Kate in the UK!: Fancy that of London

Yesterday was SWEET!

We took a nice little day trip again to really BRIGHTON up our day. Yep that's right, we went to Brighton! Brighton is in southern England and is a cute little beach town! When we first got there we went to the Royal Pavillion. This is a crazy unique palace that King George IV built! When his dad, George III was king, he didn't get along with him at all, so he ran away to Brighton and built this pavilion! It turned out to be kind of the "Hang out" place where the king's and queen's went. This is no ordinary palace. For some crazy reason George IV decorated it all oriental-ish! I wished we could have taken pictures inside because there was this MASSIVE chandelier that was being held by an enormous dragon. It is 30 feet long and weighs 1 whole ton! It was totally awesome. Also in this pavilion we got to learn about Charlotte the forgotten princess. If you don't know about her, i strongly suggest learning her story!

Soo after seeing the fantastic pavilion, we got to go to the Brighton Pier and beach! It was so fun! It's too bad it was so dang freezing outside. Some man on the street told us that it was colder that day than on Christmas! Whoa baby. I want to go back there on a warmer day! It was still very fun though. We walked along the pier had some food and stuck our feet in the freezing cold water. There is just something about the ocean that just makes me absolutely giddy. It's the best!

So after Brighton we headed back on our Coach and went to Canterbury. So we're just walking around this cute little village, and then we walked through this little passage way, and WABOOM! Pops out THE biggest most massive cathedral you could ever think of. Canterbury Cathedral was breath taking. I couldn't believe how BIG it was. It was unbelievable! We got to take an audio of the cathedral which was sweet. We also got to attend evensong! It was a very interesting and new experience that i quite enjoyed. The boys choir was fantastic! This cathedral is the Mother Church of the Anglican communion here in England. God has been worshiped in this Cathedral for over 1400 years! Holy! haha get it? Holy? hahaaaaaaaaa. (that one's for you Jimbo.)

So today was my first Sunday in my ward here! Wow, it is crazy how different the church is over here. I mean it's the same everywhere which is also neat, but it's just a different experience here. First of all, my ward was tiny. I thought my ward at home was small, but it seems big compared to here! Second of all, there are hardly any true British people in the ward. I'd say about 80% of the ward is African. Third of all, close to 100% of the ward are converts or have parents that were converts. But last of all and best of all, is how incredibly strong these people are! I loved the feeling there, it was impossible to not feel the spirit. I have a lot to learn from these people. And good news! I got my wish and will be serving in the primary starting next Sunday! So. Stoked.

Want to here two random fun facts about England? Okay.

1. Instead of having "exit" signs, they have signs that say "way out." Weird huh?

2. I bought some gummy worms here the other day. But guess what? Here, they are called "Jelly squirms!"

And they are positively delicious.

More of these to come!