London

well, i haven't written since i arrived in London so i will share some of the highlights. but before i talk about london i've gotta tell you about salisbury. it was so beautiful. i loved that place. and they had amazing food haha. it is just like this cute little old fashion european town and i loved it so much. we went to the salisbury cathedral which was really neat. i fell in love with the stained glass window at the front of the cathedral. its so funny because you cant even see the stained glass from the outside but once you walk in and see the light shining through the windows it is amazing. i know i have an obsession with the stained galss windows but i cant help it. they all tell stories of the life of christ and they are beautiful. i also saw the original magna carta there which was really cool. ok so london...
friday was the day of the wedding. it was CRAZY. haha im not going to lie my first impression of London was not the best. everyone was drunk and it smelled like smoke and beer everywhere. but i love it now haha. not as much as paris, but i still love it. but nothing will ever compare to paris. ok so friday we went to this place called trafalger square. it is the city center and tons of peop0le just hang out there and it is surrounded by all these giant buildings and museums and such. but the wedding procession had just gone through there and so everyone was going crazy but it was funny. friday night was les mis. im not going to lie i fell asleep for part of the first act haha. my sleeping patterns have been so bad and so honestly every time i sit down for more than 5 minutes i am out. im not even kidding i fell aslep 4 times today just sitting down on benches haha. but the second half was really good! haha i know im lame. i would like to see it again. but the orchestra was amazing and the voices were amazing and i really enjoyed it.
saturday we went to the british museum and then to a place called portabello road. it is like this giant flee market. after that nelly got tired and so we hopped on a double decker bus to see some of the sights in london. ok now let me tell you about nelly because i have a funny story about her. she is probably 50 years old. she is a studnet at byui and has 6 kids. she is from guatemala and is no taller than 5 feet. she is HILARIOUS. her and jordan have become best friends so she comes with us everywhere. haha ok so we decide to ge t off the bus in the largest shopping mall in england which was the first mistake. we went into the nearest store and it was the craziest thing i have every seen. it was a gigantic store and they were having crazy sales and so it was PACKED. i have a picture i wish i could download it. but nelly just like took off and none of us knew where she was at. so we shopped for a while and then started looking for her and no lie we looked for an hour. so you know how difficult it is to find a 5 foot nothing guatemalean in a store packed with europeans? haha it isn't easy. so finally after an hour we found her. and i was like nelly you need to stick with me we are getting out of this store. no im not even lying we got on the escalator and turned around and she was gone. IT TOOK US ANOTHER HOUR TO FIND HER. haha i was so pissed i felt really bad for grace. finally we just went outside and sat down and the curb and started laughing/crying. haha but we eventually got out of there.
WICKED WAS AMAZING. i loved it so much. i wish i could go back. the music was better than the actual cd and it was one of the coolest things ever.
today has probably been my favorite day so far. we went to church this morning which was the coolest experience ever. this past week i have been in places that are very unfamiliar to me with an unfamiliar language and unfamiliar people and unfamiliar customs but the moment i walked into church this morning the spirit was so strong and i felt like i was home. the spirit was incredibly strong the whole meeting and it was so neat for me to realize that no matter where you are in the world you will always find the gospel and the spirit to be constant. it was just another reminder to me of how amazing this gospel is and how blessed i am to have it in my life. i cannot imagine what it would be like if i didn't have a testimony of this church.
after church we went to the buckingham palace to watch the guard change. then we went to the national gallery which i loved. i have fallen in love with vincent van gogh's paintings. then we went to st pauls cathedral. you need to look it up online it is so beautiful. then we went to an organ recital in westminster abby. that was really cool. they still had the flowers and trees in there from the wedding. and the organist was amazing. i really enjoyed that.
im sorry i just rambled forever. next time i wont be so detailed haha. it is crazy i have only been gone a week and i have gianed an appreciation for so many things already. here is a list of the top 5:
1. family/friends.
2. the gospel
3.being able to communicate.
4. american food (i know im crazy)
5. giving tay babe a hug. haha i miss him so bad. mom could you give him one for me? hannah as well.
well i hope you guys are having fun in california! i cant believe you didn't take jason with you. you guys are mising out.
well in the morning we fly to vienna. this week consists of austria and italy this weekend. wahoo!! i love and miss you all!