London, England, Day 5

 Our last day in London was Sunday, May 8th- Mother's Day.  Ken found two church buildings online that were about equidistant to our hotel. He decided on the London Hyde Park church.  We were so glad he did.  We went to the 10:00am meeting, thinking it would be sacrament meeting.  We were surprised to find it was their stake conference that day. They were reorganizing the stake presidency.  It was a wonderful experience.  After this post, I will do five posts about this experience- stories and musings from this time at the church.  After those posts, I will move on with the trip.  

I took a picture from our seat, trying to get a picture of Elder Whiting who is in their area presidency.  He was the area president in Japan when we served our mission there.  Though we met him a few times, I'm sure he would not remember us.  But we remember him.

After the beautiful stake conference meeting, we went out into the large foyer which is also a visitor's center.  We watched videos on the history of the church in the British Isles.  We visited with a senior couple serving there in the visitor's center for quite a while.  

Display in the visitor's center.  This visitor's center attracts a lot of visitors.

After most of the people had gone, Ken took a picture of the historic Hyde Park chapel.  The Hyde Park stake is one of the most diverse in the world.  91 different native languages are spoken.  In Hyde Park 1st ward there are 63 different native languages.

Right there in that large foyer is a baptismal font.  We were privileged to be there for a baptism.  The senior couple said there are many, many baptisms in that font.

Right in downtown London, this visitors center gets many, many visitors.  The Christus statue in the front window attracts visitors from all over the world.

After the meeting and experiences in the church, we took some pictures, then walked down the street to explore and eat lunch.

Beautiful Imperial College

We ate at a crepes restaurant that the sister missionaries had recommended.

After lunch, we took a taxi back to our hotel.  After a nice afternoon of rest, we walked to a pub Don and Ken had found for dinner.  It was the opposite experience than we had the evening before.  It was quiet and very nice.  We enjoyed our last day in London.