37A Lynford Gardens, Edgware, London

This is a picture of the first flat I lived in from February to March 1965. See the white door. The larger window upstairs was our bedroom and the small window to the right was the kitchen.  

Edgware is a suburb of West London and is predominantly Jewish. Nearly every door had a “Mezuzah” (A Mezuzah is a small metal container containing the Jewish Prayer “Shema Yisrael”) The words are taken from two chapters of the Torah or Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 and are written on a certain kind of parchment in very small Hebrew characters. It must be written and presented perfectly and then scrolled and inserted into the container. The container is hung on the doorpost of their home. Every time they come into or leave their home, the Mezuzah reminds them of their god, that he is perfect and one. 

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 11:18-20

Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, always.

18 ¶Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 

In two months, we did not teach one discussion in a Jewish home. It was a hard start for me. My companion’s mother had died not long before he left for his mission. He missed his mother and I missed by dad who had died a couple of years before. The Jewish people we met were not friendly. We did attend services in their Synagoge a few times and they tolerated us.  

Every morning the milkman would come up the street with his horse and wagon to deliver fresh milk, butter and bread. Most homes did not have a refrigerator or central heat. We did have a little gas heater we would put a shilling in to warm up our bedroom while we studied. The bathroom and water closet were not heated. And it did get cold. We ate a lot of canned soup.  We stayed in this flat for nearly two months and then moved to another flat. The Jewish people that owned the home decided they didn’t want to be associated with Mormon Missionaries.  I studied. I prayed. I cried at first. But I knew I was doing the Lord’s work and my testimony was confirmed in that little flat in Edgware.