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.