Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in London

Jonny was stationed in Salisbury, England for work near Stonehenge.  He passed Stonehenge everyday on his way to work.  His work kept him busy for the first week but began to look as if they might finish up early.  By the time I arrived for his second week, there were only a couple days of work left which allowed 4 days for us to tour England together. 

I left Yuma on Friday morning about 11am Arizona time and arrived about 9:30 am London time. (About 15 hours of travel).  My 7 hour plane ride across the ocean was fairly empty.  I was able to stretch my legs across 4 seats a bit uncomfortably with my seat belt still on and sleep a little bit.  Jonny picked me up at the London Heathrow airport Saturday morning.  It was the beginning of an exciting adventure.  The first British person to speak to me caught me off guard with her accent and I had to ask her to repeat her directions.  I found my way through customs and was happy to find Jonny waiting for me with his beard quite a bit thicker.

We rode the train around London and saw many sites.  The train system is quite extensive taking you to within walking distance of nearly anywhere within London.  We also rode a double decker bus and took the ferry to rest our legs.  I was able to stay awake as long as I kept moving. 

Jonny loved driving his 6-speed diesel BMW.  To us it was luxurious, but in England, it was considered an inexpensive rental.  There are BMWs and mercedes everywhere.  We even saw a Mercedes semi-truck.  This BMW was one step up from the smallest car.  They took one look at his long legs, had pity, and upgraded him.  

Notice the steering wheel on the opposite side?  Jonny became a master at driving in England.  I didn't dare try because I couldn't even remember to walk to the right side of the car when it was time to drive anywhere...and seeing the cars on the "wrong" side at every round-a-bout intersection made my heart skip every time.  My brain operates too heavily on routine and habit.  Jonny drove very well.  He'd had one weeks practice already by the time I arrived and seemed to have all the driving kinks worked out.  He says he only hit one curb because the streets are very narrow.  The round-abouts were intimidating to me at first.  Just imagine jogging down a hallway and spinning in a circle before turning the corner then making sure you wind up on the left side of the hall without stopping.  Jonny pointed out that you have to yield to those in the round-about but once you enter it, you have the right of way.  England's road signs are well done and give plenty of advance notice.

On Sunday, we attended the Staines Ward just outside of London.  There were about 60 people in attendance and very diverse in culture.  In that ward were people from England, the U.S., Africa, Eastern Asia (I'm guessing Phillipines or Vietnam), Colombia, Italy, some Oriental, and some Eastern European.  The member of the Bishopric presiding was probably from the Phillipines.  The next two speakers had very dark, black skin and spoke with an accent that reminded me of the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy".  Their testimonies were beautiful.  Then the third member was native from Britain.  They each spoke with their own thick, native accents which means we had to pay close attention in Sacrament meeting to catch their message.  They all spoke on the topic of tithing.

Finally, the Bishop spoke and his words were very strong.  It was a divisive message on tithing or in other words a call to decide if it was truly a principle of God's church.  I already have a testimony of tithing but the spirit was very strong.  He spoke about how Nephi prayed to understand Lehi's vision.  It never occurred to me that after Lehi told his family about his dream that he never told them what it meant.  They had to ponder it on their own.  Nephi prayed and pondered.  Laman and Lemuel did not.  So, the Bishop asked his congregation to pray and ponder about the principle of tithing.  

We met a woman from Colombia by the name of Maritza Redman who now lives in England with her son Christobel.  She was very friendly, took a liking to us, and wanted a picture with her and us together.  She told us the story of how she came to meet Kenneth Cope when she was visiting Salt Lake City.  After visiting with her for a while, it came as no surprise that she also has a picture with Kenneth Cope, ate dinner with him at his house, and he sent her a CD of his music.  She considers him a friend now and I'm sure he'll always remember her just like we will.  She seems to make friends wherever she goes.  She is a very, outgoing, friendly sister who works at the London temple.  Her son was featured in a New Era article in 2009. 

After church, we drove to the London temple.  We weren't able to go to the temple on a day that they were open but I prayed during the drive there that we could find somebody to tell us something.  The parking lot and grounds were empty but shortly after a President Carpenter and his wife from SLC came walking around the corner.  They had just arrived within the last 24 hours to serve as the new Visitor's Center president.  We were their first unofficial tour.

On the way back to London from the temple, we stopped for dinner at a roadside cafe.  I was very surprised and pleased to see that most everything was closed on the sabbath day, but we did need to eat and managed to find a place finally.  We walked in dressed as we were for church and the person seating us asked if we had just come from the temple.  He said they get a lot of business from people coming to see the temple.  The name of the restaurant was the Smith and Western.  They did a very good job of capturing the flavor of the southwestern U.S.  There were cow-hide curtains, wooden floors, a cozy fire in a stone fireplace, wagon wheels, Hatch-New Mexico chiles and poster hanging on the wall, all the staff wore cowboy shirts, vests, and hats.  I ate a huge plate of nachos complete with jalapenos.  Jonny had a chipotle chicken salad.  They staff even walked altogether to a table with a dessert and sparkling firecracker candle singing Happy Birthday just like you'd seen in an American restaurant.  It made me chuckle.  When asked what we thought of our meal, we told the waitress that it was all very authentic except there were no toothpicks for us to pick our teeth with like a cowboy.  Then she pointed out the toothpicks  hidden in with the sugar packets on the table.  They really had it all!

http://www.smith-western.co.uk/





Tower Bridge



Buckingham Palace




Big Ben



Tall and narrow 6+ story LDS Church building in the heart of London currently being remodeled.




Westminster Abbey




The other side of Westminster Abbey.





Tower of London






This horse is awake and alert.

This horse is sleeping on the job.

Double-decker buses.

We covered a lot of ground on Saturday and Monday!!