October means Fall in London
October has been a cool month. That is cool – temperature drops and rain
picks up. It stays pretty constant with
highs at 60 and lows in upper 40’s. We
still get an occasional day of glorious sunshine.
Early October we visited another of the English Heritage
Trust properties. This time it was the
Banqueting House. There is quite a
history of this magnificent structure.
Architecturally it is very prominent.
It was designed by renowned architect Inigo Jones and it is the only
surviving building from the old Whitehall Palace. You can read more about it at: http://www.hrp.org.uk/BanquetingHouse/stoies/BanquetingHousebuildinghistory#sthash.hH6wmfzk.
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| Banqueting House |
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| "Reuben's Originals" - ceiling |
Basically, it is one large banquet hall with beautiful decorations and ”Reuben’s” originals installed on the ceiling. Some of the most remarkable art of the times.
October also brought General Conference. We have an interesting schedule. Sunday morning, 8:00 am, the men had Stake Priesthood Meeting and the women watched the General Women’s Meeting from the prior week. From 10-12 am Sunday we watched the Saturday Priesthood meeting (actually had 3 women attend without incident). 1-3 pm we viewed the Saturday Afternoon General Session, 3:30 to 5:00 had Stake Choir Practice, 5-7 we viewed the Sunday Morning General Session (live), and then we came home and streamed on the internet at 9 pm the Sunday afternoon session. A wonderful conference with great instruction and of course, historic installation of 3 apostles.
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| Karl Max tomb |
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| Entering Cripts at High Gate Cemetary |
October saw us hosting a Self-Reliance training seminar in London. The other Self-Reliance Missionaries came from across Great Britain and Brother King and Brother Rueckert came from the Area Office in Frankfurt, Germany. We held an all-day training session on a Thursday and then we all went out to dinner. We returned so that we could facilitate our Pathway Gathering. It was fun having one of the couples stay with us and share mission experiences. Friday we met for another round of meetings and training. Afton was running around keeping everyone well fed, hydrated with plenty of water, and awake with delicious snacks. About 3:00 pm we all piled into the mission van and headed for the London Temple where were able to do an endowment session. Traveling to the temple took a little over 2 hours and that gave us time to chat and discuss what we had been taught. Of course, it was dark and when you leave the London Temple, there is not much around. Martin told us we would meet for dinner just a ¼ mile down the road. We made a couple of wrong turns but finally found the only restaurant that we saw. Then just an hour later and we had everyone back to their rooms in London.
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| Sunday Training - Stake SR Reps |
The weekend of training continued. Saturday morning, Elder Rueckert, Director for Self-Reliance for the Church, wanted to see one of our workgroups
in action so we sat in of Starting and Growing your Own Business. Sunday, we had organized a meeting of the
Stake Self-Reliance Specialists and all nine of our Stakes were
represented. It was good to hear Elder
Rueckert present the Spiritual side of Self-Reliance. Everyone went away with great materials and
renewed motivation to carry the initiative forward.
The following weekend was the Hyde Park Stake
Conference. We had Elder Kearon, our
Area President speaking along with Sister Burton, General Relief Society
President. The spouses of both talked
also and it was a terrific conference weekend.
During Stake Conference, we were able to meet Afton’s cousin Elaine’s daughter Mary and her family. We had them come to our flat for dinner. Her husband, Bryant, had been transferred here with his work and they have a precocious 2 year old. We are so blessed to have a wonderful extended family.
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| Cousin Elaine;s Daughter - Mary, Bryant, & Cora |
During Stake Conference, we were able to meet Afton’s cousin Elaine’s daughter Mary and her family. We had them come to our flat for dinner. Her husband, Bryant, had been transferred here with his work and they have a precocious 2 year old. We are so blessed to have a wonderful extended family.
Sometimes the work is challenging. During October, we were invited to come to the Crawley Stake and so we drove for 2 ½ hours to get to the meeting. The member of the Stake Presidency in charge had sent out 31 personal letters inviting the YSA to come and chat with us. Only one man and his fiancé showed up. We made our presentation and developed plans for the Self-Reliance message to get to all who missed the meeting. Sometimes we do feel like there are setbacks in the mission when almost no one shows up after a long drive. But, we carry on.
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| Hyde Park Geese - Fall |
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| Fall Colors |
A wonderful Iranian man came to the Self-Reliance Center
recently. He had been Muslim but had
converted to the Church 2 years ago. His
wife, brother and sister-in-law are also members and live in the UK. He left his homeland because of his
conversion and will never be able to return to his home. If he returns, he fears he would be killed because
of his conversion. He has a truly
amazing story of coming into the Church.
A couple of blogs back, we mentioned that we had helped one
of our volunteers open up a small restaurant.
Claire has been doing pretty well, but during September she was feeling
very discouraged. She decided the way to get out of her unhappiness was to host
a service project. She decided to hold a
“Cakes for Cancer” event and invite all to a special luncheon. We jumped on the Tube and supported her in
this event that was very successful and gathered many of her friends and
community neighbors together for a good cause.
Service always brightens your life.
Nathanel, our bus driver success story from a while back,
came into the SRC on his day off to do some Church work on the computer. We had not seen him for about 5 weeks. Sister Cardall brought in a sister for us to
help who was desperate for a job.
However, we had a problem. The
guest spoke only Portuguese and we spoke only English. Sister Cardall left her in our hands to
assist her. Well, Afton hustled down the hall to the Mission Office to try and
find the Portuguese missionaries and I was trying to help some others who were
in the center. We turned to Nathanel and
asked him if he happened to speak Portuguese.
He reminded us that he was from Portugal. In 20 minutes he had 2 solid job leads for
her from members of his ward plus he had helped her with some other pressing
issues. Now there’s a volunteer when you
need one. The Lord really puts people in
the right places at the right time.
Two days later, 4 new people came in to the Center at the
same time needing help. We needed help
so we asked if any of the two extra computer users could help with the translation
program on the computer for the one (non-member) Portuguese man. A YSA girl named Paige immediately
volunteered. She had arrived in the UK
the day before and had come to the SRC to email her parents. Another miracle recue from the Lord!
The Lord continues to bless us and things are looking really
good for November. We will see. So, in parting, your lesson for this month
comes from My Foundation. Principles, Skills & Habits, Chapter 8, COMMUNICATE:
PETITION AND LISTEN.
“I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy
Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.” Doctrine & Covenants 8:2
When you know where the communication is coming from, then
you have to learn to listen and hear.
“Your soul will be blessed as you learn to listen, then
listen to learn from children, parents, partners, neighbors, and Church
leaders, all of which will heighten capacity to hear counsel from on high.” RUSSELL
M. NELSON, “Listen to Learn,” Ensign, May 1991, 24
Elder
and Sister Baxter
