Chelmsford, Hatfield, and Northampton

We aren't used to city life yet.  We still like the wide open spaces. 

It is so nice to get out of the city for meetings.  

We went to Chelmsford to meet with the Ipswich Stake Presidency. It is only 40 miles away and should have taken us an hour to get there.  We knew traffic would be bad, especially on the Seven Sisters road, so we gave ourselves over an hour and half.  Well, it took us 55 minutes to go 6 miles. It was like going home after the fireworks.  We were 20 minutes late, but the stake president was a half hour late too because of the traffic.  We did have a good meeting with him and his counselors talking about their plans for family history.

Next time we go north, we won't take Seven Sisters.  Never again.

I love attending sacrament meetings here.  There are such amazing people from all over the world. In Hyde Park a new sister missionary bore her testimony.  She is from the Congo.  Her English wasn't very good, but she is wonderful, such a strong testimony.  After her the speaker was a sister from Sri Lanka.  She said of the people back home, "We come to church because we want to be like Him."

The Whitakers asked us to come to their YSA family home evening and talk to the young single adults about family history.  It is in Hatfield, about 35 minutes north of here. (We found a better way to go north, the A10.We will go that way from now on, even if we are going east.  I'll explain later.) It turned out great and had a lot of fun.  There was a young man there from Malaysia who always comes to the activities.  He isn't a member, but loves to hang out with Sister Whitaker and the young adults.  He is really funny to the point of being silly.  When I asked him where he is from and what he is doing in England, he laughed and said, "Guess!"  Sister Whitaker would end up telling me and he would laugh some more.  He is studying law and will be going back to Malaysia after he graduates. 

He is the one sitting in front of Elder Syme. 

Working with the youth has brought into focus the special times we live in.  This is a day like no other in history.  It really is the day for the youth with technology and temples.  The technology of the computer and internet is really inspired from heaven for the work of spreading the gospel and family history work.  I feel the power of the Spirit that is with these youth, and I hope we can help more of them catch the vision and share that same testimony.

Last week we met with the stake president of Northampton which is northwest from here.  That direction is the easiest for getting out of London.  The countryside is so green and beautiful now. 

There are yellow fields all over.  It is rapeseed that canola oil comes from.

Northampton is a nice city.

 This is the Northampton chapel.

When we leave the city, we always try to stop at a Tesco Extra to do our shopping on the way home.  It is kind of like a Target.  It is larger than it looks.

In London they have smaller versions of the big stores like this Tesco Express.

We have 4 Family History Fairs to attend on each weekend of May.  That will get us out of town and keep us busy at least on the weekends.

We have started volunteering at the Hyde Park family history center on Tuesdays.  We couldn't go yesterday because of the tube strike.  They may be striking next week to.  Hope not.  We'll see.

We are fine except for 2 days in April I didn't feel well, but I'm back to normal.  We love you all.

 

Hyde Park Conference

How do you like our "pink snow" in our front yard? With the breeze, it's like a little snow shower with the pedals blowing around.  Love those trees!  Isn't spring beautiful!

We attended Hyde Park stake conference this weekend.  It was one of the best meetings I have been to.  I would like to share some highlights of a couple of stake members who spoke.

Helen Chan who is from China bore her testimony.  She was baptized 9 months ago.  The first question the missionaries had asked her was what makes her happy.  She said her family.  After 2 months she joined the church.  Her first calling was family history consultant.  She said she felt a need to share the gospel with her whole family, living and in the spirit world.  She wrote to her mother for information about her family.  Since the revolution in China, there has been a loss of family traditions and record keeping.  But in 3 weeks, she received an email from her mother with 9 names she could take to the temple.  She was overwhelmed with joy!  As she was in a small room in the temple, she felt the room was filled with their spirits.  Later her mother came to visit her here in London and told her that on the day Helen had gone to the temple, her grandmother had a dream of her mother, sitting in front of her, smiling, looking beautiful and young!  Sister Chan invited everyone to do family history work.  “Heavenly Father will help you. You will find miracles.”  Her favorite song is Families Can Be Together Forever with the line:  “I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can.”  

President Stephenson (the 2nd counselor) talked about pioneers, ancestral and modern.  He told of sister Ayan in the stake who met the missionaries when she was 17.  Her mother wouldn't allow her to be baptized at that time.  Last year she was baptized, but is now estranged from her family.  When Pres. Stephenson asked her how she is able to handle it, she said, “What else am I going to do.  I know it’s true and I need to follow.”  

He told of another sister in our stake, sister Lin Ling Ling, from China.  (She happened to be sitting right in front of us.) When she arrived in London she got lost at the Victoria station.  The missionaries met her and helped her.  They asked her, “What makes you happy?”  She read the Book of Mormon and had an overwhelming feeling it was true, that she was prepared to hear the gospel.  She was baptized in 2013.  There are quite a number of people here from China and many of the new converts are from there.

The first counselor in the stake presidency is Paul Omo-Bamawo.  He is from Nigeria.  He was 17 when he joined the church and felt that he should go on a mission someday, but he didn’t have any idea what that would be like.  The only missionaries he knew were senior missionaries, as there were no young elders in his area.  Finally they got some young elders there, so he had some idea what missionaries were like.  But he still didn’t feel like he knew enough to go.  One day the Bishop called him in and explained that a missionary had been transferred and they needed help for a couple of weeks until the new missionary arrived.  So he wanted Paul to pack a bag and move in with the missionaries for that time.  He accepted.  He got the training he needed and later went on his own mission.  He is a remarkable man.  

We met a missionary from China.  He is the first missionary in London who grew up and joined the Church in China.  Wow, does he have a tremendous spirit with him!  I am hoping to see him again on Wednesday at zone conference.  I would like to hear more about the church in China.  He says it is really growing there.

There is such a cross section of culture here.  But at that conference those differences didn't matter, you can see we are all the same, children of Heavenly Father.  Everybody just loves everybody!  What a great feeling to go home with!

One more favorite spring picture.  This is about 3 blocks from the Kew library on the south side of London just across Thames. There are pink trees all over.  Wish they could stay that way.

Happy Easter to all next Sunday!