Preston was first area for Elder Hinckley

PRESTON, England — The Preston area held fond memories for President Gordon B. Hinckley.

As a brand new LDS missionary in England in 1933, his first assigned area was Preston. Sixty-five years later, as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he dedicated the Preston England Temple, the church's second temple in England.

In the dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley said, in part: "This magnificent temple has been reared in this beautiful area where thy chosen servants, in the days of their deep poverty and great sacrifice, first preached the restored gospel. Through 161 years of history this land of England, together with Scotland, Wales and Ireland, has yielded a harvest of converts who have blessed and strengthened thy church."

A couple of current church leaders in the area told the Deseret Morning News of their memories of the late President Hinckley, who passed away Sunday.

John Robey, a counselor in the Preston England Stake presidency describes President Hinckley's last visit to Preston, in May 2004.

The day after dedicating the Copenhagen Denmark Temple, President Hinckley landed at Manchester Airport, was greeted by the area presidency, "and having shed a few tears, tapped the floor with his walking stick and announced, 'There is no better place in the world than right here!' We drove to the Preston Temple site where he commented on the beauty of the grounds as we entered.

"The following day he asked if he could visit Preston in the morning. As we travelled around Preston he reflected on the people he knew whilst serving his mission, such as Gertrude Corless who had died a couple of years earlier. Having lost his wife just weeks before and commenting on a photo taken many years earlier he stated, 'I am the last leaf on the tree, and the wind is blowing hard!'

"At 15 Wadham Road, where he had spent his nights whilst serving his mission 71 years earlier, he stopped for a photograph outside. It was here that a then-disillusioned Elder Hinckley had written a letter to his father. The reply from his father 'forget yourself and go to work' helped him decide to lose himself in the Lord's service.