NEWS OF THE PAST WEEK

[Picture above is of Ann Sweeney, a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Sister Hawley knows Ann because Ann is the one who makes the missionary name badges all of us missionaries wear.]

It was great to hear the General Conference of the Church.  The meetings are all given at the Hyde Park Chapel, some live and some taped.  But we chose to stay at home and watch the five sessions on the Internet. We saw the live  Saturday morning session at 5 PM London time and saw the Saturday afternoon session on a delayed basis via the Internet from 8-10 AM on Sunday.  We had Elder David and Sister Denece Little over for breakfast at 10 AM.  Sister Hawley cooked waffles with real maple syrup, whipped cream [sweetened English double cream] and strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.  It was grand.  The Little's are assigned to the Centre for Young Adults.  They live in the same apartment complex as we do.  They are on the ground floor, #9, and we are on the fifth floor, #72.  They will be leaving for home in Wellsville, Utah on October 28th.  They have made a difference to the young adult program, but there is not a couple coming to replace them, and we all fear the work that has been done will be lost if left to the local stake members as they do not appear to have the time or inclination or dedication to keep it up and running as the Little's did.  The reason for no replacement couple, we are told, is there are fewer senior missionary couples able to serve here due to the recession and the high cost of living in London.  We saw the priesthood session with Elder and Sister Little. and then at five PM we saw the Sunday Morning session.  We did not see the Sunday afternoon session until Wednesday evening.  We did not go to the Addiction Recovery Program on Wednesday night as has become our practice; we are thinking, that if we come with our missionary badges that it is a deterent to those who come.  So, we are backing quietly away.  Sister Allred has returned from an extended visit to help her ill sister in California, and so the Allred's are able to carry on without assistance.

Saturday, 9 October, 2010, we were invited to an LDS English wedding.  The bride is from a long standing LDS family who are members of our Hyde Park Ward, and the father of the bride is a former HP bishop and HP stake president.  The groom is a recent member of the Church and his family heritage is Turkish.  He is the only LDS member of his family.  In Britain, temple marriages are not recognized by the State so a civil wedding is held and then the bridal couple may proceed to the temple to be sealed.  So following custom, the ceremony was held in the Hyde Park Chapel, right in the chapel, which is not allowed in the U.S.  It began with the singing of the song "Jerusalem" and an LDS prayer, was given.  A tribute was given by the godfather of the groom, part in English and part in Turkish -- we had a hard time understanding the English part and did not get a word of the Turkish part.  There was a beautiful harp solo and a poem about love read in three parts by the three sisters of the bride who were also her bridesmaids, and finally the bride's mother spoke.  She spoke about many things, but in trying not sound LDS, she gave meaning to some things that were not in total agreement with Church teachings.  In trying to not be offensive to those not LDS, she lost her way a few times. We were uncomfortable.  The marriage was performed by Bishop Shuler of the Britannia Ward [young single adult ward], and the official British documents were signed by the bride and groom and the witnesses (both the mothers in this case).  [The bride's father is the elected Council Chairman of Ealing Burough, one of the larger buroughs of London; he would be the mayor of Ealing i.e., the U.S. counterpart.  As such, he was the legal representative to certify that this marriage took place legally.]  The service ended by singing "How Great Thou Art" and LDS opening and closing prayers were given.

The Hyde Park cultural hall was all decorated with a Turkish style theme with many sheers and scharf-like materials, in white and dark blue and red, stretched and strung very nicely in the hall and accompanied by a full buffet Turkish dinner.  We would have stayed but there was not room for more than just family and close friends, so we left.  The most disheartening thing was that the bride came two (YES, TWO) hours late and all the guests were kept waiting in the chapel for those two hours.  The musicians with the harp and piano [Sister Linda Field, below] alternated to play music, but  with people talking so loudly that most guests found it hard to hear or enjoy.  could not be enjoyed.  The couple are young and hopefully will be a good family in the gospel in the future.  Mixed cultural marriages are very common in England.  The bride is half British, half Jamacian and the groom full Turkish.

Periodically Sister Hawley works on arranging some new pictures on the presidents organization board for missionaries who want different pictures put on their board cards that look better to them that those of their passport pictures.  Most of the missionaries represented in the cards on the board have arrived while we have been here and we know them all quite well.   We will miss this association with the missionaries.  [Sister Hawley has made the cards in green {2009 arrivals} and in blue {2010 arrivals}.  Some coming in 2011 {buff} can be seen in the lower right  corner of the board. And Sister Hawley has added a few more soon-to-come missionaries not seen in this photo.]

[Elder and Sister Hawley's board card is in green, lowest line centre, first on the left end.]

Transfers are on Monday the 18th of October; we received word of the change from the area office that transfers would be moved to a Monday this one time,  but generally MOVES are on Wednesdays. 

[Sister Rahkel Bahkshi, left]

We will receive 11 new missionaries and send 4 home.  We are excited to welcome one particular sister missionary, Sister Rahkel Bahkshi, from Pakastan, who, after 14+ months "fighting the odds", has received her UK visa and is now in Preston at the MTC receiving mission training.  She had her visa denied three times and was reassigned to missions in the Philippines twice; finally, when her passport was returned to her so she could travel, low and behold, inside was the UK visa stamp.  Immediately the Missionary Department reassigned her back to the England London Mission and we got word she was indeed coming.  Preston reinforced this for us with us all grinning happily that indeed she did arrive on time and we are all certain she will make a dedicated missionary.  We DO believe in ministering angels and in miracles and that the Lord can make happen what humans cannot.

We just got word Friday of a SECOND sister missionary coming to the ELM from Pakistan!  Awesome!  [Sister Alisheba Aziz, below right]  We will be 2 months home when Sister Aziz arrives, but we are delighted that she is coming.

We note the days are getting shorter and so is our time here.  Less than two months to go, but we are not getting "trunky" as we have vowed to work hard until we complete our assignment.  We will start to train two young elders to replace us, as the Missionary Department has not been able to find a replacement with sufficient funds to live in London.

                                               Our Best to All, Elder and Sister Hawley