Temple Trip & Lunchtime with Winston Churchill

TUESDAY


Classes were squished and earlier today so that we can get on the coach to head to the London, England LDS Temple! It was sunny and pretty and the temple was beautiful. I loved being there with some of the kids from the program. I love those people. They will forever be associated with being my friends during some of the best months of my life and experiencing this life-changing experience with me. The other night, we were talking about little habits and things that each of us does and I discovered some things that they know about me that I didn’t realize until they pointed it out. I don’t know how I’m going to spend a summer away from everyone. I’ll probably die.
{Roommates at London, England LDS Temple}

{me and my best mate}
Anyways, great day at the temple and then 5 pound night spent in Nando’s. Oh, Nando’s.

WEDNESDAY

Last Wednesday trip with the program…It was a really cool day. We’ve seen SO MUCH and yet we haven’t seen it all, today’s activities included. We lucked out for the timing of our tour at the Palace of Westminster, aka Houses of Parliament, because GB is having an election soon to vote for a new Prime Minister and so Parliament was out of session and open for us to see. We got to see Westminster Hall, where some important people, like kings and queens and prime ministers, lay in state before they’re buried. We also saw the chapel where Parliament was held a long time ago and where Charles I stormed in with troops to oppose Cromwell. Finally, we saw the House of Commons and the House of Lords, where the government happens, basically. This day was also the last day for the Q&A with the P.M. before the election and that happens after prayer time. So around 11:30, we stood in the middle of the houses and watched the official procession for the beginning of this. The lady who holds the staff that symbolizes the royalty being present at Parliament and the Speaker of the House of Commons (along with some others) walk down the long corridor to the Commons. An officer yells, “Speaker!” when they enter the corridor and when they got to us, another officer yelled “Hats off, strangers!”. And that was it haha. If we would have been able to wait for another 20 minutes, we probably would have been able to see the P.M., himself.

{Houses of Parliament}

But, we had another appointment at the Cabinet War Rooms on Whitehall. These are the bunkers where Winston Churchill stayed and worked during WWII and they just up and left it at the end of the war. Some people found it and opened it to the public just how it was left behind. Inside was also a Churchill museum, which was cool. I knew before that Churchill was a cool guy, but I never realized just how cool he was until today. I decided that if I could have lunch with any 3 people at this point in my life, I would choose: Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and Brigham Young. How cool would THAT be? Maybe I’ll get what I wish for in Heaven.

After a solid nap and dinner, Anna, Alyssa and I hit up Starbucks for study time. We got kicked out early than expected because they closed and we encountered a crazy homeless guy at this time. He walked in, talking to himself, set a suitcase down, walked out, came back in, still talking to himself. So we left. We tried to go to McDonald’s to get WiFi, but they didn’t have plugs for our computers. On our way out, we got stopped by a sweet, old lady who talked to us for 10-15 minutes about her life story. Weird homework outing.