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So here a few highlights of the past couple days:

I've been attending a small church ward that is about a 45 minute trip via walking, tube and train from where I live in Kensington. It's called the Crystal Palace Ward, and I help out a little bit in the primary. This past Sunday was our last day going there. While I will certainly not claim that this was a life changing experience of anything, it was very interesting to see how the LDS church works in an area with so few members. I grew up in the Maryville Ward in Tennessee where one ward covers a city about the same size as Provo so I'm used to being in the minority, but this place was very different. While my home ward numbered in the hundreds this one was probably lucky to have 40 or so attendees. In addition to that, most of them seemed to be converts. I can only imagine how hard it must be to try and live as a good member of our Church when there are so many things fighting against you. I truly admire these people and their amazing strength. Like I said I teach the primary which is so small that the number of adults pretty much equals the number of kids in the program. Lauren, another girl from the program, and I worked together to teach the junior primary Sunday school class. The kids were very sweet, and I had a lot of fun. In the front row (from left to right) are Thomas, Rachel, Harrison and Bradley.

Bradley was the oldest, and I am so grateful he

was in the class. He was very talkative and always willing to participate, sometimes saying the opening and the closing prayers. I honestly think teaching would have been much more difficult without his input during the lessons Lauren and I taught.

Another thing I realized while working with the kids is how much I miss my job at the elementary school. Spending time teaching Thomas, Rachel, Harrison and Bradley made me remember how much I LOVE working with these kids:

Even though I'm a little sad I won't be going to the Crystal Palace, the next two Sundays are going to be amazing. This coming Sunday President Uchtdorf is coming to speak at Stake Conference. I'm only going to be able to watch this on broadcast, but he is also speaking at a YSA fireside that evening that I can go to. Then the Sunday after that our group is going to attending eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral. I think that experience is almost necessary while I'm here in London, so I'm definitely looking forward to it.

We went to a ballet at the Royal Opera House on Monday. This was my first full length ballet. It was called Ondine, and it was similar to the Hans Christian Anderson version of The Little Mermaid. However, I like this adaptation better simply because the unfaithful man dies in the end rather than the sea nymph stabbing herself in the heart due to grief. The costumes were beautiful, but the music was a little strange. I felt very cultured. I got all gussied up in an awesome new purple dress I had purchased from Primark for 13 pounds earlier that day.

Tonight I went to see Les Miserables for the second time. Believe it or not the cheapest tickets in the theater are either the very back or the very front so Brittany, Alexa and I decided to go with the 20 pound front row tickets. I have to say that I basically love this show. The music is beautiful, and the Jean Valjean in the current London production is perfect. If you have never been in the front row of a show you should try it out sometime. I have a little bit of a crick in my neck, but it was very interesting to sit so close. You could see every performer perfectly. I could actually see tears running down Fantine's face when she sang I Dreamed a Dream. Of course sitting so close has a little bit of a draw back. Performing in a musical that is all singing takes a lot of effort, and singing with clear diction--I noticed--requires a lot of spitting. They should warn you that the front row is the splash zone and possibly provide you with a poncho like at The Blue Man Group, and if you know anything about the cast of Les Miserables the last person you could want to spit on you is M. Thenardier. Unfortunately, that is just the person who showered both Brittany and me with spit during one of his particularly rousing songs.

It is strictly forbidden to take pictures inside the theater, and if you even try you get called down by the ushers almost immediately. Therefore, pictures outside the theater will have to suffice. If you are really interested I suggest a google image or Youtube search.

And tomorrow it's off to Canterbury:

Of England they to Canterbury went, The holy blessed martyr there to seek who helped them when they lay so ill and weak.