Dear Readers:
This Sunday was amazing! I've been feeling a little lost in London, namely because it isn't Mexico. Whoever thought that phrase would come out of my mouth? But there it is. Anyway, today I found a little piece of home.
First off, 5 girls and I are assigned to the Wandsworth Commons ward, which is extremely cool because it reminds me of Harry Potter (WANDsworth) aside from the fact that it is a neat ward. So we all left at 8:30 am to get to our ward which starts at 10:00 am (we have to take the tube and a train to get there). We got there okay despite the fact that we almost ended up on the wrong train platform, we DID miss our station because we apparently didn't press the Open Door button fast enough, and then we accidentally walked a block up to a dead end before we realized we had exited the wrong side of the train station. Classic. :)
At church there were more Americans than Londoners. In fact, I don't even know if there were more than 3 native British people in that ward. There were some people from Africa and all over that I don't even know yet. It's amazing how diverse the church/city is over here! I got "called" (they can't really give us an official call because we're here so short a time and our records aren't in the wards) to be in the Young Womens. Cool! I'm excited. :) I get to teach in two weeks.
Oh, almost forgot. They have Sacrament last, so during Sunday School, the bishop comes up to us and asks us if we'll each bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting. And then he's like, "P.S. You're already on the program."...ok, he didn't really say P.S., but it was like that. :) So we bore our testimonies in Sacrament meeting.
Then, I had heard there was a Spanish branch and I really really really want to keep up the Spanish that I have, so I asked a guy in our ward who used to go to the Spanish branch how to get there. So the girls went back to the Centre and then I made my way alone to the Tube station and then found the right stop and exited and then I tried to find the chapel and...didn't find it. I found the road that the directions said it would be on, but the chapel was not on that street. So I was a little nervous, being alone wandering the streets with no idea where to go, but I decided that all I had was time so it was okay to wander for a while and as long as I knew where the Tube was, I could find my way home. Plus, I just sort of had a constant prayer in my head, "Please help me find the church, please help me find the church, please help me find the church and not get attacked :)". So I wandered back up the street and asked this random guy if there was a church on the street and he was like, "Yeah, just go up there and around the corner."
So I go up the road and around the corner and find a ginormous castle-like church, obviously not an LDS church, but I didn't really figure the guy would point me to an LDS church anyway. So in my head I was wondering, "Should I just go back home and give it up? Or should I wander around and try to find it because I know that I am really close? And I really want to go!" So I decided that I would just go up this one block and try to loop around and go back up the original street and if I didn't find the chapel, then I would go home.
Randomly enough, I walked down the street and at this intersection, Behold, the chapel! Seriously, it was a miracle. Divine intervention. It was so neat! And then I went to church and it was amazing! I just felt so at home! It reminded me of Mexico and it was so nice to be hearing Spanish again and feeling the Latin culture. I also got a Libro de Mormon so I can study the scriptures in Spanish. AND there were adorable Latin children, along with a lot more diversity, like in the first ward. It isn't just a Spanish branch, it's Spanish and Portugese and there are people from Africa and South America and all over! It's so cool!
However, this leads to a dilemma. Six hours of church weekly or no Spanish? So far I'm choosing 6 hours, but we'll see how long I last. :) Love you!
1 comment:
dear becky, you rock. spanish rocks... and i'm glad you found mexico in london. ESO.
Post a Comment