Mormons in the Church of England (And Parks)

    I must have really been exhausted last night because I conked out when I went to bed. It was one of those beautiful sleeps in that it came very quickly, but ugly in that you wake up and it feels like you hadn't even been asleep at all. The whole night just went by so quickly! Fortunately our young adventurer found himself in the day of rest and it was quite a splendid day. And it was good.
    In typical Sunday fashion Ben, Dallin, and I made our way out to Islington to attend our church meetings. The weather was perfect today, especially after having spent some time in toasty Italy. It was a little cloudy with a breeze and I felt great. This is such a wonderful time of year in London because it's not too stormy and not to hot, and the flowers are in bloom. I really enjoy the walk that we have to our church building as we have to pass through this back alley/neighborhood/market to get there. It's a bustling little area just off of Angel Tube Stop (still love that name) that is filled with shops and cafés. There are always big groups of people that are getting together for their morning brunch. I really just want to join them sometimes and spend the day reading my book at the table. Can we make that happen? Church was great today as we had testimony meeting. I couldn't understand the testimonies, but it was fun to see that some traditions hold true everywhere. There were the groups of kids that went up with their parents and had them whisper in their ears. There were stories shared that really had little to do with the gospel. And then testimonies that were brief and full of goodness. At least that's what Dallin, my trusty translator told me afterwards.

A quick snapshot of our morning walk to church

 
    Ben and I decided to leave church a bit early today so that we could make it to St. Paul's Cathedral for Evensong. I have been wanting to go really badly, but the time of Evensong always conflicted with our church schedule. When Ben said that he also wanted to go, we decided that it would be fine if we slipped away early just once to go. We made our way over to Bank and stopped by Nando's to get some dinner. (We are always torn about how to manage dinner here on Sundays, but thought this would be alright as we were traveling all day. Also, yes, I went to Nando's twice in a row. It's delicious)!
    Evensong is a sermon that is put on by most churches here that is combined with choir singing. It consists of a lot of standing, sitting, kneeling, and singing from the audience mixed with the choir singing and a few prayer recitations and sermons. I absolutely love St. Paul's Cathedral, and this was a great way to get in to see it without paying the typical tourist fees. One of my favorite parts about my previous trips was taking a tour of the cathedral, and as much as I would love to do it again, I have to be careful with the money that I spend. This was a great alternative and the sermon was actually really great. The preacher (I think that's what they are called) shared a wonderful message about how we should try to do everything "In Christ". The sermon was actually very approachable as our preacher made jokes and talked about a conference that he had attended in the States about teaching lessons that are applicable to us in modern times. He was a great speaker and shared some wonderful insights. My favorite part of the sermon was when he said that we should pay attention to the way that we make people act, as that reflects a lot about who we are. I had never thought about that, but I think it is something that we all need to consider. Sometimes it is difficult to look at ourselves, but as we watch the change we create in others, we begin to see a bit of who we are as well. I was pleasantly surprised at how great the service was, and the spirit that I actually managed to feel there. It was a very interesting Sunday combined with different doctrines that both managed to enlighten me.

Travel Note: The Nando's by The Globe is the best

Approached this on a beautiful day as the bells were chiming

    Energized after having been spiritually fed (and after drinking several refills of Coke from Nando's). Ben and I decided to go on a Sunday walk through some parts of London. We made our way over to Oxford Circus, a portion of town that I had not visited yet. We then made our way over to Regent's Park, which was absolutely gorgeous. I had never actually been there before, and it was so amazing. It has many of the typical park scenes that you typically see....like grass. Inside Regent's Park they also have Queen Mary's Gardens. It's a massive area that has so many different types of flowers. It was so incredibly colorful and it smelled wonderful. The most popular flower was the rose, and they had roses in dozens of colors. Like many tourist attractions it was a bit crowded and I wished I could have had it all to myself, but it was still such an amazing sight to see. We also ventured over to a section of the park that is by a pond, and the grass was completely covered by little white flowers. It looked like it could have been snow when you saw it from afar. I honestly could not believe how beautiful this place was! Ben and I sat to chat for a while before making our way back to the flats.

I love London's mix of the old and the new

Queen Mary's Garden

Flowers, flowers, everywhere

Also, flowers

Quick shot of me, to show that I was there (I need to work on my posture)

The white flowers and the grass. Wish I had a book with me!

   Back at the flats we started doing homework and washing our clothes to get ready for another week of school and explorations. For a while we worked very hard. I went down into the common room so I could get some reading done, and I finished The Bone Season, which i was a big fan of. Then I made the mistake of turning on the TV for some background noise while I typed up some schoolwork. Next thing I know I went from homework to having a movie night of sorts with Ben, Jennifer, Jessa, and McKenzie that involved Star Wars and James Bond. It was really fun just sitting and having a pretty laid back night with some of these great people. It's so interesting meeting people in setting like this one, because you have to get to know each other in a way that you wouldn't normally back home. Doing something like this felt really normal and it was fun to just sit and chat while taking ridiculous BuzzFeed quizzes and pull up random Youtube videos (yep, that's typical hanging out these days. My generation is weird). 

   I finished the night by FaceTime-ing my family. I managed to catch them as they were eating dinner, so I got to talk to the whole lot of them! It was great! I love those people so much! I am so blessed to have a family that supports me as much as they do! Plus we are all quite fun people, and I think our conversations are a hoot! Yep. My family is the best.