On Saturday, September 11th, Sister Hawley and Sister Little when back to Portebello Road in London to shop for more antiques. They has a good time.
When Sister Hawley arrived home about 11:30 AM we went grocery shopping at the local super market (about 2/3 the size of the Albertson's in Provo). Monday found us back at the mission office. Sister Hawley wrote many dozens of letters to parents, missionaries, bishops and stake presidents about the many activities of the missionaries. One day we posted over 40 letters she had written. We got word that a senior sister has been called to replace sister Field who is on a special music mission. We still watch for couple missionaries for CYA and for the office.
ELDERS DE OLIVEIRA AND PETERSON, WITH NEW ELDER CURGENVEN IN THE MIDDLE, @ WATERLOO STATION, LONDON.
We did get notice that a missionary from South Africa, who formerly served part of his mission in Manchester is being returning to the mission field to serve his last year in London. Also, a sister missionary from Pakistan is finally being allowed entry into England after a one-year battle to get a British visa. She is due to arrive in October. Sister Hawley has also been busy helping a sister missionary get her British visa from Myranmar (Burma/Thailand). We hope that she can get her visa, but will be delayed from her original Oct 2010 assignment to the England London Mission.
HYDE PARK DISTRICT, EARLY JULY 2010
[Sister Christensen is standing next to Sister Patch, 3rd from the left.]
Sister Christensen [l], Sister Feller [released this past summer], Sister Araujo [r]
Sister Christensen, a young sister missionary, was operated on this week to repair her eardrum that had ruptured. Interestingly, her parents had a vacation to Europe scheduled for about one year and the surgery was scheduled on one of the days her mother was to be in London. Can you believe the tender mercies of the Lord to allow a parent to attend in this way!!
This past Saturday, September 18th, we went by train, some 1 1/2 hour ride south and east of London, to Canterbury to see the cathedral and the Roman ruins.
Canterbury is located on the spot of a Roman City started perhaps as early as 42 AD. It was a large typical Roman city with brick buildings and tiled roofs and an ampitheater. Some estimated 40,000 soldiers invaded England from France. They later brought their families and lived for over 400 years in England before leaving around 450 AD. The reason they left was the army was needed in other parts of the Roman Empire. As they left, the town was over run by the local natives and later the Anglo-Saxons, who came from what is now northern Germany and Denmark.
They were technologically quite sophisticated, with brick homes, heated floors, mosaic tiled floors, tiled roofs, and cooking with charcoal (no chimney).
They had glass ware, earthern ware, silverspoons, buttons, broaches for holding clothes together, hair pins, bone combs, silver coins, weapons of steel and bronze and lived quite well.
The Roman Museum we visited had a fine array of artifacts found at Canterbury and information about Roman Life. There are still Roman walls standing there.
It is also the site of the first Catholic presence in England. St. Augustine arrived and established an Abbey there in the mid 500 AD.
The Canterbury Cathedral was built later, and was the center of the Catholic church and continues as the center for the Anglican or Church of England. Hence, everyone hears about the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was the Archbishop of Canterbury and King Henry the VIII that is so famous for the struggle the resulted in the formation of the Church of England. Henry the VIII took over or destroyed all the Catholic churches and abbeys in England in 1537 or so.
Below are several interior pictures of the interior areas of the Canterbury Cathedral, including, the gothic arches, the richly decorated pulpit and baptismal font + cover, lastly, an example of an ornate crypt.
The cathedral is large and imposing. There are many, many shrines and markers for people who have been buried in the cathedral. Most famous, it is where Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was martyred by the knights of King Henry II about 1180 AD or so. He is buried there and a shrine where he was slain by sword inside the cathedral. Most noticably, there is little about Christ in this cathedral. It is fine, beautiful and ornate but mostly dedicated to all of the history and memories, but we did not think it was adding anything to the Glory of God. It seems to be about pagantry and show but does not have the spirit of the Lord that we could sense.
Canterbury is a quaint town, with narrow cobble stone roads and shops about, dedicated to the tourist trade and the town was full of people. The University of Kent was starting up for the fall term and students and families were all about adding to the already bustling number of tourists. We ate in a small shop and had soup of red peppers and squash with a fresh bread roll and a salmon quiche and drank raspberry-apple juice from a company called J2O. The weather was nice with considerable sun. We did not take coats with us, but took our chances and were blessed with fairly good weather. We enjoyed our day, just the two of us on a September day trip to Canterbury. We will always have our own "Canterbury Tales."
