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