London Temple

[Jamie123]

On Saturday I went to see the LDS temple near Crawley. (They call it the "London" temple, though its actually quite a way south of London.) I've been meaning to go and have a look at it for some years, and with my wife and daughter away and with only housework to do otherwise I thought I'd drive over and see it.

 

Soon after I got there, I met a missionary couple who told me they were from Utah. They were very nice - but unfortunately I've totally forgotten their name. It's a shame because maybe some of you guys know them. (Yes I know there are a lot of people in Utah, but I've known stranger coincidences.) The man said to me "Beautiful, isn't it?" I had to admit it was impressive, but not exactly beautiful - it is basically just an enormous box with a spire at one end, typical of the 1950s when it was built. Still, the clean limestone shining against the blue sky is not entirely without its beauty.

 

I had quite a long talk with this couple. The husband was a retired professor from the Business School at BYU. We must have talked for over an hour - about things like the nature of sin and grace. We agreed about a lot of things. Of course they gave me the usual message about "pray about the Book of Mormon" but they wouldn't have been doing their job if they hadn't; they were interested in what I thought and believed too, and it was a very pleasant morning.

 

The whole place is swarming with missionaries - mostly young people (I think the two I spoke to were the only mature missionaries there) - I expect many of them were in training. Anyway now I've seen it :) I took a lot of pictures with my I-phone, but this is one of the few that doesn't have my thumb in view!

 

Edited August 10, 2015 by Jamie123

[Pa Pa]

I spent a week there in Oct 1981...loved it!

[Palerider]

I spent two years in Northern England and never got to attend the London Temple.

[Vort]

Some of the temples are truly stunning in appearance, but (sorry to be trite) the beauty of a temple is based on what goes on inside. The exterior, and indeed the interior decor, is simply an attempt to represent divine beauty and holiness. In the time of Moses, the children of Israel carried around a portable temple called the tabernacle. It was an amazing structure, to be sure, but I doubt many outside of Israel would have looked at it and said, "It's beautiful!"

 

I don't know why all the missionaries were there, but I can think of a possibility. The mission districts have a day every year when the missionaries are allowed to go to the temple. Perhaps that was the case with one or more of the missions in the temple district on the day you went; the missionaries were having their annual temple day.

 

There is an LDS Missionary Training Center located on the grounds of the Preston temple, which of course is pretty much at the other end of England from you. I would expect to see missionaries on those grounds, but it's curious you saw so many there in Crawley the day you went.

[Latter Days Guy]

I spent two years in Northern England and never got to attend the London Temple.

Cool! Where about's did you serve?

[Palerider]

Cool! Where about's did you serve?

Served in 4 areas .... Huddersfield and Whitehaven and Scarborough and finished in Worksop