We went to church, which was a feat in and of itself. Two tube lines were down for construction, and some poor person had jumped in front of a third line earlier that morning, so there were partial closures and severe delays. I was so grateful for the transportation app on my phone. Using it and a map together, Miriam and I were able to figure out the quickest, most convenient way to get to church.
Here's the Lower Clapham church building, on Nightingale Lane. Those stubby-looking trees are plane trees - a relative to our American sycamore. I think they trim them like this so when the leaves come out you get a less dense shade.
We missed our connecting bus and had to walk twenty minutes from the station, but we got to church at last. My ward was actually combined for a special meeting with Miriam's ward, so we got to go together. Oh, and guess who the special speaker was?
Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!
The room was packed, clear to the back. Miriam found a seat, and I hunkered down at the back wall as best as I could with my boot, and tried to figure out where to squeeze in. Fortunately, one of the girls from our group saw me. She got up, marched over, grabbed my hand without a word, marched me back, and somehow wadded me in next to her. She's one of those marvelous people who manages to do anything they set their minds to.
The meeting was absolutely fantastic. Elder Holland is in this area for only a short time. Last week he spoke in the Stake Conference which was broadcast from Edinburgh, and then during the week he addressed the House of Lords. Today he had a few minutes to speak to us, and then had to dash straight off to catch his plane.
Elder Holland was very funny and friendly - more so than at General Conference. He joked about being older than the dirt and the mountains and the ocean, and how he and Wilfred Woodruff were missionary companions!
Then he became more sober, and testified about the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through everything that lies ahead, he told us, the church will be a cause of brightness.
He told the story of Peter and John who met a man crippled from birth, and healed him in the name of the Lord, so that he could leap and bound, and follow them to partake of the blessings of the temple. "I hope he had a recommend," Elder Holland told us, half-jokingly, "I doubt he got up that morning thinking he'd go in."
He went on to tell how the Pharisees, reluctant to admit the reality of the power of healing, tried to deny that it ever happened. You can argue all you like, "but the guy's still jumping." There's no way to deny what is an absolute and incontrovertible fact.
The Book of Mormon is like that man jumping in the crowd. It is God's witness to the reality of His work upon the earth. It can and does stand against every argument directed against it.
At the end, Elder Holland bore his powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church, and gave us a blessing that the problems we came with would be resolved. I hope that includes my broken foot.
Needless to say, it was a wonderful meeting.
Afterwards he had to leave to catch his plane, so he waved goodbye, and the rest of us gathered in the back for a potluck. The BYU girls (us) had been asked to bring something, but since we didn't have a kitchen we could use, we all pitched in for a box of cookies, so that was our contribution.
It was fun to see everybody one last time and say goodbye. I didn't know most of them, but I had made a few friends. The Primary President added me as her friend on Facebook. "I like to watch all my BYU girls," she told me. "One of them just got married last week. I like to find out what happens to all of you."
Oh, the lemonade was so different! It tasted like lemonade, but it didn't look like it at all - it was perfectly clear, just like water or 7UP. I had to take a picture. It was very good - I liked it a lot. And of course, I had to trick Miriam into tasting some without telling her what it was.
Finally we headed home. This is the stop we use to get to church. Those are stairs going up the middle, with escalators on the right and left. The pictures are advertisements. At some tube stops, they're electronic, but most of them are just pictures and posters, like this one. The place was pretty empty, because it was a Sunday and practically at the end of the line.
Back at the center, we started the job we'd all been dreading - packing. How to fit everything we brought plus everything we bought back into our suitcases? Some of the girls have been packing for days beforehand. On every stair landing, there are donation bins that will be given to charity. People who brought too much stuff, or wore things out, or bought things that they don't want to take home can put them in the bins.
It's actually kind of fun - everyone in here keeps digging things out. "Anyone want this shirt? How about this dress?" If I wasn't so worried about my own things, I could collect quite the wardrobe. But I brought all my best clothes with me, and I didn't buy any really huge souvenirs. The biggest one is the blanket I got from Scotland, but it folds nice and flat.
No, this is not all of my stuff. When I took this picture, I still had a bunch of things on my bed and in my closet. The girl on the bunk below mine left yesterday, so I appropriated her bed as a workspace, which you can see here.
Some of the girls had easily twice or three times what I brought. As Miriam and I came in, we passed several girls who were hauling suitcases out to a waiting car. They were shipping their extra luggage home, so they wouldn't have to take it on the plane.
There was one bathroom scale in the building, so everybody kept running up and down the stairs to borrow it. To avoid a fine, suitcases have to be less than 40 pounds. I'll never forget the shock on one girl's face when she put her suitcase on the scale to weigh it.
"What on earth is a stone?"
A stone is a unit of measurement for weight in England, and the scale only had stones and kilograms. We figured that 40 pounds equaled around 25 kilograms, and did our best.
Some of the girls had suitcases that were too big to fit on the scale, so they would weigh themselves first, then pick up their suitcase and stand on the scale while holding it. Somebody else would tell them what the scale said, and then they'd have to subtract their own weight to figure out how much their suitcase was.
I'm so glad I brought a smallish suitcase!
Oh, this is the whiteboard in the servery. Originally to let people know the color coded garbage can system, it eventually turned into a free-for-all space.
Anyway, halfway through packing we all took a break and ran downstairs for a special surprise party. Dr. Durham is retiring after this - we are his last study abroad group and his last class. So it seemed only fitting that we had a party for him.
Of course he knew about it. It's very hard to unobtrusively detain Dr. Durham while forty-one girls clatter down the stairs to get in the large classroom. Also, Dr. Talbot has very little guile, and he was the detainer.
This is Dr. Durham, squirming uncomfortably while his wife Becky leads us in singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," which is apparently a very British thing to do.
As his part of contributing to the festivities, Dr. Durham then proceeded to turn a somersault, which is apparently a rare and famed occurrence in the world of music on BYU Campus. We all felt very privileged.
Sister Talbot had made a cake, but we couldn't eat it in the classroom, so we all trekked down to the dining room.
Since it was Dr. Durham's cake, he had the honor of serving it, and we had the honor of eating it. Yes, that's completely fair. On the stairs you can see Dr. Talbot. His son is just below him, wearing the black sweatshirt with red writing on it. The other two people on the stairs (wearing white shirts) are resident faculty, doing research. They've interacted some with us, but they're not our teachers.
The party was fun, although a little wistful, because we knew that most of the girls there, we probably would never see again - certainly not with such camaraderie.
The six of us who were going to France then went up to room 5. Why room 5 was chosen, I'll never know. It's at the top of five flights of stairs. You think you've made it, you open their door, and then there's another flight. By the time you get there, you're practically light-headed with the altitude, not to mention the effort of climbing all those stairs.
We planned out a rough draft of what we wanted to see, the places we wanted to go, and the things we wanted to see. All of us are taking the same train out of London tomorrow, with the exception of Christine, who got her tickets too late, and is going on one train earlier.
Our train leaves at 7:05 AM.
Which means we'll have to get there earlier than that.
So we'll have to get up even earlier than that.
With this cheerful thought in mind, we went back to packing. Please take a moment to admire how organized we all are. I know, it's pretty chaotic.
I got all my stuff in two bags. Don't let the tidy appearance deceive you - they're both as heavy as lead, and stuffed within an inch of their lives. Still, I'm trying to avoid pickpockets, and two bags will be easier to watch than three or four, which some people have.
And ... that's about it for tonight. My last night in London is coming to a close. Tomorrow - another day, another adventure, another country! Wish me luck!
Elder Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!
The room was packed, clear to the back. Miriam found a seat, and I hunkered down at the back wall as best as I could with my boot, and tried to figure out where to squeeze in. Fortunately, one of the girls from our group saw me. She got up, marched over, grabbed my hand without a word, marched me back, and somehow wadded me in next to her. She's one of those marvelous people who manages to do anything they set their minds to.
The meeting was absolutely fantastic. Elder Holland is in this area for only a short time. Last week he spoke in the Stake Conference which was broadcast from Edinburgh, and then during the week he addressed the House of Lords. Today he had a few minutes to speak to us, and then had to dash straight off to catch his plane.
Elder Holland was very funny and friendly - more so than at General Conference. He joked about being older than the dirt and the mountains and the ocean, and how he and Wilfred Woodruff were missionary companions!
He told the story of Peter and John who met a man crippled from birth, and healed him in the name of the Lord, so that he could leap and bound, and follow them to partake of the blessings of the temple. "I hope he had a recommend," Elder Holland told us, half-jokingly, "I doubt he got up that morning thinking he'd go in."
He went on to tell how the Pharisees, reluctant to admit the reality of the power of healing, tried to deny that it ever happened. You can argue all you like, "but the guy's still jumping." There's no way to deny what is an absolute and incontrovertible fact.
The Book of Mormon is like that man jumping in the crowd. It is God's witness to the reality of His work upon the earth. It can and does stand against every argument directed against it.
At the end, Elder Holland bore his powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church, and gave us a blessing that the problems we came with would be resolved. I hope that includes my broken foot.
Needless to say, it was a wonderful meeting.
Afterwards he had to leave to catch his plane, so he waved goodbye, and the rest of us gathered in the back for a potluck. The BYU girls (us) had been asked to bring something, but since we didn't have a kitchen we could use, we all pitched in for a box of cookies, so that was our contribution.
It was fun to see everybody one last time and say goodbye. I didn't know most of them, but I had made a few friends. The Primary President added me as her friend on Facebook. "I like to watch all my BYU girls," she told me. "One of them just got married last week. I like to find out what happens to all of you."
Oh, the lemonade was so different! It tasted like lemonade, but it didn't look like it at all - it was perfectly clear, just like water or 7UP. I had to take a picture. It was very good - I liked it a lot. And of course, I had to trick Miriam into tasting some without telling her what it was.
Finally we headed home. This is the stop we use to get to church. Those are stairs going up the middle, with escalators on the right and left. The pictures are advertisements. At some tube stops, they're electronic, but most of them are just pictures and posters, like this one. The place was pretty empty, because it was a Sunday and practically at the end of the line.
Back at the center, we started the job we'd all been dreading - packing. How to fit everything we brought plus everything we bought back into our suitcases? Some of the girls have been packing for days beforehand. On every stair landing, there are donation bins that will be given to charity. People who brought too much stuff, or wore things out, or bought things that they don't want to take home can put them in the bins.
It's actually kind of fun - everyone in here keeps digging things out. "Anyone want this shirt? How about this dress?" If I wasn't so worried about my own things, I could collect quite the wardrobe. But I brought all my best clothes with me, and I didn't buy any really huge souvenirs. The biggest one is the blanket I got from Scotland, but it folds nice and flat.
No, this is not all of my stuff. When I took this picture, I still had a bunch of things on my bed and in my closet. The girl on the bunk below mine left yesterday, so I appropriated her bed as a workspace, which you can see here.
Some of the girls had easily twice or three times what I brought. As Miriam and I came in, we passed several girls who were hauling suitcases out to a waiting car. They were shipping their extra luggage home, so they wouldn't have to take it on the plane.
There was one bathroom scale in the building, so everybody kept running up and down the stairs to borrow it. To avoid a fine, suitcases have to be less than 40 pounds. I'll never forget the shock on one girl's face when she put her suitcase on the scale to weigh it.
"What on earth is a stone?"
A stone is a unit of measurement for weight in England, and the scale only had stones and kilograms. We figured that 40 pounds equaled around 25 kilograms, and did our best.
Some of the girls had suitcases that were too big to fit on the scale, so they would weigh themselves first, then pick up their suitcase and stand on the scale while holding it. Somebody else would tell them what the scale said, and then they'd have to subtract their own weight to figure out how much their suitcase was.
I'm so glad I brought a smallish suitcase!
Oh, this is the whiteboard in the servery. Originally to let people know the color coded garbage can system, it eventually turned into a free-for-all space.
Anyway, halfway through packing we all took a break and ran downstairs for a special surprise party. Dr. Durham is retiring after this - we are his last study abroad group and his last class. So it seemed only fitting that we had a party for him.
Of course he knew about it. It's very hard to unobtrusively detain Dr. Durham while forty-one girls clatter down the stairs to get in the large classroom. Also, Dr. Talbot has very little guile, and he was the detainer.
This is Dr. Durham, squirming uncomfortably while his wife Becky leads us in singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," which is apparently a very British thing to do.
As his part of contributing to the festivities, Dr. Durham then proceeded to turn a somersault, which is apparently a rare and famed occurrence in the world of music on BYU Campus. We all felt very privileged.
Sister Talbot had made a cake, but we couldn't eat it in the classroom, so we all trekked down to the dining room.
Since it was Dr. Durham's cake, he had the honor of serving it, and we had the honor of eating it. Yes, that's completely fair. On the stairs you can see Dr. Talbot. His son is just below him, wearing the black sweatshirt with red writing on it. The other two people on the stairs (wearing white shirts) are resident faculty, doing research. They've interacted some with us, but they're not our teachers.
The party was fun, although a little wistful, because we knew that most of the girls there, we probably would never see again - certainly not with such camaraderie.
The six of us who were going to France then went up to room 5. Why room 5 was chosen, I'll never know. It's at the top of five flights of stairs. You think you've made it, you open their door, and then there's another flight. By the time you get there, you're practically light-headed with the altitude, not to mention the effort of climbing all those stairs.
We planned out a rough draft of what we wanted to see, the places we wanted to go, and the things we wanted to see. All of us are taking the same train out of London tomorrow, with the exception of Christine, who got her tickets too late, and is going on one train earlier.
Our train leaves at 7:05 AM.
Which means we'll have to get there earlier than that.
So we'll have to get up even earlier than that.
With this cheerful thought in mind, we went back to packing. Please take a moment to admire how organized we all are. I know, it's pretty chaotic.
I got all my stuff in two bags. Don't let the tidy appearance deceive you - they're both as heavy as lead, and stuffed within an inch of their lives. Still, I'm trying to avoid pickpockets, and two bags will be easier to watch than three or four, which some people have.
And ... that's about it for tonight. My last night in London is coming to a close. Tomorrow - another day, another adventure, another country! Wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment