First Full Week

The Manor House

The London England Temple is in Newchapel Surrey. The property was originally owned by the “Pear” soap family and the family home, called the “Manor House”, still  remains and houses the Temple President and his wife and the single sister missionaries, each with their own apartments. The Pear family’s “Gate House” also contains suites for missionaries. The church added housing for patrons visiting the Temple called the “Accommodation Center” and our complex called “The Lodge”, for missionary couples. Couples serving missions have a one bedroom apartment complete with living/dining room, kitchen, small laundry room, with a freezer in it, a bathroom, bedroom and very large storage room. It is quite comfortable and our windows face west looking out onto a forest. The Temple is about a 30 second walk across the parking lot.

There are about fifty Temple missionaries serving, including singles and couples. We have one single brother serving and the rest are single women. There are two categories of missionaries - white badge missionaries and black badge missionaries. The white badge missionaries come from England and have volunteered to serve a mission in the Temple. The black badge missionaries are called thru the Church’s Missionary Department and are from countries other than England. We have missionaries from the USA, New Zealand, Australia and two couples, counting us, from Canada. There are three former Temple Presidents and their wives serving right now. One couple served in a South American Temple, one in Australia and then us in Vancouver. The Temple missionaries are really the core base for manning the Temple. A few local people come weekly but most come periodically, every few weeks and stay in the Accommodation Center while they serve. There are two shifts serving each day, the morning shift and afternoon shift. We alternate each week. We are on the “B” shift. It is a well organized machine. They train you as you arrive and you are expected to welcome train and assist those coming after you.

We worked a full five days this week and worked about seven hours a day. We were being trained this week with the London Temple’s procedures. Ordinances are the same in every Temple,  just the procedures differ. This is a big Temple, with a complex layout and we are moving thru it with ease now. The missionaries seem to do all the coordinating of shifts and training, so you are expected to learn quickly as those leading shifts at this time will be going home soon and others need to take over. Here in our Lodge and always in the Temple there is a lovely spirit of kindness and love. Everyone is doing their best to see that you are well taken care of.

We have now started driving our little purple car and are still getting the hang of narrow lanes and fast speeds all while driving on the wrong side. Yikes! We have been out twice. Hopefully we will feel confident enough to offer others rides soon. We have taken the Temple van the last two Sundays and attended two different wards but now we can drive, President Irwin has assigned us to a third ward which we have yet attended. We have been impressed with the wards and the members.

We have seen two people we know in the Temple this week - Giga Swan, Mike’s daughter and Ray, from Bellingham, who worked in our Temple office. She lives in Ireland now with her husband. Giga lives in South Africa. It was fun to see them. We hope to see many more familiar faces.

We are enjoying our walks around the beautiful Temple grounds, serving in the Temple and are feeling privileged to serve along side such loving, generous people. Just like it always is in the Temple.

The London England Temple