Finally, the holidays finished, and people began responding to requests to meet with them. We have been able to meet with four stakes for training in their Bishops' Welfare Council or Bishopric Training Meeting. We give the bishops and members of the stake presidency training on the use of ldsjobs.org, how to get reports, etc. These meetings have been very rewarding; priesthood leaders seem to really appreciate the information. We have appointments to visit five more stakes in the next two or three months and we are still looking for appointments in the remaining four stakes. We have also trained several stake and ward employment specialists, in addition to serving at the Employment Resource Centre four to five days per week. We have started an email discussion group with the stake specialists in the London South mission, since they are too widely scattered to meet together.
One of the things that employment centers can offer is called Work Choice Profiling, an evaluation to help people discover their talents and interests. We have had good experiences giving a few of these. People have told us that now they have the confidence to pursue their interests and another person said they felt empowered by it.
More and more we see the connection between our temporal and spiritual lives. We see how temporal self-reliance and spiritual self-reliance really affect each other. President Uchtdorf has said that the temporal and the spiritual are two sides of the same coin, and we can verify that. Elder Maxwell once said that work is a spiritual necessity, and we also see that in the lives and faces of people who come to the employment center.
Our mission president has assigned us to attend a local ward in a London suburb. To get there involves a bus ride, a ride on the underground, and a ride on another train; it takes about an hour and a quarter. The meetings begin at 9:30. The people are very friendly and we have been warmly received. It is wonderful to meet the Saints, wherever they are. We are thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. We love the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all our hearts.
You may have heard about the storms and record flooding in southern England this winter. There have been heavy rainstorms coming in from the Atlantic almost every other day since early in December. Many families and farm animals have been evacuated. The main railroad to Cornwall and southwest England has been washed out and they are literally cut off from the rest of the country. London has not had nearly as much rain, and it still has not gotten below freezing here, though the wind is often quite cold.
We have been very blessed with many tender mercies. We live comfortably in our flat, even though hauling groceries in our trolley can be a major event. We do have to plan ahead in doing our laundry:
We have fit in some sight-seeing on p-days. We visited the Tower of London and it is an amazing historical place. It was originally built by William the Conqueror in about 1068. Many monarchs lived there off and on during the next 500 years, and it was also a prison, an army barracks, a record repository, the royal mint, and a museum. It now also holds the crown jewels.
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| The White Tower, the original castle |
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| The White Tower surrounded by additional defenses and buildings, becoming a small city. |
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| A model of the Tower of London |
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| Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) who conducted our tour |
One of the English senior couples took us and another couple to observe the Ceremony of the Keys, a ritual locking of the main gate of the Tower which has been carried out every night but one for the past 700 years. It was very military and precise, conducted by the Yeoman Warders, who guard the Tower and give tours. They are very colorful and are former military personnel. They and their families actually live at the Tower. The Ceremony of the Keys was very intriguing and being in an ancient castle in the dark was kinda mysterious.
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| Our wonderful English friends, the Wilsons and the Brooks |
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| The Tower at night |
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| Tower Bridge from the Tower |
Near to the Tower is the All Hallows Church, originally a Saxon church build on top of Roman ruins, and now the oldest church in London, with over 1300 years of written history. There is an interesting museum in the crypt with artifacts from Roman and Saxon times and an altar reportedly brought from the Holy Land by crusaders. Interestingly, William Penn (founder of Pennsylvania) was baptized in this church and John Quincy Adams was married here. We sometimes forget that the Founding Fathers were very English.
One afternoon we walked up to Kensington Palace (about 10 minutes from here) and took the tour. It has been home to members of the Royal Family since 1689 and is now the home of William and Kate and baby George. We learned a lot about the life of Queen Victoria, who was born there and lived there until she became queen. We also learned a lot about her family; she had nine children.
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| View of one wing of Kensington Palace |
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| Staute of Queen Victoria with the palace in the background |
