NEWS OF THE PAST WEEK

Elder Hawley had been to several Hyde Park building meetings representing the mission.  The building is to have some renovations to be finished by the 2012 Olympics which are to be held in London.  Part of the renovation is a major change to the entrance to the building, with a new stairway from the front walk and the addition of a Statue of the Christus in the immediate entryway.  

In the main large hallway has been a visitor's panorama which was in the NY City World's Fair (I think circa 1963-64--see the picture, above right.  This panorama is well known to Mormons and was a gift to the Hyde Park Chapel when it was finished in the early 1960's.  The mural will be removed and taken to the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City.  In it's place will be a modern, interactive Media/TV panorama using the latest technology.  Other enhancements are to be made, but the building will function and operate the same.  Of note, it will have air-conditioning installed for the first time.

This past Tuesday morning we played hooky, with the President's approval, and went to see Westminster Abbey.  This is the place where all of the kings and queens of England have been crowned, beginning with William the Conqueror in 1066.  The current Queen Elizabeth II was crowned there in 1953.  

It is a working abbey of the Church of England, but is mostly a memorial to famous and wealthy people who are buried there.  Many of the kings and queens are buried there, such as King Henry II, III and the VII, Elizabeth I and under her, Mary Queens of Scots, with no effigy (there is a story there). 

So many of the famous and noteworthy have memorials there also. The funeral for Diana, Princess of Wales was held here. There is a "Poet's Corner" with Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Charles Dickins, Tennyson, Jane Austin, Louis Carrol and many others. Some musicians, like Handl; and actors, such as Sir Lawrance Olivier. 

Many of the Clergy, Regents, and politicians of note are their also. Oliver Cromwell was buried there for two years, but when the royalty came back to power about 1663, they dug him up, re-hung him, behead him, and got rid of his remains from the Abby.  

The Abbey is located across the street from Westminster, Big Ben and Parliament.  We were interested, but found that it was both an active religious dwelling and a memorial [with many ornate monuments and actual tombs] to/for those who are buried there or who are remembered there by brass floor and wall mounted plaques.  The Tomb on the Unknown Warrior from WWI is also there, much like our Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington.  There was no photography allowed inside, so the pictures of  the inside have been scanned from pamphlets to give you a look inside. Sir Christopher Wren the famous architect, was responsible for the renovations done in the Abbey in 1698.  He is also famous for his work renovating St Paul's Cathedral.  We had a good time for about two hours and then headed via the "Tube" back to the office and by 1  p.m. were back at our posts and taking care of the mission office.

Saturday, we were to take a train to Norwich for the day, but decided to stay in London and see some more of the downtown/political parts of the city.

London bridge is just a regular new modern bridge--no towers, not a suspension bridge but more like a highway overpass . . . just passing over the Thames River.  [3rd photo above.]  The bridge that "looks" like a real bridge is indeed one: the Tower of London Bridge [#4 above]. Buildings can be old or modern skyscrapers [#5 above].  All jamed together or sharing walls.  Flats, buildings renovated into flats, or houses that share walls are called "terraced" flats or houses.  Two houses that share a common wall are "semi-detached." 

We passed "bobbies" guarding the entrance to Parliament [#2] and Waterloo Bridge [#5].  

We saw the outside of St Paul's Cathedral, but will return another time to go inside.   St. Paul's was one of the building studied when they build the Utah State Capitol and you can see the resemblance in the pictures.  Tourists can climb several hundred stairs to the top of the dome to get what is called the very best view of London, [the London Eye, below, not withstanding].

Trafalgar Square is impressive and we went past the New Scotland Yard [glass and stone modern build] and stopped at the famous Liverpool Street train station.  There is more to see in London than anyone can see, even if they have lived here for years and years. London is full of people and the tourists come here in large numbers daily, no matter what the weather.

Here's a picture of Elder Hawley in the Liverpool Train Station.  Also shown below are pictures of some rather unusual telephone booths:  [1] in Liverpool Station]; [2] Liverpool Station phone booths; [3] lone black [all other phone booths are painted red] telephone booth located close to St. Paul's Cathedral.  The phone booths in the train station have large, long pins all over the tops of the booths . . . since each side of the station contains large open doorways, pidgeons and others birds can fly in easily, and London is the home base for pidgeons.  So the needles are there to keep the pidgeons from landing on top of the phone booths.

We are beginning to train our replacements starting on Monday.  Two young elders have been assigned to the office.  Elder Tyler Potts and Elder Joshua Curgenven.  We will say more on that as we train and make the transition to young elders in the office.  We have given notice on our flat to move out and are beginning the process of closing out everything in preparation to go home.  Things like notifying utilities' companies, TV and internet providers, Council Taxes, etc.; and we will need to talk to the HSBC bank about our account soon.  We even looked online at new Nissan Murano's to see if we still like them. Sister Hawley wants the new blue one!  So we must be coming home in about six weeks or so.

P.S.  When we told our son Rob that we were down to 6 weeks left on our mission, and that we might be getting a "little bit" trunky, his comment was:  "If you are counting the weeks, you aren't just a little bit trunky, you have MOVED INTO the TRUNK.  So be it!  We are so busy each and every day that the time just flies by, and it has amazed us how fast our mission time here has passed.  If we really think about leaving, we will tear up and the feelings we have here will overflow.  We have put our hearts and all our talents and our faith into this wonderful calling of service for the Lord, and we will leave a portion of our hearts here in England, the land of our ancestors.  We are more grateful than we can say for this whole experience, including learning to live the "English" way.  How blessed we are.  We wish every retired couple who could would choose to serve a mission together.  One of the greatest blessings to be learned is how tailor-made this mission has been for us, and how well the Lord knows us and loves us.  We wish these same blessings for everyone.

Love to all from London, The Hawley's

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

NEWS OF THE PAST WEEK

THIS IS A MINI-POST FOR THIS WEEK.  Or something like a P.S. to our post this past week -- now with photos added --

As Elder and Sister Hawley were waiting [and waiting] for the C1 bus to come along and take us back to our flat one night this past week, Sister Hawley passed the time taking pictures . . . of London taxis....

It could be because E/S H have been checking out car colors due to the fact that when they return home they are going to need / want to purchase a new car . . . just a titch trunky they are, with 2+ months to go . . . .

Now, be that as it may, when we arrived in London we expected . . . and saw plenty of . . . the traditional BLACK taxi cab....

But now we have PROOF that London has broken out of the past and into the future with TAXIS OF MANY COLORS.

Here are some samples:

PUT A LITTLE COLOR INTO YOUR LIFE THIS WEEK.

WE SEND YOU OUR LOVE, PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS.

NEWS OF THE PAST WEEK

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."