Days to be Remebered

Today, nay this weekend, has been phenomenal! In such a short period I will only attempt to touch upon the blessed state that was my life and the experiences that abounded.

First, and definitely the more material of the experiences, was a day in London. I went and saw a friend of mine who is studying at the BYU London center. We went around to the National Portrait Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and then saw a play. Okay so I am a nerd and love history, especially when I can see the characters of history portrayed as they paid to be seen through art. Walking around and absorbing the essence of the many cultures of the world through the collection of artifacts that have been complied is an indescribable process and simultaneous event. In as few words as possible I felt privileged to walk though halls.

Yet even with the nerd there has to be some fun. Later that evening my friend and I went to see Hamlet with a few others from the London center. Now this was no ordinary production of Hamlet, which in and of itself is quite riveting, this was Hamlet staring Jude Law as Hamlet! All I can say is that I am very much indebted to the young ladies who stood in line for four hours that morning to get tickets. The performance was outstanding. I was enthralled with the experience. Now that can be because of a few factors, one being that this was the first professional performance of that kind that I had ever seen, but I would like to think that it was simple a superb production in and of itself.


After such a Saturday I was not expecting much, in the way of experience and excitement from Sunday, especially a fast Sunday; I could not have been further from the truth. This afternoon Dr. Kerry took a few of us out to the US cemetery in Cambridge. The cemetery was created for the soldiers that died in the Second World War while stationed in the UK or who passed away from the wounds in British hospitals. As I walked about the cemetery grounds I was lost in thought about the simple magnitude of war and the destruction, upheaval, and drastic disturbance that it has done to so many families. I walked past row upon row of men who had given their lives for a cause and could not help but ponder upon the reasons for that war and the hundreds of wars that came before and that are to come in the future. Why is it that these men died for a cause? Why do men still volunteer their lives for a “cause” which is almost always unknown to them? Who is to say that the cause is just? All of these questions have been swarming around in the mess that is um theoretical mind. Honestly though in a world of cause and effect every action will lead to some consequence and when are we to know that our interjection into the lives of another, whether individual, nation, state, or other group, will not lead to a more calamitous end then the one in which we are attempting to avoid? Did we, the US, not place Sadam Husane in power in an effort to avert some greater evil? We have done the same in other circumstances as well and thus I am left to ask what is the limit of our interjections and when are they merited? In the end I guess the struggle is really knowing the true “cause” and “reason” of the needed sacrifice of human life. Then and only then can a man judge when it is right for him to fight.

Latter that evening the BYU students and a few members from the ward gathered together in the King’s College Chapel for what I believe was the first testimony meeting in that building. The Chaplin had agreed to allow us use of the building as part of the Sunday evening study group that we had orchestrated. Then when we discussed the matter in more detail with him he actually suggested a more spiritual event at which point we thought of a testimonial meeting. Thus it was that this evening twenty LDS young single adults gathered together, with the Chaplin, for a very special testimony meeting. Richard, the Chaplin, had prepared everything for us. All of the candles within the chapel were lit. We were allowed to sing hymns and express our most dear beliefs in a wondrous building. The spirit of God was apparent as each of us bore our witnesses of the Savior of all mankind. Then after we had ended the meeting Richard, explaining that the alarm system had been disabled, invited us to approach Rubens painting of “The Adoration of the Magi” and walk around the altar of the Eucharist which stood just in front of the painting.

To be a part of the evening’s events has been a blessing beyond expression. I am left in utter awe that as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has received so much ridicule by so many religious groups and various Christian religions that I was allowed, even invited to enter such a place of history and worship God in my own way. May the ways in which we treat our brethren reflect the beauty of life inherent in all of God’s creations.