Hello and Good-Bye

On Tuesday, January 22nd, Sister Phermsin (pronounced pear-m-sen), our second sister missionary from Finland, arrived at the Visitors' Centre. She is a delightful young woman who was born in Thailand and immigrated to Finland with her family when she was five years old. She was converted to the Church about two years ago and has a strong testimony and desire to share the happiness and perspective that she has gained with others. We are fortunate to have her at the London Temple Visitors' Centre!  What a great group of young women we have.

Sisters Reneer, Cabrera, Ylisaari, Cardona, Maughan, and Phermsin

Just a week later, we had to say good-bye to two more of our favorite sister missionaries as they successfully finished their eighteen months of service and prepared to return to their families. Sister Cabrera is back in Chile, and Sister Corbett has returned to Utah. We were so blessed to have them at our visitors' centre, and it was tough to see them go. They are such talented, good young women. We learn to love each one of our sister missionaries so much as we serve together day in and day out, and we don't know when we will get the opportunity to see some of them again. What a blessing it is to be able to communicate and keep in touch by email and on Facebook. We are excited to see where their dreams take them! They will brighten the world wherever they go.

Sister Cabrera and Sister Corbett 

 

One last day together at the Visitors' Centre

We've also said good-bye lately to some of the temple missionaries who we've spent time with and lived around here on the temple grounds. We have grown to love them, too.  Several more will be leaving in the next few months and we know it's going to seem awfully lonely without them. The mission and the temple staff are in a constant state of flux! I guess that means we'll be learning to love new senior couples who we have yet to meet. And we've been told that we will be receiving four additional new Visitors' Centre sisters in the next 3 months. Now that's something to look forward to!

We had a lot of fun welcoming Paul Smart and his wife Annie to the England London South Mission this week.  Before our ward and stake were divided several years ago in Draper, Paul was in our ward and then served as our Stake Clerk. This week we got to greet them on the day they arrived here and also had dinner with  them the same night. They will be living and serving as family history missionaries in central London for the next eighteen months. We probably won't see them often, but it's nice to have them in the ELSM!

Time flies and now we are already almost half-way into February. Good things are happening. Last week we had a fabulous fireside by Elder and Sister Matthews (current temple missionaries) who spoke about their experiences as missionaries in Nigeria. Amazing! They kept us on the edge of our seats.

We have several more firesides and activities already lined up for the next few months. We are really looking forward to them already. It is good to be into our second year now. We can look ahead and see what will be needed a little better than last year at this time. With half of the Visitors' Center Directors being released a couple of weeks ago and an equal number of new directors just starting their two year missions throughout the USA and around the world, it's nice not to be the new kids on the block this year!

For now, we're glad we're not the ones saying hello or good-bye!          ~Pat~