part of their gospel study and meetings. Having our sacrament alone alone is a very touching experience and all of these things will hopefully leave us with some good memories during a difficult time. We are also in daily contact thru an “WhatsApp” with out London Temple family and we are pleased that the Fitzners, Davenports and Hoares all left England earlier than they had planned and are safely home. So far our family is well and the missionaries from our mission are well. Grateful!

The church had a worldwide “fast” on Sunday and prayers for relief from the affects of covid 19. We are so grateful for a Prophet, the gospel and for a Savior who is over all and as a church we are looking forward to General Conference next weekend and hearing from our leaders. That too will be broadcast from the Conference Center online to everyone. They will be in a small room and there will be no choir, congregation or even all the General Authorities at one time. This situation is disruptive to say the least but the Lord has our attention and hopefully we will “Hear Him”.

Tenth and Eleventh Weeks

I am including these two weeks together as everything has run together and I may not continue the blog until we are again sent back out to our mission in London.

How quickly life can change and change it has done in the last week, not just for us, but for the whole world. The beginning of last week we were serving in the Temple as usual and making plans for the upcoming Temple closure. Then came Thursday, March 12th and everything was turned upside down.  Concern for the coronavirus had been increasing everyday and many of our friends’ travel plans had been altered because of this concern. As I entered the lunchroom that day, Sister Shurtleff was dashing out and hurriedly stated that all Americans had been asked to met with President Irwin upstairs. When they returned they were in tears and told us that President Nelson was asking that they return home immediately due to the virus concerns. They were going back to their apartments to pack. We were in tears too. They left, we finished the shift and Tom and I did a session. Doreen Taylor (a British friend) and I sat beside each other, held hands and cried. The change room was far too quiet and lockers were open and empty. When we got back to the Lodge the Americans began giving us their food and other things they couldn’t take with them. It was a crazy scene. Tom started investigating the situation online and found that the full instruction from Salt Lake was for ALL senior missionaries in the world to return home and young missionaries with health concerns. We were confused but when we had a knock on our door and I opened to find President standing there, I said, “You are sending us home too.” He replied, “Yes”,  and stepped inside to give us instructions. Now we started giving food and belongings away to our British friends until......we received instructions that we would be able to return to our same apartments and could leave things in them. Now we started gathering things together again. We were all exhausted. We all met together in the lounge that evening, President came to talk to us and we just visited and tried to digest what had transpired that day. We were told that those who were being released in the next few months would not be coming back but those who were staying longer would be returning. We were all in shock and heartbroken with the turn of events. No one slept well that night.

On Friday we went to serve as usual and some the Americans who had not yet received their travel plans unpacked their Temple clothes and came back to serve with us.  It seemed to bring peace to just be there and be with each other. Most Americans received their travel plans that day and most were told they would be going first thing Saturday morning. Packing, cleaning and organizing continued for all of us that day.

Early Saturday morning a bus arrived to take the first and largest group of missionaries to the airport. We all went out to say goodbye. It was now necessary, because of the loss in workers, for the Temple to provide a reduced Saturday schedule and to combine workers from both shifts but the dear brave patrons came despite changes and virus concerns. We received our travel plans that day. Tom had booked a room at the Hever Castle Astor Annex for my birthday on Sunday night and he had asked President if we could stay long enough to do that. Our flight was scheduled for Monday, March 16th at 1:00 PM. Hever was going to be doable. We went home and continued packing, went for one last walk around the beautiful grounds and had Pat and Chris Fitzner for dinner. They were planning on staying until the end of the month as they have renters in their home and, because we all have to be in home isolation for two weeks, they felt they couldn’t stay with their children and jeopardise them. We were worried about them, as well as the Hoares and Davenports, who both have children visiting and are trying to stay long enough to give the children a good trip.

President Jensen asked Tom to speak at our Sacrament meeting on Sunday. The assignment came Saturday evening so there was not much time to prepare. The Shurtleffs left for home early Sunday morning and we had our church meetings in the lounge. Tom did well and there was a lovely spirit felt in our meetings. We finished packing after church and left for our time at Hever Castle. We explored the Castle again and walked around the lovely grounds. We went to a nearby Pub for Sunday Roast, which is what they call Sunday dinner be it beef, chicken, pork or lamb. We were exhausted but did enjoy our lovely Tudor room.

We needed to leave Hever early and they kindly opened the restaurant early just for us, where we sat by a beautiful Tudor fireplace all by ourselves in a lovely Tudor room. We then hurried back to the Temple where we grabbed our packed luggage and dashed outside where everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and I cried as we said goodbye to all.  Anatsuis took a van, Brother and Sister Sager, their luggage and our luggage and President and Sister Irwin drove us in their car to Heathrow airport. Anatsuis left first but President Irwin managed to catch up and find them on the motorway. Heathrow Airport was crazy and President said he had never seen it in that state. Everyone is trying to get home as instructed by government leaders throughout the world. Planes are going to stop flying from some countries soon. Irwins and Anatsuis would not leave us until they could see that we were going thru security. Sagers left before us and had to rush. We had enough time to collect ourselves, buy some water and “spend a penny” before boarding for the long journey home. Longest birthday I have ever experienced.

Tom had notified the Northcotts that we would returning. They had gone home to Penticton because the Vancouver Temple had already closed. They were, however, coming back to Vancouver to attend a show which ended up being cancelled due to virus concerns, so they cleaned our home and removed their belongings. We appreciated their understanding and accommodating.

Cindy got our home prepared by stocking it with food and Paul and Cindy met us at the airport. No hugs. We dealt with our own luggage and they got us home and inside. Paul put surgical gloves on to help lift our bags. We were now in a two week home isolation. Slept well that night. We hated to leave England but were glad to be home at this difficult time.

March 16th, 2020 was the longest and strangest Birthday I have ever experienced but Tom made it special with Hever Castle, the kids all messaged me, the workers sang to me as we left and an airport security woman noted my passport and wished me a Happy Birthday.

We are now home and in isolation. We talk to the children and others, go on our walks and have set our home up again although we have not unpacked everything. We do not know how long it will be before this all settles down and we are able to return to our mission but right now we are just trying to listen to and follow the voice of the prophet.

Sandy and Linda - Sad Day

President and Sister Jensen - President and Sister Anatsui

Breakfast at Hever Castle March 16, 2020

Hever Castle for Linda’s 70th Birthday 

Nineth Week

The “coronavirus” is proving to be a concern for all areas of the world. We were sorry to hear that the Vancouver Temple found it necessary to close because of the virus and that the first BC death was on the North Shore in the care home near our chapel. Larger church gatherings are being postponed here and the Temple continues to encourage good hygiene and avoidance of unnecessary contact. We are a hugging, handshaking people and it is difficult to break such habits. The Temple has one more week before a two week maintenance closure and patrons continue to come so, other than being a little more cautious, the work continues.

Tom was serving as a sealer several times this week and I was usually assigned as “sealers” assistant to him and the other sealers. This is one of our favourite assignments and we had some special experiences. On Saturday President Jensen sealed a Samoan couple and their seven children. Always exciting when small children are in the Temple. Tom sealed a British/Italian sister to her deceased parents after he first performed her parents sealing. Her whole family were together for this much anticipated occasion and they were all very touched. We also had a young adult girl come in her wheelchair. Her two friends had brought her to the Temple that day and did everything she wanted to do in the Temple. I asked if she had CP and she affirmed that she did but she still really wanted to kneel to perform the family sealings she had brought to do. She had never done sealings before and as I stood outside door I could hear weeping when the first sealing was performed. It was very sweet. The Temple provides you the opportunity to interact with special people as they participate in sacred work that has great meaning to them.

Dora Robertson, one of our single missionary sisters, invited us to lunch on Friday before we served our shift. She lives in one of the small bachelor suites in the Manor House and was able to sit at the table and without getting up, serve the food from the stove and the kitchen counter. It was a lovely lunch and such a kind thing for her to do for us. She is from Slovenia and will be returning home after the closure. She has been in England for years but her elderly father in Slovenia needs her and she is going to be with him.

Our coordinators, the Davenports, served their last day on Saturday. They have been very helpful and very kind to us. A new couple from Ontario arrived Friday. They are the Seaggers and the first new missionaries to arrive since our group in January. We have quite a few leaving soon so we are hoping we have replacements for them. It is a little concerning as our group is quickly moving up the seniority line and we still feel like we are learning. We really have remarkable, consecrated people serving here, all with their own interesting stories, heartbreaks and experiences. Everyone who comes, however, are experienced Temple workers. That is what we all have in common. Everyone loves serving  here and as we have considered why that is, we have come to the conclusion that it is because we all serve every day in a remarkable environment and even when we leave, we all live together here on the Temple grounds, again in another remarkable environment of  love, kindness and concern for one another and it is truly a Zion bubble.

Keith and Lynda Rushforth invited us for dinner on Sunday. They are a British couple and he is also a sealer. They are a wonderful couple and we really had fun with them us they explained where and how we should travel and they also shared with us the interesting, heartbreaking and eventually happy story of their daughter Katie. They are friends, as well as many others, that we would like to keep after we leave England.

Churchill’s Chartwell 

The Shurtleffs at Chartwell

Chartwell

On Monday the vans took us to Haskin’s beautiful new plant nursery just down the road where we shopped and ate at the cute restaurant. They then drove us to Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s home, only about eight miles away. It is still furnished with their furnishings in the decor Lady Churchill planned. His clothes, uniforms and many of his awards were on display and many of his paintings hung on the walls. We would like to go back when the beautiful gardens are in bloom and the weather is warmer so we can walk around the large property. When both vans go, we take about 20 missionaries with us. We took a picture of the Shurtleffs standing behind Chartwell. They are a great couple. They have  served as a Temple, Mission and MTC President and wife. He is a world known composer and conductor. They are fun and funny. They keep thinking they are old but aren’t we all.

Eighth Week

We continued our coordinating position together in the Temple this week but this time we were on early shift which contributed to the experience being a little different. They needed Tom in sealings on Friday, so I reverted back to doing various Temple positions for that particular day. We were back to our coordinating training on Saturday and we are now signed off on that position. The Temple was generally busy this week which is an answer to our prayers. We are exhausted each night but ready to go again each morning.

The Church leaders and the Temple leaders here are concerned about everyone’s safety from the “coronavirus”. It is a blessing that they asked us not to travel outside the UK during Temple closures, as we, as well as others, were planning on going to Italy and it is the European country that has been hit worst with the virus. They are asking us to wash our hands regularly and thoroughly.

We came home one day and found that the Fitzners had left ingredients at our door for making “capresse” which is made with soft mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil, red onions and olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We had some in the restaurant they other day when we were with them and they remembered how much we enjoyed it. Chris served his mission Italy and then they served a senior mission together in Italy recently.

We go into East Grinstead to get groceries and shop. We are actually getting used to being on the wrong side of the road and don’t feel as much anxiety while driving. We still need to be on the alert and we are still sorting out the roads and rules. Their roads are never on the grid and if you look at a map you might think that it reminds you of a pot of worms. It is an adventure.

Tom drove me to Emma’s salon to get my hair cut this week. Sister Beck was already in the chair having her hair done when we arrived. It seems we do everything together as Temple missionaries.

The Loyds led us to church again thru the beautiful English countryside. Their route to Tunbridge Wells is our favourite and we are trying to memorise it. At one point we got separated from them and they just went around the roundabout again to wait for us. Roundabouts are a way of life here.

We were thrilled to see the little Castro girl up playing the organ with confidence this week at church.. Sister Beck’s lesson seemed to do the trick. However, now her mother, who has been the chorister, does not feel confident leading music with an organ playing and she asked me to lead. Not a problem for me but I leave my companion sitting alone in the congregation.

We had our “Break the Fast” potluck on Sunday again. We have been here two months and attended three “Break the Fast” events. They are fun and always have too much good food to tempt. I made cookies again.

We went into East Grinstead today and after doing a little shopping, celebrated “Valentine’s Day” (a little late) by going to the movie “Emma” and eating fish and chips at the Peacock Pub.

We finally got all our pictures printed and framed of our family. Our flat is feeling more like home all the time.

Our Apartment

Seventh Week

We were learning a new coordinating position in the Temple this week, which they usually have husbands and wives do together in this Temple, so it was fun being with each other but always intense when you are learning. It meant they did not have Tom working in sealings. We will do the same coordinating positions this week, only it will be on the early shift, as opposed to the late shift.

When we work the early shift, we are able to get our walk in first thing in the day, as well as go to town to get groceries or such. Karen Larsen asked us to take her into a hospital appointment one morning. She is a single sister serving a mission here and none of the single sisters have their own cars and even some of the couples have decided not to purchase cars. Everyone is always willing to help each other out. It is a wonderful atmosphere to be in.

Trevor and Tammie celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this week and our coordinators, the Davenports, celebrated their 50th anniversary - two milestones in life. We celebrate our 50th in August.

Every couple of weeks the missionaries have a movie night in our old “Visitors’ Center”, which is now used for meetings and such. Saturday night, as we walked into the building, the door to “Christus” statue was open and rather than turning left to go down the hall to the movie room, where everyone was gathering, I walked toward the Christus and Tom followed. We just pause a moment and when we turned to leave, saw one of our dear friends sitting in a corner. I walked towards her and could see that something was wrong. I hugged her, we talked briefly and I asked if she needed a blessing. She replied in the affirmative. She said that she knew she needed a blessing and had been praying for help and had felt prompted that we should be the ones to give her aid. There are many wonderful people here and we are not her ministering people but when we walked in, she felt it was an answer to her pray and prompting. She sat with us thru the movie, we spent some time talking in our flat afterward and then Tom gave her a beautiful blessing. It confirmed to us that when we walk toward the Savior, as we did the Christus that night, the Lord puts us where we should  to be to assist his children when needed.

We had noted, that though our little Tunbridge Wells ward had a cute teenage girl to play the piano for church, she did not understand how to play the organ in the building. We made arrangements for Sister Sandy Beck, our fellow missionary, to come with us and give her a little organ lesson. It went well and young Tannia Castro was thrilled with the experience. While Sister Beck taught organ, Tom taught a young man, in the ward, his final Temple Prep lesson and he is now ready for his first visit to the Temple.

Sandy teaching our organist

We had a Hi/Bye meeting Sunday evening, where new missionaries introduce themselves, and departing  missionaries say farewell. We have three couples leaving - Davenports, Stokes and Days. We have one Sister leaving - Dora Robertson. The Rushforths have been here for sometime but, for  various reasons, have been unable to do their “Hi”, so they did that to get it in before they have to say good-bye. These meetings are funny and fun, but filled with a spirit of love for each other and for the work we are here to do. These are truly dedicated, faithful people and it is a privilege to serve with them and feel of their acceptance and love.

On Monday we went with a group to Hampton Court Palace, another remarkable site, where King Henry VIII and other monarchs, held court. There are large  reception rooms and opulent surroundings but we enjoyed seeing the huge kitchen complex, where great feasts were prepared, mainly for those who worked for the monarch. The monarch’s food was prepared in private kitchens. Interesting fact - citizens were allowed in to watch the monarch, family and friends dining. We had a great Italian meal after at a restaurant with everyone.

New week ahead and we will continue training in our coordinating position together.

The Royal “Throne”

Hampton Court

Sixth week

We have had a busy week at the Temple as the “Single Adults” had a Temple week and conference. They would attend the Temple during the day and have firesides and activities in the evenings. We were asked to participate at a fireside on Thursday evening with the Shurtleffs and the Sharlands. We were all discussing Temples. The Shurtleffs have been a Temple President and Matron too and the Sharlands are from New Zealand and they discussed their Temple there. I told about the coming of our Temple and Tom talked about Temple miracles. Sandy Beck came to play the piano. We hope it went well. We probably all spoke too long because we are somewhat enthusiastic. It was fun and nice to be with them.

Farewell to Carol and Clive Sharland

We had our Family Home Evening on Wednesday evening with our B shift in the common room. We were all to tell about our special songs. It was really fun as we had everything from “Great Balls of Fire” to Hymns, to Brother Evans, who sings in a Welsh Man’s choir, singing to us, to George Playter serenading us with “Autumn Leaves”. Everyone sang along and had such fun. We did “O My Father” and I told how the Hurd family had come into the church, here in England, in the early days, as a result of hearing the missionaries on the street singing “O My Father”. We also did “Sweet Caroline” and they loved singing that one. Fun.

 Storm Dennis hit on the weekend, and as we had no directive to remain here for church, we drove with the Muellers to Tunbridge Wells. We probably should not have gone. The motorway (freeway) was closed and we had to take another route to get there. The Bishop announced that we were just going to have sacrament meeting and get everyone home. Tom and Elder Mueller taught the young man, in the ward, his Temple prep lesson and Jan Mueller and I taught MaryAnn a Temple prep lesson. This was my first time meeting MaryAnn. She is very sweet but I can see that her life has not been easy. We drove her home and then started making our way home. We traveled the back way and went thru flooded areas and encountered a tree which had fallen right across one road. We were rerouted a number of times by the “satnav” and yes, finally made it home. It was an adventure.

We had invited David and Deborah Davenport for dinner Sunday evening and when Tom messaged them to come up anytime (they live below us), they phoned back that, while driving back from singing to the seniors, they and Grames had decided to drive thru a very flooded portion of road for FUN! Their car stalled part way thru. They had, had to push it out in knee deep water and were waiting for a tow truck. Please remember that these are not young missionaries but grandparents, senior Temple missionaries and David is a medical doctor. This are what responsible missionaries do for FUN! They finally all made it home and both couples came for dinner. It was interesting dinner conversation to say the least.

On Monday, Chris Fitzner drove a group of us, in the Temple van, to Blue Water, where there is a very large mall and we all had a good shop, ate and went to a movie. Ours was not a good movie - “The Life of David Copperfield”. Don’t bother going.

It has been a good week full of interesting people and situations but sadly we all had to say farewell to the Sharlands, who have concluded their mission, and are making their way back to New Zealand. They have been our trainers and we have appreciated them and enjoyed their friendship.

Fifth Week

Our week’s activities are always determined by which shift we are on and this week we were on the late shift. It makes it a little more difficult to get out and do errands and our walking but we manage to get both done.

We went into East Grinstead to pick up a few groceries and see if they had “essential silver” at the vitamin store for my eye, which is still infected. They did not have it, but knew of a store a little further away that might. We went to a traditional “sweets” shop to see if they had Tom’s little licorice “nipits”. They said they did not but, just as we were leaving, the owner asked us to wait and told his assistant to grab a little container of them off the shelf behind where he was standing. He said that he just remembered that he found the box the other day and he gave it to us - no charge. What a little miracle. Tom is doing sealings now and, when his voice gets weary, the little candies, being small, quickly sooth his throat.

Clive and Carol Sharland have one more week before their return to New Zealand and a group of us went out Saturday evening for dinner at the Peacock Pub and Restaurant,  just around the corner from the Temple. We sat across from Peter and Maggie Stokes, who are from England, and they related to us their amazing conversion story. They decided to sell their things in England, go to America, buy an RV and tour the USA, Canada and Mexico for a year or so with their young daughter. As they traveled in the eastern states, they began to feel that something significant had happened there, that there was reason for the strong feeling of freedom and that they needed to start praying and reading the Bible. They came to the conclusion that they needed to be baptized, but didn’t know how to go about it. Then they remembered a family, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that they had met in a campground while at Disneyland. They remembered too, that the family were from Burley, Idaho and they decided to travel there and ask for their advice. They parked their RV at the family’s home for a month, learned about the gospel and yes, were baptized. They are solid as a rock and absolutely hilarious. We had a good time.


That night Storm Clara blew in from the North Atlantic and she certainly blew. In the morning we received word that the missionaries had been given permission to have church on site due to the intensity of the storm, so we walked across the street to our Welcome Center meeting room and had a
lovely Sacrament meeting and Sunday School. The sacrament serving was improvised with large plastic cups containing small amounts of water, blessed and passed by two elderly Ordinance Workers using a kitchen tray. President Anitsui asked four people to share their testimonies and we closed the meeting. President Jensen led a discussion, for the Sunday School lesson, on President Nelson’s talk on living the second great commandment to love our neighbours as ourselves. Some wonderful stories were shared and we all left the building feeling that we needed to pray for a storm each Sunday.

Aftermath of Storm on Temple Grounds

Pat and Chris Fitzner had us and the Sellars for dinner. It was very nice and we had fun using the find a relative “ap” to see if we were related to each other. Pat is Gibb, so is related to Tom closely thru Grandma Tanner. Some of the rest of us were also related, though more distantly.

When we walked the grounds this morning, we saw the affects of Storm Clara on the Temple grounds.   A construction tent had taken flight and ended up some distance away, the creek was overflowing it’s banks and a large, mature tree had a good portion of it broken off. We saw more trees and flooding as we drove out around the surrounding area today. We also acquired a leak in the roof of our building, manifesting itself in one of the common areas.

Today the Temple vans took a group of us to tour Hever Castle and the grounds. It is the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII, whom he had beheaded. He broke from the Catholic Church to be able to divorce his first wife and marry Anne, but she fell into disfavour and had to be removed. He married four other wives after Anne, making a total of six wives. It is a beautiful little castle that was bought and restored by wealthy American William Waldorf Astor in the early 1900s. He added a Tudor wing, developed very large and beautiful gardens and had a lake made  using a small army of workers. It was a social hub for the elite. It is close by and we definitely want to return and perhaps stay overnight in the Anne Boleyn Tudor wing for a special treat - perhaps my birthday.

Hever Castle

Bridge to Hever Castle