MOVES (transfers) were on Monday, the 18th of October. The regular date was changed from the usual Wednesday to accommodate the Area Mission President's Seminar in Dresden, Germany, which was Tuesday through Friday of this week. We received 11 new missionaries on Monday and sent 4 home on Tuesday. There was much going on. We found out that the new office elders assigned to replace us are Elder Joshua Curgenven, English, and Elder Tyler Potts, American, from Orem, Utah. They are good young missionaries. Boy, do we have a lot to train them on in the next few weeks. We will begin in earnest tomorrow morning and when they feel comfortable we will begin the transfer of responsibilities.
Departing Sister Missionaries [L] Charity Browning* and Jamilyn Ostler
[Sister Browning and Sister Hawley are both related to John and Jonathan Browning, of the Browning rifles' fame, and early Church members.]
Departing Elders Gregor Obradovic [L] and Tyler Koppe
Elder Tyler Potts [Mission Secretary, Left] and Elder Joshua Curgenven [Financial Secretary]
Elder Curgenven will stay 2 transfers; Elder Potts will be trained as the Financial Secretary, and a new office elder will replace him as mission secretary; after 4 transfers Elder Potts will leave, and the rotation will continue, unless at some point a senior office couple arrives. We felt that after SIX months we finally could feel comfortable doing all that we do. It is expecting a lot for these young men to learn as quickly as they will have to do, to multi-task, and to juggle. It is good to know that the Lord will bless them as He has so generously blessed us.
Saturday we invited Elders Potts and Curgenven, the Assistants to the President, Elders Kirk Katseanes [Idaho] and Keaton Hatch [Canada], and the Hyde Park zone leaders, Elders Christopher Patch (the President's Son), Hiram Jacob, and Jordan Powell to breakfast at our flat. Sister Hawley cooked "Streaky Bacon", scrambled eggs, waffles with strawberries and whipped double cream, Canadian Maple Syrup, hot chocolate and orange juice. They ate every thing she cooked [they 'inhaled it!'], and we sent them out the door after about a 90-minute visit. We ate after they left as they were in a hurry that morning and there was only so much room at our small dining table. Great young men -- so polite and willing to help.
L-R: Potts, Jacob, Patch, Hatch, Katseanes, Curgenven, and Powell
New AP [Assistant to the Mission President] Keaton Hatch
New Senior AP Katseanes, transfering AP [now new zone leader] Zemp, and new AP Hatch
Last Thursday afternoon we went to St. Paul's Cathedral [on Portia's brother Paul's 61st birthday] in downtown London. [No, Portia's brother was not named after the New Testament's Apostle Paul, but he was named after their great uncle, Paul Child, who was teacher and close friend to President Thomas S. Monson.] On this site a church was first built by the Normans in about 1100 AD. It has been changed over the years, been burnt down three times, was damaged by bombs in World War II, and was part of a major renovation by the famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren in the 1600's. It was his crowning achievement and is certainly a wonderful and grand structure. It is very ornate and striking, with many statues and carvings, murals and decorated ceilings and stained glass windows. It is where Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles were married, and it is also the resting place for the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Lord Nelson, Florence Nightingale, John Donne, and many other of the English greats. It is clean and very well taken care of. It is an active, working Anglican church. [It should be, as everyone who enters pays the $25 to see it.] We stayed for the Evensong service held at 5 p.m.. We were invited to sit in the choir seats as part of the service and listen to the all-male choir [the Boys Choir was not singing, as the boys were on half-term holiday], and the readings and prayers that were offered. It is pure Church of England (Anglican in the U.K. and Episcopalian in the U.S.), and the service was very similar to some of the Catholic services. The Apostle's Creed was part of the service. It lasted about a half an hour and we were on our way again. Elder and Sister Harbrecht joined us for the Evensong service, and afterward we went to a Dutch pancake house for PanneKuechen.
East side, St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Artist's rendering of the duel dome interior structure of St. Paul's Cathedral
Cathedral Dome and CloseUp of the Dome
Large Font, Great West Doors
This font is be enough for a man to climb in and sit down. All fonts in England are always placed near the front entrance doors. This font was designed to resemble a classical urn. Its lid is now kept elsewhere in the cathedral to facilitate more ease in performing baptisms. The font sits at the front of the Nave, and represents to them the path humans tread during life and the spiritual journal towards the God who gives life.
View from the Dome stairs of the Nave, Quire, and High Altar
Quire and High Altar
*We sat on the far upper right front row seats of the Quire.
This photo shows the ornate interior of the Cathedral.
Interior main floor hallway
Burial place & memorial for Admiral Lord Nelson
Cathedral Crypt
[Note: the interior photographs of St. Paul's Cathedral were scanned from the guide book because, like Westminster Cathedral, visitors are not allowed to take any indoor photography.]
You may have noticed articles by and about Vai Sikahema, the former BYU football player from Tonga who played in the NFL and is a celebrity in the Philadelphia area as a sports news anchor. He is also very strong in the Church; he was a bishop and is now serving in a stake presidency. He is a contributing columnist for the Deseret News; recently he wrote a trio of articles about how he became successful, and in the third article he wrote about his son serving as a missionary in London. We know his son because he is serving here in the ELM as a zone leader in St Albans, Elder Trey Sikahema. He is a nice young man and very polite and happy--and proud of his parents too.
Elder Trey Sikahema
Today was Stake Conference and Elder Sterri, of the Third Quorum of the Seventy was the presiding authority. He is an Area Authority Seventy and is from Olso, Norway. He served his mission in England and spoke very good English. President Patch introduced us to Elder Sterri, and we spoke with him at the mission office on Friday late afternoon. Elder Hawley told him about his maternal grandmother, Minnie Olsen Nielsen, who joined the Church in Norway [the only member of her family who did] and traveled to Utah in1905. He spoke about his father joining the Church in 1960. Then he related that two months later his mother asked for the missionaries, saying that she wanted to know the religion that had changed her husband so much in such a short time. She too was baptized. Elder Sterri said he could remember the feeling and some other details about going with his family to the London Temple to be sealed even though he was very young (two years old). He said he mostly remembers the feeling and of being carried into the sealing room. He bore a strong testimony [in our Sunday morning stake conference session] of Jesus Christ and the Restoration.
Some of the other couples we serve with here in the England London Mission have not been mentioned much in our blog. Here are some photos of them:
Sherrie & Bob Harbrecht, FHC missionaries
[Sisters Harbrecht, Price, and Little -- see previous blogs -- are also Sugar Shaker fans.]
Gerry and Jim Price, FHC missionaries
[The Price's are 'party people' and we will 'will' our waffle iron to them.]
Jean and Jim Bird, reactivation missionaries
[The Bird's are the ones who organized our river boat trip.]
Newest FHC arrivals: John and Marilyn Crandall
The Crandall's previously served another English mission in Leeds.
Sister Joan Groves, Sister Marriett and Elder Gil Campbell, LDS Employment Centre
[Elder Campbell plays both piano and organ, and he and Sister Campbell are the grandparents of almost-3 yr old triplet boys.]
Three new senior couples and one single senior sister are expected to arrive in the next couple of months: the senior sister will come to serve as Sister Field's replacement music directer; the Fugal's and the Robertson's will serve in the Family History Centre [FHC], and the Mills will come as reactivation / proselyting missionaries. Sister Hawley has been in contact with them, helping to answer the questions they have about missions and living in London.
If we forget to mention anything in our blog reports, you can always joke with us to
"MIND THE GAP!" [THE MENTAL ONE]
We have enjoyed serving with all the missionaries, and are humbled by their dedication and willingness to serve, to preach the gospel, to testify of our Savior, and to bless the lives of others. We know they certainly do bless ours.
From London, Love to All,
Elder and Sister Hawley
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