Days 59&60: It's been awhile since the last post...2 weeks actually...2 weeks filled with all too much of the "study" portion of my study abroad experience. So to bring us up to date, our west trip happened the week following my last post, and it has now been another week since we got back.
Thursday (28/10): WALES
Left far too early for my liking, but was happy enough because A.Driving through fall leaves never gets old...even on a 3+ hour coach ride in the rain B.We watched Emma C.Our first stop of the day was the coal mine! (Our first "real" stop. We drove by Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey on the way.) Say hello to Big Pit...
All geared up and ready to go!
The coal mine was really interesting, probably one of my favorite things about the trip! I could go into detail about some cool things I learned, but this post is already going to be long enough without that! Just know that working in a mine would have sucked. And that Welsh working class English is different than normal English. We only understood half of what our tour guide was saying and I'm pretty sure he didn't know what we were asking him either seeing as some of his responses didn't quite match our questions...
While on that vein...we met some cute kids on mid-semestre break in the museum and we had them speak Welsh for us. They said for us the longest word in the Welsh language and probably the world! 58 Letters. Here, have a go:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Front of Big Pit, and a raindrop
We then went to St. Fagan's Welsh Life Museum. I don't really know if that is what it is called, but it is an outdoor museum and basically you just wander around and look at replicas of buildings from different periods and locations in Wales.
Inside of the church pictured above
Best part of the outdoor museum? Fall colors everywhere!
St. Fagan's Palace/Castle? This "newer" one was built on the site of a much older one
That night we slept over in Cardiff. Before bed, we did a little window shopping, and had dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant- it was Jamie Oliver's place and my Carbonara was delicious.
Friday: POTTERIES-CHURCH HISTORY SITES (back in England)
Stop 1: Benbow's Farm. John Benbow and his wife Jane were early English converts. They gave their entire fortune to the church to help publish the BOM here and paid for 40 families to come to America. Their pond was the place where Wilford Woodruff baptized some of the first converts in the area.
A view of their farmhouse
Some random church we visited on the way to the next place. (Seriously, if there happens to be a church near anyplace we visit, we always go in....my church count is up to 28.) I believe this church had some significance i.e. we stole a lot of the congregation from this place because they got baptized...I don't think the missionaries actually preached at this parish church, but they did at places like this.
Next up Hereforshire Beacon (aka Malvern Beacon to Woodruff):
On the hike up
Back in the day this was a fort built from the earth, hence the ridges
Some panorama for you. Wilford Woodruff would come up here as a missionary, to ponder and receive revelation. It was also here that they decided to publish the hymnal and Book of Mormon for the saints in the area.
This is Ledbury. It is in Herefordshire, and is where we stopped for lunch. They had a cute old town, but no good places to eat. Literally went to 5 different places and everything looked nast. Eventually ended up with a pasty. The main reason we came was to see this....
The market square. This is where the missionaries preached.
Just a cool half-timbered building.
Again with the churches...I think this one had a display on modern poets that we've been studying in Great War. (p.s. this isn't in Ledbury, it was en-route to our next stop)
Final Stop: Gadfield Elm Chapel. This is the first Mormon chapel ever. (Technically they began meeting in the Kirtland temple prior to this, but that wasn't a chapel was it?) I believe it originally was used by the United Brethren, but when they all converted they let the missionaries use it as a meetinghouse. After the majority of saints left the area the ownership changed hands several times and it fell into disrepair. Eventually the building and the surrounding farmland got put up for auction, and local LDS raised the money to purchase it and one acre surrounding it. They spent a lot of time and resources to restore it to how it once was, and then gave it as a gift to the church. In 2004 President Hinckley came and dedicated it as as church historical site.
We arranged to have a little meeting here, and we sang the hymns of the early saints. Students played the organ, and I led several of the songs. We also had students tell a little of the history, and read some of the dedicatory prayer. The professors also sang a musical number. It was nice.
All in all the Wales trip was awesome!
More posts about this last week to come-keep your fingers crossed that the internet works till then!
Xoxo!
