PRESTON ENGLAND TEMPLE
My post about the Preston England Temple starts at the Lingfield train station, about 2 miles from the London temple where I was this morning! This is the station Neal would drive to to pick up missionaries when he and my mom were here on a mission 26 years ago!
There’s something magical about taking a train through the green rolling hills of England at about 150 miles an hour! The grazing sheep, the lazy cattle, the beautiful fields are all spectacular! Then, when another train instantly passes you within a couple of feet of your window, and that train is also going 150 miles an hour, it’s quite a rush!
I arrived in Preston and took a bus over to the temple site. I was fortunate that they still had a room available for accommodations even though I missed their 3 PM email telling me to respond by 5 o’clock if I wanted it. A wonderful security guard from Argentina saw my situation and arranged to get me into room nine. What a joy!
I did a Zoom Ward correlation missionary meeting at 1:15 AM to a room full of faithful saints back in Washington DC! The idea of conducting a meeting from Preston England was just too good!
Preston was the sight of Heber C. Kimball‘s first mission as the church started to reach outside of North America back in 1837. He held a meeting at a church where a minister named James Fielding presided. James‘s brother is Joseph Fielding who was also a minister in the area. On July 23 of 1837 he held his first meeting. One week later on July 30, nine people were baptized! Over the next year, Hebrew C. Kimball baptized 1500 people before returning back to the United States. There is a church in Preston owned by us which contains a brick from the original church that Hebrew C. Kimball taught in!
The grounds of the Preston Temple are beautiful.
It’s always fun to first spot the spire of a temple in whatever town I’m headed to. In this case it came after I got off a bus and walked through some beautiful gardens to the temple complex.
I’m now on the train back to London and then onto the Haigue! The celestial room in the Preston Temple has a wonderful set of soft leather chairs and beautifully ornamented rails and walls in yellow and gold!