More Firsts in London

Visiting Teaching in London

 

Rick and I are Home Teaching companions in our Britannia Ward, but I hadn't been assigned as a Visiting Teacher in our Hyde Park 2nd Ward until this month.  Quite a new experience.

Hmmmm...how to get to an appointment.... The bus will be one hour with one change.  The Tube will be 40 minutes, of which only 6 minutes is on the tube, the rest walking before and after.  Nope...won't drive myself, not sure I ever will here.  So I walked.  It was a lovely 28 minute walk there and a lovely 28 minute walk back, with a delightful 1 1/2 hour visit with my new friend who has been lost for about 26 years, and wants to come back. She just needs a friend and some support. A little sad I will be gone the next 6 weeks....hopefully she'll get brave and venture to the church on her own....

 

Very different from walking down my circle to visit teach, or driving a block away because I'm going to be late if I walk....

 

Another person on my list has moved, one hasn't responded to a message left on the door so don't know if she really lives there, and one is active but busy and may often be a phone call....or a walk similar to the one described above.

 

Remembrance Day in London

 

I'm used to standing and singing "The Star Spangled Banner" a time or two in July at church in the US.  It was interesting on November 10 to stand at the beginning of church and observe two minutes of silence for "Remembrance Day" and then to stand and sing "God Save the Queen" for the closing hymn.  Loved sharing in the pride of their country...and my motherland....I am, after all, half British!

 

Missionaries

 

Rick and I had left the ipad turned on in between General Conference sessions, not sitting by it, when all of the sudden I heard some familiar voices.  There were some of our awesome London missionaries being interviewed (followed around for a whole day actually) on the program between sessions.  So fun to know and love them!

 

Missionary Lessons

 

Being a Utah Mormon certainly has its disadvantages....meaning little contact with the missionaries and even less of a chance to teach with them.  One evening while manning an empty Family History Centre, I listened in to my first ever Missionary discussion in the room outside.  I sat at my computer with tears streaming down my cheeks at being allowed to eavesdrop.  It was beautiful.  The questions the investigator asked were so thoughtful, seeking, full of desire to know and understand.  The missionaries were so in tune and shared their knowledge, feelings and testimonies beautifully. 

 

A short time later two missionaries serving in our ward asked if I'd sit in on a lesson with them.  I must admit I was a bit nervous...I don't always express the things I know and feel very eloquently.  This young girl was from China, doing schooling in Spain, but was visiting in London for a week.  She was drawn to the missionaries on the street.  It was amazing to sit in on the lesson, share my thoughts and feelings, and see her trying to understand the feelings of the Spirit she was having.  She believed in "destiny", and was trying to understand and comprehend how a living God explained her feelings of destiny.  So sad she was heading back to Spain the next morning.  The missionaries got her contact info to pass her on to the missionaries there.  I'd love to know if she continued.

 

We have baptisms almost weekly just in our Britannina YSA Ward.  And the majority of them have been Chinese.  Most of them come here as students, and are taking the gospel back with them.  Who said missionary work wasn't spreading to China?   A few weeks ago a Chinese man who was baptized only 2 months ago baptized two Chinese girls.  Another touching moment.  One of my Family History Consultants who is Chinese and has only been a member 4-5 months was so excited to hug me and tell me her father and sent her a list of ancestors and permission to do their temple work.  AND her parents are reading the Book of Mormon.  A Japanese girl who has a Harvard MBA has finally gotten permission to take some ancestor names to the temple, and her parents are also reading the Book of Mormon. The work is moving forward in an amazing way....

 

which brings me to another first for me....

 

 

The London Hyde Park Stake is Represented

by 110 different Nationalities!

 

As I told our new Relief Society President, I'd come here expecting to hear everyone speak the perfect English accent as she does.  Boy was I wrong.  Really, 110 different nationalities speaking more than 110 different versions of English.  Why speaking more than 110?  Because even if  you're from East London you speak differently than someone from West London, or Portsmouth, or Liverpool.....

 

I wonder if there is any other place on earth where one stake is so multi-cultural.

 

Last week we had a stake multi-cultural event.  Over 400 people attended to try foods, see performances and native costumes, etc.  All this in a cultural hall probably a third the size of a Stake Center cultural hall in Utah.  Awesome and amazing!  And very crowded.

 

 

Whew, that's all the new first I can think of today.   Life is amazing!