The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of great experiences and a lot of work. We enjoyed a visit from Rod’s brother and his wife (Carl & Shanna) from The Woodlands, Texas which gave us a good excuse to do some sightseeing. We sent our VC sister from Uganda home after fulfilling a great mission here in London and welcomed two new sisters—one from mainland China and one from South Korea. We’ve enjoyed several leadership meetings including a visit from Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife Jan.

We were able to spend almost two full days with Rod’s brother and his wife. They arrived in London on Monday, August 29^th, but toured on their own until Friday when we were able to take a preparation day and do some sightseeing. We took the train out to Windsor Castle and enjoyed a great day out there. We experienced the ancient history that Windsor Castle has had and were told about the current history as the Castle still is home to the Queen and other royalty many times during the year. 

On Saturday, after our weekly training meeting and doing some work at the Visitors’ Centre we were able to join them again for a walking tour of London. We went to St. James’s Palace, St. James’s Park, Horse Guards Parade, the Banqueting House, Big Ben, Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey, the Sky Garden, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the London Wall. 

Flowers at St. James's Park

Big Ben at Night

On our walk we came across a large barge in the Thames River that had a newly made wooden replica of the London skyline of 1666.

 It turned out that the Great Fire of London that burned much of the city to the ground happened 350 years ago. To recognize that anniversary the city held many events including a domino event where thousands of concrete blocks about 3” X 6” X 20” were lined up throughout the area where the fire burned. At 6:30 Saturday night they started the dominoes falling. They covered 7 kilometres and were quite a sight (we only saw them set up waiting for the event but watched the event on the internet). On Sunday night they set the wooden skyline replica on fire and burned it to the ground in the middle of the Thames River. Again, it was quite a sight to see (we saw the wooden replica on Saturday night and watched it burn down on the internet on Sunday night).

On Wednesday, September 7^th, we welcomed Sister Zeng from Sichuan, China and Sister Jung from South Korea to our VC staff. They are great sisters and add to our international family at the VC. That same day we said goodbye to Sister Apiyo who returned home to Gulu, Uganda after serving a wonderful mission with us here in London at the Visitors’ Centre. She returned home to meet the ten recent converts in her home ward (see previous post) that she had a role with as she taught one of them online and was Facebook friends with several others. Our sister who has been in the hospital was also able to return home to Utah where she can be with her family and receive medical care there.

This past weekend we were honored to have Elder W. Craig Zwick and his wife Jan visit us. They spoke at a multi-zone conference for our missionaries held in the Hyde Park Chapel. Sister Zwick told us about their experiences as mission president in South America years ago. Elder Zwick told us about meeting with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve on the fourth floor of the Salt Lake Temple just ten days earlier. He said the Brethren pray for the missionaries every week in their meeting in the temple. Sunday morning we were able to greet Elder & Sister Zwick as they arrived for church at the Hyde Park Chapel. Elder Zwick spoke at the Hyde Park 1^st Ward sacrament meeting today. Elder Zwick’s twin sister is our mission secretary and she and her husband complete their missions next week.

We had four convert baptisms at the Hyde Park Chapel last weekend. Our sisters continue to teach a lot of people and we still have many people come into the VC who want to know more about the Church. Our sisters also continue to do a great work online as they respond to requests from Mormon.org and teach people all over the world. We had online baptisms in Ogden, Utah and in North Carolina last week. What a privilege it is to be involved in this great latter-day work!