Halloween at the Hyde Park Visitor's Centre
The Chapel and Visitor's Centre on Exhibition Road has in excess of 10 million people a year pass by the Christus with just a fraction taking time to see what's inside. Tucked in between the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Imperial College, The Royal Albert Concert Hall and the Museum of Natural History, this multi-use Stake Centre provides concerts, lectures, interfaith as well as missionary programmes (British spelling) in addition to being a respite from the hustle of downtown London. Currently we are producing a video and article explaining the opportunities offered to members and others not of our faith at both the Hyde Park and London Temple Visitor Centres in the United Kingdom.
Elder Ohman is serving as a Visitor's Centre missionary along with his wonderful wife. A retired music professor at BYU and master organist, Elder Ohman provided a Halloween organ concert to a 1925 silent movie version of
Phantom of the Opera. What a treat on a day that also shares the celebration of the birthday for Joyce's outstanding father, Bernell Wrigley.
Ice skating rink at the Museum of Natural History on a night that was a extraordinarily warm and full with children dressed as their favorite Halloween characters. As we walked back to The Rembrandt Hotel after the concert, we felt a twinge of nostalgia as we longed to see our grandchildren in their pirates, pumpkin and bridal costumes.
Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
The next morning we videotaped interviews to use on mormonnewsroom.org.uk and headed out to play tourist (note the lack of coats due to the warm record breaking 70 degree weather on the 1st of November). The horse brigade decided to give Sister Jolley and Sister Jones a close-up view of their regal trappings.
Elder Jolley and Elder Jones got close to the "bars" guarding Buckingham Palace... we were just glad to be on outside looking in! I'm told the Queen felt the same... she was glad that we were on the outside looking in.
It's fairly easy to maintain crowd control when you see the automatic weapons of the Queen's Guard.
Even the Queen's band has a policeman with a few weapons...
The Christmas Truce is a commemorative event being held in 29 stake centers here in the United Kingdom. To help promote the evening where friends and neighbors will join with us in honoring that special Christmas event where combatants put down their arms to celebrate their common humanity and belief in the Saviour, we put together an interview, trailer video and stills to create the video for mormonnewsroom.org.uk.
Each of the 888,246 Ceramic Poppies in the moat of the Tower represent a British and Commonwealth solder who lost his life in World War I. The hundredth year commemoration of the beginning of the 'war to end all wars' is a poignant reminder of the price Great Britain and many other countries including the US, paid to preserve freedom. It is a privilege to be here during this remarkable moment in history where such strong nationalism and respect are displayed. Our wonderful friends, Sister and Elder Jolley, were in London to cover their assignment as Self Reliance missionaries and enjoyed the beautiful summer-like day at the Tower as much as we did!
Following the visit to the Tower we made our way to Covent Garden to see
War Horse in the New London Theatre.
Five star it was... magnificent puppeteers inside mechanical horses portrayed the real horror of the war for horses and their military masters. Another term may be "heart-wrenching" as we were artistically reminded of the inhumanity of war.
Sister Jones loves the hustle and bustle of Covent Garden where a street performer guessed she was a "teacher, no a headmistress." He then saw her missionary badge and engaged in a lively, humorous dialogue on what he knew of the Mormons.... especially "that lovely boy, Donny Osmond."
Conservation and Heritage Journal
Joyce wrote an article on the construction of two new chapels in the UK for the Conservation and Heritage Journal that was published this month. It's remarkable that the interest in the building of "new" chapels is very strong as many churches are being closed or converted into other uses across the country.
For the Church to continue to build lovely new chapels indicates its growth as well as importance in the community's view.
Notice the bronze work done at the chapel site... It is the only sculpture located at an LDS chapel in all of the United Kingdom.
Training in Liverpool
Media training was scheduled for Thursday and Sunday evenings in Liverpool with amazing members of that historic stake. We stayed in Preston over the weekend to finish two articles, attend the Preston Temple, videotape the National Director of Public Affairs and meet with our ward friends and fellow missionaries, the Pecks.
Anfield Stadium is the home of the Liverpool football team. It rises out of a poor neighborhood loaded with row houses and is filled to capacity (about 45,000) each match. The average player makes nearly $5.5 million and is generally very young (19-29 years of age). It's a system that promotes a celebrity status for ill-equipped young men who burn out long before they acquire the maturity to handle the fame and adulation thrown at them by their football obsessed fans.
The mix of modern with historic gives Liverpool an eclectic dock area look.
It is almost impossible to imagine how large some of these sailing vessels were... but compare this anchor to Sister Jones
The Liverpool docks provided the embarking point for the migration of 60,000+ British converts in the mid-1800s. The docks were much the same as sailing vessels like the one above carrying the faithful to America.
On the same side of the table as Elder Jones is the former Bishop in Wigan (Brother Gifford), his wife (Jana) and the former Stake President in Liverpool (Brother David Hoare) participating in the discussion of how to effectively respond to media inquiries.
It is heart-warming to see the faithfulness of the saints in the UK. Here they are after a long workday, an hour or two of travel and probably a skipped dinner, taking a three-hour training session on how to be more effective in their callings when dealing with the media. We are consistently humbled by their willingness to go-the-extra-mile... or miles in many of their cases.
Chorley
Elder Jay and Sister Joan Peck are following in the footsteps of her father who served his mission in England some 77 years ago. Sister Peck is an inspiration as she serves in the Preston Temple three days each week while her husband practices his 'legal wizardry' in the Office of General Counsel for the Church in Europe. Without legs and in a wheelchair, Sister Peck amazes everyone with her positive attitude and can-do determination to live life to its fullest by serving the Lord. We had a wonderful dinner with Joan and Jay while pursuing an article about the Pecks' (past and current) ties to true original British Pageant of 1937 which had President Heber J. Grant in attendance.
The article is now on
mormonnewsroom.org.uk entitled, Missionary Memories link Pageant Past to Pageant Present.
Back to Liverpool
On Sunday evening we trained the Liverpool Stake Presidency for three hours. Below is President Marshall, who along with every other Stake President we have trained, re-affirms the Lord's hand in calling the right person at the right time.
President Marshall answering media questions posed to him by the fairly recognizable and acting 'Regional BBC Television Journalist.'
The Christmas Truce (for 2014) idea originated with the Walter Cronkite broadcast with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is particularly poignant as all of us in Britain commemorate the 100th anniversary of the event with poppies on every lapel.
On Armistice Sunday, parades are held along with moments of thoughtful silence and worship services to commemorate the 10 million soldiers who lost their lives in WW1. Nearly a million were British Commonwealth soldiers along with another 2 million who were injured in the Great World War.
Any Beatle fans out there? We broke into song as we drove down the famous Penny Lane.
Elder Werner (from Russia via Germany.... we've seen names 'Americanised" and his is "Germanified') and Elder Frandsen were on their way to the chapel when we saw two handsome young men walking along the dual carriageway. As providence would have it, they needed a ride and had a key, and we had a car and needed to get into the stake centre to set up. It worked for both of us!
Helping the Sisters Discover Birmingham
Trains are a wonderful mode of transportation in England as they take a 30 minute drive and condense the excursion into a 12 minute ride. We showed the sisters where to catch the train, how to read the schedule and what adventures there are at the end of the line.
Sisters Banner and Russell are 'sports' as they learn how their newly acquired transportation passes can be used on the buses and trains in the West Midlands.
The marvelous downtown mall (The Bullring) in the centre of Birmingham is just across the street from the New Moor Train Station.
Many Americans have seen the PBS series on the Selfridges department magnet and this mall has one as an anchor. It's incredible... this department store has the cafe, haberdasher shop, grocery store, bakery, deli, clothing shops of the ZCMI and Auerbach's of days gone by.
There is a reason moss grows on everything and on every side in England (not just on the north side like back home). It's due to the liquid sunshine that we are receiving in abundance every day now that it's winter in the UK. In fact there are many parts of the country that are flooding and this is just the start of the winter season.
Sadly, the weather has turned quite cold which has caused the leaves to turn brilliant red in front of the Church Administration Building in Solihull. We fear that winter has come to England as the clouds hang low and the mists are daily.
