Temple Trip

Last Saturday (July 14th) was a wonderful day!

The day started pretty early with me going over to the library. I returned some books and decided to check out Great Expectations. After checking emails, reading a bit of my newly borrowed book, and humming along with the kids singing their songs I decided to head out.

 I got to Victoria station about 30 minutes earlier then the meeting time (I was meeting with some members from the Britannia ward) so I decided to grab a brunch. I found this little cafe just down the street and got a hot chocolate with a bacon and egg sandwich. I went back to the station to eat my meal and to look out for anyone else who came early. When I finished the first half of my sandwich, a beggar women came up to me asking if I had any spare change for food. I told her I had no spare change, but I had half a sandwich if she didn't mind. She looked so surprised and said that was plenty good. She couldn't stop saying thank you and God bless you dear one. It warmed my heart to see how sincerely thankful she was to receive such a simple meal.

When it was 1pm (the intended meeting time), I went inside the station to the ticket counter where we were suppose to meet. I waited about 15 minutes in the Victoria tube station. Since no one was showing up, I went across the street to the Victoria train station and found the group. I was introduced to Wendy, Tom, Bishop Gill, Simon (in the bishopric), Edward, and the Bishop's niece Bethany and her friend Hannah. We all got out tickets and boarded the train.

Turns out the temple was much further than I had thought. After the hour long train ride, we had to take a cab over to the temple. I chatted with the cab driver about the Salt Lake temple, the wet England weather compared to Utah's sunny weather, roundabouts, and whatever else randomly came up.

When we pulled onto the temple grounds, almost instantly I was filled with wonderful warmth. The temple grounds looked like a cute little village. Wendy and I both started singing "Belle" as we walked over the the temple.

As we waited for other members of our group to show up, I realized that I actually recognized a lot of people and shockingly more people recognized me. I got to chat with lots of people, the temple workers shared their words of wisdom and some people shared their thoughts on temple work. The warm feelings just kept on growing :)

When we went back to the train station, my group was SO close to catching the :44 train. Our ride had pulled up when the train was still there. Tom, Bethany, and I were booking it to make it to the train while the rest of us were trying to catch up. But the train started leaving when we passed the gate. Oh well, we made a good effort.

While we waited for the next train, I spent most of the time talking with Natasha and we were just being silly. She was complaining about the new shoes she was wearing so we switched one of our shoes so I could feel how painful they were. Well, I tried them on but I thought they were the most comfortable shoes besides fuzzy slippers. And Natasha thought the same about my shoe so we stayed like that for awhile. Both of us wearing one of each pair of shoes :P

Eventually our entire group was reunited and we boarded the train. Natasha and I played thumb war, rock paper scissors (apparently in Singapore they call rock "stone" instead), and eventually switched our shoes back before we forgot. Natasha got off early so I was left to listen to Simon and another guy (never found out his name) about investing in stocks. Though I was a bit confused, I did occasionally find it to be interesting.

When we got back to Victoria, I talked with Amanda as we made our way over to the tube station. I told her about my earlier experience with the beggar women and also mentioned, "To be honest, I was still hungry but I wanted to help her in some way" and Amanda replied "That's very good, Reminds me of a quote that goes something like, 'You know you've given enough when it hurts a little.'" I believe she said the quote was by C. S. Lewis.

As we waited for the tube train to arrive, Amanda, Charlotte, and I were teasing Richard who was waiting on the platform across the tracks from us. We were trying to convince the other to come over to our platform and overall just being silly :)

A very fun and spiritual kind of day.