And We're in England!

     After staying with the wonderful Gilardi family for the night, we packed up our suitcases and figured out our plans for today. Paul wanted to visit with a really awesome member family he knew on his mission, so we took some time to go and visit the Sharkie family. We had a wonderful chat with them for a few hours. It really is so nice for me to piece together Paul's mission and put faces with the names and stories he has told me about for several years.

The wonderful Sharkie family. So grateful I got to meet them.

     Once we said our goodbyes we had to stop for a few minutes in Glasgow to get some pastries from a Hong Kong pastry shop that Paul loved. I will be honest, they had some great and delicious looking pastries, but the ones that look good taste weird. The ones that look plain and boring actually taste the best. They are definitely not American pasties, but they are pretty tasty.

Yummy yummy asian pastries

Tastin' pretty good

Paul enjoying his pastry on the go

    Paul and I spend the next three hours driving to Preston England. We made plans to see the first ever showing of the first ever British Pageant. We had no idea what to expect, but we were excited just the same. We drove up to the temple and parked the car about 4 hours before the show started. We wanted to make sure we had a close parking space because once it was over we had a three hour drive to Edinburgh that night. We talked with some fabulous sister missionaries (all from Utah, fancy that), and made our way down to city centre to find some food.
     By this time it is raining pretty good. We had a dinky umbrella that kept us mostly dry...ish. We found an italian restaurant that would let you do take away. Dinner consisted of lasagna for me, spaghetti carbonara for Paul, and no utensils to eat with. It was a hoot watching Paul scarf his spaghetti with no fork. Thankfully, I was a thinker and sort of used our garlic bread as a spoon for me so I didn't make quite as much of a mess. We both concluded that the food was great.

You gotta do what you gotta do...

The aftermath of no silverware 

    The pageant didn't start till 8:30 and we still had a couple hours to burn. The members here planned some activities to do before the show started, but because it was raining, we didn't really want to stand out in the rain. Its a good thing the pageant planners forecasted that the weather would be normal weather for them. The stage was in a portable room so that everything ended up being indoors.
    I really didn't know what to expect about the pageant, but holy wow. It was amazing. Words really can't describe how strong the spirit was there. The story was about the first missionaries coming over to Great Britain, and how the people in Britain impacted the early beginnings of the LDS church. It was a great storyline with a powerful powerful message. I have been to the Manti pageant multiple times, and as much as I love my home state, the British pageant was SO much better and, for me, so much more spiritual was well. Paul and I were a little hesitant at first to drive so far to see it, but we both decided that the drive was absolutely and completely worth it.

In front of the Preston Temple the grounds were locked so we couldn't walk around

The temple in all its glory

Me being silly in the gardens around the temple president's home

Paul told me that this is the straight and narrow path that leads to the tree of life (just under the arch), which ultimately leads to the temple. It was a pretty cool analogy I thought.

Paul's turn to be silly

 Its a good thing the British are smart about their weather. They knew it would rain so they built a covering for the pageant. We were inside while it poured outside. 

    Driving to Edinburgh was a little scary for me. It was raining pretty good for the first two hours of the drive. I am so grateful that Paul is experienced driving in the rain because I get a little nervous when there is water on the road. We made it safely to our B&B at 2 AM and only had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to our room. Oh well, it was worth it.