Across the Pond: Crumpets, miracles and double decker buses

Hello everyone, so guess what. I made it to London!! (: It's crazy to think that on Tuesday I was at the still in Provo and now, almost a week later I'm here in England. On Tuesday morning my companion and I rolled out of bed at 3 am to pack and quickly clean our room before hopping on a bus and catching the tracks to the airport. We then got on an airplane and headed to Detroit- our connecting flight. The next flight was 7 hours long... and it seemed even longer because I couldn't sleep at all. :( Blame it one nerves, the crying baby behind us? I'm not sure, but I think I got a solid 30 minutes of sleep on that flight.. It was all worth it though, because in the morning we got to see the England country side from the plane window and it was beautiful! When we landed we had a bit of trouble getting though customs... (imagine 2 very American, very tired, and very missionary like girls trying to find proof of residence that you didn't know yet at 6 am in the morning), but thankfully we finally convinced him he weren't going to be bums on the street and he let us through. We were then picked up and taken to the Hyde Park Chapel Visitors Center which also doubles as the mission office. The rest of the day went by in a blur of meetings, and papers. By the end of Wednesday, I did the calculations on what brain power I still did have and learned that I had been awake for a total of 35 hours! Jet lag is a Killer!

Two exciting things that did happen however were 1st: we were thrown on the streets on Exhibition Road (the busiest road in London), given a book of mormon and told not to come back with it. Yep, it was a bit terrifying, but after a few rejections we actually found someone who was interested and gave him the book and our number. (: 2nd: I got a new companion!! Sister Hug (pronounced Hoog) is my trainer for the next 6 weeks. She's from Switzerland and speaks German, French, and English! Her name also fits her quite well, because she is a very "huggy" person. (: She's a great missionary, and I've already learned a ton from her!

Although getting to London was a bit of a crazy, hectic experience the last few days here have been really great! Hard yes, but also really incredible. (: It is so beautiful here, and such an adventure everyday! We travel everywhere on either the tube (underground subway station that goes everywhere) or by double decker buses. Also, the food is actually really good here as well. I had my first crumpet today and surprisingly it wasn't that bad, good actually! I haven't had fish and chips yet... but I have had lots and lots of curry. (:

On the more "spiritual" side of things, although everything we do essentially relates to missionary work in some way or another... Elder Holland came to the Visitors Center on Friday! We had a zone conference of sorts with not only our mission, but also the entire London England south mission as well. There were a total of over 500 missionaries, and Elder Holland insisted on shaking each and every one of our hands. My favorite things he said to us was "You are God's investigator" and that we need to constantly be progressing and becoming better. The visitor center sisters (10 of us in total), also got to sing for everyone! This mission call really was inspired because... I get to sing all the time for various events. God must know that I like to sing, and that I would have missed it to much going somewhere else. (:

Teaching wise we are teaching M.- an older Finnish guy, who actually has a baptism date coming up next week. We are trying to help him quit drinking wine and teaching him about the word of wisdom and the blessings that come with it, but it's been really hard for him. We are also teaching E.- a cute little lady from the Philippines. I taught her for the first time on Thursday. She has a very strong Catholic background, but feels as if something is missing. As we were teaching her about the Restoration of this gospel I just had this feeling that I needed to ask her to be baptized... but I was fighting it because I was very new and hardly even knew her. At the end of the lesson Sister Hug started to go in the direction of baptism, and finally I piped up and asked. To my surprise she replied that following the example of Christ and being baptized was exactly what she wanted to do! (: Miracles do happen when you follow the spirit, I'm telling ya. I've also been spending half of everyday in the visitors center giving tours, and teaching lessons to random people who walk in off the street. It's really different teaching someone you hardly know... but I've had some pretty incredible experiences already.

Well, I'm sorry that this email is ridiculously long... a bunch has happened this week. I hope that everyone is doing great back home! I love and miss you all.

Love, Sister Croft