Happy Halloween!

Oranges and celery, bananas and dark chocolate chips, muffins from Sainsbury's grocery store. Happy Halloween breakfast for Saturday morning training:)

Linda and the Halloween Breakfast

Learning how to keep bananas fresh for 1.5 hrs was the trick

Sisters and Elders enjoy breakfast after training

Part of our training was at the beautiful Christus Statue at the VC

Our Knights in shining armor!

Wallace Collection

 We saw that Zac and Simon are very handsome knights for Halloween.  Elder Neeley took some pictures of armor at the Wallace Collection on at Hertford House on Manchester Square.

Wallace Collection

Wallace Collection

Lydia and Elizabeth are lovely princesses. We have visited a lot of Royal places (where princesses and queens live) here in London.

Queen Victoria Statue at Kensington Palace

Buckingham Palace from the gardens

A special young Chinese woman was baptized a few weeks ago at the Hyde Park Chapel. Yesterday, she was honored to be invited to the center of London to talk on the BBC World News about the new Chinese policy for having two children or more. There is an amazing group of Chinese members of the church here in London.

Pictures Especially For Our Precious Grandchildren

Here are some pictures especially for you, our precious grandchildren!

Christus Statue at the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors' Centre

Here is the statue of Jesus that is in the Visitors’ Centre. We love to teach people about Jesus Christ everyday when they come into the Visitors’ Centre. Jesus loves everyone in this whole world! This is why we are serving a mission here in London, England.

Children going for a walk on our street

 Many of the school children here wear uniforms. We have a school across the street from our flat. It is 5 levels tall and even some classes are in the basement. Each day we hear the children as they gather to go on walks.

Children on a field-trip

We often see school children in their colorful uniforms as they go to the Science Museum across the street from the Visitors’ Centre. Grandpa Pat took a picture of these children walking down the road as we were riding the bus.

It is fun to ride the buses in London. They are big, tall red ones. They have big numbers on the front and back telling what route the bus is taking. We take bus number 9 to High Street Kensington when we want to go shopping or to Hyde Park. Hyde Park in London is a great big park!

New style double-decker bus

Many of the buses have stairs inside that go up to a second level. We like to sit on the top level looking out the front window. Here is a picture taken from the bus...

View of a London street from the upper deck

Do the people drive on the same side of the road as in Hyde Park Utah?
Can you find the taxi cabs and all the people walking? Can you see the man on a bike?

We went to a big toy store that had lots of things made out of Legos. Do you know who these people are? Do you see the red telephone booth behind? It is made of Legos also. What do you like to make out of Legos?

Legos at Hamley's

There are three huge museums very near to the Visitors’ Centre and to our flat. The Science Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. The Museum of Natural History has a big dinosaur in the main entrance hall and another exhibit with an animated T-rex.

Great Hall at the Natural History Museum

Animated T-Rex

There are lots of chimneys on the building all around. Most are not used any more, but they really look cool:) We see them and always think of the movie “Mary Poppins."

Chimneys out our back window

What questions do you have for us about serving a mission and living in London? We will try to answer them and send more pictures.
We love you forever, tons and googols!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxox

A Busy Place

Sister Ashby rehearses missionaries who will be singing for a baptismal service

There is always something happening at the Hyde Park Chapel! This unique building functions as a meeting house for 3 wards, a Stake Center, England London Mission headquarters, a Self-Reliance Center as well as one of the twenty or so dedicated Visitor Centers around the world. In addition to the regular meetings and activities associated with the above, the building is used for English classes, addiction recovery classes, and occasional community events such as NHS blood-draws, orchestra rehearsals, and lunch room for school children visiting the museums and Royal Albert Hall.

Young Women carved pumpkins for an activity

An orchestra rehearses in the cultural hall

President and Sister Stevens say goodbye to missionaries after their 2 year service

Current and former Sister Missionaries at Saturday morning training

Preparation Day

For our preparation day this week, we took the tube and train to visit Hampton Court. Hugh and Suzy said that it is a must see and many others have mentioned it as well. It is really quite a place, lots of history and drama happened there. There are so many chimneys! The gardens are lovely, even in October. We hope to go back again to see the maze and take some more time in the buildings and gardens.

Connections

Meeting J.Paul and Alessandra at "The Martian"

 We love connecting with J. Paul and Alessandra. Here in London, when you buy movie tickets you choose specific seats. Alessandra managed to get the best seats in the house for a movie at Picturehouse Central on Shaftsbury Road. We were able to meet Alessandra for lunch at the Google office one day and J. Paul for lunch at Kipferl, an Austrian cafe, in Angel another day. He brought his RCA colleague, Veronica, into the VC. She saw us walking in Hyde Park a few weeks ago and thought we looked like J. Paul’s parents:)

It is a bit tricky to get everything done in the morning and be ready to open the Visitors’ Centre promptly at 9 a.m. when we are on the morning shift. Pat often goes for a walk and we try to study scriptures, make a lunch, and get things in order before walking to the Centre to put out out the signs and open the doors. Monday morning,we made it on time and got everything ready. Since no visitors had come in yet, we were sitting quietly, reading scriptures. Sister Neeley looked down at Elder Neeley’s trousers and noticed they were a little wrinkled. He said it was because it had rained and they had gotten wet. As she looked to see if there were more wrinkles, she realized that the trousers were blue and the suit coat was black. Oops! Abdullah, our security guard, assured us that sometimes that is the fashion now days. Elder Neeley decided to quickly walk back home and put on matching suit coat and trousers:)

Cardboard Temple made by the children for a Primary activity

Sister Wai and Sister Neeley in unplanned matching cardigans

It seems that almost every day we make connections at the Visitors’ Centre. Connections with people we know or people who know people we know.  Many visitors have fond memories of worshiping, visiting, being baptized, serving missions, or even meeting their eternal companion here. We love hearing the conversion stories of those who have joined the church, it may be years ago or just recently. It is a joy to hear their experiences.

Linda with Dallin Hansen and his wife. President Anatsui, our security guard is on the right

Sister Hansen's father was President Aldridge of the England London Mission based at the Hyde Park Chapel and where Dallin served his mission. 

The Larsons from Cache Valley

Larry and Arlene Larson from Cache Valley, Utah popped into the VC today. The Larsons served their 2nd mission here in the England London mission office. Their first mission was in France and they will be leaving in a few months to serve in Montreal, Canada. The Larsons worked with my parents in the Logan Temple. The service of these dedicated people is always an inspiration to us.

The Singers from Dubai

 Linda asked these visitors from Dubai if they knew the Singers. It turned out they were the Singers!

Linda and the Gunthers

Prep-day evening finished with a Bach organ recital at the St. Georges Church at Hanover Square where we met the Gunthers, fellow members from NYC, who amazingly raised 8 children in a 2 bedroom apartment. The Gunthers know our good friends, Dave and Janet Stowell. It truly is a small world! 

Listening to General Conference on my Ipad while on shift at the VC

Sheila and Robert Anker with Greg and Kathy Wolfington

 Forty-Six years ago Elder Greg Wolfington tracted the home of Robert Anker. The whole Anker family joined the church. Brother Anker is now an engineer at the London Temple. While they have been in contact over the years they have never meet. The Wolfingtons planned a surprise visit to England and had a joyful reunion!

Elder Wolfington's Missionary card which he left with Robert Anker who kept it all of these years.

Linda and I with Steve and Marie Harward

We met Steve Harward and his wife, Marie Lewis Harward at the Visitors' Centre. Steve used to babysit me and my brothers and sisters.