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.