May 29 - June 4, 2018 - Trip Into London 

We have now completed our training as veil coordinators. The first part of the week was quiet. On our last session Tuesday at 7:00pm, we had one outside patron who arrived just before we would have cancelled the session.  It rained pretty heavily on Tuesday afternoon and evening so this may have discouraged other patrons from coming to the temple.  However, we pressed forward, designating a sister ordinance worker to go on the session,  and together the outside brother patron and sister ordinance worker were the witness couple.  Elder Burkinshaw went to 3 Nephi 11:15 and read "And it came to pass that the multitude went forth and thrust their hands into his side and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet. And this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands and did know of a surety and did bear record that it was he—​of whom it was written by the prophets—​that should come."  As the Savior ministered to the Nephites "one by one", so this was an opportunity to model His example.  Thus, here in the London Temple, we minister "one by one". 

We currently have a 5-speed manual car but we have an opportunity to purchase a nice sedan with an automatic transmission so we advised one of the London Temple sealers, Brother Vowels, who deals in automobiles, that we wanted to sell our 5-speed.  Just a few days later, we received a phone message from a couple serving in Australia who may be coming to serve here wanting to know about the car.  So we took some pictures to send to them and we are including them here.  This is a 2005 Renault (French) Megane Scenic 4-door.  It has been a great car for us and it only cost £450.  Interestingly, the value of the car increases by 20% when we fill the gas tank!  Gasoline here is £1.40 per litre which is $7.20 per gallon so a full 16 gallon tank is valued at over £90!  However, it gets about 45 miles per gallon and it has been an excellent car for us.

Our 2005 Renault Scenic 4-door.

Rear view of our 2005 Renault Scenic.  The license plate or registration number as it is known here always stays with the car and also denotes that it is a UK vehicle.  We also see vehicles from other countries such as France and Germany, where the driver sits on the right-hand side, like the United States.

Rear passenger view of our 2005 Renault Scenic.  Note the fold-down tables for the passengers.  We didn't even notice them until friends riding with us mentioned them.

Drivers view in our 2005 Renault Scenic.  Note that the pedals are arranged like a right-hand driving car, left-to-right clutch, then brake, then accelerator.  It's a bit tricky getting used to shifting with the left hand!

Tuesday morning about half way through our walk as we approached the front of the temple we saw President and Sister Otterson weeding the newly planted front flower beds. We had noticed that over the weekend these small green weeds had infested the beds. President Otterson said last year it had been a big problem and he had decided to spend some time early in the season while the weeds are small to try and manage it better. On our next round we stopped by the garden house and picked up a couple of tools to lend a hand. We figured if the temple president and matron could do it so could we. Below our some pictures of our adventure which we will probably repeat a couple more times. The British hoe is amazing, something we will definitely add to our gardening tools.

"Before" picture:  Note the little chickweed seedlings in the flower bed.

"After" Picture:  Note that you can see some chickweed seedlings but most are gone and those you can see have been rooted out and will dry up and go away (hopefully).

Here are two varieties of the "Dutch Hoe" that we used to remove the chickweed from the flower beds.

Side view of the "Dutch Hoes" which are available on Amazon US for a price of $65 but on Amazon UK it is only £15 or about $21 so there is obviously a supply/demand issue across the continents

Since the Addlestone Ward, which we attend on Sundays, was having stake conference this past weekend (they are part of the Staines Stake, which had a special temple session on Friday evening - which was wonderful but complicated since they had 9 brethren who were veil workers and Elder and Sister Burkinshaw were the veil coordinators), we decided to go to London Sunday morning to attend church at the historic Hyde Park Chapel and stay overnight so we could visit some London sites on Monday.

The Hyde Park Chapel in London is located on Exhibition Road alongside several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and Imperial College.  In 2012, part of the ground floor was remodeled into a visitors center since it gets millions of people passing by every year.  In fact, the London Temple's visitor center was closed at the end of 2017 to move the missionaries to the more-visited Hyde Park Visitors Center.

They Hyde Park Chapel was the vision of President David O McKay even though there was not a member of the Church within a 7 mile radius at the time.  The property was owned by the Steele family, whose parents and grandmother were killed in their home on the site by a German bombing attack during World Ward II.  They were reluctant to sell for fear their parents tragic death would be forgotten but President McKay suggested a memorial to them be added in the chapel so they agreed to sell the property.  Construction was completed in 1960 and President McKay dedicated it in 1961.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was also present as he was serving as a missionary. 

The Hyde Park Chapel with it's impressive pipe organ built by William Hill & Son and Norman & Beard Ltd., a British firm established in 1750. The organ has 2,545 pipes, 43 stops and three manuals of 61 keys each was built at the firm’s works in London.  Note the memorial plaque just between the paneling below the organ and the back door.

Close-up of the memorial plaque for the mother, father and grandmother of the Steele family who sold the Hyde Park Chapel lot to the Church in the mid-1950's.

On Sunday evening, Elder and Sister Baum, who were the guides on duty at the Hyde Park Visitors Center (and who worked for a time with us at the London Temple) invited Sister Burkinshaw to play the organ.  It is a very impressive organ!

Directly across the street from the Hyde Park Chapel is Imperial College London, founded by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Elizabeth and home of 14 Nobel laureates.  

The memorial to Prince Albert, who organized the Exhibition of 1851, after which Exhibition Road was named, and which gave rise to the important institutions near the Hyde Park Chapel such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, The Museum of Natural History, Imperial College and Royal Albert Hall.  In addition to these, he is noted for his support of public causes, such as educational reform and abolition of slavery worldwide.  His likeness is in gold in the center of the monument.

Across the street from the Prince Albert Memorial (and near the Hyde Park Chapel) is the famous Royal Albert Hall.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, including broadcasts of Music and the Spoken Word, has performed here multiple times.  Because the Church was so heavily persecuted in England during President McKay's mission as a young man, it was particularly satisfying to him to have the Church play such a prominent role in Great Britain during his presidency, including the construction and dedication of the London Temple.

About half a mile up Exhibition Road, inside Hyde Park, is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which serves as somewhat of a water park for British families.  It was very busy on Sunday evening at 7:30pm.  Because of it's very high northern latitude, London has over 16 hours of sunlight at the beginning of summer.

Sister Burkinshaw adds to the beauty of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

A panoramic view of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

A beautiful swan swimming in the pond in Hyde Park.

Ducks are also and important part of the habitat in Hyde Park. 

These stunning orange roses caught our attention in the Hyde Park Gardens.

Close-up of the orange roses in Hyde Park.

Beautiful foxglove (digitalis purpurea) grow in many of the gardens in Hyde Park.

Kensington Palace is located at the west end of Hyde Park.  Queen Elizabeth was born at Kensington Palace and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are the most recent residents.

We spent Sunday night at the London Marriott Hotel Kensington which is close to Hyde Park and provided a strategic location to visit the areas of London we wanted to see.

Amazing pastries are everywhere in London.  We stopped here and had an almond croissant and did not feel any twinge of guilt as we put in over 15 miles walking on Sunday and Monday!

This is Harrods Department Store on Brompton Road in Knightsbride, which is a London icon founded in 1834.  The store occupies a 5-acre site and has 330 departments covering one million square feet of retail space on five floors.  It is amazing!

A front shot showing just a small part of Harrods to provide perspective.

We include the monument to Lord Wellington because his name inspired the Vanguard Wellington Fund, which has provided excellent returns on our investment therein and funds our mission!

Sister and Elder Burkinshaw in front of Buckingham Palace just before the changing of the guard.  The crowds were phenomenal.

We walked by Buckingham Palace about 10:45am, just in time to see the band bringing the changing of the guard at the palace.  They were an impressive band.

The British appreciated Abraham Lincoln and this statue stands on Parliament Square.

Elder Burkinshaw in front of Westminster Abbey, which, among other things, is the burial place of Sir Isaac Newton, the father of classical physics. 

This is what "Big Ben" looks like right now.  It was taken out-of-service at the end of 2017 and will not be back in operation until 2021!

The London Eye a giant slow-moving ferris wheel is high enough to provide a vista of Buckingham Palace and many other London sites.

When we visited Egypt in 2014, we saw numerous obelisks that were missing.  Here is one of them called "Cleopatra's Needle".  It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan, Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.  Note the lion sphinxes on either side of the obelisk.

Lunch at Harrod's cafe on the third floor of the store.  Elder Burkinshaw had a delicious chicken sandwich with salad and Sister Burkinshaw had one of Harrod's own creations, a braffle which is a hybrid of the brioche and waffle.

We had a wonderful trip to London and because we did it by foot and bike, we have a much better feel for the layout of the city for any upcoming visitors. We did make one mistake coming home on the train.  We were sitting in car number 12 and realized when pulling into the Lingfield station (where we had parked our car) that you could only exit from cars 1 to 8 because it was a short station. We made a good faith effort to run from car 12 to 8, but arrived just as the train was pulling out again. We exited on the next stop and Sister Burkinshaw realized she did not have her cellphone. Luckily the British are honest and when we called the station in East Grinstead, they had the phone. We took the next train going back into London, this time sitting in car 5 and exited at Lingfield to pick up our car and drive into East Grinstead to retrieve the cellphone. So glad we didn't have to have another cellphone shipped in a bag of mint chocolates! ;-)  A little "opposition in all things" was just a reminder of how well the trip had gone.

Love to all,

Elder and Sister Burkinshaw