sunday number one

day two is nearly in the books! we just had our fireside with our houseguest Tim Slover, who is with us for a week from the U of U. he is teaching a little mini crash course on theatre to us after directing his own study abroad with Utah on film here in London! he is currently working on a screen play based on the friendship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, it sounds really freaking cool. but anyways I have a little free time so I thought I would get today done with and study because apparently I have a test tomorrow! i promise this entry will be significantly shorter with lots less pictures! 
anyways so last night i was assigned to my ward. i am in the mitcham ward! its about thirty minutes outside of the city. i think it's in sutton. that might be wrong though, so don't quote me on that. anyways. after a breakfast of really nommy british yogurt with little crispy candies you put into it and fruit we headed to our ward! before i continue, let me just say i already love this yogurt deal. it's so good. and i don't feel bad eating them. i've tried three variations so far, two vanilla yogurts with mini chocolate maltballs (one with white chocolate as well) and one with banana yogurt with chocolate covered rice crispies. they come in little separate containers and you dump the candy into the yogurt and mix it. i will take a picture some time. it sounds unhealthy but each cup is only about 150 calories! can you tell i've become a little obsessive with calorie counting? hahah anyways. back to church! 
it's a pretty long journey! church starts at 10 but we had to leave the centre at 8:30. first we caught a bus (you can also take the tube but we decided to switch it up) to victoria station, which is huge. then we caught a train (overground) to mitcham station which was about thirty minutes outside of the city. after that we caught another bus to a stop just down the street from our church! of course the chapel looks nothing like a chapel in utah, it only occupies part of a building and doesn't even look like a church! as we walked in, i have to admit that our little group of seven was pretty surprised by the demographic! almost our entire ward is african. the entire bishopric as well as the boys who blessed and passed the sacrament are black. seriously there are probably more in my ward here than in the whole state of utah! i will talk more about them later. i love my ward already! 
so anyways, we walked in just in time for the sacrament! which was great. after that i seriously heard some of the best talks i have ever ever heard. two ladies talked about work ethic, and they did an amazing job. you can tell that they really take preparing a talk seriously, as opposed to most people back home who see it as more of a burden. after their talks one of the members played come thou font on the piano. IT WAS LEGIT. seriously it was like a concert performance! this guy must have studied music or something cause he was insanely talented. also that's my favorite hymn so it was just an all around good experience :). after that, the two ward missionaries spoke. this was their last week before they both headed home to the states and it was honestly so touching to hear the bishop express his gratitude for their service. i will always have a soft spot for missionaries and it was so cool to hear their 'final remarks' and think of my friends who are serving. after sacrament the byu students (there are 7 of us that went to mitcham) met with the bishop to get our ward assignments. he let us volunteer, and i chose to go with the young women along with my friend celeste. after that he told us a little about himself. so he is a convert with four kids and is from ghana, just like most of the people in the ward. there are also some from sierra leone! he is also a very young bishop and has been since president monson became prophet. he is a cool guy! 
 so we went to sunday school (another awesome lesson) and then to young women! there are 3 girls in the class, 2 were there today! they are such sweet sweet girls and you can tell they are really smart. one of them is a second generation ghana (ghanese? ghanian?), and the other girl is half portuguese-half angolese (or whatever it's called when you're from angola). i honestly think there were like two people in the entire ward that were actually british. there was a ton of diversity. i loved it! i love being with african people because they remind me of the amazing people i met in senegal. they are so humble and friendly.. ah i  just love them! the young womens president also emigrated from ghana and she was one of the sweetest and friendliest people i have ever met. i can tell i am really going to like this ward! i already feel very much at home. i teach young womens in two weeks so wish me luck! 
after our journey home from church we had more yogurt and fruit for a late lunch, then some downtime. instead of studying for my test tomorrow... the girls in my room (room 4 is the shiz by the way) studied a special edition people magazine focusing solely on one direction. i think i'm there newest fan! so attractive. so british. love it. 

anyways then it was time for dinner! we were all a little confused because all that was set up was bowls, knives, and spoons... pretty soon we figured out we were having soup. everyone was looking forward to tomato basil or something familiar.. we were pretty surprised when some green stuff came out! our first real dinner here we got to try pea soup! i tried to be traditional and put some cream on it, as well as salt and pepper. there were also croutons and mint, but i took my moms advice and just stuck to the basics. i wanted to be a legit brit so i downed a whole bowl... but i gotta say pea soup is probably not my favorite. i don't think anyone enjoyed it hahaha. the baguette we had was very good! for dessert we had a meringue thing with whipped cream and berries. it was pretty good. but it was like sugar on sugar on sugar! little overwhelming. but i shouldn't be complaining! it was sweet. 
we just got done with our devotional and tim slover was amazing. i felt like he was giving me deep dark secrets to art. he was a really really interesting lecturer. so that was definitely enjoyable! i feel like my appreciation for art has definitely increased. (if you want 6 key secrets, let me know:)) i am now posted up on my bunk eating a curly wurly (chocolate covered caramel) talking with my bunkmate about people that get married too quickly. its too funny. life is good! hope everyone is doing good wherever you are :) cheers! until tomorrow...