Mosque Visit

We visited a Muslim Mosque as a group and learned a lot about the religion of Islam. here are some notes that I took at the Mosque.

Mosque Expanded Notes

Muslim/Islam Mosque:

· The common greeting is a prayer; you are sending blessings to the person you greet

· This mosque is the central mosque in London and UK, and one of biggest in Europe

· It was designed by a non-Muslim

· Women and men pray at the same time but in separate rooms

o To maintain privacy and modesty of sexes

· Pray 5 times a day

· Before prayer, they go through a washing. They wash their feet, behind the neck, and hands. This is to soothe and relax and also to look and feel your best for God.

· Removing shoes is required. This is both to keep the place clean and to pay reverence and respect.

· The design of the dome is purely practical—it is the best design for acoustics, it is structurally stable, and provides for good air circulation.

· There is a certain protocol to prayer. It involves prostration and bowing. They believe it was taught to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel

· There are four units to the prayer; one must finish all four units or the prayer is not complete.

· The mosque is very busy and crowded on Fridays

· An imam is a leader

· There is a symbol above the altar which is actually a prayer

· There is a nursery school provided in the basement

· Cat Stevens is the chairman of the weekend services at this mosque

· Every mosque is required to have a library; this is the source of knowledge and knowledge is very important to the people of the Muslim faith

· Muhammad is the founder of Islam. He lived from 570- 633 A.D.

o His wife was the first person to accept his teachings

o His name means “the praised one”

· 5 Pillars of Islam:

1) There is one God and Muhammad is the final messenger

2) Prayers

3) Alms- charity, giving to the poor and needy

4) Fasting during Ramadan

5) Pilgrimage to Mecca

· Allah means “one and only” (referring to God)

o It is without plurality and gender

· Service, teaching, and smiling all very important; part of giving alms

· Modesty also very important; that is why the women wear scarves on head

· Forced marriage is prohibited but arranged marriages ok

I learned many new things about the Muslim faith by visiting the Mosque. In fact I knew very little before our visit. It surprised me that there are many similarities between the Muslim faith and our beliefs as Latter-day Saints. Our guide was very nice and made me realize that although people may be of different faiths, they are still normal people. There are many false misconceptions about people of the Islam faith, but visiting the mosque answered many of the questions that I had.

J.M.W. Turner

For my Humanities 440 class, I was assigned to choose and analyze one of Joseph Mallord William Turner's paintings that is on display in the National Gallery. I chose The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broke up. Here is the paper that I wrote:

J.M.W. Turner: The Fighting Temeraire

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a great Romantic style landscape painter, and is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Out of the several Turner paintings in the National Gallery, I have chosen to analyze J.M.W. Turner’s painting The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, painted in 1838. It is a depiction of a tug boat pulling a war vessel into harbor in the setting sun to be broken up. In 2005, this painting was voted the greatest painting in a British art gallery. In this particular painting, Turner used thick and somewhat wild brushstrokes. The paint is thicker in some spots than it is in others, giving the painting an uneven texture. The image is much less precise than previous classical images; it is almost considered abstract compared to the preceding styles of painting.

Turner uses very vibrant colors to depict the scene. Although the scene is of a ship in water, there is nearly no blue used in the painting of the sea or the sky. He uses many different shades of red, orange, and yellow which makes the sky look as if it is on fire. The ship seems to be nearly colorless, which brings even more attention to the striking sunset. Perhaps he is using the setting sun and the dark colors of the tug boat to bring the viewer’s focus to the small tug boat to emphasize its power and strength. Earlier landscape painters mostly painted very picturesque and ordered scenes. There were many strict rules set by Gilpin that were to be followed in order to paint a correct landscape; many artists such as Constable painted happy and ideal scenes. Extremely bold and bright colors were rarely used. Turner stepped out of the box and broke all these rules. The Fighting Temeraire is proof that Turner could paint a genre-style landscape painting in a completely different technique and still create a masterpiece.

Turner’s thick and “messy” brushstrokes evoke a sense of excitement and power from the viewer. It is evident that hard work is being performed and that there is a lot of action taking place; this definitely isn’t a peaceful and quiet setting. The cloudy sky brings a type of mysterious wonderment to what is happening and makes the viewer curious, thus pulling him/her into the subject of the painting. The rather large size of the image also contributes to its magnificence. If it happened to be smaller, I believe that its emotional impact on the viewer would not be as grand. The painting has a theme of conclusion. Turner depicts a ship which played a role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, which is being pulled away to be destroyed. The sun is setting, bringing the end to a long day’s work. This could represent the end of an era, such as romantic landscape painting. The image also brings hope; after the end of one day is the start of another.

Stonehenge, Stourhead, and Bath

As a group, we made a day trip to Stonehenge, Stourhead, and Bath. First we went to Stonehenge and wandered around this astonishing landmark for a while and wondered how it got there.

We then went to Stourhead Gardens and explored the beautiful landscape. We strolled along the path around the small lake and appreciated the amazing neo-classical architecture. There were lovely bridges, intriguing caves, and hundreds of different types of greenery. I could have spent hours just enjoying the wonderful weather and suroundings.
Our last stop of the day was Bath. An audio guide helped us tour around and learn all about the Roman Baths. We walked around town and saw the Royal Crescent, Bath Abbey, and the quaint little shops all over the city. It was a busy but wonderful day trip; I loved every place that we visited and hope to see them again sometime soon!

Stratford-upon-Avon

Last Week, we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, where William Shakespeare was born and lived. First we went to Mary Arden's house, who was Shakespeare's mother. The house dates back to around 1500. It was very quaint with it's low ceilings, slanting walls, and the overall home-made look of it all. There was also a little farm in the back with pigs, chickens, owls and more. Oh and a cow....


After Mary Arden's house, we went to Anne Hathaway's cottage. Anne Hathaway married Shakespeare when she was 26 and he was 18. She was most likely pregnant when they married. We saw many short beds in the cottage; apparently there was much superstition about sleeping while laying down because it looked like you were dead. Therefore they all slept sitting up. That night we saw a production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and enjoyed it very much. Stratford-Upon-Avon was really enjoyable and a great learning experience.

Church History in Preston and Liverpool

While on our trip up north, we visited Preston and Liverpool, both of which are full of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had a guide named Peter Fagg who was kind enough to spend the majority of his day with us in Preston. We all learned a lot about the beginnings of the church in England.

In this apartment on St. Wilfrid Street, some of the first missionaries to come to England (Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, Isaac Russell, and Willard Richards) had an encounter with evil spirits. Joseph Smith rejoiced after hearing this news, for he said something great was about to come forth in the church.

The First nine baptisms in England occurred in this River, the River Ribble in Avenham Park. George Watt was the very first to be baptized. He knew shorthand and had a large part in helping Brigham Young with the General Discourses.
After spending some time in Preston, we made our way to Chorley, where the MTC and the Preston temple are located. We were given a while to walk around and admire the beautiful grounds..
On our last day of our trip up north, we paid a visit to Albert Dock, where 9 million emigrants came to America, 50,000 or more of which were Latter-day Saints making their way to Zion.

This statue was placed in Albert Dock to commemorate the thousands who sacrificed nearly everything and leave their homes to move to America.