You've Got that One Thing

Sometimes we like making music videos... especially if it involves One Direction. 

The Truth Will Prevail

We started off our week in Northern England in Preston.  We pulled up with a bus full of American girls at the England MTC… hahahahaha.  The missionaries at the windows started going CRAZY when they saw us.  They all started cheering, running to the window, waving, and writing us messages.  What made it even better was that our bus full of girls has been deprived of boys for the past 3 months… so the bus started going a little crazy as well.  Everyone was waving, blowing kisses, and writing notes back. Hahahaha Those poor missionaries…

See picture below:

But the super cute MTC President and his wife lead us through a tour of Preston and it was so cool.  This is the city where the early missionaries came and had enormous success.  This is the market square they first preached and adopted the slogan “The Truth will Prevail.”  Imagining them there, standing on boxes, trying to get people to listen to their message really hit me.  They must have had so much faith to leave their homes and families and come all the way across the ocean to the British Isles.  I had a really hard time coming on this study abroad and I knew I would only be here for 3 ½ months, I could still talk to my family, and I wouldn’t have to live in fear of persecution.  Thinking about it with this perspective shed a whole new light on what they had to go through- the culture shock they must have experienced.  I gained a whole new appreciation for these early missionaries and have come to recognize, in part, how much faith in the gospel and the Lord they must have had. 

We also got to see the garden that was dedicated to the Mormon Missionaries:

This is the river Ribble where the first British converts were baptized.  They were so excited that they raced across the bridge to see who could get to the waters first. 

And the most amazing part of this tour was seeing President Hinckley’s apartment when he was a missionary in Great Britain.  Sister Walker, who is President Hinckley’s daughter told us the famous story of how Elder Hinckley was really down and discouraged during his mission and he wrote to his dad asking to come home.  The answer he received from his father said “Forget yourself and go to work.”  I love this story; it was amazing to see the apartment where he lived where it took place.  What was even more amazing was that his daughter was the one who was telling us the story- she was getting emotional and it made the experience that much more special and powerful.  It really is a powerful statement: “forget yourself and go to work.”  The Walkers gave us bookmarks with this on it so that we can be reminded of it and learn to apply it into our lives.

And of course, we finished the tour with a stop by the temple grounds :)

A Weekend in Copenhagen :)

I love Copenhagen.  It’s as simple as that.  I really can’t explain why—but I may or may not have enjoyed this place more than the other cities we’ve visited. 

Part of it is probably because of how smoothly our trip went.  We really had no major problems- or even any minor problems.  My friend Jason served his mission for our church there and he was basically the key to making this trip to amazing!  He helped us plan it all out, and even taught us a few Danish words :)

Oh, and we had a sweet hotel :)

We started the trip off in the best possible way: visiting the Copenhagen Temple.  We had to walk past this scary, dark, deserted road to get there… Caity kept saying things to freak us out… we almost died. 

Just kidding.  No we didn’t.  We eventually made it to the temple and it was AMAZING.  (I will be using that word a lot this entry.)  We wanted to go in so bad.  I never wanted to go into a temple so bad… but unfortunately it was closed (we went at like 11:00 at night).   But definitely worth it.

The next day was fantastic.  We went out to the city Hillerød where the Fredriksborg Castle is.  Hillerød was a beautiful little city built right along the lake.  It was such a nice day out so we got ice cream and walked around the lake and then went to the castle.  The highlight of the castle was the room with the Carl Bloch paintings in it—they were beautiful.  He is such a talented painter, and his pictures are truly inspired. 

So Beautiful :)

We came back to the city after this, and went to see the Little Mermaid statue.  The coastline of Denmark was beautiful.  It was so picturesque with all the boats, the water, and docks.  I couldn’t get enough of it :)  The statue was… uhm… as LDS man we met later at the Church of Our Lady would describe, quite “pornographique” haha.  But it was cool to see.

Afterwards, we went to meet with my dad’s friend Christian Stadil.  He was a really interesting guy.  Him and his dad own 5 different businesses- one of which is Hummel.  Hummel is a sport company in Demark that Christian started on his own and designed.  He tried to get it started in the US and got Madonna and Pink to wear, but it didn’t take off too well unfortunately.  He also told us about his new books that he has being released.  Oh, and he’s on an upcoming reality show in Denmark called “Stars in a Castle.”  So we’ll have to watch for him on that!  It was so fun to meet him—he definitely has an interesting life to say the least! 

He recommended that we go to this place nearby for dinner- and it was delicious!  I got a pork chop with mashed potatoes, peas, and a super yummy sauce over it all.  Oh, and the butter was AMAZING.  Caity and I couldn’t stop eating the bread… with the butter…

The next day was our last day unfortunately, so we got up early so we could pack everything in.

We started by going to the Church of Our Lady.  The Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen houses the original Christus statue, (the one that our church models the Christus after) and statues of the original 12 apostles line the walls.  President Packer gave a talk in 2008 entitled “The Twelve” in which he talked about this church.  When President Kimball was the prophet, he had all the apostles go with him to see this church.  In it, they talked of the keys that the statue of Peter holds in his hands and how that symbolizes the keys of the priesthood which they as prophets hold.  Elder Packer describes it as thus:“President Kimball pointed to those keys and explained what they symbolized. Then, in an act I shall never forget, he turned to President Benthin and with unaccustomed firmness pointed his finger at him and said,  ‘I want you to tell everyone in Denmark that I hold the keys! We hold the real keys, and we use them every day.’”

President Kimball turned to the custodian who was in the church with them and said, pointing to the statues: “These are the dead Apostles.” Pointing to [Elder Packer], he said, “Here we have the living Apostles. Elder Packer is an Apostle. Elder Thomas S. Monson and Elder L. Tom Perry are Apostles, and I am an Apostle. We are the living Apostles.”

It was a truly incredible experience to read this talk and then go and see the statues and be in the place where this story took place and where the apostles had once been.  My favorite part of the statue was noticing the relief on the ceiling above Christ.  It shows the last moments of Christ’s life: Pontius Pilate washing his hands, Christ being mocked, and him carrying the cross.  After looking across these images, you look down and see the resurrected Christ.  The focus is not on the death, but the Resurrection.  It is absolutely amazing.

After this we walked along the main shopping street- Strøget.  I went into the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain store and got a beautiful pitcher with the traditional blue flower :) 

We walked around for a bit, randomly stumbled upon the changing of the guards, did some grocery store hoppin’ and found some cabaret sauce.  And of course, walked down Nyhavn.

 We got a tour of the Marble Church in which we walked to the very top of the dome.  Only the guard told us to go up first and lead the group… uhm yeah. It was terrifying.  There were no lights, creepy rafters, and steep steep stairs.  Caity made me go first, because she thought there would be a murderer hiding behind every door.  Luckily for me, there wasn’t.  But we made it to the top and got an amazing view of the city!  The birds-eye-view of this city is very unique because (as Jason pointed out to me later) there are no sky-scrapers.  I guess there is a law in the city that no building can be taller than the church steeples.  So as you look out, you can see a ton of steeples poking up over the little buildings.  It was a really neat view. 

After we did this, it was time to head back to catch the train for the airport.  I was so sad to leave and was trying to take it all in before we had to leave.  I have come to the conclusion that Copenhagen is one of the most underrated cities- no one really understood why we wanted to go.  Even our professor here was like “Copenhagen?!  What are you going there for??”  But I really really loved it.  It was such a great city, and I loved every minute that I had there. :) 

Together in Paris

So remember that movie that came out like 15 years ago... Anastasia?  And remember how she had to go and find and meet her grandmother in Paris?Yeah, well that's what I did too!  Kinda.

Our whole group went to Paris for a week at the end of February/ beginning of March and my mom and grandma decided to come out and meet up with us too!  Paris is already amazing, but add your mom and grandma and it makes it that much better.

They didn't come to Paris until the second day I was there, so the first day I did stuff with the group.  We went to the Arc de Triumph, climbed the Eiffel Tower, and took a sightseeing sunset cruise alone the Seine that night.  The view from the Arc and the Eiffel Tower were spectacular-- but our legs killed by the end after climbing about 100,000,000 stairs.  Worth it? Yes.

The next day we had a list of things to see/do.  Among this list was Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, and the Louvre.  After sitting and waiting at San Chapelle for an hour and a half, they made it!  But- you can't really complain when this is what you get to look at while you sit and wait:

But of course, it was well worth the wait!  Seeing them was probably one of the happiest moments :)  It was just so nice and so comforting to have your mom and grandma with you when you have been away in a different country for so long (and by so long I mean 2 months.... haha).  We had a great day- saw a few churches, walked around Luxembourg Gardens, tried to figure out why the French children were so much cuter than English children, ate some delicious Marcroons, and went to the Louvre.

Marmie (yes, that is what we call my grandma) was a little bit skeptical of the Louvre at first.  But not for long… she was sold on it as soon as she walked into the room and saw Marley’s Horses.  This was her reaction:

Also… like (grand)mother like (grand)daughter…?

So I took this class in high school called AP Euro and it was the death of me.  Hardest class I’ve taken- to this day.  Hands down.  But definitely worth it.  Anyway- this picture was on the cover of our textbook for that class!  Naturally, I hated it back when I was 15, but I’ve grown to like it, and I was so excited to see it in real life!

We went to dinner at this place called Restaurant Chartier and it was one of (if not the) oldest bistros in Paris.  It was there before restaurants were even around.  It was a really fun place- super packed- but for good reason!  The only problem was that we had NO idea what we were ordering.  Luckily the waiter knew enough English to stop me from ordering the blood sausage.

The highlights of the next day were Monmarte, Angelina’s, and the d’Orssay.

Monmarte was this charming little neighborhood that had a central plaza with a ton of local artists.  It was so fun to stroll around and look at all the different paintings and artists’ depictions of Paris.  I found this little man who I loved, and his artwork was beautiful.  So we bought a little painting of Monmarte that he had done.  He was so proud of his work :)

Back in Paris, we had been told to this chocolate shop called Angelina’s and get some of their hot chocolate.  I am not lying when I tell you that it was the BEST hot chocolate I had ever had.  It was like drinking the most delicious chocolate bar you have ever had.  It was so thick and extremely creamy and rich.  They don’t give you very big cups of it, but you really couldn’t drink much more than that. 

After we went to the d’Orsay museum.  Hands down, my favorite museum I have ever been to- and being in Europe for a few months… I have seen my fair share of museums.  I discovered that I really love Impressionist art- I think it is absolutely beautiful.  So we spent a few hours there just taking in all the Degas, Monet, Renoir, and Cezanne.  And of course we had to see the Van Gogh as well.   

That night we sat in the park near the Eiffel Tower and watched it light up and sparkle- it was beautiful (minus the HUGE rat that ran under our bench right as we’re trying to take in the moment…).

And finally we ended the night walking down Champs Elysees :) 

Sorry for such a LONG blog post- but the next day we went to Versailles.  I was SO excited for this.  Ever since I learned about Versailles in AP Euro in high school, I dreamed about going to see it, and especially the Hall of Mirrors.  The palace was ENORMOUS.  It is seriously no wonder the peasants were mad and revolted… (history major…. Haha).

Mirror Pic in the Hall of Mirrors!!

Back in Paris, we went to this stand and I got a waffle with bananas and nutella.  It was the best waffle I have ever had in my entire life.  I’m being completely serious.  I would not stop talking about it for the next 20 minutes.  It was delicious.

And…. As our last thing before we left- we saw the Paris Opera House!!  Phantom anyone??

so so so SO yummy.

Paris was such a beautiful city; I really loved it.  It was full of amazing art, history, and food :) I only wish we had more time to spend there!

Signs of Spring

Spring is my favorite season.  Hands down.  I love love LOVE it.  It just makes me so happy; simple as that.  It's pretty hard to upset me when its getting warmer outside, flowers are blooming, trees are budding, and birds are singing.  And Spring is starting here in London and it's FEBRUARY!  It's really hard for this Minnesotan-grown girl to believe, but it's the truth!

After a super stressful week of midterms (which went really really well actually :)) I just needed to get out of the house.  So I went on a little walk over to Hyde Park with my ipod, book, and camera.  It was absolutely beautiful outside.  It was so nice to just go out and wonder around on my own in search of a pretty bench to sit and read.  After about a half hour of just wondering around the beautiful park, I found a cute bench along the little Serpentine river and just sat there and read some Tale of Two Cities for a bit.  The weather was spectacular: the sun was shining on the water and there was a little breeze blowing.  After a little bit, this cute older British couple came and sat down on the bench next to me and they were adorable.  It just made the whole experience complete.  :)

Oh and did I mention that there was a little family of ducks: a mom, a dad, and little ducklings walking along the river?  Because there were.  It made me so happy.

My new favorite reading bench :)

Because it was such a wonderful day, I just had to document the signs of Spring that I found:

Pretty flowers

Ducklings!

Flowers coming up :)

:)

BarTHelona!

For our open travel week, we were allowed to go wherever we wanted with a group of friends... I had originally wanted to go to Italy, but that wasn't working out so easily so we decided to go to Barcelona, Spain.  Going to Spain has been something that I had always wanted to do- I'm not exactly sure what my fascination with Spain is- but it was something that I HAD to do before I die.  And I LOVED it.  The name "Cisneros" is a Spanish name... although we are Mexican haha.  We haven't done the family history yet, but we're pretty sure that my great-grandpa had some Spanish blood in him.... So going to Spain was basically like me going home... right? :)

Barcelona was absolutely beautiful.  It was like a scaled-up, classier version of Mexico; hence why I was so obsessed with it!
Our flight left at 6:15 am from Stansted Airport which is about an hour drive away... so we left the London Centre at 3:30 in the morning.  And of course I was up half the night packing and getting everything ready to go, so I got... hmmm... maybe 3 hours of sleep?  But everything went smoothly in the morning and we got to Spain without a hitch.  But once we got into Barcelona, that was a bit of a different story.

We arrived there around 10 in the morning and couldn't check into our apartment (yes, we rented a apartment for the days we were there... it was great) until 2.  So we had to lug all our bags around the city until then.  And it was freezing.  We had all planned on Barcelona being nice and warm... so I only brought light jackets and my sperrys.   But the first day was frigid.  We were walking around the streets of Barcelona with all our bags, freezing, not knowing where to go, what to see, or where to eat.  Needless to say, the first day was a BIT stressful.  It doesn't help when you're the only one that semi-speaks Spanish in the group.  Oh, and half the people in Barcelona speak Catalan, which is nothing like Spanish, so half the signs are in Catalan.

Something else that was a bit of a culture shock, was that all the restaurants close between the hours of 4-8.  We didn't realize this the first day... we ate our lunch around 11, and then weren't able to get dinner until 8.  We were so overwhelmed by everything: the language, the weather, the restaurants closing, and our lack of sleep, that we were too stressed to try to figure out Spanish cuisine.  So we ended up at a pizza place for dinner.  Our waiter came to our table and asked us what we would like to order; only he wasn't speaking English, he was speaking Spanish.  Very quickly.  So the whole group turns and stares at me and without a moment's hesitation I respond back: in Spanish!  The whole conversation came really naturally; I didn't even have to think about what I was trying to say, it just came out fluently!  I didn't really realize what had happened until after he leaves and all my friends stare at me and go "Woaaahhh! That was awesome!"  It was actually really cool, because I had never really used my Spanish before, only in class when I was talking to other students or the teacher.  But this was a real life situation where I had to use Spanish, and it worked!  It was definitely a blessing after a super rough day :)

The next few days, after we got sleep, and figured out the city were absolutely amazing.  Gaudi was this crazy, yet amazing, modern architect who built these spectacular buildings and sculptures throughout Barcelona and we went to see them all.

La Sagrada Familia:

La Casa Mila:

And Park Guell:

This one was my favorite.  I love love LOVED Park Guell.  This park was inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel and has beautifully vivid colors, crazy designs, and wonderful Spanish landscapes.
This is the serpentine bench that encircles a huge courtyard and overlooks the city.  It has these amazing mosaics all around and is SO colorful!

Serpentine Bench

It just felt so Spanish.  And I love it.  I decided that I'm claiming this as my ancestry.

Spanish man playing songs on his guitar

My future house

This super pretty church that we just wondered into one day :)

Basically, I want to go back to Spain and never leave.

Love.