Preston: Saints, Sites, and So much fun

Saturday we left Edinburgh and drove to Preston. The drive was so beautiful! I loved the rolling green hills, the cute little lambs, the stone fences, and the quaint cottages. It was so fun to get to the Preston temple grounds though. We are staying in the temple patron housing, so we are literally living on the temple grounds. The MTC is right across from us and the stake center and temple are just up the hill. The grounds are absolutely incredible! It is so green and I was in awe walking around.

Our first adventure here was to do baptisms at the Preston Temple. The temple is absolutely beautiful – inside and out. It was such a humbling experience as I sat there and thought about how many people sacrificed so much to bring the gospel to the United Kingdom, how many people sacrificed all that they had to follow the prophet and move to America, and how many people continue to sacrifice today for the gospel. How grateful I am for their example of faith and courage.

After the temple we had some free time, so we took a frisbee down to the MTC field and played a game of ultimate frisbee. It was so fun! So many hilarious things happened and it was definitely a good bonding experience.

Later that evening I was fortunate enough to get to see President and Sister Bullock. They are currently serving as mission presidents in the England Manchester Mission and I am really good friends with their children. They were so sweet to make the drive to visit me! I was so happy meeting up with them worked out and it was wonderful to finally meet President Bullock in person. What wonderful people! Their missionaries are so lucky to have two such wonderful leaders and it is easy to see why their children are so great.

The night ended with a rousing few games of mafia. Once again, some great bonding time. I honestly feel like we are already becoming the best of friends and this was only day three of our five weeks. It can only get better from here.

Today we attended the Corley 2^nd ward and had a great experience. The members were so welcoming! I loved talking with them. In fact, the best idea I had all day was to separate from the big groups of students and mingle with the ward. I wanted to get a better feel for what the saints in England are like. I can easily say that I was highly impressed.

A few of the ward members were so wonderful that they spent their entire day showing us around to the church history sites. Some of the sites we saw were market square (where some of the first preaching happened), Wilford street lodging (where the famous incident of the evil spirits with Heber C. Kimball happened), President Hinckley’s flat (where he received the letter of “forget yourself and go to work”), the River Ribble (where the first saints in England were baptized), Pendle Hill (where it is believed that the ancient prophets dedicated the land), and the cities Chatburn and Downham (where many of the early saints were baptized). It was so wonderful. The spirit was so strong as we visited these places. I especially loved the view of Pendle Hill from the city of Downham. The experiences today were priceless and the tender feelings of the Spirit are unforgettable. I feel so blessed to be here.

Off to Birmingham and London tomorrow!

A Walk to Remember: Edinburgh Royal Mile

I’m in Europe and it seems so surreal! I’ll let you know when it finally sets in. I keep saying it out loud, hoping that it will finally seem real, but it hasn’t quite yet.

Everything went well with my flights. We had about a 45 minute delay in Salt Lake on our stifling hot plane because something was wrong with our engine valve. After they got it fixed we made it safely to Minneapolis and quickly hurried to our next flight. Instead of a couple of hours for a layover, we had minutes, but it was alright and we were on our way to Amsterdam.

I was afraid this flight to Amsterdam would be terrible because it was so long (And I know a lot of you are thinking it’s not a long flight because you’ve been on 14 hour flights, but when the longest flight I’ve only ever flown was 5 hours, 8 and a half seems like an eternity). It ended up being just fine though. The group I flew with was lots of fun! I watched 2 movies, ate my dinner, and tried to get some sleep. My plane food was actually pretty good. My hunger may have contributed, but I was pleasantly surprised about the food after hearing bad reviews from others about “nasty airplane food.” It was also nice because unlike some of my group members, I went straight to sleep and slept comfortably until the pilot announced on the intercom that we were approaching Amsterdam. This was definitely helpful in adjusting to the time change.

Our final flight was from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. I was so happy to finally get here! Edinburgh is beautiful! Windy, but beautiful. Professor Kimball had planned a tour for us on the Royal Yacht Britannia to keep us awake. That was really fun and thoroughly impressive. I especially loved the formal dining hall where the Queen hosted many foreign dignitaries.

At that point we were all pretty exhausted, so we ate dinner at a pub near our hotel, walked out to the lighthouse right behind our hotel, and headed to bed. I slept wonderfully and only woke up once in the night. Unlike some of the others in my group, I made myself go back to sleep. It has helped a lot today because I’m almost adjusted to the time change.

Our second day in Edinburgh began with a tour of Scottish Microelectronics. It was really cool to see their clean rooms and hear about how they filter the rooms to allow the microchips to be developed in a completely sterile environment. Between this business visit and our next we had a few hours on the Royal Mile. We walked down to the Elephant House, which is best known as “The Birthplace of Harry Potter.” It is here where J.K. Rowling began to write the Harry Potter books. Really cool! We walked through a beautiful cathedral on the royal mile and then down to the Palace of Holyroodhouse (where the Queen stays for part of her summer). Our second business visit was through the Scottish Parliament. It is a very modern, unique building with very special architectural features. It was interesting to learn about how the Scottish government works and the symbolism behind the architecture. My favorite part of this visit was seeing how open the Scottish government is to the public. The public is welcome to any meeting of their congress and all of the meetings are filmed and posted online for later viewing. Very cool!

After the Scottish Parliament we walked up the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. My first castle! It was so cool! I loved the history of the castle that the tour guide told us about. It was interesting to learn about the dynamics between Scotland and England over the centuries. That would definitely be an interesting history to study more fully. I loved walking around and seeing all of the levels. The crown jewels of Scotland were in one of the museums in the castle and that was really cool to see. We also saw where American prisoners of war were kept during the “American War of Independence” (aka. The Revolutionary War). I loved seeing how the war is viewed from the British perspective. I loved the castle so much and it gave us incredible views of Edinburgh.

We walked around the city a little more and ate at a really incredible Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant before catching a bus back to our hotel. To finish off the night we walked along the shore of the Firth of Forth. I touched the North Sea! Anyway, Edinburgh has been great! Unfortunately I only heard bagpipes once, but the city was beautiful enough to make up for it.

We head to Preston tomorrow and I can’t wait! Hopefully I can find better internet there and I'll upload some pictures.

Crossing the Pond

Tomorrow begins what quite possibly will be the craziest summer of my life. I'm so excited though! It was surprisingly hard to leave work today and to hug my family for the last time for 5 weeks. It goes to show how blessed I am to have so many incredible people in my life. I love them all so much!

So, we board our plane tomorrow in Salt Lake City, layover in Minneapolis, layover in Amsterdam, and then arrive in Edinburgh at 12:50pm local time (5:50am MST). Let's all start praying now that I can sleep on the airplane and that my body will adjust quickly to the time change; otherwise, Thursday, 12 May 2011 will go down as the longest day of my life.

I'm am ecstatic about the bagpipes though! Scotland, here I come!

It's Official!

I'm really going to Europe! My flights are booked and I'm holding the ticket in my hand. Crazy! Getting to this place was a long hard process and I'm so grateful for Nancy Bean, the BYU international travel specialist, for her patience and dedication throughout this process. To give you an idea, our group was titled the "forever group" because Nancy and I have been working on the flights since February 3rd. We would be ready to book the flights and then something would always come up that prevented us from doing it. You name something that could have gone wrong, and it happened.

Needless to say, it's been a "forever" process, but I feel like I've made some really great friends out of it. I'm sure I'll have to drop by Nancy's office occasionally just to check in!

And now, I feel like everything is going to come so much quicker. Winter semester is coming to an end, then it will be a quick two weeks of classes before I'm off! 30 days!

48 Days!

The countdown has begun! 48 days until I leave for Europe! I can't even believe it. It still seems so surreal. The thing I'm worried about most now is how I'm going to survive without talking to my mom every day! I wish my family was coming with me. That would be ideal. It will be a good growing experience for me though and I'm sure I'll survive (Although, I promise I'll email and skype every chance I get, Mom).

The study abroad prep class has been going well and I'm even more excited now that I know a little more about the places we are going. I have an amazing group of people I am going with and I can't wait to get to know them better!

Meeting the Group

On Thursday we had our first meeting as a group. It was fun to meet everyone that is going with me! I'm sure we are going to have so much fun! We got to talk about our travel plans and I'm happy to report that I will not be flying alone (My mom was extremely happy about that news). I have a long list of people that will be flying out of Salt Lake City with me on May 11th. Ahhh! That seems so soon! I keep seeing pictures of places I will visit and can't even believe it. I will be THERE in only a few months! I am so lucky!

EUROPE

The fact that I'm actually going to Europe this Spring is completely surreal! I've never been outside of the United States (unless of course you count Niagara Falls) and the thought of traveling internationally scares and excites me. This week has made it seem a little more real though.

On Monday I went to the Post Office and submitted all of my passport information and documents. In the next few weeks I will have my very own passport! Crazy! Now, if only I could get my hands on a few more from other countries, I could become Mrs. Jason Bourne :)

And, today I turned in the paperwork to be the student facilitator for the study abroad. The professors leading the study abroad asked me to help with the travel arrangements and a few other things. Wish me luck!

Despite all of this, and paying my first deposit a few weeks ago, it still seems extremely surreal. Maybe when I get there it will finally hit me. Maybe.