April 16-22, 2018 - First Week at the London Temple

We have completed our first week at the London Temple and it has been wonderful!  We began by attending church meetings at the Crawley ward, riding the van provided for the missionaries here at the temple, with several other temple missionaries. The Crawley ward is well established and although they are use to having temple missionaries they were very welcoming. We were invited to have dinner with Elder and Sister Janda following church.  Sister Janda is from Montana and Elder Janda is from France.  They served a delicious meal for us and Elder and Sister Page (from South Jordan, UT) who are serving as the B shift coordinators. We enjoyed getting to know both couples a little better, they both work on the B shift with us so we will see them a lot.

Monday was spent getting our apartment a little more organized and put together. Most of this post will be pictures so you can get an idea of our living space and the temple grounds which are both great!

The kitchen came completely furnished with everything but food. he sink is on the left behind the door. The refrigerator is small, but there is a large freezer in the utility room. They have a room at the accommodations center office filled with household items that have been purchased for the missionary apartments as well as things that have been left by other couples. We check there for anything we need before making purchases. Our oven has not been working, but we are told they have ordered a new one-cookies anyone!

The Living Room is nice although we weren't crazy about the mauve carpet, but it actually coordinates with the color scheme for the London temple.

Our view from the Living Room window. We are on the back side, top floor of what they call "The Lodge" Flat 16. The flats (apartments) on the front have a view of temple, but not as much privacy. They call this wooded area "The Sacred Grove". The trees are just starting to bloom so each day the view gets a little greener.

Bathroom, nothing fancy, but very functional.

Bedroom - a king size bed, which is comfortable, and a nice size closet. We found that you can order from UK amazon and it is delivered in a day so I did a little bedroom remodel. We moved some pictures around and ordered a new duvet and matching curtains. It lightened up the room making it seem bigger and it actually matches the carpet.

We also have a small utility room with a stacked washer and dryer, freezer and shelves; a coat closet and a nice walk in storage closet with shelves big enough to store our suitcases  and set up the ironing board so it is handy and ready to use. The flats are well maintained and will be very comfortable for the next 18 months.

The temple grounds are beautiful. The temple sits on 30 acres although not all of the land has been developed. Originally the temple parking was to be across the road (A22 or Eastbourne Road) towards which the temple faces. However, even 60 years ago, A22 was a main thoroughfare to London with relatively heavy traffic, they put an entrance on the side of the temple and the parking in the back. We have mapped out a mile walk around the paved portions of the grounds for our morning walk. There are walking paths that extend further into the trees, but since it rains here a lot we prefer keeping our shoes from getting muddy. The tulips and daffodils are beautiful right now as you will see in the pictures although we have been told they will be changing out the flower beds in the next couple of weeks.

Front of the London Temple. The actual temple entrance is on the right (west) side.

Side View of the temple with the entrance. The building on the right has flats for the temple patrons of which there are about 60 studio apartments. They rent them for £9 (about $12.60) per person per day for those coming to attend the temple. The white tag temple missionaries (intermittent local missionaries that serve regularly such as 2 weeks on and 6 weeks off) also stay here. Black tag missionaries (full-time missionaries from other countries) are those serving for 6 months or longer and typically live in the Lodge.  

A morning picture of Moroni in the sun. It has been unusually sunny and warm all week. Several people have said we have now had our British Summer. Hopefully not, but a British summer has much to do with sunshine and we have had an abundance this week. 

This is the Manor house where the temple President and Matron live along with several of the single sister missionaries. The other two members of the temple presidency and assistant matrons live in the Lodge with us. This picture is taken from the sidewalk at the front entrance of the temple.

The next two pictures are of flowers on the outside brick fence of the temple grounds.

As we turn the corner along the path at the far south end of the temple grounds, this  flowering bush comes stunningly into view.

The next four pictures are of the grounds on the side of the temple opposite the manor house. In this area they have a paved walking path that provides a nice wander (walk).

Shopping on Monday (P-Day) at the Sainsbury's supermarket in East Grinstead, which is about 4 miles from the London Temple Grounds.

Our first week at the London Temple has set the tone for our mission.  Everyone was very thoughtful and kind.  President Christopher Freeman, second counselor in the London Temple Presidency and a retired engineer with Phillips Petroleum UK, and his wife Susan who is the Assistant Matron, picked us up at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning and transported us to our new flat at the Lodge.  They left us a supply of food for the weekend and were very helpful in answering our questions and setting us at ease.  Sunday meetings at the beautiful Crawley meetinghouse, which is also the stake center, were excellent and dinner at the Janda's with the Pages was delicious and continued to provide us information about our service here at the London Temple.  Monday, Elder and Sister Page kindly took us to the grocery store and helped us figure out where things were and helped us with nomenclature (i.e. potato chips are potato crisps, powdered sugar is icing sugar, etc.)  On Tuesday, before attending the 10:00am endowment session, Michael R. Otterson, the London Temple President and former Managing Director of LDS Church Public Affairs, set us apart and blessed us with the ability to feel the Spirit and recognize the unspoken needs of the patrons we will serve.  Following lunch in the cafeteria, our shift began at 2:30pm that afternoon.   Brother and Sister Wade were our trainers and they kindly recognized that we were very familiar with the ordinances but not with the protocols of the London Temple, which is about four times larger (42,652 sqft with four endowment rooms and eight sealing rooms) than the Oklahoma City Temple.  It was easy to get lost during our first week!  But there was always someone there with a smile on their face and some helpful directions.  On Thursday morning, Elder Hardy (British) kindly drove us and several other workers to the grocery store in the Temple van.  And Sunday evening, most of the ordinance workers (more than 60) met for a "Hi 'n Bye" where new workers introduced themselves and those who had completed their service bid farewell to the group, there were two coming and two leaving. 

We were asked to introduce ourselves at the "Hi 'n Bye". Each of us took a minute to tell where we grew up, that we had been raised in the church and shared that both our gospel lines flow back to the UK. We also shared that our lives merged while attending BYU in Provo, we moved to Oklahoma for employment, had seven children who are now scattered across the US and 27 grandchildren with number 28 arriving in May. As we are grateful to be here and serving in the temple we ended with a short message on the temple quoting President Nelson who said, "Now, to each member of the Church I say: Keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere. As a new presidency, we want to begin with the end in mind. For this reason, we're speaking to you today from a temple. The end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in a house of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God, that of eternal life. The ordinances of the temple and the covenants you make there are key to strengthening your life, your marriage and family, and your ability to resist the attacks of the adversary. Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path." (Media Broadcast announcing new first presidency, 2018)  It has been a great start and it has already been a life-changing experience.


Elder and Sister Burkinshaw