I went on a date with a missionary for Love Day.

So for Valentines day I didn’t have a boyfriend or a date… so I went for the next best thing - A missionary. One of my friends from Freshman year is serving in South London and we have been talking about me going down to visit him! It just so turns out that this visit went down on the day of love!! Elise Haley and I took a train down to Windsor for the afternoon and met a group of missionaries there. It was Elder Whitehead and 3 other Elders, plus two sister missionaries. We all went to lunch and then walked around the Windsor Castle. It was so weird! I had no idea missionaries were allowed to meet with us like that? But it was their p-day and their president okayed it. Cool huh? So I had a date with a missionary on Valentines Day. Ha go spread THAT rumor around.

Another cool thing about that whole trip was learning to use the trains. We really had no idea what we were doing, but we ended up in Windsor!

That night we went to a Ballet! And not just any ballet.. the Swan Princess Ballet. I mean Swan Lake. Do you realize how similar they are?? I know The Swan Princess is an animated princess movie, but get this: prince forced to marry, follows swan and discovers she is a swan by day and princess by night, falls in love, is tricked into proclaiming love to the evil twin, bad guy who cast curse is killed. The only difference is the fact that in the end of the Ballet… the prince and princess both die. But that’s okay, it was still good!! I’d never been to a ballet before, but I decided I’m a fan. It’s AMAZING what they can do!

Yesterday we went to Southall. What is Southall, you ask? It’s basically a section of London that is Indian. Like Chinatown, but Indiatown? We went as a group to see the temples and eat the food. And guess what?! I had no idea how much I loved Indian Food! I ate so much I really thought I was going to explode. I ate more than I did at Thanksgiving. No joke. The temple was unreal. We had to put scarves on our heads and take our shoes off, and then we went and sat on this white sheet in a HUGE domed room. There was an altar at the front and men singing Indian music. The whole area was so different than any part of London we’ve been.. I thought we’d left the country!

Today we went to the London temple! For all of you living in Utah: never take for granted the temple you have. Hold that… TempleS. How many temples are in Utah, like 45 by now? I have never lived more than 10 minutes from a Temple and I’m used to being able to go whenever I want. Today was the only day I’ll be able to do baptisms all semester! It was such a lovely day. There was a group of 27 of us that went. It took an hour and a half to drive there and then we stayed for about 2 and a half hours. As we all sat in the room waiting for each other we sang hymns. The spirit was so strong and we all benefited from it so much. I needed the comfort that the temple brings. And now I have to wait another 2 months to feel it again back in the states!

 They tried to get me to bow for the queen.. but I didn't feel like literally kneeling in the middle of the street. Call me crazy.

 Haley, Elise and I in front of the "Long Walk" that runs in front of Windsor Castle

I feel like the missionaries are our body guards in this picture. I'm sure there's a good gospel analogy I could plug in here. 

 Windsor Castle!

 Sisters - Us - Elders

 Elise and I just before Swan Lake

 We had front row balcony seats at The Royal Opera House

 Meet the swans of the lake

 This is actually me, Liz, Elise, and Paige. I know you thought we were Indians.

 The Indian temple with a really cool name that I unfortunately can't spell or pronounce...

 Indian food!

Elise and I at the London Temple:)