Tour: Days 1-3

*before you read, know that none of the pictures are edited, and some are even blurry. I'll try my best to fix that later. To see all my England pictures, go to this link.

Well, if you're keeping up with the tour blog (shame on you if you're not), you'll know that we got to London around noon on Monday. On our first flight, I sat next to a guy named Mason. He was very chatty. He grew up in Salt Lake, goes to St. Olaf's University in Minnesota, likes to ski, majoring in Russian, and loves cheese and beer. Awesome, no? On the next flight from Minneapolis to Heathrow, I sat next to a girl names Sophie. She's from Seattle, but she's been attending the University of London for the past few years studying Art History. Pretty cool.

The flight was fine, but I have a really difficult time sleeping on planes, especially when I'm sitting next to strangers because we can't make ourselves comfortable and use each other as pillows. I dozed in and out though.

First look

So we got to London around noon, dropped our luggage off at the Umi Hotel, and took off for Trafalgar square to tour the city in groups. Well, the guy in my group who's been to London before and was supposed to be the leader, kept getting lost. So we wandered around until we met another group by Westminster Abbey and followed them inside right in time to attend the Evensong worship service. I started crying as soon as I walked in, overwhelmed with the sheer......greatness of the architecture and memorials and the notes from the boys choir singing back to the priest floating through the expansive arches.

Westminster Abbey

For dinner, a few of us went to Durbar, and Indian restaurant, which was delicious. That night, we just went to bed exhausted. It was only about 10 PM.

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5:30 AM for who knows what and couldn't fall back to sleep for an hour. It wasn't jet lag, because England is 7 hours ahead of Utah (8 ahead of AZ), so 5:30 AM made no sense. Luckily, I did finally fall asleep until around 8. Breakfast was croissants, jam, and OJ at the hotel, and at 9 AM we were on our way to Buckingham Palace. We watched the changing of the guard, which was slightly annoying because the group I was with (same group from the previous day - they were assigned), couldn't appreciate it just for the fact that it was tradition. They had to know why everything was happening the way it was happening and got bored after 15 minutes. It was like watching it with 4 year olds. It was a bit weird though because the band was playing American show tunes... New York, New York and That's Why the Lady's a Tramp...Yeah, in front of the Queen's house. It was weird. And then we walked around in groups again, which once again for my group meant going nowhere and doing nothing except walking in circles.

Buckingham Palace

Good thing we get to go back to London at the end of tour. At 2, we drove 1 1/2 hours to Milton, Keynes and rehearsed at the Church of the Cornerstone. The sun even came out for a bit! Before the concert, the local Relief Society provided a delicious dinner at the ward building. It was weird because I saw a wedding announcement on the bulletin board there, and I totally know who the girl in it is. She's from Utah and just got married last week. His family is from there I guess. So random! Our concert was fantastic. Such an amazing performance for our first concert of tour. The major was there, as well as an Area 70, 4 cute missionaries who were eyeing one of the other altos like she was food (it was slightly creepy actually), and lots of other members and non-members. The Spirit was so strong, and even a man who's not a member of the church told our director afterwards that never has he felt the love of God so strongly in his life. We all divided into host families after that. Whitney and I were assigned to Anja and Frank Newberry. She's German and completely crazy. :) In a good way. She loaded us up with German chocolate, and made us a delicious breakfast (she was a cook before she became a lawyer).

Then this morning, we were off on the bus on our way to Cambridge. The day dawned with a rainstorm, and it didn't stop. We got to Cambridge and did a workshop with Dr. Stephen Cleobury (pronounced Cleebree), and toured around the town.

Organ at Kings College Chapel

Trinity College

the apple tree that supposedly inspired Sir Isaac Newton

pathetic and damp... oh, and I guess a polar bear was bathed in that fountain. And did you notice our missionary-esque tags? :)

a soggy mess

Kings College and Chapel

Me and Rachel trying to have a good attitude...

Once again, I got stuck with a group with different interests, and trudged through the freezing, cold downpour for hours. Yes, it was nice to see stuff, but I would have preferred to wander around at my leisure, stopping in the antique shops or at the market to get some respite from the chill instead of squelching around in it. Because after only 2 hours of that, my waterproofed shoes were done being waterproof, and even our pants were soaked up to our knees and damp up to our waists. It was miserable. When we were finally allowed back on the bus, most people were fed up and ready to take a bread from each other. It was rough. But once we rehearsed in the beautiful, Gothic-style Emmanuel United Reformed Church, ate a big dinner in Pembrook College, and got our of our wet things and into concert dress, we were all feeling much more happy and patient with everything. It was a rough day, but we got through it, and we sang a great concert tonight again. Tonight, Heather and I are with a married couple in our choir at an American family's home in Barton Hills. He's an auditor for the U.S. Air Force (though he's not military), so they're only allowed to be here for 5 years, and this is year #4. They travel out of England once a month, so they've been everywhere! They'll be sad to leave, but it is nice to be in a more "homey" (meaning like home, not trash) setting.

Tomorrow, we're off to Norwich to do a workshop with a high-school, and give another concert. We're praying for better weather, or at least better attitudes. :)

Oh, and we found out today that a baptism has been scheduled in Wyoming for an investigator that was found by attending our concert there and requesting one of our CDs to be delivered by missionaries. How cool is that? I always knew that what we do is important, that our work as performing missionaries is real, but hearing that just brought it all into perspective for us. When you know that you've played a key part in bringing the Light of Christ back into someone's life with the Truth of the Gospel... there's nothing quite like it. I'm so thankful for the chance I have to be here, for the chance I have to be part of this choir, and to interact with these people every day.