England

Sorry for not updating this blog regularly; our access to internet has been limited.

Life's going great! Our fam had a ball with extended family in Brigham City before boarding our plane. Everything just kinda fell into place. Even with my mom's skepticism, we fit every ounce of medication for the clinics into our luggage. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the PVC glue I was bringing (stuff to make prosthetic legs) was flammable, so the airport security is sending my mom a citation thing in the mail. Too bad we won't see that for 8 something months!

When we arrived in London we loaded our mountain of bags into the huge 9 seater van we were renting and hit the road for Preston, a five hour drive away. On the way we saw a pile of rocks called Stonehenge, some university called Oxford, Shakespeare's birthplace, and miles of pristine British countryside. In Preston we stayed in the temple housing, used by people making long trips to spend time in the temple. There really isn't much to do in Preston besides loads of LDS church sites, so we visited a lot of them. This was the first place Mormon missionaries were sent outside of US/Canada, as well as President Hinckley's first area.

After two nights there we drove to the London temple, where we spent three nights. We did the city in freezing weather and since we are all packed for the tropical climate of east Africa, it was slightly miserable. However, the highlight was St. Paul's cathedral. We arrived for an hour-long choral performance that was out of this world. The high arcing ceilings created acoustics that were absolutely unreal and filled the church with reverberating music. Of all of the concerts I have been too, this was high on the list of top musical experiences. Amazing!

We had a superb Sunday in the UK. My teacher in priest quorum could have been a motivational speaker and his thick Scottish accent made his lesson all the more interesting. I loved chatting with the teenagers, nearly all of which opened conversations by excitedly asking if our family was moving into their ward boundaries. After church we visited some family friends from South Africa who were living nearby. Although living in England, both husband and wife were staunch South African in culture. Not only were their accents and mannerisms (they said malk instead of milk) more than entertaining, they seemed to see life through a different perspective than us Americans. That was refreshing to say in the least. We visited for five hours and could have stayed there five days.

We started Italy in Milan were we toured a big castle and the most magnificent church I have ever seen: the Duomo. The main hall of this cathedral stretched on for what seemed an eternity and the high ceilings towered above us. The next morning we drove to Venice, which is now officially the most beautiful city I have ever visited. The whole time I was itching to go on a long run through the city, but both parents thought I would get lost or mugged or something. I've decided next time I go to Europe I'm going to make sure a long distance runner comes with; running these cities would be heaven!

And now I'm sitting in a Villa thing in Florence. This blog is officially updated.