First thing this morning we drove north to Preston, England. There we met up with a local church member and tour guide. He walked us around Preston for two hours, explaining the local church history to us. It was really awesome. I learned that the Preston branch/ward unit is the oldest continuing unit in the church to date! Preston is where the Church really started to take off in 1837. England was really a stronghold for the Church—in 1850, for every 3 members in States, there were 8 members in England.
We saw places where John Wesley, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and Gordon B. Hinckley all preached. We also went to the River Ribble, where thousands of converts were baptized. Our guide, Peter, told us a lot of really neat stories. I’ll recount one. The context of Preston is important—it was a cotton manufacturing town. The living conditions were terrible: 50% of children under 5 died and the average working age was 18 (which reflects an early death age). One time, Orson Hyde was in the town center, preaching against infant baptism and about the plan of salvation. He was being heckled at and another minister made him stop preaching and took his place. The people, however, wanted Orson back because they loved the message. They had seen so much death and were ready for the message of the Gospel restored. Events like this happened time and time again; the people, called “the pick n’ flower of England,” were ready.
We drove about 10 miles to the Preston Temple. This temple was dedicated in 1998, so it’s not too old. Of course it was beautiful. The Church has a whole complex of land there, including the MTC, a stake center, a family history center, temple missionary accommodation, patron accommodation, and distribution. It felt like a lovely sanctuary. We really enjoyed being there for a short while. I got to talk to our bus driver a little bit more about the temple. He told me he wanted to bring his family up there and go in the temple. I could tell by his questions and thoughts that he felt the Spirit very strongly there. He has had a tumultuous life—is an immigrant from Romania and doesn’t get to see his family much because he drives buses—and he appreciated the simple peace he felt around the temple. We talked for a while and it was really good. I guess talking about the gospel around temples just comes a bit more naturally to me now.
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| River Ribble |
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| Oblisk where many preached and we ate lunch |
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| Preston Temple |
We next drove two hours to York. Lori and I dropped our stuff in the hotel room and then ran to the cathedral to see if we could catch the 5:00 Choral Evensong. It turned out to be at 5:15, which was perfect. The music was really beautiful. We were located right behind the choir, which was fun. Tomorrow we go back there for a tour of the cathedral with the whole group, but I’m glad I got to go tonight too.
After that we got some food and ate along the river. On our walk home, we saw a big unicorn mylar balloon floating down the street. It kept catching various wind currents and bobbing up and down, even going under a parked car and popping back up again. I just found this quite humorous. I guess flying unicorns do exist!
I guess I should say a word about York. I was originally a Roman City and it has one of the best-preserved city walls in the world. Tomorrow we’re going to walk along the wall and hopefully learn more about the rich history.
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