Church at White Chapel

Today was my first day at church. I was assigned to the White Chapel ward. The is almost the opposite of what the name implies. The majority of the wards are Africans, primarily from Nigeria and Ghana (Including out bishop).  We had to take the tube for about an hour to get to the building and walked in right as sacrament was starting.  The entire priesthood body that was blessing and passing the sacrament where straight-up Africans. It really took me back to my mission in New York where that was a part of life. It was ward conference so amidst the chaos I was not able to meet with the bishop and get a calling. I was super impressed about the conviction and devotion that the ward members had. One lady spoke about being less-active for 7 years because her husband didn’t like the church. She decided that she needed to start going and fasted for a whole week to gather the courage to tell him! She’s now back at church, Pretty awesome stuff. Afterwards the Stake President talked about how extraordinary the Stake was. The stake has 105 different nationalities and 75% of the members are first generation converts. Crazy right? Anyways I didn’t want to take pictures the first Sunday and look like a total goober.  I’ve been assigned to the ward along with 4 girls ( Elizabeth Bevan, Liv Ammons, Megan Bruner, and Lyse Cook) Group picture next week. These are some of my favorite girls and I lucked out to get put in there group. I’ll talk to you guys later.  Check back later this week on Tuesday was going to see the Broadway show “Wicked”.

Roman Bath House

After Stonehenge we visited Bath, London to visit the ancient Roman bath House that Bath is named after. For those of you who accompanied me in Jerusalem and elsewhere know that Bro. Hamblin showed us tons of roman bathhouses until I, along with most of our group, lost complete interest in the subject (with exceptions of Chris and Adam who somehow were able to pretend to be optimistic about seeing more ruins). Several of the girls in my group were looking at little piles of bricks several feet apart in a pattern. I then did something I never thought I would do. . . I regurgitated what Hambone had told us. The girls were very impressed with my intimate knowledge of the inner workings of ancient bathhouses. The ladies here don’t stand a chance.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge was one of the few things I was really interested in seeing. The rocks align for the sun to pass through the main arch during the winter and summer Solis. The Solis is the Longest and shortest days of the year. We’re unsure what rituals and practices the early Brits made at Stonehenge, but it was quite overwhelming to see the effort put together by the early Brits. The site itself has a fence and guards to keep you from getting near the actual stones. After coming from the Middle-East I have the perspective of that is guards don’t have guns, it means their irreverent.  I considered sneaking closer to touch the rocks, but I decided against it in case my directors freak out.

Salisbury Cathedral

We went to see the Salisbury cathedral. It was magnificent. Apparently the church lacks a traditional foundation. Because it does not have a foundation the caretakers constantly have to monitor the gravel underneath the church to make sure it doesn’t shift or erode. The church itself was awesome, built in the English Gothic architecture which allows more windows and open space then found in Roman or earlier designs. Most of my perspective concerning old churches comes from a combination of Muslim, Jewish and Crusader churches from about the 12^th-13^th century. The oldest medieval clock is there from around the 11^th century.  It also had the original doors and several cool relics (including the Magna Carta). I couldn’t help but think about the primary song “The wise man built his house upon a rock” had the church been built on firm ground the church would not have to worry about constant threat of destruction.

My First Pub Experience!

We went to a near-by pub named “The Phoenix” for Lunch. It was me and about 6-7 girls. The Phoenix was very much was I expected it to be. Nearly everything seemed to be made of wood. There were benches and chairs everywhere and a large bar which doubles as where we order our meal. I orders Steak pie with chips which was a large piece of pie backed into a pie crust accompanied by French fries and peas. The food was surprisingly good smothers in rich gravy. The meal was a well priced about 5 pounds (around 8 dollars), which is fairly typical. The place had several pool tables as well as Flat screen TV’s to watch the football (soccer) games.               

Sightseeing before Class Starts

We have several days before our classes start on Monday.  We have a few group trips planned but most of our time is for us to explore on our own.  We went to Buckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guards. The changing of the guards was cool, probably the largest gathering of tourists anywhere in Britain. It was really cool to watch, they wore Grey fluffy hats and seems to vary in size (I assume the more important you are the larger and fluffier your hat becomes). They marched past us and before I knew it the magical moment was over.  We also checked out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  Westminster Abby was neat because it had the graves of some important folks inside. I am now able to claim that I have walked on Darwin's grave. Take that evolution! Apart from that the only other cool place we visited was  Trafalgar Square with lots of lions and a statue of Lord Nelson.

I have arrived.

It was tough but I made it here in one piece. The flight was long, but uneventful, but once I got to London things got a little dicey. I took a cab to the center, which cost 60 pounds! the equivalent of about 100 dollars! I also got help up at customs; I think the Israeli's put me on Interpol’s list of potential terrorists. When I got to the BYU London Centre it was well past midnight and all the lights were off. I rang the bell repeatedly but didn't all that I got in return was silence. I knocked on the door . . . still nothing. Finally, I pulled out my cell phone and decided that this was a worthy to use my phone to get a hold of someone at the center. I called the centers mainline, but no one picked up. I started working my way through my emergency contact list hoping to wake someone up to let me in. After a few calls I finally got a hold of someone.  A sleepy woman's voice answered the phone. I realized it was after 1:00 a.m. London time and quickly apologized and explained my predicament. She told me the code that would allow me to get into the building and then the phone went dead. I quickly entered the code and got out of the freezing weather. I stood there in the dark corridor wondering what to do next. I figured that since the woman hung up right after she gave me the code she was coming to meet me. I waited in the darkness for what seemed like forever waiting for this stranger to guide me. I checked my phone and realized I had been standing there for about 10 minutes. I figured if the woman was coming to guide me I would have heard her by now. I wasn’t sure what room I had been assigned too or where the administrators lived. I placed my suitcases on the floor and pondered my predicament.

            After evaluating my options I decided I didn’t have much of a choice. If I went looking for my room chances are I would walk into a girl’s dormitory and probably scare them half to death.  I went into the lounge and cleared a small area for me to lie down on. The house is extremely old and very creaky. I decided it was worth the noise to try to locate a bathroom. After stumbling around I found one in the basement. I brushed my teeth and headed back to my little nook on the floor. I pulled out my pillow from home and a blanket I stole from American Airlines and settled down for the night. I struggled to fall asleep and the little red blanket covered the area between my waist and my knees but nothing else. When I last looked at my watch it was 2:00 a.m.

            I woke up to a bright light. Some of the other students were asked to help out with breakfast and were setting things up. I looked over and it was about 6:30 and I decided to see if I could help. The girls seems a little started and asked where I came from. I mumbled a response about sleepy in the lounge. They gave me nervous smiles and let me help out.  After breakfast we had an orientation about London and then the time was ours. I knew if I went to the dorms I would fall right asleep and mess up my internal clock so I went out with a group instead. Sigh, I’m so exhausted.