Elder & Sister Kiddle - London Temple

Friday, 10 January 2014

On November 25, 2013, along with several other Temple Missionaries, we went to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich were the prime meridian was established. Here are some photos

A line on one of the buildings marking the Prime Meridian

Sister Kiddle standing over the Prime Meridian marked on the ground

A globe of the world in the visitors centre at the Royal Observatory

Calgary is one of the cities shown on it

A plaque with some explanation on the Prime Meridian

Elder and Sister Kiddle and Elder and Sister Mulholland

standing next to a meteorite claimed to be the oldest object on the Earth

We spent Christmas again with Aunt Joyce and Aunt Valerie in Loughborough. It was a very enjoyable time. They are such wonderful Aunts. While we were there we also had the opportunity to visit with Sister Kiddle's cousins Marylyn and Pauline.

Front row- Valerie on the left & Joyce on the right

Back row - Cousin Marylyn & Elder & Sister Kiddle

Aunt Valerie, Cousin Pauline and Sister Kiddle

Carollers from the Loughborough Ward on Christmas Day

showing love and concern for Joyce & Valerie

While we were away visiting Joyce, Valerie, Pauline and Marylyn in Loughborough, there was a horrible wind and rainstorm at the Temple resulting in toppled trees and flood waters getting into the basement of the Temple. The Baptistry area was flooded the worst but is almost dried out now. We continue with the baptisms.

Flood waters on Temple Grounds behind the Temple

Flood waters in front of the Manor House. President Johnson informed us that we now have our own private swimming pool in the basement of the Manor House

Fallen tree next to the Accommodation Centre

The basement in this building was also flooded but has now dried out

Large fallen tree on the Temple Grounds behind the Temple

This is similar but not as bad as the floods that hit Calgary and High River

On New Year's Eve we had a special treat by holding a 9:00 PM Endowment Session which we didn't get home from until 11:30 PM. What a great way to bring in the new Year. Elder Kiddle was the Officiator on the session and Sister Kiddle was the Follower. Jimmy Osmond's daughter who has received her mission call received her own endowment on this session. Bother Osmond and his wife were also on the Session.

Jimmy Osmond & his daughter and wife on the front row

The Osmond's other 3 children on the back row

on the steps of the Temple at about 11:30 PM

On January 5th we went to a Fireside for Elder and Sister Carpenter who have now returned home after serving as the Temple Visitor Centre Co-ordinators for the the past two years. They are amazing and we will dearly miss them.

Elder & Sister Carpenter

Before the Fireside with Elder & Sister Carpenter , we held a Hi for Elder & Sister Mulholland and a Bye for Sister Baker. It has taken awhile but we finally had a formal welcome to Elder & Sister Mulholland. They live in the next apartment to ours in the Manor House and we are really enjoying them being here at the London Temple. They have been well trained in the Cardston and Calgary Temples and were able to perform all of the ordinances right away, unlike us who had 7 weeks of training before we could do much. We were even blessed with them being assigned to our shift so we work with them every day.

Sister Baker was a special Sister who has been fighting cancer for the whole time she has been with us. She is a great genealogist and has submitted hundreds of names for Temple Work. We will miss her cheery disposition.

Elder and Sister Mulholland

Sister Baker with Sister Kiddle

Sorry for the long wait for this new Blog. There is never a dull moment here at the Temple and as our mission draws to a close we are busier than ever. We have asked for the Church to arrange our flight home on March 13th. It is with mixed emotions that we approach this date. We truly love our mission here at the London Temple. We also look forward to seeing our Family again.

Love Elder & Sister Kiddle

Tuesday, 12 November 2013

Chippenham, Elder Kiddle's First Mission area

This past Saturday we were able to visit Chippenham which was the first area Elder Kiddle served in in his youth mission 51 years ago. The changes to the town were dramatic with a much larger downtown including a couple of inside malls. However the home in which Elder Kiddle and his companion boarded is unchanged on the outside. Like the buildings in Bath it is a very enduring sandstone structure. It was great to be there once more. Here are a couple of pictures.

Elder Kiddle's old digs (the one on the right)

birds on the river bank off High Street

A week earlier we visited Rochester Castle and Cathedral. They are very old structures. The Castle was built by the Normans in about 1127 AD. The Cathedral is even older and dates back to 604 A.D.

Rochester Castle

Rochester Cathedral

One of many stained glass windows in the Cathedral

On Monday November 6th we visited Walmer Castle which has some beautiful gardens attached to it. The picture I am including was the Queen Mother's Garden. The Castle was built under the direction of King Henry the VIII.

The Queen Mother's Garden at Walmer Castle

Today, we finally opened the Temple to patrons again. It was wonderful to be back working and performing ordinances in the Temple . We have really missed that. The air conditioning really works good now. A small orange construction barrier on the back side of the Temple is the only evidence still standing from the renovations that were done to the air conditioning. Even the lawn has now been restored.

Our Mission continues to be an outstanding experience in our lives.

Love, Elder & Sister Kiddle

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

The Mystery of the missing wallet

The mystery of the missing wallet

During the Temple closure for renovations we get Saturdays and Mondays off so we decided this past Saturday to take the train to Rayleigh, Essex where Elder Kiddle's Great Grandfather, Edward Benjamin Kiddle, is buried in the Rayleigh Cemetery. It took three different trains and three hours to get there. We then took bus no. 1 from the train station to the Cemetery and were delighted to find his grave and even more delighted to find it in legible condition. The headstone was still standing straight and tall. It was raining hard or we would have taken some time to clear away some of the weeds on his grave plot. We have posted a picture of the grave as to how it looked over 100 years ago when Elder Kiddle's Great Uncle Walter Kiddle was serving a mission for the church in England. We also post some current pictures of the grave and a few sites around Rayleigh.

Once we had visited the grave we did look around the Cemetery for other possible family members but found none except for some in-laws that had been added to Great Grandpa's head stone which we explain with the picture.

We then took bus number 8 back into town to look around. We saw a lovely soccer field and a few of the stores downtown. We passed a sweets store which displayed several jars of sugarless candies in their window. We went in to buy some sugarless sweets but when Elder Kiddle went to get his wallet out of his back pocket it was gone. We were horrified as it contained his driver's licence and his Canadian Visa cards and his temple recommend. It also contained our return train tickets. The lady at the candy store directed us to the police station which was just around the corner. We gave our report and they helped us contact the bus company as we felt that it was on the bus were the wallet was lost. The bus company said that they had no way to contact the bus driver and they would have to wait for the bus to return to the bus barn to look for it. We were told it would probably be Monday before they could report back to us. We said a prayer and asked the Lord to help us retrieve the wallet.

We returned to the train station. Soon after we arrived a number 8 bus came in so we asked the driver how long the number 8 bus took to make a complete circle of its route and were told 3 hrs. We decided to wait and see if the same bus we were on came in. We waited for two of the #8 buses to come in with no success. We decided to wait for one more bus. While we were waiting Elder Kiddle received a phone call on his cell phone and it was a man at the bus barn and he said he had the wallet. We were ecstatic. He said he would send a friend over to the train station with it. In about 1/2 hour the man came with the wallet. The money was gone but all the credit cards, driver's licence, train tickets etc. were still in it. We were soon on the train back to the Temple. We really feel the Lord intervened in helping Elder Kiddle get his wallet back. " Thank you Heavenly Father."

Now some pictures

The grave over 100 years ago

The Grave today (notice the rain on the camera lens)

Showing how upright the grave stone still stands and the extra names now on the gravestone.

Elder Kiddle's sister Elsa informed us that Sarah Ann Hopton was a sister of Great Grandma Kiddle (Eliza Stead (Jones) Kiddle) and was executor to Great Grandpa's estate after Great Grandma went to Utah with the children. Great Uncle Walter in the first picture was one of the children who returned to England on a church mission.

around town

The train station where we spent most of our day

Elder Kiddle's wallet now contains only his English banking card and Temple recommend and none of his Canadian credit cards and Driver's Licence.

Who would have ever thought that our mission would have included a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

Love from Elder & Sister Kiddle

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Trip to Cornwall
7 Temple Missionary Couples

For the 2nd week of our break we travelled with 6 other couples to Cornwall and back. We enjoyed many breathtaking views of the sea, along with more castles and Cathedrals;