Posted by:
Ragnar
(
)
Date: November 23, 2013 09:17AM
I was in London last weekend (it was an extended, 4-day weekend) with a large group from my work. A few of us went to ‘museum row’ (where the Nature, Science, and the Victoria and Albert museums are). It was there I noticed a small building front that was from LDS Corp. At the top was a temple-like spire. I couldn’t resist the temptation to go in.
When I entered, I saw an older woman at a reception desk and an older man standing at its side. I asked if this was a visitor’s center. He was British said it was, but also said it was a church. He then proceeded to give me a tour. I found that most of the others in the building were American.
There was a large chapel there along with offices covering about four floors. It also holds the stake offices and the mission office (overseeing approx. 300 missionaries). He stated that four “units” meet in the chapel every Sunday. I asked, “You mean ‘wards’?” and he said ‘yes.’ (Are ‘wards’ called ‘units’ in England?) Later, I wondered how they juggled four 3-hour schedules in one building/chapel.
Throughout the tour, I looked to see if they had any pictures of Joseph Smith studiously ‘translating’ golden plates while sitting at a table. I had decided I was going to ask about that if it was there (instead of the face-in-the hat truth), but they didn’t have any on the walls.
The guide mentioned that the building had been built on a bomb-damaged site (from WWII). He said that there were no members within several miles of that site when they purchased it (on David O. McKay’s recommendation). Now, he said that there are 7,000 members within the area and that the site is now one of the most expensive pieces of property in London (and that LDS Corp now owns the land outright). He added, “David O. McKay sure knew what he was doing.”
Later, the guide mentioned that the land London temple had been purchased many years ago far away from the city’s center at that time (about 30 or 40 minutes away), but – since then – one of London’s major motorways was built so that it is now only 10 minutes away from that freeway. He gave this as evidence that, “David O. McKay was truly a prophet” because he knew how the road system would be built in the future.
I thought these statements were quite strange. ANY piece of land in London that was purchased in the 1950s will ABSOLUTELY increase in value over the years. It doesn’t take a prophet to know this. Also, cities grow and roads are built to accommodate this growth. That doesn’t take any communication from god to explain this, either.
The coup de grace, however, occurred as I was leaving. As I walked past the receptionist desk, there was now a man sitting there where a woman was before. A BLACK man. He was introduced to me as the stake president of a different stake (not the stake whose offices are in that building). I thought this was very strange. Stake presidents are notoriously BUSY people. And since it is a voluntary position, they usually have their own jobs/occupations that take their time. So, I wondered, how could this man spare the time – at one o’clock on a Friday afternoon – to man the reception desk at that LDS center? During the tour, I did see some missionaries there (and the tour guide said that their numbers had increased by over a hundred over the last few months). Why couldn’t one of them serve in that position? Why did they put a black man there?
I did ask, “So, did they import you here from your stake to do this job?”
“You could say that,” he answered.