December 7, 2017

Our blog has gotten bogged down it seems. As anyone can tell we haven’t made an entry for quite some time. We are still on our mission and there has definitely been plenty to write about. We’ve just had no time to write.

On September 19^th Elder and Sister Keller completed their mission as a senior couple in the visitors’ center. Their replacements, Elder and Sister Hertz, didn’t arrive until October 13^th. That meant that we had us and one other senior couple, the Mullen’s, to cover the VC shifts from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. seven days a week. Then the Mullen’s completed their mission on November 8^th and their replacements won’t arrive until December 14^th. So the past month we have been operating the VC with just our young sisters and one other senior couple who are still pretty new.

Since September 19^th we have not had many days off and since November 8^th we have not had any days off. We are not complaining because we love what we do and where we are but the schedule doesn’t allow much time for us to do some optional things like write a blog entry.

Through all the busyness we continue to have great experiences. The miracles we see continue almost every day. We have welcomed Sister Leppenan from Finland who arrived on September 20^th. On October 24^th we welcomed Sister Gomez from Spain. And on December 5^th we welcomed Sister Chiang from Taiwan. Our international staff that we are privileged to work with is just amazing.

While working a lot at the VC we also have been working with the Missionary Department regarding the online work that our sisters do. In consultation with our mission president the Missionary Department has asked that we expand the online work in the Hyde Park Chapel to be done by non-VC missionaries. The Missionary Department and our mission president asked us if we would oversee the new Digital Proselyting Center and train the additional missionaries assigned to assist with this work. We are glad to help but this has added to the workload that we have already carried, again leaving little time for much else. The online work of responding to requests through Mormon.org is increasing. The church is planning to release a significant social media campaign in the beginning of next year and we are to handle the increase requests coming in.

On December 1^st we started our live nativity in front of the chapel. This is the 3^rd year in a row for the visitors’ center to put on the live nativity. Local members and some of our missionaries put on period costumes and represent Joseph and Mary using a life-like doll for Baby Jesus. They sit in a stable built by the Missionary Department that is constructed over a raised planter box that provides a great “stage” for all on Exhibition Road to be able to see. We will do this nightly through December 23^rd. We have had hundreds of people stop for a look and to take a photo. It is a great way to share the Christmas spirit with thousands of people here in London.

December 18, 2017

We never got the above entry published and since then our lives have changed yet again. The senior couple scheduled to arrive on December 14^th never made it and have been released from their mission. We got that word early on December 14^th and have been scrambling to figure out what to do. Our concern isn’t so much for us (although this just means we will be crazy busy the rest of our mission) but for the new director and his wife who will be arriving on January 13^th. Our mission president and the Missionary Department have been working hard to find us a replacement couple quickly. It has been interesting to see the Lord’s hand in this situation. Once a solution is found we will try and update you on the miracles and tender mercies that happened.

We want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are so grateful for our knowledge of a Savior. We are honored to be in His full-time service. We will not be sending any cards or letters to all of our friends and loved ones this Christmas. So those of you who read this blog please tell others about it so that they can get updated on our lives and learn of our Christmas greeting.

Happy Christmas to all as they say here in England!

We are in a season of change here in London. There are changes in the weather as well as the environment. There are also changes in our mission and at the visitors’ center. A time of change can be refreshing and an opportunity for a new start but also can be a time of concern and adjustment.

Tourist season has ended here which doesn’t mean that there aren’t any tourists, because there are always tourists here. But the first of September there seems to be a dramatic change in the number of tourists. The queues (lines) at the museums have disappeared and the number of guests coming into the VC has declined dramatically. Most schools here and in America are back in session and that brings a lot of changes all by itself. The weather also has turned cooler and wetter and Fall is definitely in the air.

The England London Mission is going through some significant changes as our mission president is trying to change the plateau that we have been on for convert baptisms. He has been working hard to change the way missionaries view their work and do their work. It starts with finding people to teach and then requires those people to progress through the conversion process. Up until a few months ago this mission was finding about 250 to 300 new people to teach each week (that may sound like a lot but we have almost 200 missionaries which means they were finding only 2 or 3 new people per companionship). The past few months our mission has been averaging over 400 new people to teach per week and one week last month they exceeded 600. This has shown our missionaries that they can do more. Now the challenge is to help these people to progress. One of the key indicators of that is how many attend church. Our mission has had about 120 to 140 investigators attending church each week. A week ago last Sunday they had almost 200 at church. These are some dramatic improvements that should result in an increase in conversion and an increase in baptisms in the future. It is exciting to see these changes.

At the visitors’ center we continue to deal with change. We are still settling in to a schedule with 10 sisters working in the VC instead of 8 but this change is definitely good. Further changes are starting next week as one of our senior couples completes their mission and we prepare for a replacement. The Keller’s have served faithfully and well over the past twelve months and we are grateful for their service. Their last shift at the VC will be next Monday. We have had some shuffling to replace them as the couple originally scheduled to come will not be coming. So a new couple has been called but they won’t arrive until December. Our other senior couple, the Mullen’s, complete their mission in early November and their replacements have agreed to come earlier than originally scheduled to help fill the gap. We don’t know exactly when they will arrive but we expect them in mid-October. So these next three months will be interesting as we will likely be a little short-handed for some periods of time. But we will get through it.

 

Our VC senior couples--left to right, Mullen's, Hulet's, President & Sister Stevens, and Keller's

The work continues to thrive here at the visitors’ center. Even though tourist season is over we still have lots of guests come to the VC. In fact, the end of tourist season seems to have more impact on church members coming to the VC than on nonmembers. The number of people not of our faith coming in off the street to learn more continues strong. For instance, a couple of weeks ago we had a man come into the VC who said that he was taught by missionaries twenty years ago and wanted to join the church. But he was addicted to alcohol and tobacco and wasn’t able to kick those habits. But he now has been alcohol free for two years and hasn’t had a cigarette in two months and he feels that he is ready to join the church. Another recent miracle occurred last Monday night as a young family was standing in front of the chapel in the cold wind and rain. So we invited them to come in where it is warm, which they did. The wife did not speak English but the husband did. They are from Pakistan and are living in England while the husband goes to school here. One of our VC sister missionaries saw another sister missionary walking through the VC who is from Pakistan. She invited this missionary to come meet our guests which she did. They began speaking in Urdu and the family just lit up. They were so excited to speak their native language with someone else and had never heard about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ before. They left with a copy of the Book of Mormon in Urdu and filled out one of our guest cards requesting to meet with missionaries. What a miracle to have Sister Khan (the sister missionary from Pakistan) in the VC right at that critical time!

The reason that Sister Khan was in London that night was that we were having a mission conference the next day (yesterday). This was a somewhat impromptu mission conference as it only started to be planned a week ago. Elder Jeffery R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was in London this past weekend participating in a conference at Windsor Castle on religious discrimination. He ended up having a little time Tuesday morning (September 12^th) before his flight back to Salt Lake. So he agreed to come and speak to our mission. So yesterday morning the entire mission came to London for an 8:00 a.m. meeting. Elder Holland joined us about 8:30 and shook everyone’s hand. Then he spoke to us for over an hour and a half. He is such an amazing speaker—humorous, personal, spiritual, and powerful. Space here does not permit us to share all that he taught us but two overarching messages he gave were how much he and the other Apostles love the full-time missionaries and that this work is true! He told us that we share the Apostolic charge given by the Savior to “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.” He said that we are apostles like him but he has a capital “A” and we have a lower case “a”. He also told us that he is not dedicating his life to a “fairy tale!” This work is the work of God and is led by Jesus Christ himself. Doubters may doubt and critics may criticize but that will not change that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth in its fullness. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the institution that God has directed to carry out this great latter-day work where essential saving ordinances are performed by authorized representatives of Jesus Christ. He concluded his teaching by saying that his intention is that when he is on his death bed, even if he can only whisper, he will declare to anyone who will listen that this church is true! It was a spiritual and powerful morning.

Although we are full-time missionaries we do occasionally have some time to see more things in London. A couple of weeks ago we went out to Wimbledon and toured the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club where the world famous Wimbledon Tennis Tournament is held. The tournament took place in July and the courts were now under renovation for next year. It was fascinating to not only see the famous courts and stadiums but to see the process of renovating the lawn courts that takes place each year. On another day we also stopped into the British Library where many rare and historical documents are housed. We were able to view one of four remaining original Magna Cartas from 1215 A.D. We also viewed an original Tyndale Bible, a Wycliffe Bible and an early King James Bible. Also on display were original transcripts of Shakespeare, original scores of Mozart and the Beatles, and many other incredible documents. Last week we learned that 4-year-old Prince George was beginning school at a school just across the Thames River from us. So we went on our walk past the school on that first day of school. We didn’t see any of the Royal Family but we did find the street lined with news crews and paparazzi. Sometimes we feel like we are in a dream. We are definitely “living the dream.” 

It looks like a monthly entry to our blog is the best that we will be able to do for the rest of our mission. There just doesn’t seem to be time to post things more frequently.

We have had a pretty steady month just focusing on our missionary work and incorporating the expansion of our visitors’ center staff. We were scheduled to go from eight sisters in the VC to ten at tranfers on August 2^nd. Unfortunately, our new sister coming from the MTC in Provo was delayed because of her visa not arriving in time. But on Saturday, August 5^th, Sister Brown from Highland, Utah joined our VC family. She has jumped right in and is doing a great job. We have had two weeks now with five companionships in the VC. Things have gone reasonably well and we definitely feel that more missionary work is being done with our expanded staff. However, we still are working out the logistics and flows of having three companionships on shift for a good chunk of the day.

We ended the month of July with over 4,500 visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel VC. Of those, almost 1,400 took tours. Our sisters sent over 1,200 referrals to local missionaries and we learned of 29 more people who were baptized who our sisters have been involved with. We have been particularly pleased that some of those baptisms have been in our sisters’ local proselyting areas and are people that we have gotten to know personally. It is so rewarding to see the happiness that results from embracing the gospel and following Jesus Christ.

So far in August we have had a significant drop off in visitors to the VC but those taking tours have remained quite high. We also see our sisters sending lots of referrals to local missionaries and we are once again seeing double digit baptisms for the month. The drop-off in the number of visitors is largely due to local members going on “holiday” (vacation) and many of the Young Single Adults leaving the area for the summer. BYU-Idaho Pathway is over for the school year and the Self-Reliance Center in the building has closed for a few weeks (the self-reliance missionary couple concluded their mission and their replacement isn’t due to arrive until late September). So August ends up being a very different month than June or July but the tourists are still here and that helps the number of tours remain high.

We haven’t stayed at the chapel the entire time of this last month. We got out to see a few more sites of London. We went to the Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. It is a beautiful large hall that has paintings from floor to ceiling and on all of the ceiling. It is undergoing renovation though and so the building is filled with scaffolding. They don’t want to deter the tourists (or lose the revenue) so they are giving guided tours of the hall and take you up on the scaffolding where you can examine the paintings up close. It was actually pretty neat.

We went to a couple of different shows. We have heard about “Promming” at Royal Albert Hall but hadn’t experienced it. So we decided we should. Proms are only offered in the summer time and they are classical music performances by a wide array of artists and composers. We decided to go to a performance of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma.” The full musical was presented at Royal Albert Hall with costumes and props but no sets or backgrounds. The background was the Jim Wilson Symphony Orchestra. So the musical includes not just a few instruments being played in the “Orchestra Pit” at a theater but a full live orchestra. It was a very good show. We also went to see the oldest running theater presentation in the world. It is called “Mousetrap” and is a murder/mystery stage show that is quite entertaining.

We have had only a few visitors coming to see us the past month. Connie’s uncle and aunt, Larry and Betsy West, from Utah stopped in for a visit. We had a visit from Dale, Velma and Valerie Pedroche and from Jeff and Jackie Lloyd from our ward back in California. And we have had a couple of our former VC sisters (Sister Croft and Sister Griffeth) come visit with some of their family members.

We also had a visit to the Hyde Park Chapel from one of our leaders from the Missionary Department. Brother Mark Lusvardi who is the Director of Public Programs came for a Friday, Saturday and Sunday visit. He came to England with Elder Ballard and attended the British Pageant up in Preston. Brother Lusvardi is responsible for all pageants, open houses, visitors’ centers and historic sites for the Church. We enjoyed an evening out with him and his wife on Friday and then he did some training with the entire VC staff on Saturday. He and his wife attended church at the chapel on Sunday before heading to Rome Sunday afternoon. That same Sunday we also enjoyed a visit from Elder Kevin Hamilton and his wife. Elder Hamilton is a General Authority Seventy currently serving as Africa Southeast Area President. Elder Hamilton and Rod served together in Public Affairs back in California a few years ago before his call as a General Authority.

It has been a long time since we updated our blog. Sorry about that. However, we have been doing good things. Our daughter, Julie, and her family completed their visit with us the end of June and then our oldest son, Brian, and his wife visited us for 10 days earlier this month. We had a delightful time with all of our family who have come to visit but it makes keeping up with our missionary work a bit of a challenge. So things like blog writing definitely got sacrificed.

Let’s give you an update on the missionary work at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Center. Things have been going well and we marvel at the Lord’s hand involved in the work here. Our sisters continue to do great things here from giving tours in the VC, to working online, to finding success in their proselyting areas. We welcomed over 4,000 visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel for the second month in a row (July will definitely make three months in a row of over 4,000 visitors) and we were able to teach almost 1,200 of them. Teaching visitors who come into the chapel (giving tours) is our highest priority. When not giving tours our sisters are generally on our computers working online. They are picking up requests from people visiting Mormon.org and inviting all to meet with local missionaries and learn more about Christ’s restored gospel. They are picking up thousands of requests and sending over 1,000 referrals to local missionaries each month. Our sisters work six hours per day in the VC but are still expected to be productive missionaries in their proselyting areas. This is a challenge as their available time in their areas is very limited. But two of our four sets of VC sisters have had baptisms in their areas this month and a 3^rd companionship has a baptism scheduled for next Saturday. This is very gratifying for us to see them succeed not only in the VC but in their areas as well.

As we have seen our sisters succeed in many areas we have been asked by our leaders in Salt Lake to increase the number of sisters in our VC. They have asked us to increase by more than double but we have recommended that we just add one additional companionship and see how things go with that. So in just over a week that increase will take place. We have needed to make a lot of preparations for this change including figuring out schedules, storage space, living quarters, and so forth. We now feel that we are ready and look forward to seeing what our sisters can do with one additional companionship to help with the work. The big need for the additional set of sisters is to try and have four sisters online from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm our time. As mentioned in an earlier post, our VC is the only English-speaking visitors’ center in the world online from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. In order to respond timely to requests made through Mormon.org it is essential that we have sisters online during those times.

We have been privileged to have a number of well-known people come to the Hyde Park Chapel recently. On June 16^th, Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to the chapel and spoke to all of the missionaries in the England London Mission. He was accompanied by his wife, Kathy, and Elder Patrick Kearon, President of the Europe Area of the Church, along with his wife, Jennifer. We have also enjoyed visits to the chapel from the Piano Guys (they just came to church, not to perform—they performed at Royal Albert Hall the evening before), Elder Ian Ardern, General Authority Seventy, Jimmy Osmond of the Osmond Brothers, Matthew Holland, president of Utah Valley University and son of Elder Jeffery R. Holland, and PGA golf great Gary Player. This is such a unique visitors’ center where we get to welcome so many different people from all over the world.

We were delighted with the time that we had with our kids and grandkids. Julie and Josh and their kids returned from Paris as scheduled and we were able to spend another week-plus with them. We got them tickets to attend the “Space Spectacular” featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall and then another night to attend the Broadway Musical “Lion King” at a West End theater. We took a day away from the VC and went with them out to Dover and viewed the White Cliffs of Dover and toured the Dover Castle. It was a fascinating place with tunnels into the cliffs from medieval times as well as from World War II times. Julie and Josh went on an overnight trip to Belgium and left their kids with us. We had a great time with just us and four of our grandchildren—playing in the parks, going to museums, and watching videos in the VC. This was a real treat for us to be able to do while on our mission. The time came all too quickly to say goodbye but we enjoyed having them here.

A week after we said goodbye to Julie and her family, Brian and Sherrie arrived for a 10-day stay with us. Once again we toured them all around London. We went to most of the “normal” tourist attractions (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, Notting Hill) and also walked by Wimbledon as the famous tournament was going on while they were here. We heard that you could go to the Wimbledon Grounds and sit on the lawn and watch the matches on the big outdoor video screens. What we didn’t know is that you still needed to buy tickets for 25 GBPs and the queue (the line) was over 6,000 people long and required waiting for hours. We opted for a walk around the outside of the stadiums and enjoyed the atmosphere of those with tickets going to the matches. We took Brian and Sherrie to the Broadway Musical “Phantom of the Opera” at a West End theater and took them through parks and alleys and passageways. London is such an intriguing city but you really have to leave the regular tourist stops in order to get a full appreciation of this city. We consider ourselves very blessed to be able to spend two years here.

The Josh Brunner Family with the White Cliffs of Dover

Elliza, Clark, Lily & Madelyn
with scooters at Royal Albert Memorial

Madelyn, Lily & Clark with a
Peacock strutting his stuff

Sherrie at the colorful Neal's Yard

Time keeps marching on. We have enjoyed visits from two of our kids and their families since our last entry. Brent, Chelsy, Clara, Greyson and Haven came from Kingwood, Texas for a week the end of May. What an undertaking by Brent and Chelsy to make the long plane trip with a 4-year-old and twenty-month old twins. But they did it! And we are so grateful for them. Their visit was amazing. We were on the go every day almost all day. We visited the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Leadenhall Market, Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Park, Green Park, the Banqueting House, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Natural History Museum, Hampton Court Palace and the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre. We rode trains, tubes (subways), and double decker busses. Although the kids tagged along to most all of those sites they clearly preferred the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, and the Magic Garden at Hampton Court Palace. We were on the go a lot but were also able to just be together and play. It was a lot of fun!

Haven, Greyson & Clara at the VC

Gramma, Greyson & Haven at the Fountain

Haven & Greyson in the Fountain

The Brent Hulet Family waiting for the Tube

We had a week to “rest” and do laundry before our next visitors came. Julie, Josh and their family arrived on June 6^th from West Jordan, Utah. We have had a wonderful week with them visiting many of the same places that we took Brent and his family. Their kids also love the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (it is just a short walk from our flat) and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. But their highlight seems to be feeding the wild parakeets in Kensington Gardens. They have been three different times to feed them and want to go some more. They are currently in France touring around Paris and Versaille. They left London on Tuesday and will return tomorrow night (Friday). They will then spend another ten days with us before returning to Utah. So we are planning a lot more fun.

The Josh Brunner Family at Hampton Court Palace

Madelyn & Elliza feeding the parakeets

Lest you think that we have suddenly gone on vacation instead of being on a mission, we have also had plenty of missionary work to do. Salt Lake has directed that our small office be “remodeled” and turned into a “teaching centre.” This is to help accommodate our sisters spending more time online responding to requests through Mormon.org and teaching people interested in the church. The goal is to eventually refer these interested people to missionaries in their local area where they can be taught more and, ideally, be baptised. The remodel consisted of relocating our cupboards from one wall to another, installing an air conditioner, and building a desktop for our computers to sit on and our sisters to work at. The office is only 2.5 metres by 3 metres but the work our sisters are doing there is amazing. Last month they taught over 1,000 people, sent over 1,200 referrals to local missionaries, and rejoiced with 30 of their online friends who got baptised (note that the baptisms still have to take place in person so our sisters can’t baptise them over the internet;>).

It is definitely tourist season in London. This is great for the visitors’ centre as the number of visitors increases substantially. We have a lot of American tourists who come to the chapel but we also have a significant number of people from other countries. This past week we have had visitors from Spain, Portugal, Poland, Bulgaria, France, Italy and Thailand. These visitors make it very exciting to serve in the visitors’ centre. Some are only curious, some have a mild interest, and a few are very interested to learn about our church and what we believe.

We apologize for taking so long to give an update on our activities here in London. We don’t have any good excuse. We just have been busy with lots of things going on. We’ll do our best to fill you in on what we’ve been doing.

Shortly after our last post we enjoyed a two-week visit from Connie’s sister, Dixie, and her husband, Mark, accompanied by their parents. We kept them busy seeing England and wore them out but had a great time. They scheduled their visit so that they could take a quick trip over to the new Paris Temple which was holding an open house. Sadly, we were not able to accompany them there but we have received many first-hand reports from those who visited the temple of its beauty and spirit. Mark served a mission here in England (a little north of London in Coventry) many years ago and so he and Dixie made an overnight trip to his former mission area. Beyond those “side trips” we showed them around London with many of the traditional tourist sites as well as a few hidden gems.

Buckingham Palace

Kew Gardens

Hampton Court Palace

Much of our busyness of the past month has been dealing with a requested increase of online work. In order to accomplish the work requested, Salt Lake had our small office remodeled and we added two new desktop computers to it. We can now have four sisters at a time online which we have tried to do from 9:00 in the morning when we open until 4:00 in the afternoon. That window of time is critical as the New Zealand VC finishes their day at 10:00 our time and Temple Square begins their day at 4:00 our time. Between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. our sisters are generally the only VC sisters online in the world responding to Mormon.org requests. This process of VC sisters responding to Mormon.org requests is still relatively new and we have been on the frontlines helping Salt Lake to improve the computer programs used and to help all of us understand some of the challenges of dealing with the online requests (responding appropriately to “trolls,” answering some tough doctrinal questions, dealing with members who want help with things that should be going through their home teacher or bishop, helping navigate through anti-Mormon questions, resolving technology issues, etc.). It is exciting to see the work that is being done and rejoice in the successes that our sisters are a part of. They have sent over 5,000 referrals to local missionaries so far this year and we have learned of almost 60 baptisms from these referrals.

Baptisms at the Hyde Park Chapel

With the increased attention on our online work we have not neglected the guests who come into the VC. We have actually had more guests come to the VC this year than last year and our sisters and couples are doing a great job of welcoming them and teaching them. We have learned about and experienced story after story of people coming into the VC who are prepared to hear the gospel. We had a man come into the VC on a Thursday evening and Connie gave him a tour. He wore a hoody sweatshirt and was unshaven but he seemed genuinely interested in the gospel. On Sunday that same man came to church and Connie greeted him. He was in a white shirt and tie and clean shaven. He said that he was baptized here in London many years ago but hadn’t been to church in over 8 years. He is getting married in three weeks and wants to change his life. His finance has now been to church and is meeting with missionaries to learn more.

Just a few days ago one of our inspired missionaries saw a couple standing outside the VC and felt prompted to go invite them in. They cautiously came in and were told about our church. They shared that they were reluctant to come in because they had each had a dream about walking by a church and being invited to come in. When this sister missionary went out and invited them in they were in quiet shock. They have requested to meet with missionaries to learn more and have referred a friend of theirs who is also interested.

These experiences of small and mighty miracles are happening more and more. It is humbling to serve here and witness the Lord’s hand touching people’s lives and moving throughout the world. Our sisters have not only rejoiced with friends who have been baptized here at the Hyde Park Chapel (16 convert baptisms here in the chapel so far this year) but with online friends who have been baptized in Ghana, Malaysia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and Italy as well as elsewhere in England and in the U.S. What a marvelous work is rolling forth! We are honored to be involved in a small way.

Life here in London continues to provide new experiences and challenges. Shortly after our last post, the terrorist attack became much more personal as we learned that one of the victims who died was here in London to visit his in-laws who were serving a mission for the Church. As this news broke we weren’t immediately impacted as the in-laws were serving at the London Temple which is not part of our mission. So we did not know the missionary couple. However, shortly after news of the connection to the Church became public we began getting inquiries at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre. We had a BBC news crew show up at the VC looking to get a story about the missionaries. We had phone inquiries at the VC from the Daily Mail, ITV, BBC Radio Today Show and others that we hadn’t even heard of before. KSL-TV from Salt Lake City also sent a reporter and cameraman to London and they came to the VC a couple of times and filmed in front of the chapel. We still don’t know the missionary couple whose family were involved but they did come to church at the Hyde Park Chapel the Sunday after the tragedy. So we greeted them as we do all of the other visitors each Sunday and only learned afterward that they were the family of the victims.

We have been blessed with a lot of visitors to the VC the past few weeks. We are not sure what the increase in visitors is due to but we are grateful for them. They are why we are here. We also have experienced an increased urgency from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake to get our sisters to spend more time online responding to online requests (Mormon.org) about the Church. We are also grateful for that increase in work. The increase in visitors and the increase in online work makes our work very busy. We are responsible to see that all of our guests are welcomed and taught the gospel and we are to see that our sisters are sending referrals and teaching the gospel online as well. Anyone who is not aware that the Lord is hastening His work can be so informed now. This is exciting.

It is not all work and no play here either. We have experienced some beautiful weather this Spring which we didn’t really see last year. We have had a good number of sunny days and some temperatures that almost allow you to go outside without a jacket or coat (almost but not quite for Connie as she is almost always freezing when she is outside). We’ve enjoyed some beautiful walks through the parks and neighborhoods. The trees in bloom and the flowers in abundance are stunning.

We also found a new treasure to add to our list of incredible historic places here. We went to Hampton Court Palace which is now one of our favorite places to recommend visitors go and see. It is a marvelous old palace with beautifully manicured grounds and many elegant buildings and courtyards. We haven’t explored it all yet but we plan to go back.

The figures on this table are all folded napkins!

We also went to the Imperial War Museum which has exhibits that provide a wealth of history about World War I and World War II. It is very different to learn about these great conflicts through different viewpoints than we were taught in school (in the U.S.). When the bombing and battles are taking place on your home soil and at nearby neighbors the impact is much different than a war that was fought “overseas.” 

I can’t believe it has been a month since our last blog entry. We continue to find ourselves busy and pausing to write an entry seems to take a backseat. We are well and still enjoying our time here in London. The events of yesterday that made worldwide news reminded us of how we often take things for granted. The terrorist attack occurred not far from where we live and work (about 3 miles) and we have visited the area many times. Being here in London at the time of the mayhem made it a lot more personal, but still, we were never concerned for our safety or the safety of our missionaries.

Our work is very enjoyable. We have spent a lot more time this past month working with our sisters and the other two senior couples in using the visitors’ centre more effectively. Our sisters do an amazing job in using our exhibits and teaching the gospel. But we can all always do better. We are impressed with how our sisters seem to be able to start teaching the gospel from the moment they arrive in the VC. We have learned, though, that they have lots of questions about how to handle certain situations which we are now trying to help them with.

We have had some great experiences recently. A young Chinese man came into the VC on February 11^th. He admitted that he didn’t know much of anything about God or religion but wanted to learn. Last Sunday he was baptised. Last weekend the brother of the man from Rancho Cucamonga that we mentioned in our last entry was baptised here in London. And last Monday we received a letter at the VC (we hardly ever get a letter from our guests) which said:

“I came to the Hyde Park Chapel on 4 March 2017 to find out more information on the Book of Mormon and was given a copy.” He indicated that he has read the book and found out for himself that it is true. Then he wrote, “I have decided to become a Mormon. The missionaries are coming to see me on Saturday March 25^th. I will also be attending the Sunday service at 10 am.”

Such experiences make our efforts all worthwhile. We never know who is going to walk through our doors and we never know how lives will be changed by walking through our doors. But often we learn of some of those people and how their lives are changed. We never force anyone to listen to us nor do we ask them to just believe us. We invite them to find out for themselves.  

We also continue to witness the “hastening of the Lord’s work” through our sisters’ online work. They respond to thousands of requests from Mormon.org. This month they will send more than 1,000 referrals to local missionaries. We have learned that hundreds of those who are referred to local missionaries are being taught the gospel. And since the first of this year we have learned of more than 20 of those have been baptised.

We continue to have many interesting people visit the VC. Recently Jimmy Osmond and his wife and daughter stopped by. They were here in England meeting up with Jimmy’s brothers, Jay and Alan, for some performances. Last Sunday and yesterday Elder Carl B. Pratt, emeritus General Authority Seventy, came by before departing for a temple mission to Panama. We also had a great mission tour a couple of weeks ago from Elder Alan T. Phillips of the Seventy. It was great to be with him as he lives here and his family attends church here every week.

Rod’s brother, Carl, and his family came for a visit last week and we were able to do some fun things with them. We showed them around London and visited many of the traditional sites (Big Ben, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, etc.). Carl arranged for a private tour into the countryside of England. We were able to join them for a trip to Salisbury Cathedral where one of the original copies of the Magna Carta is housed. 

Salisbury Cathedral

We went to the famous Stonehenge and stood among those huge stones that have stood for millennia. And we visited a site we had never heard of before called Avebury. We saw quaint homes and buildings with beautiful thatched roofs and beautiful farms. The real attraction, however, was another stone circle similar to Stonehenge but much larger and much more complete (with many more stones than at Stonehenge). We learned that there are more than 600 of these ancient stone circles in England.

Stonehenge

Avebury

The daffodils and other flowers are beginning to bloom here which makes the parks look incredible. The daffodils just spring up in the grass with no planting or maintenance. They don’t bloom long, but right now they are amazing.

The past few weeks have been rather uneventful but have still been full of miracles and fun. Perhaps we are becoming casual when we say that miracles are uneventful. But it has been a great few weeks with nothing too dramatic to deal with or experience. We’ve had no evacuations or large groups of visitors to the VC and no recent visits to London from family or friends. We have had a couple of high profile visitors to the chapel but that has become somewhat common-place. Last Sunday Mark Madsen, former player for and now assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, came to church with his wife. And Nancy Marriott, wife of Bill Marriott, came to church at the chapel last Sunday.

Our miracles mostly revolve around the number of visitors that we have seen come to the chapel and the number of those visitors who have taken tours at the visitors’ centre. January and February are generally much slower for the VC as fewer tourists visit London during those months and the weather is generally not very good. January had more visitors than expected but having 400 on one day due to the Science Museum evacuation increased those numbers. Our sisters set goals each month for the number of visitors and the number of tours. When we set goals for February they were all very optimistic about those numbers but we (Connie and Rod) were skeptical that we could achieve their lofty goals. But after just 20 days of the month we are nearly at the numbers that they have set. Last week alone we had almost 1,000 visitors to the VC.

Another area of miracles have been baptisms. Last Sunday a young Chinese student who has been meeting with our sisters since before we arrived here finally got baptized. She had been scheduled for baptism many times over the last two years but she finally did it. We’ve also seen three other VC baptisms this past month of friends that our sisters worked with online.

The online work that our sisters do every day still amazes us. They each have time to go in the office and use the computers to pick up people’s requests to get a copy of the Bible or the Book of Mormon or to be taught by missionaries or just to chat. They have widely varied experiences with these interactions but it is amazing to see how many requests there are every day and how many of those requests our sisters are able to pick up. Because we are really the only VC between New Zealand and the U.S. who are doing online work (the London Temple VC is also in between those locations but they apparently aren’t doing much online work) our sisters are the only ones in the world who are picking up requests for certain hours each day (like from 9 am to 2 pm our time. New Zealand is 12 hours ahead of us and U.S. Eastern Time is 5 hours behind us). Requests are coming into Mormon.org 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are those who come online only as a joke. There are those who come online to try and make trouble. There are those who are members of the church who come online to ask silly things like “can you tell me what time church starts?” But there are a lot who are honestly seeking to know more. Our sisters are doing an incredible job handling the many, many requests that are received. As a result we get to see and hear about people being taught by missionaries all over the world.

We had a request recently from someone in the U.S. to send missionaries to his brother here in London. We gladly have done so and his brother is being taught. The interesting twist is that the person sending the request lives in the Rancho Cucamonga Stake right next door to Upland. Sometimes the world can be rather small.

We’ve managed to see a bit more of London having made a trip to Kew Gardens to see the Orchid Festival and a trip to Greenwich to see “where time begins" (Greenwich Mean Time). The Orchid Festival is housed in a large greenhouse at Kew Gardens but Spring flowers are also coming to London as the daffodils have started to bloom in many of the parks. We are looking forward to some days of more sunlight and the beauty of Spring.

This New Year has started fast. It seems like we just welcomed 2017 and now we are about to welcome February 2017. The number of tourists in London slow down tremendously in January and February and consequently the number of visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel VC also slow down. However, we’ve still had some great visitors to the chapel and had some great experiences teaching people more about Jesus Christ.

On Wednesday, January 11^th, Exhibition Road in front of the chapel filled with people more than its usual number of people and we soon learned that the Science Museum across the street had been evacuated. Many of those standing in the cold were school children who had been in the museum on a field trip. Soon a worker for the museum came into the VC and asked if we could have some of the children come inside. After some quick evaluation we said, “Yes,” and in they came---almost 400 in all. We had them sit on the floor in the cultural hall and some went into the building’s Institute of Religion room. We even had some who (their teacher requested it) asked to learn more about our church. So we even got to teach the gospel to some.

On Saturday, January 21^st, we had The Organ Club come to the Hyde Park Chapel for their monthly meeting. This club consists of organists from all over the United Kingdom and some additional guests with the club were from other parts of Europe. Some were given the opportunity to play the pipe organ in the Hyde Park Chapel. One of the original designers of the organ spoke to the group about the organ and how it came to be. The organ was built in 1960 so you may guess that this designer is not a young man today.

We had another fun group of visitors on Thursday, January 26^th. One of our bishops’ daughters talked to her teacher about bringing their class to the Hyde Park Chapel for a field trip. They are studying world religions and visited a Jewish synagogue, a Hindu Temple, an Islamic mosque, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. So the teacher was willing to add the Hyde Park Chapel to their tour. We had 28 4^th grade children and 2 teachers and 2 chaperones. We had all of our VC sisters come to help with the tours so we divided the class into four groups and had our sisters show them all of our exhibits. It went really well and it was amazing to see all of these people being taught so much about the Restored Gospel.

We enjoyed a visit from our son, Todd, and his friend Rick, from January 18^th until January 22^nd. We were able to attend a British musical called “Half a Sixpence” and toured the Tower of London. We also went on a Thames Riverboat cruise and visited Kew Gardens. We walked through St. James’s Park, Green Park, and Hyde Park seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Horse Guards Parade, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. We had an enjoyable time and love showing our family around London.

We enjoyed a great Christmas time here in London. We were very busy at the visitors’centre with our live nativity and the church’s Christmas Initiative #LIGHTtheWORLD. Every evening from November 27^th through December 21^st we had Joseph and Mary with baby Jesus in a stable that was built in front of the chapel. This was quite an attraction on Exhibition Road and thousands of people passed by and many stopped to check it out. We had some people climb into the stable with Mary & Joseph to have their picture taken and we had many who came into the VC to learn more about our church. We received a lot of great comments like “it is so nice to see someone displaying the true meaning of Christmas.”

 

The Beesley Family

We had a very enjoyable Christmas Eve get-together at our flat with our entire VC family. We had a great dinner, sang some songs, watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir A Dickens’ Christmas video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZe-hLewU80), and exchanged some gifts. The Dickens’ Christmas video was particularly special for all of us gathered because it portrays things right here in London and the young man playing Charles Dickens is in our YSA ward here at the Hyde Park Chapel.

Being with our VC family made Christmas special for us but it did not replace our own family. Through the marvels of technology we were able to witness the excitement of Christmas morning with seven of our eleven grandchildren as they were gathered together in Arizona at our son Brian’s home. We also got to video chat with all of our other children and grandchildren.

Although we spent a lot of time at the VC including Christmas Day, we also managed to see some Christmas sites in London. We took an evening and went to see Christmas at Kew Gardens where we witnessed some unique displays including a light tunnel, fire presentations of the first five days of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and a laser light show over a pond and projected on the Palm House.

The Palm House at Kew Gardens

Another evening we went for a walk through the ritzy, retail area of London. We saw the fabulous Christmas lights and decorations along Regent Street and Oxford Street. We visited the famous London store called Liberty and also the famous toy store called Hamley’s. The streets and stores were very busy but it was an enjoyable evening to see these seasonal sites of London.

 

Regent Street Decorations

We were privileged to attend a performance of Handel's Messiah at Royal Albert Hall with our mission president and his wife (Mark & Jean Stevens). It was performed by four excellent soloists, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and three different choral groups combining over 500 voices. It was an amazing production.

Another unique thing we found here in London was the creation of a huge amusement park in Hyde Park called Winter Wonderland. They built the entire amusement park with 65 rides, a couple of ice skating rinks, several stages for performers indoors and outdoors, and many, many food booths and gift shops. The rides included several full-blown roller coasters, towering swings and drops, a couple of ferris wheels, and a couple of large “fun houses.” The whole complex was built in about a month’s time and was open November 19^th through January 2^nd. It now is being taken down.

 

Winter Wonderland

Our past year at the Hyde Park Chapel was amazing. We learned so much and got to meet so many great people. As a VC family we were able to welcome almost 37,000 visitors to the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors’ Centre and over 11,000 of them took tours (we were able to share something about the church or show them at least one of our exhibits). From our guests who came into the VC and through our sisters’ work online we were able to send over 4,400 referrals to missionaries throughout the world. From those referrals we learned of 67 people who were baptized. It is so rewarding to see the joy that comes from those who choose to follow Jesus Christ.

We are looking forward to a great 2017 and wish all of you a very Happy New Year. We want the best for you and appreciate your interest in what we are doing. Thank you for your prayers and support.