Birds and Butterflies

We have been on our mission now for more than 9 months! The time has flown by. We love bearing witness of Jesus Christ to all who come in the Visitors’ Centre. It is really a joy. We take our cards as we venture on the tube and bus, shopping and walking. We invite people to come to the Visitors’ Centre or go to mormon.org to learn more about this wonderful message.

As we go around, Grandpa Pat usually has his camera and our cell phones are always with us. We saw chickens in the Community garden at Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park that reminded us of Cedar's new chickens, swans near Windsor Castle, pigeons everywhere, and so many other beautiful birds. We are very grateful for Heavenly Father’s creations. We know that God is the Creator of this amazing universe and we love enjoying the wonders of this beautiful world each day.  

Holy, Holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3

The Queen owns all the swans in England

This man is out most mornings feeding the swans

Eastern White Pelican in St. James's Park

European Robin - smaller than the ones in the US

Wood Pigeon is bigger than the regular pigeons

Egyptian goose and her chicks

Grey Heron

Pigeons meet for Family Home Evening?

The butterflies are back at the Natural History Museum

They like to eat oranges!

Can you see the butterfly mouth? It is like a straw and is called a proboscis.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

The National Gallery is beautiful and expansive!

Our recent adventure started with a video "Tim's Vermeer" which was loaned to us by J.Paul and Alessandra. It talks about Tim Jenison's project to duplicate a  photo-realistic Vermeer painting using techniques the painter may have used. We thought it would be fun to find the Vermeers that are on display in London. We found there are 4 here. One is in the Queen's collection in Buckingham Palace so we had to cross that one off of the list. The next two were in the National Gallery and so off we went.

The trick was to find the correct room

After a little searching we found the first of the Vermeer paintings

The second was in an adjoining room

 The 4th and final Vermeer in London was located at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. To get there required a tube ride, bus, and a bit of a walk.

Kenwood House

Library at Kenwood House

Linda gets a bit of history. The Vermeer is in the background

Speaking on Easter Sunday Bro. Ian Clark spoke about a painting in the National Gallery by Michelangelo Caravaggio entitled, “Supper at Emmaus” portraying the moment that the disciples, who had walked with a stranger, recognized the resurrected Jesus Christ when he broke bread with them. We decided to find this painting as well.

Back to the National Gallery

We stopped at a few Van Gogh's along the way

Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio

Imagine our delight when Elder Renlund spoke about this episode in General Conference explaining how we come to know the Savior through partaking of the Sacrament.

He said,  "I invite you to attend sacrament meeting each week and partake of the holy emblems of the Savior’s body and blood. I invite you to feel God’s nearness as He is made known to you, as He was to the disciples of old, in the “breaking of [the] bread...As we draw closer to God, the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will come into our lives. And, as with the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we will find that the Savior has been nearby all along."

Easter and General Conference

It has been very special to celebrate Easter and enjoy General Conference here on our mission! The England London Mission and the Hyde Park Stake joined together for an Easter Devotional Saturday evening March 26. Sister Ashby organized all the music and testimonies were shared by Stake President Alan Phillips and Mission President and Sister Stevens. All the music testified of Jesus Christ. We violinists, Kayla Hoover Gubbay (from Idaho Falls), Madara Zommerovska, Caitlin Johnson, and cellist Harriett Walker (leaving on her mission to Manchester the next week, and classical guitarist Harley Miller played Bach’s “O Saviour, Thou Who Wearest a Crown.” Also played piano for President Stevens and Elder Paul to sing “I Know that My Redeemer Lives,” the Britannia YSA Choir singing “I Have not Seen, Yet I Believe” and the Visitors’ Centre sisters singing “He is Risen.”

We love sharing the new church video found at followhim.mormon.org with all the visitors. We encourage everyone to watch the second video about how to follow Him. These were also shown as part of the devotional. We continue to show it and invite people to come unto Christ. That is our purpose, to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It is a joy to share this message.

Every time we venture out to see the sights, we have cards in our pockets from the Visitors’ Centre. We always manage to speak with someone and invite them to come to the VC or go to mormon.org to learn more. Everyone can do this, not just missionaries:)! There are so many wonderful things on the mormon.org or lds.org websites. It is great for everyone!

Sisters watch conference on Elder Neeley's ipad while on shift

General Conference this last weekend was wonderful! Everything was so inspiring. We look forward to studying and learning from these leaders. The Saturday and Sunday morning sessions were shown live at the chapel at 5 p.m. our time. The others were streamed at 10 a.m. Priesthood meeting and 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon session. Our stake president was sustained as a new area authority!

The special blessing after walking home Sunday night was to talk with Matthew, Dan, Maria and Jess and families on google hangouts and facetime. We love to see everyone growing so much. We met J. Paul and Alessandra at the Natural History Museum Saturday. That means we saw all of our children this weekend! They are truly our greatest treasures!!!

Alessandra and Linda discuss terminator lines

Linda sang along with Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other senior couples on the choruses from Handel’s Messiah. Pat shared some tips on photography with some senior couples this week. We are very grateful to associate with these amazing people.

Butterflies are back at the Natural History Museum