1979
LDS Scene
January 1979


“LDS Scene,” Ensign, Jan. 1979, 80

LDS Scene

A Dutch member of the Church, Johan Paulo Jongkees, has been called as president of the London Temple. President Jongkees, a native of Den Helder, the Netherlands, was converted to the Church by a fellow Dutch prisoner in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. He has served as a counselor in the Netherlands Amsterdam Mission, as president of the Holland Stake, and as patriarch of the Holland Stake. He has served as a temple worker in London and in Bern, Switzerland, for the last two years.

Gwendoline Rose Bassett Jongkees, his wife, will serve as temple matron. The counselors to former temple president Joseph W. Darling—Albert W. G. Parsons of Crawley, England, and Nelson G. Bleak of Pioche, Nevada—will be retained as counselors to President Jongkees.

The building where the first edition of the Book of Mormon was printed in 1830 has been purchased by the Church. The three-story building, which housed the Grandin printing shop in Palmyra, New York, has been purchased from Mr. and Mrs. Paul Cherry of Palmyra. The Cherrys will continue to operate a store in the building until March 1. Plans for the building are not definite. The third-floor shop where the 5,000 copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon were printed was operated by E. B. Grandin, who rented the space. Since then the building has been used mainly as a store.