Hello again from Sunny and Rainy London -- the city that can't make up its mind as to which weather it favors most . . .
This past Monday Elder and Sister Hawley took a turn at hosting Family Home Evening, and we asked President and Sister Patch to be our special guest speakers, which they were happy to be. President Patch has spent the last 20 years working for the Church in various humanitarian areas, and for the last couple of years he has worked in the Presiding Bishopric's office. He is a lawyer by profession, and has also worked in Washington D.C. for Senator Orrin Hatch. The Patch's have 4 adult children and have 6 grandchildren; their youngest son is serving his mission in the England London Mission in the Northampton Zone.
The Patch's have a home in north Orem, Utah. We asked President Patch to speak to our group about 'life in the Presiding Bishopric's office' and about some of his experiences in humanitarian projects which he has been involved in. We saw film clips from humanitarian projects in places such as Africa, delivering wheel chairs and with missionaries drilling wells for clean water, and with tsunami relief efforts. We were really impressed with how far-reaching the Church's humanitarian efforts are, and with the ways the Church goes about funding these projects, noting that 100% of all monies donated goes towards these projects and zero monies are taken for administration costs or purposes. We were also impressed by how wise and prudent the Church administrators are with the use of these monies and with their purchases. The Presiding Bishopric's Office oversees all physical facilities of the Church, and there is one new chapel completed every day somewhere in the world. The Church has many real estate holdings, some for welfare projects, and also a large number are held for investment purposes. The Church recently purchased -- for pennies on the dollar -- many acres of land in Arizona, due to the downturn in the economy. Of interest in Britain, the Church is the next-largest land owner in Britain next to the Royal Family. Overall we feel impressed and confident that the resources of the Church are in excellent and wise and safe hands because of the honest and capable administration of these funds by Church leaders and employees.
We had a total of 20 couples in attendance and we met over dinner, with Sister Hawley making her Chicken Breasts Supreme ["Murder Party Chicken" to our family] and organizing the rest of the food of salads, vegetables, Funeral Potatoes, bread sticks and rolls, brownies and carrot cake brought by the other couples. We usually have FHEs about twice a month, and our next gathering will be the first Monday in June with Family History Centre missionaries, the Trevor's, as guests.
May Zone Conference was held on May 28th and May 29th, with the mission divided into 4 zones and each half coming on Friday or Saturday. We attended zone conference on Friday and had some oversight for the feeding of the 75 missionaries during the lunch break. The conference was at the Hyde Park Chapel both days and was a wonderful time. President Patch spoke about the atonement and had a discussion about the many of the aspects for the atonement. We are so very grateful for those blessings that Christ has given to everyone: 1. All will resurrect with a physical resurrection and 2. we all have the opportunity to have our sins remitted upon condition of our willingness to repent and follow Him and obey His commandments. At the beginning of their mission each young missionary is to follow a study guide and make a six week study of the atonement and write a letter to the president reporting about what he/she has learned. Faith in Christ and an understanding of the atonement is the basis for everything we do as missionaries. We were humbled and touched by the insights and depths of what the four speakers chosen shared with us from their atonement studies. We also had four of the soon-to-be-departing [17 June] missionaries share with us some feelings and thoughts about their missionary experiences. Their parents can indeed be very happy for and very proud of their missionary children. They uplift and inspire us.
For Saturday, the 29th of May, [the day following zone conference], we had received permission from the Area President to accompany the Hyde Park Ward group on a 2 1/2 hour bus journey west of London and out of the mission to the Gadfield Elm Chapel in Worchester. This is a Church historical site of the first chapel ever owned in England.
In 1840, Elder Wilford Woodruff and others proceeded "south" as directed by inspiration to visit the Malvern Hills area. They were introduced to John Benbow by his brother William Bendow who had joined the Church three weeks earlier in the Birmingham area. John Benbow was a leader in the "United Brothren", a group some 600 strong who had broken from the Methodist Church and were seeking for a restoration of the truth as they found it described in the Bible. They had built a small one- room church for preaching and meeting, and Wilford Woodruff was invited to preach there. All but one of the United Brethren joined the LDS Church, and the building was donated to the Church in 1840; the building was used for two more years until most of the congregation had immigrated to the United States, and the building was sold to help in the immigration costs in 1842. Over 65,000 saints joined the Church in England in those early years and immigrated to America. In 1850, there were more "Mormons" living in England that were in the U.S.A.
In about 2000 some local members purchased the old broken-down building, and had it restored to its original state as best as they could, and in 2004 it was donated to the Church and dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley as a Historical Site. It was a most interesting and rewarding visit, especially given the rich history and sacrifices and stories of faith coming out this small area. Wilford Woodruff baptized over 1800 from this little valley of green fields and hedgerows, trees and grass all about. A most pleasant and beautiful area. There was a pleasant, sweet spirit of peace and solitude there. We were happy to be able to get permission to make the journey out of the mission boundaries.
Wilford Woodruff must have been both a great speaker and a man worthy to be filled with the Spirit. He certainly fulfilled the purposes of the Lord and blessed and changed the lives of thousands.
Wilford Woodruff preached at the John Benbow farm about 7-10 miles away and other locations every night of the week, often attracting 1000 people to be in attendance. The local Anglican Church only attracted about 15 people for services, and the vicar became alarmed and sent a constable to arrest Mr. Woodruff. The constable came to one of the meetings and was attempting to make his arrest when Wilford Woodruff explained that he had a license to preach and asked the constable to take a seat. After the meeting he said he would address the complaint more thoroughly. The constable took a seat right next to Wilford Woodruff near the pulpit. After the sermon several petitioned Elder Woodruff to be baptized and among them was the constable, who later told the vicar that it was the first truthful sermon he had ever heard in his lifetime. The vicar then sent two other spies to other meetings and both were converted and baptized. The vicar then petitioned the Bishop of Canterbury and Parliment to ban Mormons from England, but he was denied. Such are the stories from the journals of the early missionaries.
Of note, the Hawley genealogy line has William Beers and Suzannah Gazey joining the church in the early 1840's in Banbury just 30 or so miles away from Gadfield Elm to the north east. They immigrated to the USA and had a son born in 1843 in New York and were in Winter Quarters in 1846 or so. She is buried in Pleasant Grove, Utah. This even makes the experience to Gadfield Elm more real and meaningful to Elder Hawley. Most probably they were there and heard the same missionaries during these same times.
We received one missionary, Sister Kinjo, [Sisters Jensen, Kinjo, Patch, President Patch] from Japan this past week. Her arrival was delayed due to the Iceland volcano eruptions. We are truly a international mission with missionaries from around the world with such rich heritages and histories.
At zone conference it was asked who of those present were converts to the church, who had parents who were converts, and more than 1/4 missionaries raised their hands. Truly pioneers in the Gospel right here serving missions and making their own sacrifices and proving willing to serve.
We are happy and doing well. We also attended the Chelsea Flower Show with two other mission couples, and a description with photographs will come with next week's blog. We plan to share this and other "adventures" in the weeks to come. Love to all.
P.S. Elder and Sister Hawley are currently on the 'Net' as part of the Hyde Park Ward group who visited the round Anglican Church near Fleet Street in London [already reported on in this blog]. Here is the photo taken of about 1/2 our group, plus the link to the article. See if you can find us in the 'crowd.'
https://www.lds.org.uk/news_details.php?id=1130
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