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