The Next Adventure

My brother John and I getting ready for the Wolfson Ball

 Well, our time here at Oxford has finally come to a close. It is amazing how fast these last few months have gone. We had many visitors; Emily’s parents, a couple of my brothers. We were able to see a little more of Europe and even participated in the tradition of an Oxford ball, tux, ball gown, dancing and all. Emily will be posting more about these events soon!

Just a little sneak peak about what the ball was really like. Stay tuned for more photos and Emily's post!

I worry that on our blog we only showed you the highlights of life. I want to leave you with a knowledge that Oxford was much more than travel around Europe. Here are a few of the “common” places where we actually spent most of our time while in Oxford.

Education School

Education School where I studied and took classes.

Tesco

Emily's Personal Favorite

Chapel

We also have many people in Oxford that we will miss and love. My program was made up of nine students from around the world. They are great people and we are now all going our separate ways.

Left to Right: Hiba, Ashwin, Niyati, Emily, Joseph, Vasudra, Sanscruti, Isabell, Isabell's boyfriend, Lucas

The young men and young women of the Oxford ward influence our time. Emily was their Sunday School teacher, and I was Young Men’s President (Only for a few months). It was a blessing to serve with these kids.

The missionaries 

Turns out you have more opportunities to feed the missionaries living outside of Utah. We love the Elders! Elder Barrett on the left is from Scotland and served in Oxford for 4 months. Elder Vieira in the middle only served in Oxford for one transfer these last six weeks, but he was a little tender mercy. Elder Vieira is from Porto Alegre, Brazil, which is where Joe's parents were serving as mission presidents.  He was baptized two years ago and says Pres. and Sis. Wright attended his baptism, and he remembers them for their beautiful music they often shared.

Kerry Family

Some of our favorite people - Dr. Kerry has been a great mentor, and encourage Joe to even apply for Oxford. We have become very close with their family this past year.

Bishop Tootill

They invited us over to dinner before we left, and took us strawberry picking

Can you tell who is British and who is American? We love the Tootills!!

Friends from church

Dinner at The Eagle & Child before many move back home

Punting at our college with the missionaries and friends from the ward.

 Lastly, the next part of our life is beginning. It feels odd to turn the page on this chapter to begin the next. In a way it feels like I am keeping my finger on this page just in case I want to flip back.

<Insert Emily>
I wanted to have a few pictures of Joe and I here, I guess you could say our one year family photos. Joe will say this was all my idea, but he did ask several times when we were having photos, picked out our classy outfits, and even suggested a few locations. He was a great sport :)

   

   

<Back to Joe>

But for now, the next adventure begins. For those who don’t know, we are headed to Zambia with USAID. We will be there for two months. I will be working in the Embassy while Emily will be serving and volunteering. We then will head to Paris for three months where I will be working with the UN on developing training curriculums for education ministers from other countries.

We love you all so much. Thank you for all your support, prayers, and love.

Em and Joe