We continue to see miracles and have great experiences here at the visitors' centre in London. This past week we had two young adult girls come into the VC from Greece. They were on Spring Break and didn't speak much English. They had been to the museums next door to us and just decided to come in and see what exhibits we had. We struggled to share much with them because we didn't have anyone who could speak Greek this time. We showed them the chapel and they went in and sat down. They seemed to be praying so we left them alone. We looked in a few minutes later and they were gone. Next thing we knew they were at the "I'm a Mormon" exhibit watching a video. So we went over and asked if they'd like to watch the 2-minute Easter video and they said yes. They watched that and afterward said that this was the best place they had visited. We asked if they'd like copies of the Book of Mormon and to have missionaries teach them more when they get home to Greece. They gladly accepted both.

A couple of days later we had a lady come into the VC and asked to use the toilet (this is the term that is used here for rest room). She had just got off a plane from Romania and was to meet someone at the Science Museum but it was closed. On her way out our sisters talked to her a bit. That conversation resulted in her accepting a Romanian Book of Mormon and wanting missionaries to teach her in Romania.

A day later a man walked into the VC and asked if he could worship here. Of course we said yes and showed him the chapel. He sat down and Rod sat down beside him to explain a little about who we are. Rod learned that he is a university professor from Nigeria who was here for a week-long conference at Imperial College (across the street from the VC). As Rod explained about the restoration and living prophets he became very interested. Rod told him that we have missionaries in Nigeria who could teach him more about living prophets when he returns home. He was very desirous to learn more and left us with his home address and phone number so that missionaries can contact him there.

These types of experiences seem to be happening almost daily. We also have many members of the church from all over the world who are on vacation (or holiday as they call it here) come to visit. Missionaries here also bring in people they are teaching or just invite people from Exhibition Road to come in. Last month we had nearly 3,000 visitors to our VC.

We have managed to fit a few "touristy" things in our schedule the past couple of weeks. We visited the National Gallery where there are thousands of artworks. We found a couple of unique "unfinished" paintings by Michaelangelo. We were able to get tickets for front row seats for Lion King at a local theater. To see the costumes and the facial expressions up close was a great treat. We walked down Portabello Road of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" fame. We have been on several walks through parks and continue to enjoy the spring flowers and greenery here. We found one park (Holland Park) not far from our flat with wild peacocks in it.

We greatly enjoyed General Conference although the experience here was different. Not having conference sessions start until 5:00 p.m. seemed very strange. But we managed to watch all sessions of conference (not all were live though). We particularly enjoyed hearing from Elder Mervyn Arnold who called us as Visitors' Centre Director, Elder Paul Johnson who called Rod to be stake president, and Elder Jeffery Holland who is just our favorite speaker.

Easter has provided a great opportunity to talk with people about Christ and what He has done for us. The Easter video "Follow Him and Find New Life" produced by the church has helped the VC to be busy the past couple of weeks. Many of our young missionaries have gone street contacting on Exhibition Road (in front of the VC) and simply ask people if they would like to see a two-minute video about Jesus Christ. If they were interested then they invited them to come into the VC and watch the video in our cinema. We have had many guests come in from this invitation. Some watch the video and thank us and move on but others watch the video and want to know more. We had a guest from Croatia come in last Saturday to watch the video and he stayed 1 1/2 hours and is planning to come back next Saturday to learn more.

Our young sister missionaries not only give tours and teach at the VC but they also proselyte online for awhile each day. In our VC office we have an online Teaching Center where the sisters sit in front of a computer and respond to requests to learn more about the church through online chats, phone calls, emails, Facebook chats, and video chats. There are way more requests than they have time to respond to and the number of requests to learn more online are growing. Through this online proselyting effort they are teaching people all over the world.

The past two Sundays we have had over 100 visitors each Sunday to our 9:00 sacrament meeting (worship service). This past Sunday, being Easter, was not a surprise to have so many visitors but the previous Sunday we were surprised. The visitors started arriving before 8:30 and they just kept coming and coming. It turned out that a family who used to live here was given permission to bless their new baby here. The family had many family members from all over England as well as some from the United States who attended. When we added this large family gathering to our normal number of visitors here on vacation, on business, or just making a weekend get-away it made for a large congregation.

We have not had much time for exploring or sightseeing the past couple of weeks but we have gotten out some. We've been on some great walks and have seen where many well-known people of the past lived--Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Sherlock Holmes, and Charles Darwin to name a few. We also walked up Primrose Hill which is one of the highest elevations in London (not counting the skyscrapers) and provides a great view of the London skyline. We have visited the British Library and we found "Platform 9 3/4" where Harry Potter managed to gain access to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, we were unable to figure out how to penetrate the brick wall.

You may have noticed that we didn't do an entry last week. We have been dealing with a very difficult situation with one of our VC sisters here in London. I'll try and explain briefly. This incredible young sister came out on her mission in October of last year. About a week after she arrived here in London her mother back home in Utah went missing. This faithful young missionary chose to stay on her mission while her family and many others searched for her mother. She has lived with not knowing where her mother was or what may have happened until about 10 days ago. On March 2nd a hiker found a body which was identified the next day as her mother. This has been an emotional and trying time for all of us in our VC family. Yesterday our great sister was able to participate via technology with her family in Utah for the viewing and the funeral. She prepared a video message from the VC that we sent to the bishop to use in the service which turned out very nice. There have been many tender mercies extended in a very difficult situation.

While dealing with this situation the work has continued at the VC. We have had a couple of very good weeks. Here's just one example of our experiences: On Monday, March 7th we had a couple from Italy who are now living in London come into the VC. They had come to the chapel a few years ago to do family history and were excited to come back and find his great grandparents. He told us that he took a day off of work so that they could come in and do research. We had to inform them that the Family History Center (FHC), which used to be at the chapel, had moved to the National Archives on the other side of the Thames River and it is open Tuesday through Saturday. They were very disappointed and we tried to help them feel better by explaining that they could go online and do much of what used to only be available at FHCs. They were appreciative but not satisfied with that option and left appearing quite disappointed. A few minutes later they came back in and asked about the free films that we advertise on our banner outside of the chapel. We explained that we have many free films and asked if they'd like to watch one. They said sure and came into our cinema. We showed them an 11-minute video entitled "God's Plan" that is about families. They watched it and had tears streaming down their cheeks. After the video we explained that families are central to our church and to God's plan. We explained that the reason we have FHCs and search for our ancestors is so that we can be linked together through sacred ordinances forever. They were very moved and left with an English and an Italian Book of Mormon and information about how to have missionaries come and teach them more about the Plan. We were able to testify that they had taken a day off of work for a very important reason. It just wasn't the reason that they thought they were taking off for.

We've had a couple of interesting Sundays at the chapel as we have had lots of visitors and nonmembers attending church services. Three different wards (congregations) meet in the chapel and after one service got over one of our sister missionaries came and asked us if we'd seen a certain guest of their's who had come to church. We had seen him earlier but not recently. I asked why and they replied, "We've lost him." Just then he appeared in the VC with some new friends that he had made at church. The sisters were relieved that they hadn't lost him after all. They had been attending to other guests who had come to church and couldn't keep track of them all (a nice problem to have). Yesterday we had over 100 visitors to our church services and a good number of them were not members of our church.

With all that has been going on at the VC and with our young sister missionaries, we haven't been able to get out and do much more exploring or sightseeing in London. We have gone on a few walks and been able to see the beautiful flowers that have bloomed.

Flowers in St. James Park

Daffodils in Green Park

We also made a short visit to the British Museum and saw some more incredible artifacts--tapestries over 1,000 years old, sculptures from the 5th and 6th centuries, and the Rosetta Stone.

Our experience here continues to be incredible and we love being here.

We invite all of you to visit FollowHim.mormon.org and view the Easter videos and other items found at that website for Easter. We have been preparing at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre for the release of this video and website and are excited that it is here. We want to share it with the world.

We enjoyed another great week in London. We made a trip out to the London Temple for the first time. The temple is about 35 miles south of downtown London where we live and work. We took the Tube from the station near our flat to Victoria Station just 3 Tube stops away where there is a major railroad hub. There we bought our tickets to ride the Overground (as opposed to the Underground which is the Tube) out near the temple. We got on the train and enjoyed a quiet, comfortable ride for about an hour. We were privileged to have Elder Martin Lock, Director of the London Temple Visitors' Centre, pick us up at the train station. We have become fast friends with Elder and Sister Lock as they were with us at our training in Utah and flew to London on the same flight with us from Salt Lake City. Elder Lock not only picked us up and drove us to the temple but he and his wife (see the picture below) showed us around their VC and the temple grounds, took us to lunch and joined us in our temple session. The Temple sits in a beautiful spot in a much more rural area than we have previously experienced in England. The grounds are green and lush with some flowers in bloom. The temple is beautiful and the Celestial Room is particularly stunning.

We also enjoyed another great week with our VC. We had a steady stream of visitors this past week. They again came from all over. Some come in because they are curious, others because they are genuinely interested in learning more about our church. Rod helped some young elders teach a 21 year old student who is definitely interested in learning about the church. We also gave a tour to a man from Guinea who had lots of great questions and we had an employee from the university next door come in and stay for over two hours watching videos and asking questions. These kind of experiences make our service very worthwhile. We had two more baptisms in the VC this week as well.

The Science Museum next door invited us to a Private Viewing of one of their "pay exhibits" (the museum is free but some of their exhibits require paid admission) this week. The exhibit was entitled "Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age." There were only about 10 of us on our tour which was given by the lady in charge of procuring all of the artifacts on display. She had some great insights about all of the displays. Many of the items had never been on display to the public as Russia does not have many museums or places that they would display such historical items. She found many of the artifacts in homes of children and grandchildren of the original cosmonauts and scientists. Some were stored in corporate warehouses of the manufacturers who maintained ownership of the things that they had made. The artifacts included early drawings of space craft and possible journeys, actual space capsules and space suits, and replicas of some of the earliest space vehicles (which never returned to earth). It was a very interesting morning for us.

If you haven't seen the news report on an event that we mentioned in our blog a couple of weeks ago you might want to click on this link about the school children from the Science Museum who came into the VC to get out of the cold and to eat their lunches:
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.uk/article/hyde-park-visitors-centre-receives-evacuated-children-from-science-museum

This past week was our first experience with missionary transfers. Transfers for our whole mission took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. There were 11 missionaries who went home and 10 new missionaries coming out. We had one of our VC sisters who went home and that caused some shuffling in companionships for our VC sisters. All four of our companionships changed. But change can be good and so far everyone seems to be positive about the changes. The sister who went home is from Finland and we had one of our sisters who was serving full-time in a proselyting area come back into the VC. She is from Uganda and has a remarkable story of her conversion and her family's conversion. The international experience here is still unbelievable to us.

Even with transfers we did have a good week at the VC and had many guests come in for tours. We had a young man from Malaysia who is going to school across the street at Imperial College come in with a couple of his friends. He was very intrigued by our message and came back with two more friends three days later. He and one of his friends spent four years in the U.S. and graduated from Brown University. We had a father and his young daughter come in and were very taken by our message. They stayed for over 2 hours and want to know more. They are from China. We also had guests from Australia, Germany, Italy, France, New Calcedonia, and Poland this week (as well as the U.S. and the U.K.).

We didn't get to do any sightseeing this week as transfers and our administrative responsibilities took up much of our time. The Church is making several changes that affect us. One is that all missionary exchanges with mission leaders are now to be done in the leader's proselyting area rather than the missionary's area or splitting (one companionship to each area). The reason for this is so that the leader can show the other missionaries how the work is supposed to be done with their own investigators and members. These exchanges are for 24 hours which makes it difficult for our VC sisters to cover their assigned shifts at the VC (they have six-hour shifts every day). But we are making adjustments and it will work. Another change is with our sisters online teaching (VC sisters all over the world teach investigators online by telephone, email, and chat until missionaries in their local area can get to their homes to teach them). The software program that they have been using for years is being replaced. So that requires some extra training and adjustment as well. As we said earlier though, change can be good.

Although we didn't get to do any sightseeing this past week we did make some trips to other parts of London (by Tube and by bus). We still marvel at the intriguing buildings with multiple, tall chimneys and unique architecture along narrow, cobble-stoned streets. As we were walking back to our flat one time this week with the wind blowing and the light rain falling we marveled at how "Mary Poppins-ish"  it seemed as we tried to keep our umbrellas from opening up the wrong way. This experience sometimes feels a bit like a dream but we are loving it.

This has been a week of miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. Monday evening as we were at the VC a man came in and asked if his children could come in to the centre and get warm and use the rest room. One of their children had gone missing and they had notified the police who were helping them look for him but they didn't want to leave their other two children alone in the cold. We, of course, said sure and soon two children came into the VC by themselves. They explained that their brother who is 13 years old got separated when they were exploring some of the shops nearby. We chatted with the two kids for about an hour hoping and praying that this story would have a happy ending. Eventually the man walked back into the VC with the 13 year old boy who had been found. It was great to see the happy reunion.

On Wednesday the Science Museum that is across the street from the VC had an emergency that required the building to be evacuated. They had to leave the building before they could retrieve their coats and it was cold outside. Our missionaries looked out the window and saw Exhibition Road in front of the VC filling up with school children with no coats or jackets on. Eventually one of the adults with the children came and asked if they could come in and eat their sack lunches here. Of course, they said yes. So about 300 children and adults came into the VC and ate their lunches, used the bathrooms, and warmed up. The kids and the adults were very appreciative and a representative from the museum came over to thank us for "getting them out of a tough spot."

We also had miracles happen this week with language concerns. One was when we had two ladies from Italy come in who spoke very little English. We just happened to have a missionary meeting going on in another part of the building with a missionary from Italy attending. So she came out and helped us teach the gospel. Then another day we had a guest come in who only spoke Greek. Within minutes another man walked in and our missionary asked if he happened to speak Greek. He did and helped translate for the first man. The miracles just keep happening.

We were able to explore London a little more this week. We toured the Parliament Buildings in Westminster. It was amazing to stand beside the Big Ben Clock Tower and then go inside the House of Commons and the House of Lords. What history! What architecture! What artwork! You have to see it to believe it.

Parliament

Time is flying by. It seems we just wrote a post, yet it's been a week. We've had a very exciting week. We spent a lot of time in meetings this past week but have learned a lot about what we are supposed to do here and what other missionaries are doing.

Monday we worked our regular shift at the VC but then joined President & Sister Stevens (our mission president and his wife) for a night at the theater. We went to the Broadway show "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory." It was a great show and the scenery and special effects used to bring the story to life were great. And little Charlie did a great job with acting and singing. As good as the show was the real treat to us was spending the evening with President & Sister Stevens, getting to know them better. They have such vast church experience (President Stevens-former stake president and Mormon Tabernacle Choir member, Sister Stevens-former Counselor in General Primary Presidency). It is an honor to serve with them.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we went to missionary meetings with President & Sister Stevens and many of the young missionaries in our mission. It was great to learn from them and to understand more about what they do and what we should be doing in the VC. We also worked in the VC every day this past week. On Thursday we had additional training via Skype with leaders in Salt Lake. We are getting a much better vision of what we should be doing with the VC here.

This week we have had guests from Hong Kong and China, Italy, Australia, Japan, Germany, Venezuela, Turkey, Switzerland, and Mexico to name a few. We had another baptism at the VC tonight, this time a young lady from the Philippines who is living here in London. We really are seeing the growth of the church all over the world from right here in London.

We ventured out again one afternoon and managed to find Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Trafalgar Square to name a few of the famous places we saw. We also made it to a couple of museums and just scratched the surface of what is in those museums. There is so much to see and do here. We love being here.

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben