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.