So. Here I am. In London. Fabulous, I know.

With a horse outside Houses of Parliament.

I arrived in London safe and sound, though I highly disagreed with the technique the shuttle driver used to apply his brakes. And my luggage arrived a day late. But I survived, and I'm doing splendidly.

Outside our house.

I finally got some pictures from some of the other girls. We've walked around London a bit and seen where the sights are, though we didn't actually visit them. I can't wait to go back and visit, and take more pictures of my own.

The National Gallery.

Fierce.

As we were walking around the courtyard to one of the old churches, someone in my group looked at the ground and commented "These cobblestones are probably older that our country." And she was probably right. It wasn't until just then that I realized that London is so packed with history that I was literally walking on it.

What's that? Oh yeah, it's Big Ben.

Hey look! Spacemen!

On our walk we encountered some people (we later discovered they were attractive men, though they weren't allowed to have their visors up) dressed as astronauts walking around London. We first saw them outside the National Gallery. They were waving to people as they walked in front of the Gallery, so I felt it was safe to approach them. Well, the first astronaut was so please with this that he embraced me in a big bear hug and lifted me into the air. When he set me down I was quickly surrounded by more astronauts wanting high fives and hugs. And one even grabbed me and danced me around. A very official photographer who had been following them took a few pictures of our dance. Soon though, our group had to move along on our walk, so we left them as they started to line up and make different posses.

Astronaut hug!

But! We saw them again in front of the Millennium Bridge. At first, I didn't think they recognized us, but then one pointed at me and made a dancing motion. Yes, they remembered us. But we couldn't stay long. And unfortunately, it wasn't till we were too far away that I thought that I should have given the photographer my email and asked him to send me that picture of me dancing with a spaceman. Oh well, I'll probably just end up in a magazine somewhere and never even know it.

Today we went to Kensington Palace. It was amazing. It's funny to think that it was once a home to royalty. Like, they really lived right there. Incredible. And Queen Victoria was SO tiny. Like, smaller than me! Hard to believe. But the Palace and gardens were absolutely beautiful.

Kensington Palace Gardens

The LDS ward that me and three other girls were assigned to attend is a little more than an hour away and meets at 10 am. Upon our arrival at the tram station, a kind woman of the ward correctly guessed that we were the new BYU students and helped us find the chapel. Thank heavens or we never would have found it.

The ward consists mostly of Africans, with a few white families. During the first hour, we discovered that the building is going to be partially demolished and rebuilt, and that in two weeks the ward was moving to a new location and the services wouldn't start until 2 pm. That means we would be missing our dinner. Uh oh. After sacrament meeting (the first hour service), the bishop of the ward welcomed us and informed us we would be serving in the Primary with the children ages 18 months to 11 years old. They are an energetic group. I was put in charge of the 18 months to 5 year olds. So sweet and so cute.

The woman in charge of the Primary has only been in the position a few weeks and had not yet been assigned helpers because they were expecting us. She told us the children have been so excited to meet us and we were never without at least one on our laps when were were sitting down. The little girls plaited (braided) our hair until it was so snarly they couldn't divide it into sections to be plaited.

When the Primary President learned I can play piano she eagerly asked me to please play for the children and help them learn songs because they've never been able to use the small electric piano due to the lack of a proficient piano player. Then she discovered I could play the organ, and told me their organ hadn't been played during church services in years and was almost pleading with me to play for the ward in Sacrament meeting because their pianist knew only a few hymns and only on the piano. I was more than happy to agree.

She asked what would happen when they moved locations and I told her that we would go with the ward. It wasn't  until we arrived back at the London Center, and told our program leaders about the location and time change of the ward that I found out that wouldn't be the case. We will have to attend a ward that is earlier in the day. I can't help but think how much we could do for that ward. And soon we will have to leave. How will I tell this dear sweet  woman that I can't be there any more to teach the children songs. Maybe there's a way I could stay. We'll see.