First, I want to show off my flowers again.
I know you can't tell from the picture, but these are the colors going on....
dark red, red/orange, hot pink, white with pink highlights, and white.
Quite a lovely welcome to our flat, I must say.
Last Tuesday I went with my friends Kim, Janet and her daughter Rebecca, to...
Clarence House.
The home of Prince Charles and Camilla.
Yeah, we're that special over here. :)
We were taken through 5-6 rooms, and not allowed to take pictures.
No pictures was very sad, because I'd love to have shown Kelsi the harp.
(Yup, they have a royal harpist.)
It was very hard not to break all the rules...I so wanted to play it and get a picture by it
and touch it in all its elegance!
We could only take pictures outside the wall...
If you're out with friends, you really should go to lunch.
The plan was a restaurant in St James Park, but it didn't look very appetizing
so we headed through the park, seeing baby swans....
(ugly ducklings next to the mom)....
and this view from a bridge.
It'smuch more beautiful in person,
with the London Eye and lovely buildings.
The moss or algae or whatever it is is not normal....
it's because of the extremely hot summer we've had here.
Deciding to get out of the heat (mid-90s that day) we headed through Trafalgar Square
to a restaurant underground.
So...we got to see the new Fourth Plinth Art commission.
What?
Apparently, the statue for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square was never completed
and it sat empty for over 150 years. In 1999 it was finally decided to
commission works of art to be changed about every two years.
It had been a boy on a rocking horse.
Now it's......
an electric blue chicken!!!
Or "cockerel in intense ultramarine blue".
Hahaha. Makes me laugh. Little weird.
Or a lot weird.
Apparently it has "ruffled a few feathers with the irony of having a cockerel,
the national symbol of France, in a square which commemorates
a British naval victory over the French."
We crossed the square and went to eat at
St Martins in the Field Crypt.
Yes. That says Crypt.
S E R I O U S L Y ?
You sit at tables and eat with headstones under your feet.
and your chair....
and your table.....
Sorry. Didn't get pictures.
Since few places here have air conditioning, and it has been hotter than normal,
it was packed....people seeking relief from the heat I guess.
Or they just like to eat amongst the dead.
Funny story.
I was on the phone with Kimberly last night and sitting at the computer. One screen had
some family history pulled up (surprise!) and I looked over at it.
Rick's great-great-great grandparents on is dad's side,
Arthur Murch and Mary Howell,
were married at the Parish Church of St Martin in the Fields,
Middlesex, England. In 1825.
Where I had just eaten lunch days before...
in the crypt.
Pretty sure they aren't buried there because they moved to Marylebone...
Which happens to be walking distance from our flat....
still looking for death or burial records on them.
But the highlight of the week was going to
the first ever British Pageant
"Truth Will Prevail"
at the Preston Temple.
The drive should have been 3 1/2 - 4 hours, but took 6 because of traffic...good thing
we left plenty early.
We had originally thought it would be an outdoor venue like most other church pageants,
but then were told it would be in a tent....but it was much nicer.
The great venue protected us from the rain and made the sound fabulous.
Here we are with Natasha Curtis from Canada and our YSA Ward.
Choir....fabulous!
Actors.....fabulous!
Set....fabulous!
Spirit.....undeniable!!!!
The best church pageant I've EVER been to.
The pageant told the story of the early saints in Great Britain.
The spirit was so strong as we understood better how the people in this land were
prepared for the restored gospel...because of people like William Tyndale and John Wycliffe, who
fought so hard to get the Bible translated into English,
and died as martyrs doing so.
It was amazing to be able to envision all 12 Apostles being called to serve missions
here in 1839, and the many, many numbers of people
who felt and believed truth,
were baptized,
and followed the call to gather to Zion.
Thinking of my 8 great-great grandparents on my father's side who experienced this
conversion with one of the 12 or later with other missionaries, caused my heart to be very full.
So full, that it leaked through my eyes througout the entire performance.
The spirit was very strong.
Profound re-confirmation of things I know to be true.
All 8 of these great-great grandparents were born in England,
joined the church,
joined the saints,
and settled and died in Nephi, Utah.
Thus I am an American,
a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
and I'm a Mormon.
So grateful for these ancestors who sacrificed so much.
