Preston & Liverpool England

Daniel has some sweet photography skills.

At the MTC in Preston, where my brother Cole was standing just a few months earlier.

You know it's going to be a good weekend when you wake up and your husband says, "let's go on a trip today." We got ready as quickly as we could and made the 2 hour drive south to Preston. The drive was absolutely incredible. Green rolling hills and stone walls as far as you could see, sheep everywhere, and little cottages dotting the fields. When we arrived in Preston we found a random restaurant that was on our sat nav, and it turned out to be the cutest and most quaint Italian restaurant I have ever seen. It was in the upstairs of a small penthouse, and no bigger than a large living room. Hanging lights everywhere, cute wooden tables and chairs, and delicious pizza and prawns. It was a success. We stayed the night in a hotel, and I TOOK A SHOWER! You have no idea how sick I am of taking baths all the time, so staying at this hotel that night was a big deal. I forgot how wonderful showers really are.  The next morning we did a session in the beautiful Preston temple, and felt so refreshed afterwards. It is amazing how we can be so far away from home and family, but feel so close to them when we are in the temple. It's a little bit of heaven. The MTC (missionary training center) is right next to the temple, so we got to go see where my little brother was just a few short months ago! (he is now in London serving as a missionary). We then drove a little more south to Liverpool, which is the coolest city. We kept saying it reminded us of a lot of the big cities we have been to in the states rolled into one. It had a good mix of DC, Philly, Rochester NY, and Pittsburgh. We ate lunch at a Brazilian churrascaria, which was quite possibly the best Brazilian place we have ever eaten at. The pao de queijo was the best I have had. I ate way too much of it. Daniel was in heaven, and speaking Portuguese to the waiter every time he brought us meat. We left that place too full of rice and beans, too much meat, guarana, and of course the pao de queijo. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Afterwards, we tried to get into a Liverpool FC game, but it was all sold out! We were so bummed, but it was amazing to just be surrounded by so many football fans, and see how football is really a religion over here. We decided we still wanted to see a game, so we found another team a few miles away called Bolton FC, so we were able to get tickets to that and have our first professional English football experience! It was WILD. People here are SO into the game, and it was just amazing. Bolton is just in the championship league, which is the second best league here, but still a better level than the MLS in the states! We want to go to a premier match SO BAD. We are trying to decide when and what team we should go see first. After the match we drove back to Durham, completely satisfied with our temple trip weekend. I'm SO grateful we have a temple that is only 2 hours away!