It has been a while since we posted anything on our blog. We don’t have any good excuses for being delinquent but life has been busy the past couple of months. Those months were highlighted by a visit to London by Rod’s mom, the departure of three of our VC sisters and the arrival of three new VC sisters, and the arrival of the Christmas Season.

Rod’s mom arrived on Wednesday, November 9^th and stayed with us until Tuesday, November 22^nd. During her stay we enjoyed seeing many of the sites of London while also fulfilling our responsibilities at the VC. We started her visit with a nighttime walk along the Thames River (nighttime is very long here in London this time of the year as the sun rises after 8:00 a.m. and sets before 4:00 p.m.) where we saw the Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Shakespeare’s Globe, the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. On other days we walked through Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James’s Park, and Holland Park. We were fortunate to have rented a wheelchair for Mom and so she didn’t have to walk all that way but was able to enjoy the sites and the scenery as we walked. One evening we took in a Broadway show (Wicked) and another night we attend the Classical Spectacular at Royal Albert Hall. We spent a day touring the Tower of London and another day touring Windsor Castle. We squeezed in a few other things like visiting Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and, of course, the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre. We had a great couple of weeks with Mom but wore her out and us too.

Big Ben

Outside Royal Albert Hall

Inside Royal Albert Hall

Changing of the Guard at Windsor Castle

Buckingham Palace

At the end of November two of our outstanding young sisters returned home, followed by the arrival of three new sisters. Our new sisters are Sister Gregson from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Sister Wallace from Maui, Hawaii; and Sister Koiv from Estonia. We then said goodbye to another great VC sister whose parents came to pick her up on Friday, December 9^th. It is difficult to see these sisters leave us and return home but it is exciting to welcome these new sisters and see their great talents. This transition puts a bit of a strain on our work as we have to help our staff with the learning curve that exists for all of us as we take on new things. But the work has still been going forward and great things are happening at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre.

Church Visitors’ Centres throughout the world have been at the forefront of the release of the Christmas Initiative “#Light the World.” Preparation began early in November with banners and training and anticipation for this great resource in sharing the gospel with others. If you haven’t seen the video or learned about “Lighting the World” we invite you to check it out at www.Mormon.org.  We have shown the video in our cinema many times and many guests have come into the VC to watch the short video. We also have had a live nativity in front of the Hyde Park Chapel. This is the 2^nd year for this resource and it too has brought in many people. A stable was built over a raised planter box in front and we have bales of straw and a manger. We have missionaries or local members dress up as Mary and Joseph and pose for pictures in the stable. We started the live nativity on Sunday, November 27^th and have had it every evening since then. We will continue through December 21^st after which the stable will come down. In the meantime it takes a lot of time to schedule people to be Joseph and Mary and then to dress them and oversee the nativity. But it has been well worth it.

VC Decorated for Christmas

Live Nativity

Decorating the VC and preparing for the Christmas events has been time consuming. We are also planning a Christmas Eve VC family celebration and other Christmas events which have taken a lot of time.  We love Christmas though and are enjoying the season. We look forward to video chatting with many of our family members on Christmas. Our VC sisters are also looking forward to their family calls on Christmas Day. We have eight sisters and their homes are in time zones ranging from 8 hours ahead of us to 11 hours later than us. That makes scheduling those calls a real challenge.

The work at the VC continues to go forward. We have seen many more baptisms in the past month and we have welcomed many guests. The first 11 days of this month we had over 2,000 visitors to the VC. Our sisters continue to do work online while on shift and respond to requests from people who go onto Mormon.org to learn more about the gospel. They have sent over 600 referrals to local missionaries each of the past three months. In the first two weeks of this month they have sent almost 500 referrals. It is exciting to see the interest in the church and the work moving forward.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas. We wished we could give you our greetings personally but time and distance won’t allow that. We recognize that our priority is here in London in the full-time service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the reason for the season and He is why we are here on a mission. God bless you all and Merry Christmas!

The past few weeks have continued the parade of amazing people coming to the Hyde Park Chapel. Last post we mentioned the visit of Alex Boye’s mom to the chapel. Alex then came in on the following Sunday, October 9^th. He baptized his mom that afternoon and then did a devotional in the chapel that evening. The house was packed. Nearly 500 people showed up for this event. Alex did not disappoint as he told of his gospel conversion, experiences in the church and sang a couple of songs. He involved the audience and kept them entertained for two hours. The next day he came to the chapel and spent time with our VC staff. He helped one of our companionships with a lesson and then he sang with some of our sisters and President Stevens (he knows Alex from their Tabernacle Choir days together). Then he came the next day and just hung out at the chapel for a while.

The following Sunday (October 16^th) Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife came to the Hyde Park Chapel. He was not on any specific assignment but came to visit a former missionary companion who is a senior missionary here (he did have an assignment elsewhere in England the next day). He spoke at the Britannia (YSA) Ward sacrament meeting. He then met with the senior missionary couples serving in the local area (about a dozen couples) for an hour of Q&A.

The next day Elder Bradley D. Foster, a General Authority Seventy and Executive Director of the Family History Department, came to the VC and spent some time with us. It was exciting to share with him and his companion, Stephen Rockwood, Managing Director of the Family History Department, things in the VC as well as show them our Teaching Center where our sisters our teaching people all over the world. They were in England to meet up with Elder Cook and attend a Family History event elsewhere in England.

Today we were visited by Matthew Holland, President of Utah Valley University. We had the privilege of showing him and his two companions around the VC and the chapel. They are here in England for a stained glass exhibition that was at Oxford University yesterday and will be here in London this next week. The exhibition will be permanently placed at UVU in Orem, Utah.

We also continue to have great experiences with other guests who come into the VC. We have had several more baptisms in the chapel (including another Chinese young man today) and around the world (in the Philippines and Wisconsin). We have many people who come into the VC not really knowing what it is or who we are. And before they leave they are intrigued and want to know more. We look forward to many more baptisms in the future.

We haven’t been able to do much sightseeing lately but we have made it on a few walks. Fall is definitely here as our high temperatures barely reach 60 degrees now. The leaves are turning colors and the daylight hours are diminishing (we now have less than 11 hours of daylight compared to 17 hours just a few weeks ago). The VC continues to be open 9 to 9 every day and the gospel light shines brightly there at all times. It is such an honor to serve here.

We have had a busy few weeks again and have failed to get another post done for our blog…until now. The past three weeks plus a couple of days have been “highlighted” (or “low-lighted” in some cases) with one of our senior couples completing their mission and going home, a new couple arriving to replace them, another VC sister spending time in the hospital, more convert baptisms, many more referrals being sent to local missionaries, more miracles with guests coming into the VC, and a great General Conference.

Elder and Sister Neeley from Idaho Falls, Idaho completed their mission at the Hyde Park Chapel VC on September 28^th. We were involved in several events honoring their service including a senior missionary Family Home Evening and dinner, a dinner with the three VC senior couples, a training meeting and breakfast where our sisters honored them, and a surprise picnic in Hyde Park for them with our sisters. All of these events required some of our time to make them happen but the Neeley’s were very deserving of the recognition. As they left the VC for the last time on Wednesday, September 28^th, all of our VC sisters were there and a lot of tears of gratitude were shed. We are missing the Neeley’s already and wish them well back home with their family.

On Thursday, September 29^th, we welcomed Elder and Sister Keller from Orem, Utah to the Hyde Park Chapel VC. We have spent the last few days training and orienting them which has also been time-consuming and rewarding. They are doing great and are great additions to our VC family.

On Tuesday, September 20^th we had another VC sister become ill and she was taken to a local hospital. Fortunately, she quickly recovered and was fine the next day. However, we were unable to get her released from the hospital as they wanted to run more tests to make sure she was ok. After another day in the hospital we finally were able to convince them that she didn’t want any more tests and wanted to be released. Reluctantly, they consented.

We enjoyed hearing about several more convert baptisms that our VC sisters played a part in. One was a lady who came into the VC last December when a live nativity was set up in front of the chapel. She took a tour and our missionaries stayed in touch with her. At first she wasn’t interested but after about six months she started meeting with missionaries in her local area. On September 17^th she was baptized. Another miracle baptism took place in Orem, Utah on September 24^th. A young man from Russia came to London last year on holiday (vacation) and stopped in to the Hyde Park Chapel VC. He had not heard of our church before but was introduced to it by our sisters and was given a copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian. He returned to Russia and our sisters stayed in touch with him via Facebook. Recently, he decided to travel to Utah and attend college there. Once in Utah he met with missionaries and was baptized. About two weeks before his baptism we had a guest from Utah come into the VC and said that she was asked by this Russian young man to thank us for introducing him to the gospel of Jesus Christ. These stories make our efforts totally worthwhile. We never know when a visit by one of our guests will change his or her life forever.

We haven’t been able to do much outside of the VC the past three weeks but we did enjoy watching all sessions of General Conference. We were inspired and uplifted by the messages we heard and the spirit we felt. It is a different experience to watch conference here as the Women’s Session and the Priesthood Session each started at 1:00 a.m. Thanks to technology we were able to watch each of those the next morning here. The Saturday and Sunday morning sessions are shown live at 5:00 p.m. our time and the afternoon sessions are from 9:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. We are grateful to be able to hear the words of our living prophet and apostles in such a timely way.

One other interesting event this past week was a visit to the VC by Alex Boye’s mother. She is a dear, little lady who lives here in London and Alex is coming this weekend to baptize her. Alex grew up in London and is going to be singing and speaking at a devotional at the Hyde Park Chapel this Sunday evening.

The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of great experiences and a lot of work. We enjoyed a visit from Rod’s brother and his wife (Carl & Shanna) from The Woodlands, Texas which gave us a good excuse to do some sightseeing. We sent our VC sister from Uganda home after fulfilling a great mission here in London and welcomed two new sisters—one from mainland China and one from South Korea. We’ve enjoyed several leadership meetings including a visit from Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife Jan.

We were able to spend almost two full days with Rod’s brother and his wife. They arrived in London on Monday, August 29^th, but toured on their own until Friday when we were able to take a preparation day and do some sightseeing. We took the train out to Windsor Castle and enjoyed a great day out there. We experienced the ancient history that Windsor Castle has had and were told about the current history as the Castle still is home to the Queen and other royalty many times during the year. 

On Saturday, after our weekly training meeting and doing some work at the Visitors’ Centre we were able to join them again for a walking tour of London. We went to St. James’s Palace, St. James’s Park, Horse Guards Parade, the Banqueting House, Big Ben, Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey, the Sky Garden, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the London Wall. 

Flowers at St. James's Park

Big Ben at Night

On our walk we came across a large barge in the Thames River that had a newly made wooden replica of the London skyline of 1666.

 It turned out that the Great Fire of London that burned much of the city to the ground happened 350 years ago. To recognize that anniversary the city held many events including a domino event where thousands of concrete blocks about 3” X 6” X 20” were lined up throughout the area where the fire burned. At 6:30 Saturday night they started the dominoes falling. They covered 7 kilometres and were quite a sight (we only saw them set up waiting for the event but watched the event on the internet). On Sunday night they set the wooden skyline replica on fire and burned it to the ground in the middle of the Thames River. Again, it was quite a sight to see (we saw the wooden replica on Saturday night and watched it burn down on the internet on Sunday night).

On Wednesday, September 7^th, we welcomed Sister Zeng from Sichuan, China and Sister Jung from South Korea to our VC staff. They are great sisters and add to our international family at the VC. That same day we said goodbye to Sister Apiyo who returned home to Gulu, Uganda after serving a wonderful mission with us here in London at the Visitors’ Centre. She returned home to meet the ten recent converts in her home ward (see previous post) that she had a role with as she taught one of them online and was Facebook friends with several others. Our sister who has been in the hospital was also able to return home to Utah where she can be with her family and receive medical care there.

This past weekend we were honored to have Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife Jan visit us. They spoke at a multi-zone conference for our missionaries held in the Hyde Park Chapel. Sister Zwick told us about their experiences as mission president in South America years ago. Elder Zwick told us about meeting with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve on the fourth floor of the Salt Lake Temple just ten days earlier. He said the Brethren pray for the missionaries every week in their meeting in the temple. Sunday morning we were able to greet Elder & Sister Zwick as they arrived for church at the Hyde Park Chapel. Elder Zwick spoke at the Hyde Park 1^st Ward sacrament meeting today. Elder Zwick’s twin sister is our mission secretary and she and her husband complete their missions next week.

We had four convert baptisms at the Hyde Park Chapel last weekend. Our sisters continue to teach a lot of people and we still have many people come into the VC who want to know more about the Church. Our sisters also continue to do a great work online as they respond to requests from Mormon.org and teach people all over the world. We had online baptisms in Ogden, Utah and in North Carolina last week. What a privilege it is to be involved in this great latter-day work!

Another month is almost completed and it seems like we just finished last month’s report. The last couple of weeks have been difficult but rewarding. We have spent a lot of time at the hospital with one of our sisters who has had some serious health problems. Our mission president and his wife have been incredible with their love and time devoted to this sister. We have shared the responsibility with them in visiting the hospital every day. The good news is that she is improving and we are optimistic that she will be released from the hospital soon. In the meantime, our visits to the hospital will continue to take up most of the time that we are not serving at the visitors’ centre.

The past couple of weeks have been rewarding as we have seen several more people enter the waters of baptism. Our sisters have had online baptisms in Washington, D.C. and Uganda. Another was scheduled to happen in Holland today (we hope it happened). The baptism in Uganda is an amazing story. One of our VC sisters is from Uganda (Sister Apiyo) and she chatted with a man online some time ago who lives in Uganda. He was interested in the church and she requested that local missionaries go teach him in Uganda. It turned out that he lives in her hometown of Gulu and is in her ward there. She taught him online until local missionaries finally met with him. She stayed in touch and learned that he had scheduled to be baptized. She was excited but then the baptism didn’t happen. He set another baptism date but that one didn’t happen either. Last month he told her that he was going to get baptized along with nine other people in her ward. Once again she was excited only to be informed that those baptisms didn’t take place either. Sister Apiyo will be completing her mission in less than two weeks and will be going home. Last Friday night she learned that her online friend got baptized with three others and that the other six people were being baptized this weekend. What a way for her to end her mission! She will be returning home to these new converts that she has never met but has played a role in their conversion and baptism.

We have also had baptisms at the Hyde Park Chapel. Yesterday an 11-year-old girl was baptized by her father who had just been baptized two weeks earlier. We also had a man from Jordan baptized last month and this past month his older brother got baptized here. Now our sisters are teaching the older brother’s 14-year-old daughter and she is set for baptism next Saturday. It is such a thrill to see our sisters having success as they welcome guests and teach the gospel.

Our sisters are also doing incredible things with their online work. Since the church changed the process this past February for handling Mormon.org requests for missionaries or for receiving copies of the Bible or the Book of Mormon, our sisters have continued to increase the number of referrals that they are sending to local missionaries. The first full month after this change they sent over 100 referrals to local missionaries (before they can send local missionaries to someone our sisters have to make contact with the requesting individual and make sure that they are willing to meet with missionaries). In June they sent over 200 referrals to local missionaries and last month they sent 298. This month they have already sent over 400 referrals. That’s 400 teaching opportunities that are just given to local missionaries somewhere in the world without them having to do any finding at all. What a great work this is and what an honor it is to be a participant in it.

We have continued to welcome many guests to the Hyde Park Chapel VC. Last week Sister Julie Beck, former Relief Society General President, and her daughter stopped by. We had some great friends stop and visit us here as well. Dianne (Munson) Knight and her husband Lyle stopped by. Dianne lived in our neighborhood in Upland before she got married and was our ward and stake Young Women’s President. Then Miles and Jann Peterson from the Upland Stake came by for a visit. And today Carole Olson who used to live in Upland many years ago came by with some friends. Carole’s husband, John, was our first bishop when we moved to Upland. What a treat to have all of these great people come visit us here in London.

We can’t seem to keep up with reporting all of the great things that we are involved in and are seeing here in London. Hopefully, these occasional updates will at least give you a flavor for what we are experiencing here.

Since our last entry we have had another round of transfers in our mission. Until now, we have been blessed to have had relatively little change with our VC sisters from these past changes. In six months we have only had two sisters go home and two new sisters come out. However, this past transfer we had two more sisters complete their missions and two new sisters come out. So on Tuesday, July 26^th, we had to say good-bye to Sister Lung and Sister Wai. Sister Lung returned home to Hong Kong and Sister Wai returned home to Irvine, California. Both sisters were our Chinese (Mandarin) speakers and both served great missions. On Wednesday, July 27^th, we welcomed Sister Yau from Hong Kong and Sister Teng from Malaysia. Both speak Mandarin and Cantonese as well as English. Sister Teng also speaks Malay and Taiwanese. On their first day here they gave tours of our VC to Chinese guests and did it by themselves. Their American trainers could only watch and smile as they had no idea what their companions were saying. But they apparently did a great job as our guests took copies of the Book of Mormon in Chinese and gave us contact information so that we can help them learn more.

Some more changes for our mission were announced last week as we are one of fifteen missions in the Church to pilot “Online Proselyting.” Online proselyting involves finding, teaching, and following up with investigators using technology. Our missionaries have had ipads for about a year now. They are now authorized to use Facebook to find new investigators and teach them and follow up with them. They also can use Skype and Oovoo too for online video teaching. This change will not affect our VC sisters much as they have already been using the internet to contact and teach people all over the world. But it will be interesting to watch how the work goes forward here in the England London Mission with this change. The potential for reaching many more interested people is huge.

We continue to witness many great experiences as we serve in the VC. People come into the VC for all kinds of reasons. We had two baptisms last Sunday. One was a lady named Raquel who came into the VC on May 30^th with another lady who was befriended by one of the mission office couples. The friend who brought her has since moved and isn’t really interested in the gospel. But Raquel has embraced the gospel and acknowledges the Lord’s hand in how she found the church. The other baptism was of a Chinese young lady named Nicole. She came into the VC on June 23^rd after going to Mormon.org and requesting missionaries to teach her more. These two ladies took very different paths to find the church but both paths included our VC.

We have managed to take a few more walks and have seen some more sights of London. We walked through Battersea Park that is along the Thames River. It has lakes and ponds and more beautiful greenery. Another day we again visited the V&A Museum which is next door to the chapel. We went to the “Castings” exhibit which displays many casts of famous sculptures like Michelangelo’s David and Moses. We have walked through St. James’s Park, Green Park, and Hyde Park again and enjoyed the scenic views in all of those parks. 

We can’t believe how the time is flying by. July is almost over. What a month July has been for us at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre. We have welcomed many guests to the centre, have had a good number of people interested in learning more about our church, had some incredible visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel, and we’ve had a small hand in a record number of baptisms. What a blessing it is to serve here in London at this particular time.

We are on pace to have over 4,000 visitors to the VC for the month. This is by far the most visitors we have had in a month since we have been here. And based on reports of months prior to our arrival it is probably the most that have ever visited in a single month. I’m not sure that this is anything that we are doing as it is summer vacation time and the Lord is just prompting many people to come into the VC. Getting people in the door is one thing but helping them to come closer to Christ is what our work is all about. That’s why when we have guests who are interested in learning more and we can send a referral for missionaries to teach them then we have a great feeling of success. In the month of July our sisters have sent over 250 referrals to local missionaries. That means that there are likely over 250 sets of missionaries who are going to have someone to teach without knocking on a door or talking to them on the street. They have requested missionaries to come and teach them.

We have seen the fruits of having many visitors come into the VC and sending many referrals all over the world. We have already learned of 12 baptisms in July where our sisters have had some role in the convert’s progression. We have had baptisms in Canada, Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Utah, Madagascar, Australia, Malawi, Taiwan, and London. There are even some more scheduled for this week.

We’ve had a number of prominent visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel recently. Yesterday President Clark Gilbert of BYU-Idaho came to church at the Hyde Park Chapel with his family. The previous Sunday Neill F. Marriott, 2^nd Counselor in the Young Women’s General Presidency of the Church, came to the Hyde Park Chapel with her husband (you will know Sister Marriott when you hear her strong Southern accent). She and her husband spoke at a fireside here in the chapel that evening. We also have had numerous visits from Brother Marvin Gardner, a former member of the Church Music Committee responsible for our current hymnbook, and his wife. Brother Gardner is teaching a BYU Study Abroad class here at the chapel so he comes in several times a week. It has been a great blessing to be able to visit privately and casually with these great church leaders.

Although we have been busy, we haven’t just worked the past few weeks. We went to the musical entitled “Beautiful” which is a Broadway show about the life and music of Carole King. The show was great and the music even better. We visited the Tower of London for a third time and continue to find very interesting and historical things to see there (like the Bloody Tower where two child princes are alleged to have been killed and the White Tower where the history goes back over 1,000 years). We also continue to enjoy walks in the parks. On one of our recent walks we stopped to look at the wild parakeets that live in Hyde Park. Rod held out his hand and you can see the result in the pictures below. 

We had another busy two weeks since we last posted. We had shifts at the VC for eight straight days as we filled in for some sisters who went on exchanges with their Sister Training Leaders (STLs). We're not complaining about serving everyday but it gets difficult to do some of the other things (like interviews and planning meetings) that we need to do at the VC if we are on shift every day.

Last week we were privileged to have Elder Patrick Kearon, General Authority Seventy and Europe Area President, with us at the Hyde Park Chapel for three days along with his wife, Karen. They did a mission tour which amounted to all of the missionaries in our mission coming to the chapel. It was great to hear them teach and interact with the missionaries and leaders. Last Friday we were able to attend a meeting with President & Sister Stevens, the Assistants to the President, the zone leaders of our mission, and STLs of our mission where Elder & Sister Kearon instructed us. It was a remarkable morning as they shared some very personal and powerful things. In an intimate setting like that you get to experience the human side of these leaders.

The month of June ended with some great results at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre. We had 8 baptisms for the month of June and welcomed over 3,500 visitors to the chapel (we don't count members who live here and come to the chapel for church or other regular meetings nor do we count full-time missionaries. If we counted those we'd have reported over 5,000 coming to the chapel). Our sisters sent out over 200 referrals as a result of guests coming to the VC and wanting to know more or interactions they have online with people wanting to be taught the gospel. The worldwide nature of the work here in London continues to amaze me. We have visitors from all over the world come into the VC and our sisters teach people all over the world online.

As you might guess from our schedule of the past two weeks we didn't get many chances to go sightseeing or exploring. We did go on a few walks, however, and the parks and gardens are still beautiful. We have been told that summer does come in London but so far it has only been winter- and spring-like. Our high temperatures have only been in the low 70's and we find that we are wearing coats or jackets most of the time. So while many of you in the U.S. are sweltering in heat we are wondering if we'll ever be able to put our coats and jackets away. Again, we're not complaining because it really is very nice but it is a bit strange to see that it is the 4th of July and we are still donning our jackets. And speaking of the 4th of July, this is just a regular day here. There doesn't seem to be any celebrating going on. Go figure;>).

We have enjoyed a memorable couple of weeks. We were told before we came to London and the Hyde Park Chapel that a lot of the leaders of the church came to the Hyde Park Chapel. It seems this month that has been the case. The last Sunday of May we were surprised to see Elder Douglas Callister (emeritus General Authority) and his wife walk in the door to go to church on Sunday. It was fun to chat with him about his visits to the Upland Stake and the Rancho Cucamonga Mission. On Tuesday, June 7th, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife; Elder Patrick Kearon, Europe Area President, and his wife; and Elder Clifford Herbertsen, Area Seventy, and his wife came to the chapel and spoke to over 400 missionaries. We were asked to be in charge of ushering for the event so we had a chance to be heavily involved. We organized all of the missionaries to walk by and shake the hand of these brothers and sisters. Elder Oaks spoke about teaching repentance and shared the impressions he had received on the subject the night before. It was very powerful. Yesterday Elder Robert C. Gay, General Authority Seventy, attended the sacrament meeting of the Hyde Park 1st Ward. It was an honor to have Elder Gay, who presided at stake conference where Rod was released as stake president last year, come over to Rod in the chaos of the VC after sacrament meeting got out and give him a hug and chat for a few minutes.

As nice as it was to have these great church leaders visit the Hyde Park Chapel, a true highlight has been the past four days as Brother Mark Lusvardi, Director of Public Programs for the Church, came to do some training for us in the VC. He is in charge of all visitors' centres and historic sites for the Church. But he also does much, much more. He shared with us many of the exciting things that the church is doing or working on in the area of missionary work. He is not a General Authority but he is the trainer of General Authorities. He interacts with the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles weekly. His involvement at the highest levels of this Church is remarkable. While the other Church leaders who came visited the "multitudes," Mark visited our VC family and the two of us. On Thursday night he took us and the Stevens (mission president and wife) out to dinner. Friday morning we met in our 20-seat cinema and he taught the 16 VC family members along with the Stevens for over three hours. We (Connie and Rod) then went to lunch with him by ourselves and spent over two hours receiving more instruction and training. Then Saturday morning we met in the cinema again and had two more hours of instruction. Yesterday he attended church at the Hyde Park Chapel. What a thrilling and humbling experience it has been to be taught by him. We now have a lot of work to do to live up to what the Lord has given us.

We continue to have remarkable experiences with missionary work at the Hyde Park Chapel VC. We had another convert baptism yesterday at the chapel and had two more the week before. Our VC sisters have had six baptisms so far in the month of June and we hope to see many more. Yesterday just before the baptismal service a young lady walked into the VC and said that she had been "wandering" around Hyde Park for the last three hours wondering what she is supposed to do with her life. She came here and was introduced to the gospel and invited to witness the baptism, which she did, and is meeting with missionaries this Thursday. These kind of miracles just seem to keep happening.

We also welcomed another new VC sister to our family. Sister Fuhriman from Wisconsin came in on Wednesday. She is a beautiful, talented sister and we look forward to her great service. She is an excellent singer and fits right in with the talented sisters that we already have. After we sang the opening hymn for our meeting Friday morning with Brother Lusvardi he exclaimed, "Wow!" as our sisters had sung beautifully.

Once again there hasn't been a lot of time for sight-seeing but we did make it on a couple of nice walks. We walked through Regent's Park to see the roses and other flowers. They are beautiful. Another day we walked to Green Park to see the festivities celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday (her birthday was in April but this was her "official" birthday celebration). We saw lots and lots of uniformed soldiers, a military band, and a 41-cannon salute. Another day we went to the John Wesley Chapel where the founder of the Methodist Church lived and preached nearly 300 years ago. There is so much history and beauty to see here. It is a great blessing to be able to have two years to explore.

Roses in Regent's Park

Queen's Birthday Celebration

Time is flying by too fast to keep up sometimes. We have intended to post more often than every three weeks but it seems that is becoming the norm. A lot has gone on in the past three weeks. We had an incredible month at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre in May. We ended the month with 10 baptisms, 136 referrals sent, and over 3,000 visitors. Four of the baptisms took place at the Hyde Park Chapel and the others took place in Poland, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, two in Canada, and one in Middlesbrough, England. The six baptisms outside of the Hyde Park Chapel were of people that our sisters taught online. The way the gospel is being preached to all the world is absolutely amazing.

We had a man come into the VC yesterday who said, "I have been living with an LDS family in San Francisco and would like to get baptized. I got married a week ago and I'd like you to teach me and my new wife so that we can get baptized before we return to our home in China." He came in later in the day with his wife and a business colleague who also wanted to be taught. We had our two Mandarin-speaking sisters arrange to teach them at the chapel. They went to church today and will be back to be taught more this week.

Today, amidst the chaos that occurs every Sunday when two wards are getting out of church and another ward is arriving for church which included over 250 visitors from out of town, we had a family of four come into the VC from Romania who are in London on holiday. They wanted to see our exhibits but it was too noisy to even talk in the VC so our missionaries took them into our cinema and showed a video. They had lots of questions and came out wanting to be taught by missionaries in their home country when they return. These kind of experiences seem to be happening nearly every day.

A huge highlight of the past three weeks was the visit of Matt & Kylie and Addison. They arrived from Virginia on Saturday night, May 28th at Heathrow Airport. We took the tube out to meet them and accompany them to our flat. We worked at the VC from 8:00 until 3:00 on Sunday where they joined us for sacrament meeting. Then they went sightseeing and we joined up with them at St. Paul's Cathedral for Evensong and then we all went to Westminster Abbey for a Sunday organ concert. We covered our church bases with the Hyde Park Chapel (LDS), St. Paul's (Catholic), and Westminster (Anglican) all in the same day. Monday Matt rented a car and he, Kylie and Addison took a couple of days exploring some of the country part of England (Bath, Stonehenge, Oxford, Highclere Castle). We worked at the VC on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We joined together again Wednesday evening and went to Abbey Road Studios, Camden Town Market, and Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter). We spent all day Thursday and Friday together and went to the Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, the Museum of London, Borough Market, the British Museum, and Hamley's (toy store), the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, Green Park, Harrod's (store), Hyde Park and Kensington Palace to name a few. It was an exhausting couple of days but was great fun and we made some great memories. Addison was such a trooper and she is so cute. We appreciated tremendously their visit. It came to an end all too quickly. Saturday morning we accompanied them back to Heathrow and said our goodbyes. We love them sooooooo much and look forward to other family members coming to visit us.

Gramma Hulet & Papa Hulet with Addison in front of Queen Victoria Statue by Kensington Palace

Matt, Kylie & Addison with Big Ben

The London Eye from St. James Park

Now it is back to work. We are looking forward to a visit this Tuesday by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to the Hyde Park Chapel. He will be meeting with all the missionaries from our mission and the England London South Mission. Over 400 missionaries are expected to come to the chapel for this special visit. We also are looking forward to a visit to the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre by the head of all the VCs and historic sites in the church. He will be coming to do some specific training with us as well as our VC staff. And then the month will be completed by a mission tour by Elder Patrick Kearon, Europe Area President. All told we will have church leaders at the chapel 7 days of the next month. It's time to polish our shoes and comb our hair. It is an honor to be in the full-time service of the Lord.

After 19 straight days covering at least one shift at the VC each day we finally sort of got a day off. As indicated in our last blog entry, we sent one of our senior couples home three weeks ago. That means that we have covered the VC from 9 am to 9 pm with just two senior couples. We have given the other couple a couple of days off which meant that we had to do double shifts a couple of times as well as attend to leadership responsibilities (like meeting with the mission president several times to discuss transfers and missionary issues, attending mission leadership meetings, preparing reports for Salt Lake, etc.). Now we're not complaining. We love this work and we did sign up for a full-time mission but our schedule lately has made it difficult to do laundry or clean our flat, let alone write a blog entry or do any sightseeing. But our new couple has arrived! The Mullen's from Granite Bay, California (near Sacramento) arrived last Thursday. They are still learning the ropes but they are fast learners and are doing great. So some relief for us is at hand.

We also sent home Sister Heather Moody who completed her mission last Tuesday, and on Wednesday we welcomed our first new sister since we came out, Sister Ashley VonNiederhausern from Woods Cross, Utah. We are no longer the "greenies" in the VC! But we still have a lot to learn. Here's a picture of our new VC family.

The work continues to move on here in London. We had another convert baptism last night and another convert baptism took place last week. The baptismal service last night was remarkable. Another young student attending Imperial College across the street from the chapel got baptized. A talk on baptism was given by a young man who joined the church in December. A talk on the Holy Ghost was given by Yuxin whom we wrote about last entry being baptized on April 16th. A talk on Following Christ was given by Arteh who was baptized on April 10th. Then the new convert concluded the meeting by sharing his testimony. Several of these new converts are graduate students who will be returning to China with doctoral degrees and will be incredible leaders and missionaries in their homeland. If any of you think that the Lord is waiting until the Chinese government allows proselyting in their country before His gospel goes forth they should come to England and see what is happening here.

We had stake conference last Sunday and a new stake presidency was called and sustained. The Hyde Park Chapel is our stake center but only seats about 500 with chairs set up in the cultural hall. We had over 800 in attendance at the chapel (the conference was also broadcast to a ward building in our stake). Elder Timothy Dyches, General Authority Seventy, presided and he was assisted by Elder Robert Dryden, Area Seventy. Our stake president was released as he was called and sustained as an Area Seventy at last General Conference. Being in charge of a visitors' centre that is essentially a foyer of a stake centre when there are 800 people in the building that seats 500 creates some real challenges. To top it off last Sunday was the warmest day since we've been in London hitting 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The VC is air conditioned but the chapel and cultural hall are not. So you may be able to picture a little of how chaotic the VC was for a few hours on Sunday. We did not hear much of stake conference but it was an exciting day greeting guests and feeling the excitement of a new stake president.

We learned from our mission president last week that Elder Dallin Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will be coming to the Hyde Park Chapel on June 7th and will be speaking to all of the missionaries from the England London Mission and the England London South Mission. We are expecting 400-500 full-time missionaries at the chapel on that day. It should be another exciting day at the Hyde Park Chapel.

We have been delinquent in posting anything for awhile. We have no good excuses. we just haven't done it. So we'll try and catch up. Work at the Visitors' Centre continues to be busy. We sent our first senior couple home this past Monday and we are now operating with just two senior couples (ourselves being one of those couples). Our new couple is not scheduled to arrive until May 12th. So we will operate short handed for awhile. We are required to have a priesthood holder at the VC in order to be open. So that means that Elder Hulet or Elder Neeley has to be there from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. No days off, no time to be ill. But we should be fine with that. We also have a young sister completing her mission in two weeks but her replacement will come out the day that she goes home.

Wehave seen some exciting results from our VC work the past couple of weeks. We had a baptism at the VC on April 16th. Yuxin Zhang, a college student from China, was baptized. The change in her in just the past six weeks since she came into the VC is amazing. She said that she had not experienced much happiness in her life prior to coming into the VC. Now she feels happy all of the time. She has been taught the missionary lessons at the Hyde Park Chapel so we have seen her often. When she first started coming in she would keep her head down and never make eye contact or smile. Now she greets everyone, looking into their eyes, and smiling brilliantly. While this great experience was taking place another Chinese girl who came into the VC more than a year ago also got baptized--in China. She came back to London in January just for a short visit and we met her then (just after we arrived here). She wanted to get baptized here but things did not work out for her to do that. But our sisters received an email from her this week announcing that she had gotten baptized last week in China. We also had a young man in Hawaii, who came to our VC sisters via Mormon.org (online), get baptized last week. He was taught initially by our VC sisters online and then was taught further by missionaries in Hawaii where he was baptized. What an incredible experience to be here and see peoples' lives changing all over the world.

We have had many guests come into the VC the past couple of weeks as well. We never know who might be impacted by a simple visit or a serious investigation. As indicated by the baptism stories above, great things can happen. We have a man being taught who is from Lybia, another man reading the Book of Mormon who is from Croatia, and several more students from China being taught. All are frequent visitors to the VC.

We enjoyed a visit from Richard and Linda Eyre, authors of many best-selling books and prominent motivational speakers, a week ago last Sunday. They spoke and taught for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon at the Hyde Park Chapel. We look forward to our stake conference on May 7th & 8th. Elder Timothy J. Dyches, a General Authority Seventy and a member of the European Area Presidency, will be in attendance and a new stake presidency will be called.

We have continued to exercise a lot by going on walks. There is so much to see here that we find new and exciting things most every time we go out. We've been to "Little Venice" and Abbey Road Studios (of Beatles' fame). We were able to attend the "Key Ceremony" at the Tower of London. This is a nightly ritual that has been done for centuries where the British military lock up the keys to the castle for the night. It takes place at 10:00 every night and only around 25 tickets are available per night. We went to "The Monument" which is a tall tower with 311 steps where you can overlook all of London. We also visited the Shakespeare's Globe Theater and attended Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral. We went to the National Archives where our Family History missionaries work and we have visited the London Eye (one of the world's largest Ferris wheels) and the Tate Britain Art Museum. Our love for this city and the people here continues to grow.

We continue to see miracles and have great experiences here at the visitors' centre in London. This past week we had two young adult girls come into the VC from Greece. They were on Spring Break and didn't speak much English. They had been to the museums next door to us and just decided to come in and see what exhibits we had. We struggled to share much with them because we didn't have anyone who could speak Greek this time. We showed them the chapel and they went in and sat down. They seemed to be praying so we left them alone. We looked in a few minutes later and they were gone. Next thing we knew they were at the "I'm a Mormon" exhibit watching a video. So we went over and asked if they'd like to watch the 2-minute Easter video and they said yes. They watched that and afterward said that this was the best place they had visited. We asked if they'd like copies of the Book of Mormon and to have missionaries teach them more when they get home to Greece. They gladly accepted both.

A couple of days later we had a lady come into the VC and asked to use the toilet (this is the term that is used here for rest room). She had just got off a plane from Romania and was to meet someone at the Science Museum but it was closed. On her way out our sisters talked to her a bit. That conversation resulted in her accepting a Romanian Book of Mormon and wanting missionaries to teach her in Romania.

A day later a man walked into the VC and asked if he could worship here. Of course we said yes and showed him the chapel. He sat down and Rod sat down beside him to explain a little about who we are. Rod learned that he is a university professor from Nigeria who was here for a week-long conference at Imperial College (across the street from the VC). As Rod explained about the restoration and living prophets he became very interested. Rod told him that we have missionaries in Nigeria who could teach him more about living prophets when he returns home. He was very desirous to learn more and left us with his home address and phone number so that missionaries can contact him there.

These types of experiences seem to be happening almost daily. We also have many members of the church from all over the world who are on vacation (or holiday as they call it here) come to visit. Missionaries here also bring in people they are teaching or just invite people from Exhibition Road to come in. Last month we had nearly 3,000 visitors to our VC.

We have managed to fit a few "touristy" things in our schedule the past couple of weeks. We visited the National Gallery where there are thousands of artworks. We found a couple of unique "unfinished" paintings by Michaelangelo. We were able to get tickets for front row seats for Lion King at a local theater. To see the costumes and the facial expressions up close was a great treat. We walked down Portabello Road of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" fame. We have been on several walks through parks and continue to enjoy the spring flowers and greenery here. We found one park (Holland Park) not far from our flat with wild peacocks in it.

We greatly enjoyed General Conference although the experience here was different. Not having conference sessions start until 5:00 p.m. seemed very strange. But we managed to watch all sessions of conference (not all were live though). We particularly enjoyed hearing from Elder Mervyn Arnold who called us as Visitors' Centre Director, Elder Paul Johnson who called Rod to be stake president, and Elder Jeffery Holland who is just our favorite speaker.

Easter has provided a great opportunity to talk with people about Christ and what He has done for us. The Easter video "Follow Him and Find New Life" produced by the church has helped the VC to be busy the past couple of weeks. Many of our young missionaries have gone street contacting on Exhibition Road (in front of the VC) and simply ask people if they would like to see a two-minute video about Jesus Christ. If they were interested then they invited them to come into the VC and watch the video in our cinema. We have had many guests come in from this invitation. Some watch the video and thank us and move on but others watch the video and want to know more. We had a guest from Croatia come in last Saturday to watch the video and he stayed 1 1/2 hours and is planning to come back next Saturday to learn more.

Our young sister missionaries not only give tours and teach at the VC but they also proselyte online for awhile each day. In our VC office we have an online Teaching Center where the sisters sit in front of a computer and respond to requests to learn more about the church through online chats, phone calls, emails, Facebook chats, and video chats. There are way more requests than they have time to respond to and the number of requests to learn more online are growing. Through this online proselyting effort they are teaching people all over the world.

The past two Sundays we have had over 100 visitors each Sunday to our 9:00 sacrament meeting (worship service). This past Sunday, being Easter, was not a surprise to have so many visitors but the previous Sunday we were surprised. The visitors started arriving before 8:30 and they just kept coming and coming. It turned out that a family who used to live here was given permission to bless their new baby here. The family had many family members from all over England as well as some from the United States who attended. When we added this large family gathering to our normal number of visitors here on vacation, on business, or just making a weekend get-away it made for a large congregation.

We have not had much time for exploring or sightseeing the past couple of weeks but we have gotten out some. We've been on some great walks and have seen where many well-known people of the past lived--Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Sherlock Holmes, and Charles Darwin to name a few. We also walked up Primrose Hill which is one of the highest elevations in London (not counting the skyscrapers) and provides a great view of the London skyline. We have visited the British Library and we found "Platform 9 3/4" where Harry Potter managed to gain access to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, we were unable to figure out how to penetrate the brick wall.

You may have noticed that we didn't do an entry last week. We have been dealing with a very difficult situation with one of our VC sisters here in London. I'll try and explain briefly. This incredible young sister came out on her mission in October of last year. About a week after she arrived here in London her mother back home in Utah went missing. This faithful young missionary chose to stay on her mission while her family and many others searched for her mother. She has lived with not knowing where her mother was or what may have happened until about 10 days ago. On March 2nd a hiker found a body which was identified the next day as her mother. This has been an emotional and trying time for all of us in our VC family. Yesterday our great sister was able to participate via technology with her family in Utah for the viewing and the funeral. She prepared a video message from the VC that we sent to the bishop to use in the service which turned out very nice. There have been many tender mercies extended in a very difficult situation.

While dealing with this situation the work has continued at the VC. We have had a couple of very good weeks. Here's just one example of our experiences: On Monday, March 7th we had a couple from Italy who are now living in London come into the VC. They had come to the chapel a few years ago to do family history and were excited to come back and find his great grandparents. He told us that he took a day off of work so that they could come in and do research. We had to inform them that the Family History Center (FHC), which used to be at the chapel, had moved to the National Archives on the other side of the Thames River and it is open Tuesday through Saturday. They were very disappointed and we tried to help them feel better by explaining that they could go online and do much of what used to only be available at FHCs. They were appreciative but not satisfied with that option and left appearing quite disappointed. A few minutes later they came back in and asked about the free films that we advertise on our banner outside of the chapel. We explained that we have many free films and asked if they'd like to watch one. They said sure and came into our cinema. We showed them an 11-minute video entitled "God's Plan" that is about families. They watched it and had tears streaming down their cheeks. After the video we explained that families are central to our church and to God's plan. We explained that the reason we have FHCs and search for our ancestors is so that we can be linked together through sacred ordinances forever. They were very moved and left with an English and an Italian Book of Mormon and information about how to have missionaries come and teach them more about the Plan. We were able to testify that they had taken a day off of work for a very important reason. It just wasn't the reason that they thought they were taking off for.

We've had a couple of interesting Sundays at the chapel as we have had lots of visitors and nonmembers attending church services. Three different wards (congregations) meet in the chapel and after one service got over one of our sister missionaries came and asked us if we'd seen a certain guest of their's who had come to church. We had seen him earlier but not recently. I asked why and they replied, "We've lost him." Just then he appeared in the VC with some new friends that he had made at church. The sisters were relieved that they hadn't lost him after all. They had been attending to other guests who had come to church and couldn't keep track of them all (a nice problem to have). Yesterday we had over 100 visitors to our church services and a good number of them were not members of our church.

With all that has been going on at the VC and with our young sister missionaries, we haven't been able to get out and do much more exploring or sightseeing in London. We have gone on a few walks and been able to see the beautiful flowers that have bloomed.

Flowers in St. James Park

Daffodils in Green Park

We also made a short visit to the British Museum and saw some more incredible artifacts--tapestries over 1,000 years old, sculptures from the 5th and 6th centuries, and the Rosetta Stone.

Our experience here continues to be incredible and we love being here.

We invite all of you to visit FollowHim.mormon.org and view the Easter videos and other items found at that website for Easter. We have been preparing at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre for the release of this video and website and are excited that it is here. We want to share it with the world.

We enjoyed another great week in London. We made a trip out to the London Temple for the first time. The temple is about 35 miles south of downtown London where we live and work. We took the Tube from the station near our flat to Victoria Station just 3 Tube stops away where there is a major railroad hub. There we bought our tickets to ride the Overground (as opposed to the Underground which is the Tube) out near the temple. We got on the train and enjoyed a quiet, comfortable ride for about an hour. We were privileged to have Elder Martin Lock, Director of the London Temple Visitors' Centre, pick us up at the train station. We have become fast friends with Elder and Sister Lock as they were with us at our training in Utah and flew to London on the same flight with us from Salt Lake City. Elder Lock not only picked us up and drove us to the temple but he and his wife (see the picture below) showed us around their VC and the temple grounds, took us to lunch and joined us in our temple session. The Temple sits in a beautiful spot in a much more rural area than we have previously experienced in England. The grounds are green and lush with some flowers in bloom. The temple is beautiful and the Celestial Room is particularly stunning.

We also enjoyed another great week with our VC. We had a steady stream of visitors this past week. They again came from all over. Some come in because they are curious, others because they are genuinely interested in learning more about our church. Rod helped some young elders teach a 21 year old student who is definitely interested in learning about the church. We also gave a tour to a man from Guinea who had lots of great questions and we had an employee from the university next door come in and stay for over two hours watching videos and asking questions. These kind of experiences make our service very worthwhile. We had two more baptisms in the VC this week as well.

The Science Museum next door invited us to a Private Viewing of one of their "pay exhibits" (the museum is free but some of their exhibits require paid admission) this week. The exhibit was entitled "Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age." There were only about 10 of us on our tour which was given by the lady in charge of procuring all of the artifacts on display. She had some great insights about all of the displays. Many of the items had never been on display to the public as Russia does not have many museums or places that they would display such historical items. She found many of the artifacts in homes of children and grandchildren of the original cosmonauts and scientists. Some were stored in corporate warehouses of the manufacturers who maintained ownership of the things that they had made. The artifacts included early drawings of space craft and possible journeys, actual space capsules and space suits, and replicas of some of the earliest space vehicles (which never returned to earth). It was a very interesting morning for us.

If you haven't seen the news report on an event that we mentioned in our blog a couple of weeks ago you might want to click on this link about the school children from the Science Museum who came into the VC to get out of the cold and to eat their lunches:
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.uk/article/hyde-park-visitors-centre-receives-evacuated-children-from-science-museum

This past week was our first experience with missionary transfers. Transfers for our whole mission took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. There were 11 missionaries who went home and 10 new missionaries coming out. We had one of our VC sisters who went home and that caused some shuffling in companionships for our VC sisters. All four of our companionships changed. But change can be good and so far everyone seems to be positive about the changes. The sister who went home is from Finland and we had one of our sisters who was serving full-time in a proselyting area come back into the VC. She is from Uganda and has a remarkable story of her conversion and her family's conversion. The international experience here is still unbelievable to us.

Even with transfers we did have a good week at the VC and had many guests come in for tours. We had a young man from Malaysia who is going to school across the street at Imperial College come in with a couple of his friends. He was very intrigued by our message and came back with two more friends three days later. He and one of his friends spent four years in the U.S. and graduated from Brown University. We had a father and his young daughter come in and were very taken by our message. They stayed for over 2 hours and want to know more. They are from China. We also had guests from Australia, Germany, Italy, France, New Calcedonia, and Poland this week (as well as the U.S. and the U.K.).

We didn't get to do any sightseeing this week as transfers and our administrative responsibilities took up much of our time. The Church is making several changes that affect us. One is that all missionary exchanges with mission leaders are now to be done in the leader's proselyting area rather than the missionary's area or splitting (one companionship to each area). The reason for this is so that the leader can show the other missionaries how the work is supposed to be done with their own investigators and members. These exchanges are for 24 hours which makes it difficult for our VC sisters to cover their assigned shifts at the VC (they have six-hour shifts every day). But we are making adjustments and it will work. Another change is with our sisters online teaching (VC sisters all over the world teach investigators online by telephone, email, and chat until missionaries in their local area can get to their homes to teach them). The software program that they have been using for years is being replaced. So that requires some extra training and adjustment as well. As we said earlier though, change can be good.

Although we didn't get to do any sightseeing this past week we did make some trips to other parts of London (by Tube and by bus). We still marvel at the intriguing buildings with multiple, tall chimneys and unique architecture along narrow, cobble-stoned streets. As we were walking back to our flat one time this week with the wind blowing and the light rain falling we marveled at how "Mary Poppins-ish"  it seemed as we tried to keep our umbrellas from opening up the wrong way. This experience sometimes feels a bit like a dream but we are loving it.

This has been a week of miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. Monday evening as we were at the VC a man came in and asked if his children could come in to the centre and get warm and use the rest room. One of their children had gone missing and they had notified the police who were helping them look for him but they didn't want to leave their other two children alone in the cold. We, of course, said sure and soon two children came into the VC by themselves. They explained that their brother who is 13 years old got separated when they were exploring some of the shops nearby. We chatted with the two kids for about an hour hoping and praying that this story would have a happy ending. Eventually the man walked back into the VC with the 13 year old boy who had been found. It was great to see the happy reunion.

On Wednesday the Science Museum that is across the street from the VC had an emergency that required the building to be evacuated. They had to leave the building before they could retrieve their coats and it was cold outside. Our missionaries looked out the window and saw Exhibition Road in front of the VC filling up with school children with no coats or jackets on. Eventually one of the adults with the children came and asked if they could come in and eat their sack lunches here. Of course, they said yes. So about 300 children and adults came into the VC and ate their lunches, used the bathrooms, and warmed up. The kids and the adults were very appreciative and a representative from the museum came over to thank us for "getting them out of a tough spot."

We also had miracles happen this week with language concerns. One was when we had two ladies from Italy come in who spoke very little English. We just happened to have a missionary meeting going on in another part of the building with a missionary from Italy attending. So she came out and helped us teach the gospel. Then another day we had a guest come in who only spoke Greek. Within minutes another man walked in and our missionary asked if he happened to speak Greek. He did and helped translate for the first man. The miracles just keep happening.

We were able to explore London a little more this week. We toured the Parliament Buildings in Westminster. It was amazing to stand beside the Big Ben Clock Tower and then go inside the House of Commons and the House of Lords. What history! What architecture! What artwork! You have to see it to believe it.

Parliament

Time is flying by. It seems we just wrote a post, yet it's been a week. We've had a very exciting week. We spent a lot of time in meetings this past week but have learned a lot about what we are supposed to do here and what other missionaries are doing.

Monday we worked our regular shift at the VC but then joined President & Sister Stevens (our mission president and his wife) for a night at the theater. We went to the Broadway show "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory." It was a great show and the scenery and special effects used to bring the story to life were great. And little Charlie did a great job with acting and singing. As good as the show was the real treat to us was spending the evening with President & Sister Stevens, getting to know them better. They have such vast church experience (President Stevens-former stake president and Mormon Tabernacle Choir member, Sister Stevens-former Counselor in General Primary Presidency). It is an honor to serve with them.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we went to missionary meetings with President & Sister Stevens and many of the young missionaries in our mission. It was great to learn from them and to understand more about what they do and what we should be doing in the VC. We also worked in the VC every day this past week. On Thursday we had additional training via Skype with leaders in Salt Lake. We are getting a much better vision of what we should be doing with the VC here.

This week we have had guests from Hong Kong and China, Italy, Australia, Japan, Germany, Venezuela, Turkey, Switzerland, and Mexico to name a few. We had another baptism at the VC tonight, this time a young lady from the Philippines who is living here in London. We really are seeing the growth of the church all over the world from right here in London.

We ventured out again one afternoon and managed to find Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Trafalgar Square to name a few of the famous places we saw. We also made it to a couple of museums and just scratched the surface of what is in those museums. There is so much to see and do here. We love being here.

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben