We can’t believe how the time is flying by. July is almost over. What a month July has been for us at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre. We have welcomed many guests to the centre, have had a good number of people interested in learning more about our church, had some incredible visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel, and we’ve had a small hand in a record number of baptisms. What a blessing it is to serve here in London at this particular time.

We are on pace to have over 4,000 visitors to the VC for the month. This is by far the most visitors we have had in a month since we have been here. And based on reports of months prior to our arrival it is probably the most that have ever visited in a single month. I’m not sure that this is anything that we are doing as it is summer vacation time and the Lord is just prompting many people to come into the VC. Getting people in the door is one thing but helping them to come closer to Christ is what our work is all about. That’s why when we have guests who are interested in learning more and we can send a referral for missionaries to teach them then we have a great feeling of success. In the month of July our sisters have sent over 250 referrals to local missionaries. That means that there are likely over 250 sets of missionaries who are going to have someone to teach without knocking on a door or talking to them on the street. They have requested missionaries to come and teach them.

We have seen the fruits of having many visitors come into the VC and sending many referrals all over the world. We have already learned of 12 baptisms in July where our sisters have had some role in the convert’s progression. We have had baptisms in Canada, Florida, Virginia, Wisconsin, Utah, Madagascar, Australia, Malawi, Taiwan, and London. There are even some more scheduled for this week.

We’ve had a number of prominent visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel recently. Yesterday President Clark Gilbert of BYU-Idaho came to church at the Hyde Park Chapel with his family. The previous Sunday Neill F. Marriott, 2^nd Counselor in the Young Women’s General Presidency of the Church, came to the Hyde Park Chapel with her husband (you will know Sister Marriott when you hear her strong Southern accent). She and her husband spoke at a fireside here in the chapel that evening. We also have had numerous visits from Brother Marvin Gardner, a former member of the Church Music Committee responsible for our current hymnbook, and his wife. Brother Gardner is teaching a BYU Study Abroad class here at the chapel so he comes in several times a week. It has been a great blessing to be able to visit privately and casually with these great church leaders.

Although we have been busy, we haven’t just worked the past few weeks. We went to the musical entitled “Beautiful” which is a Broadway show about the life and music of Carole King. The show was great and the music even better. We visited the Tower of London for a third time and continue to find very interesting and historical things to see there (like the Bloody Tower where two child princes are alleged to have been killed and the White Tower where the history goes back over 1,000 years). We also continue to enjoy walks in the parks. On one of our recent walks we stopped to look at the wild parakeets that live in Hyde Park. Rod held out his hand and you can see the result in the pictures below. 

We had another busy two weeks since we last posted. We had shifts at the VC for eight straight days as we filled in for some sisters who went on exchanges with their Sister Training Leaders (STLs). We're not complaining about serving everyday but it gets difficult to do some of the other things (like interviews and planning meetings) that we need to do at the VC if we are on shift every day.

Last week we were privileged to have Elder Patrick Kearon, General Authority Seventy and Europe Area President, with us at the Hyde Park Chapel for three days along with his wife, Karen. They did a mission tour which amounted to all of the missionaries in our mission coming to the chapel. It was great to hear them teach and interact with the missionaries and leaders. Last Friday we were able to attend a meeting with President & Sister Stevens, the Assistants to the President, the zone leaders of our mission, and STLs of our mission where Elder & Sister Kearon instructed us. It was a remarkable morning as they shared some very personal and powerful things. In an intimate setting like that you get to experience the human side of these leaders.

The month of June ended with some great results at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre. We had 8 baptisms for the month of June and welcomed over 3,500 visitors to the chapel (we don't count members who live here and come to the chapel for church or other regular meetings nor do we count full-time missionaries. If we counted those we'd have reported over 5,000 coming to the chapel). Our sisters sent out over 200 referrals as a result of guests coming to the VC and wanting to know more or interactions they have online with people wanting to be taught the gospel. The worldwide nature of the work here in London continues to amaze me. We have visitors from all over the world come into the VC and our sisters teach people all over the world online.

As you might guess from our schedule of the past two weeks we didn't get many chances to go sightseeing or exploring. We did go on a few walks, however, and the parks and gardens are still beautiful. We have been told that summer does come in London but so far it has only been winter- and spring-like. Our high temperatures have only been in the low 70's and we find that we are wearing coats or jackets most of the time. So while many of you in the U.S. are sweltering in heat we are wondering if we'll ever be able to put our coats and jackets away. Again, we're not complaining because it really is very nice but it is a bit strange to see that it is the 4th of July and we are still donning our jackets. And speaking of the 4th of July, this is just a regular day here. There doesn't seem to be any celebrating going on. Go figure;>).