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Show Lorin and Elva Miles Write irom Mission Field in England; Report Many Experiences j The following letter was received re-ceived this week from Lorin C. and Elva Miles, who are laboring labor-ing in the Mission Field in England Eng-land for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dear friends at home, Six months have slipped away and the time has gone so rapidly with so many things to do that it only seems like yesterday yester-day when we said farewell to our family and friends. Truly this is a marvelous work and a wonder and an experience ex-perience that will never be forgotten. for-gotten. Only those who have had the priviledge can even begin to describe the great joy and happiness hap-piness that can accompany it. It is also very gratifying to know that when we have finished finish-ed our mission we have a very dear family and a host of wonderful won-derful friends to enjoy on our return to the Rainbow Canyons. The poets were right in their description of England in April. Words seem quite inadequate in attempting to describe the beautiful landscape, the colorful flowers and greening of this great and historical old country, a land of castles, rock fences, old cemetaries and ancient cathedrals cathe-drals and Abbys, say nothing of the palaces and courts that have been occupied by Kings and Queens for over a thousand years. When we landed from the BOAC V10 at the London Airport we were met by President and sister Dan Archer and a couple of weeks later President Archer was made the leader of the newly new-ly formed British South Mission and I assumed his duties us President of the Reading Branch, the position he previously held. I was also given the task of Mission Mis-sion coordinator of the Home Teaching Program. Just last week we finished six months of intensive fellow-shipping fellow-shipping and Branch organization organiza-tion work there and were assigned assign-ed to the Oxford Branch the following fol-lowing week. Our main purpose and object-tive object-tive is to teach and train local leadership and when they are ready to assume the duties w are transfered to another area. Reading, New London, Is a large branch but only a small percent of the saints were active. A good Home Teaching program and a more active set of officers in the various arganization produced pro-duced results there. This continued fellowshipplng program Is the back bone of any branch and without it the branch will gradually go down hill. The missionaries are now spending more time with their converts after they join the Church. This with a good home teaching program will do much to ' keep the branches going strong. We were very happy to get our second assignment here at the Oxford branch. It Is a compara- tively young branch and has had j Its share of problems since its inception. Many of the member and officers here have been of a transient variety, some attending attend-ing Oxford University and others in U. S. Government and military mili-tary positions. Of necessity they are transfered at regular intervals. inter-vals. Much of the leadership has been supplied from such sources and even though they are really very efficient the constant changing has inhibited the growth and permanency of the branch. Because of the tradition and enviornment of this old university city, where for hundreds of years the old E-?lish Church has prevailed, pre-vailed, people are slow to accept new and different ideas on religion relig-ion or any of the recent sociological sociolog-ical developements. Tradition is the watch word and it is doing a pretty good job. For many, many, years the only subjects taught at Oxford were Latin Divinity and the languages and literature. Many changes are in the offering. This is going to be a real challenge to us and a very interesting inter-esting one. We have already visited vis-ited the College of Education and made a few friends there. They speak well of the students stu-dents who are and have attended the Oxford University from Utah. We have onlv met on so far. James J. Christensen and family from BYU at Provo. They attended attend-ed our branch meeting Sunday We are planning on attending some lectures and cultural activities ac-tivities from time to time. Many of the musicals and drama's that later go to London are first staged stag-ed here in Oxford. We spent an enjoyable day at Stratford on Avon and really saw a lot of that old Shakespeare area along the winding river. We are planning a branch tour soon and will include Stratford on Avon and see a stage performance perfor-mance in the Shakespeare Memorial Mem-orial Theater. We owe a lot to CSU for thp background it has given us in drama and music. Grand operas, great dramas and the best in Itring and vocal music in the world is every where here for the asking. In fact our music director, Mrs. Cannon is an opera contralto of some fame. I am hoping that she will ask me to do a duet with her. We do appreciate all the fine things you have done for ts and our family and we only hope we can represent you well here in the British Isles. Elva has a full tim e job with the Relief Society, MIA and Prl- j mary and I am kept quite busy with the Priesthood work and Home Teaching assignments and responsibilities. We are well and happy and enjoying en-joying our work. We do enjoy letters from home. We appreciate the Record and others who have written us. Thanks so much. We must be off in our little Volkswagen to find a primary president and a new superintendent superinten-dent for our Sunday School and this afternoon we have three Inactive In-active families to visit and do our best to get them back to the Church and into activity. Thanks again for everything. LORIN AN ELVA MILES |
