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| Christmas Service Project YSAs |
December’s Young Single activities included
sorting and packing donated toys for needy families and performing a Christmas
music program for the stake.
Christmas was celebrated here much as it is in the US,
albeit with more mince pies and some mentions of a character named Father
Christmas. We learned by experience that
“cider” and “eggnog” are not generally available in non-alcoholic form here—some
eyebrows were raised when we announced cider would be served after a YSA
activity. The mission held a London Temple
session and dinner for missionaries the week before Christmas (actually three
such events a day apart, to fit everyone into the limited space). We enjoyed a great Christmas-day dinner at a fellow missionary couple’s place with 12 young missionaries from 10 different
countries. The London South Mission is
like a small United Nations, but without the attitude.
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| Missionaries from US, Romania, Pakistan, India, Australia, & South Africa |
As we discussed the missionaries’ families with them after
Christmas dinner, we learned of some of the sacrifices they make to join the
Church and to serve missions. One
dedicated young missionary’s family, not Church members, thinks he is wasting
his time here and wants him to come home.
His Christmas phone call home wasn’t very inspiring, he said. Another missionary’s family was prevented
from joining the Church by their father, until a teenage son took things into
his own hands and forged his father’s signature on a letter granting permission
to be baptized. Now the entire family is
in the Church, including the father. Yet
another missionary comes from a country where innocent people are beaten or
killed on suspicion of discussing politics.
It makes us even more grateful to live and serve where we do.
How England is changing:
the 2011 UK census reports that 59% of the population of this country claimed
Christianity as their religion, down from 72% in 2001; 5% claimed Islam; and
25% claimed no religion. It is predicted
the UK will no longer be majority Christian within a decade or two. Paul just finished reading the journal of
George Fox, founder of the Quakers, and concluded it’s safer to be a missionary in
half-Christian England now than in all-Christian England in the 1600s when
Parliament made it illegal for more than 5 people to meet if they weren’t
members of the Established Church, and denying the Established Church’s basic
tenets was punishable by death. Now the
biggest risk to life and limb is not one’s beliefs, but driving on English
roads.
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| Snowbound in Southampton |
It snowed last night and today, with about 4 inches of wet snow accumulating. It is not that common here, so many schools closed for the day and the "gritting lorries" were very busy working the streets.
