temples, tours, elevators, and Elder Bednar

I could be really funny right now and say "this brings us to Part 5 of my trip to England!" but I cannot, as I have blogged the final stage already and have probably posted more than enough pictures. and England was 2 months ago. that's history, man. times have changed. and I have since done more adventurous and exciting things, such as....youth conference.

to be 100% honest with you all, the idea of youth conferences are not my favorite thing. but overall, they turn out to be a great experience. this was my 3rd youth conference, and they have all been completely different. the first one I went to at age 14 was of course, the once in a lifetime, potentially end of a lifetime experience of hiking mount Fuji in Japan. last years was the shooting range and the Manti temple pageant, oh and the ghetto bowling alley and kickball and horse poop. this years' youth conference will probably be known as the "time I......"
(I can't even give you a 1 sentence summary without giving it away. you're gonna have to read it. but this is amazing. one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. and I've lived 16 great years. I've lived in Tokyo, I've gone to England, I've done some cool things. but this is up there on my top 10 experiences.)

we kicked the whole shindig off with a BBQ up in Provo Canyon on Thursday night. one of the leaders described it as a "giant family reunion". the whole stake was there. I live in Provo, Utah, land of the Mormons. my high school boundaries cover at least 10 different stakes. so, believe it or not, I have friends in not only different wards, but different stakes as well! I found it very interesting as I was explaining to my cousins in England that all my best friends are LDS, but they aren't all in the same ward as me! then they asked, "well, are they in your stake?" and I said, "my best friend is 2 stakes north of mine", and they thought it was absolutely crazy! well, this isn't Whitby, England. (see? I told you I would probably mention England at one point or another.) this is Provo, Utah.
and I hate to say it. but I don't even know half the people in my own stake. wards in Provo extend maybe about 4 blocks or so, maximum. my entire stake extends up to my grandma's house, which takes less than 5 minutes to drive to. it seems like such a small area compared to other stakes, and I don't even know half the people. so that was kind of weird. I remember complaining to my mom that I only had 3 friends in the entire stake (I was probably in a typical rebellious teenager pissy mood), but that was totally silly. I actually have quite a few friends, even though a lot of them are older than me. so, the canyon retreat was fun because I got to see a lot of my friends from other wards, and I even got to see my cousin Morgan, who happens to be in my grandma's ward! (and he is not related to my grandma, who is on my Mom's side. he is my grandpa Castle's sister's son, which is kinda complicated, making him a first cousin once removed. but still, it's a cousin.) we ate really good steak, played tons of games, and just had a great time. we returned to our own houses to pack for the next day, which was nice.

Alyssa, me, and Haley after doing baptisms at the Salt Lake Temple. phase 2 of the youth conference was doing baptisms for the dead. each ward in the stake was assigned a different temple in the Salt Lake valley (one ward was assigned to the far-away Provo temple, ha), and we were the lucky ones who got the Salt Lake temple! I have visited Temple Square many times, I have seen the temple from City Creek mall (perhaps my favorite place in all of Utah besides maybe Bear Lake), but I have never done baptisms there and I have always wanted to do that. what an amazing experience! the man at the front desk saw my name and immediately asked if I was related to Norm Castle. I said that he was my great uncle, my grandpa's brother. he asked my grandpa's name, and I said, "George Castle." he also knew my grandpa from Albuquerque! the dressing rooms were a lot more elaborate than the Provo temple, and much more elaborate than the Tokyo temple. (I'm not saying I don't love either of those temples; I do. but the Salt Lake temple was something else.) the baptismal font was beautiful. I had never seen anything like it. I had brought 3 family names with me, and actually got done pretty quickly with the baptisms and confirmations. much quicker than any visit to the Provo temple!

next, we went to the observation deck of some church office building and saw some really cool views of the temple and the capital building! we also toured the conference center, and ate lunch.

 the next phase was definitely the most memorable/spiritual experience for me. now, I knew that one of the 12 Apostles would speak to us. but I expected David A. Bednar to give us a great, but hard to sit through 2-hour talk. that's not even what happened.
the room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building did not properly house all the youth of the stake, so Brother Roberts, one of the leaders in our ward, gathered 6 youth of our ward, including me, and invited us to sit on the stands with him, behind Elder Bednar. the only problems this posed: 1. I could not get up to pee without the whole stake watching me, 2. I could not see Elder Bednar's face, and 3. he could not see me. He started out the devotional by saying, "we talk too much in this church, and instead of talking at you, I want you to ask me questions." so, this wasn't even going to be a 2 hour talk; it would be a question-and-answer session. and I felt the strong impression to ask him a question. I mean, he was a general authority, and who knows if I would ever have the opportunity to ask a general authority a question again.
I raised my hand.
and he didn't see me.
but finally, a member of the stake presidency said, "behind you!" all the youth he previously called on were sitting in the audience, and someone would just pass a microphone to them. not me.
Elder Bednar said, "well, come on up here, by me!" I didn't know that he would CALL ME DOWN TO THE PULPIT. I thought I would just get a microphone handed to me. but no. so, I walk down to the pulpit, and I all of a sudden feel very nervous. Elder Bednar asks me my name, and I say, "Miriam Castle." and he looks right at me, and says, "well Miriam, it's nice to meet you." and he shook my hand.
HE SHOOK MY HAND.
David A. Bednar. An Apostle of the Lord. SHOOK MY HAND. and asked me my name. and answered my question.
wow.
I am still in shock of what happened. So, I went on to ask my question, which I probably shouldn't share on my blog because it was really personal and I wouldn't want the whole world reading it. but the response was just what I needed to hear. and I felt stronger than I ever have felt in my life, that this Church is true. Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet, and David A. Bednar is one of his Apostles. It was the most amazing meeting I have ever gone to.
some people think, "well if there wasn't a picture, it didn't happen." there were no pictures allowed at this meeting, but I promise that I am not making this up. I don't think I could ever imagine something like this in my head. it happened. It really did happen.
afterwards, we took a tour of Welfare Square, and then we went to our hotel. and to be honest, the Shilo Inn of downtown Salt Lake is not a place I would recommend staying in. major inconvenience number 1: the elevators. there were only 3 running elevators, and about 250 or so youth? maybe 300. but these elevators were the slowest things I have ever seen. it took about 10 minutes just to wait for an elevator and get up to our room. these elevators either skipped my floor, went all the way to the top, and went back down, or they would stop at every dang floor of the hotel. major inconvenience number 2: our continental breakfast was located in the bar. and it was literally served from a cart. and it wasn't even edible. major inconvenience number 3: i'll just stop here and skip to the next part.
the dance was pretty fun. I danced with actual boys. and there was actual dancing.
*Forrest Gump voice*: "and that's all I have to say about that.
Saturday was spent taking a tour of Temple Square. we had these really cute, foreign sister missionaries as our tour guides. they were also our tour guides at Welfare Square. they were really happy and shared their testimonies and it was great.
until we took the conference center tour. again.
by then, I was getting tired. tired of touring and walking around and being there with my stake. I wanted to go home and get some rest and see Justin, who had been gone at 5th Grade Camp all week and returned while I was gone. but no. we still had to do Ward Time, eat at Marley's, Provo Beach Resort, the end shindig, and the 3 hour testimony meeting on Sunday.
lunch was great, but I was tired. we headed back to Provo for PBR, but my leaders were so nice and drove me to my house first so I could drop off my suitcase and change into my swimsuit. Provo Beach Resort could've been better, if I didn't happen to almost kill myself riding the FlowRider, or the surf machine. I was on the boogie board for maybe 5 seconds. the strong "wave" knocked me off and shot me up to the top, with no boogie board. the board sailed in the other direction. I repeated this process about 10 more times, and bruised myself up pretty badly. GNARLY, DUUUUUUUUUDE. and I was so smart, I didn't even bring a change of clothes. so I just decided to call my mom and have her rescue me, because I had a really bad headache most of the day. I went home and showered and changed, and took a 2 hour nap. I finally woke up in time to go to the ending dinner. so, I didn't really miss out on too much.
then we had a wonderful 3 hour testimony meeting.

but really.
I MET DAVID A BEDNAR AND I SHOOK HIS HAND.
Guys. the church is true. it's 100% true. even if I may not do the best job of living all the principles, I know it is true. David A. Bednar said, "Living the gospel is easy. Not living the gospel is hard. It's hard to come back to it, once you have made certain choices that you think are easier than living the gospel."
and I know this is true. I've seen it happen. I've seen people make bad choices contrary to what we believe, and it really hurts to see them struggle.
guys. don't do stupid things. go to church. live the gospel. make good choices and you will find that it is much easier, than trying to repent of bad choices.
amen.

ENGLAND {part 4: the Finale}

I bet you are all relieved that I finally brought myself to finish blogging about this trip. It's taken a month and a half almost, and you are probably tired of waiting for the next post. well, here it is. the final state of our exciting adventure. and dang, do I miss it.
we ended our trip back in my favorite city, London. Boy, was I happy to be back. I loved York, Whitby, and Edinburgh.... but I really loved London. and there was still so much more that we needed to see! since we got to our apartment at 1 in the morning, we slept in. it felt so good. unfortunately, one of us clogged the toilet (not saying who) and we were delayed in leaving to try to work out a solution. finally, we just decided to hop on the subway and head towards St. Paul's Cathedral.

now, you'd think after touring church after castle after royal palace after castle after church, we'd get sick of seeing them. wrong. St Paul's was different than the other ones. you see that big dome? well, we got to climb it and see an amazing view of London! after marching up at least 32094893 stairs (or so it seemed; probably around 500 at least. who knows. there were a lot of stairs), nobody died and we were at the top. it was a lot of walking, but hey, we were in London. and we probably wouldn't get the chance to go back and do this again. so, why not?

mom sporting yet another audio tour guide

we climbed back down those stairs and I thought I was going to pass out. the boys and I rested while Mom and Dad toured the rest of the cathedral. when we were done, our next stop was Westminster Abbey. most people might think "a famous church building with gravestones of famous dead people. sounds extremely boring." well, us Castles are either huge nerds, or this place was absolutely not boring. again, with the AP World History, we got to see the graves of a lot of people I learned about. it was very interesting, and Ms. Baker even gave me study credit for going to all these places. (what a saint.) we couldn't take pictures inside, but if we could have, we would have. it was so pretty.

hopefully, you're thinking "that's pretty cool, isn't it?" well, it is. and if you are thinking that, well guess what. Westminster Abbey is by other cool things. like........ possibly the most famous landmark in London.

 

we found a little convenience store right by the Houses of Parliament, and got crisps (because they call the french fries "chips"), sandwiches, bagels with smoked salmon (this became a personal favorite of mine), and Cadbury chocolate. we ate it in a nice park across from Big Ben, next to a statue of Winston Churchill. some girl who looked around Wesley's age or maybe older was making her mom take about 1000 pictures of her jumping in front of Big Ben. Of course, the boys decided that it would be a great idea. Justin's face is my favorite. I know you're thinking, that's a lot to see in a day! and you're right. but were we done? HECK NO! because next on our list was THE famous British Museum.

before our trip, Dad gave us an itinerary a few days earlier, and showed us pictures and websites of all the places we would visit. when we got to the British Museum, Justin immediately says, "that's the place with the talking dinosaurs!" we all laughed and were a bit confused, and finally, Dad said, "that's the museum of Natural History in New York. We will be going there this summer. This one is the one with the Egyptian--"
"Oh, I know this place! YES this place is so cool!" so I think Justin was more excited than the rest of us.

again, with the AP world history, I had learned a lot about most of the stuff in the museum, but it was really awesome to actually see it in real life, instead of just see pictures in the history text book! (in case you haven't been able to tell, I am a total history nerd. I got a 5 on the AP World Practice test, which means I pretty much aced it. The real AP test doesn't give my score until July, but I feel like I pretty much aced that thing too. Not to brag or anything. I just really love history and find it really interesting.) this was perhaps the best way to review for the AP test, which was a month away. but that test has every event, from every time period, from every region of the world, pretty much. so the visit to the British Museum was very effective. I was able to review  my world history on the trip, but actually see it. and have fun with it! so, be prepared for some really awkward, funny pictures. but we all had the best time at this place. so much easier to see all the Egyptian artifacts at the British museum than actually traveling to Egypt! (Justin randomly announced at scripture study one night, "Wesley is going to Egypt on his mission!" pretty sure the Second Coming is more likely to happen before missionaries are allowed in Egypt.)

 J's goals: to get muscles like that.

 bro fist bump. he was pretty disappointed that he couldn't actually touch it.

 "what is the Rosetta Stone anyways? and why are you making me take a picture with it?" 

 walk like an Egyptian

 Mom: "Miriam, pose like a Greek Statue!"

me: "Is this good?"

Mom: "Not like that! Just kidding. do whatever you want."

 Justin kept on asking every 5 seconds, "can we see the Easter Island heads?" 

 we all had really bad allergies on this trip. Mom happened to catch us all coughing (minus J)

 this wasn't much better.

if we could've taken 100 more pictures, we would have. my iPhone had limited storage, and as much as I wanted to take a picture of every statue we saw, I didn't. you guys are probably relieved that you don't have to suffer through any more pictures! or, you're sad because you wanted more. either one works.
after a few hours of exploring history, we all got really hungry. the subway station by our apartment was connected to a miniature shopping mall, and there were a lot of restaurants there. we decided to go back to Nando's, because we loved it so much the first time. It tasted even better the second time because we weren't jet lagged, we didn't have headaches, and we had just had the best day.

sadly, our adventure had to come to an end, and we needed to get back to America. everyone was either happy because they missed us, or they were upset because they wanted us to stay longer. but the time came, and we spent all of Saturday morning packing up our apartment, making sure we didn't leave any evidence of us behind. (except for Wesley's umbrella. That kid has a history of coming back with less things than he came with. He also has a history of losing umbrellas. Several are floating around all over Japan, and one is somewhere in London. We hope that people pick them up and find them to be of great use.) after we were sure that we had everything (Wes is a very good liar), we marched out of our apartment, luggage in tow, and hopped on a subway to the Heathrow Airport. now, I don't know what it is with Castles and airports, but we are either super hyper, or super grumpy and tired. This time, Justin was dancing and singing some song he made up about America. after what seemed like forever, our plane finally took off. I made the really bad choice of watching Forrest Gump on the plane. I had never seen it before, and Dad said it was good. and it was. It was one of the best movies I had ever seen. But I could not stop crying. by the end of the movie, I was shaking and trying to control myself. but I don't think I have cried that much since I saw Les Mis a year ago.
after 10 long hours, we finally landed in Seattle, went through customs, grudgingly sat through a 2 hour layover, and enjoyed free wifi and cell phone service for the first time in a week! we were all too tired to function, and I think I actually slept on the ride from Seattle to Salt Lake! this time, we did not see any of my friends at the airport, but that was a good thing. we were all so tired, and looked like we got beat up. we waited an hour to take the frontrunner train back to Orem, and drove on the right side of the road back to our house in Provo. the first thing I did was eat 3 bowls of cereal. I missed traveling all over the UK, but it felt good to be in my own bed.
well, no more England posts! It was definitely my favorite trip. this summer, be prepared for our New York trip!

PS. to anyone who is signed up for AP World History next year or is considering taking the class, DO IT. it was my favorite class I have ever taken. it's fun, you learn a lot, and you watch hilarious video clips. the test is really hard, but if you study for it, then you've got it! the best way to prepare for this test? go to England.

(not really) ENGLAND {part 3: Scotland}

does anyone even read this anymore? or am I just updating this blog so I can look back on it later? who knows. wow. finals, AP testing, work, tennis.... I am a busy girl. my grandparents visited from Arizona last week and told me they check my blog every Sunday and were asking where the rest of the pictures were. Well, finally, I have time. so....here's Edinburgh, Scotland!
we woke up at 4:30 AM to drive from Whitby to York to board our train to Edinburgh. Holy crap. we were all tired. we slept the whole train ride, pretty much. when we finally got there, we were pretty tired and confused. it was colder than England was, and Justin and I were both really pissed (literally, pissed) that you had to pay to use the bathrooms at the train station. but once we got past that, we were good. we walked outside the train station, and the first thing we saw was a man in a kilt, playing the bagpipes. That's exactly how I pictured Scotland: bagpipers in kilts. so really, it's just how you imagine it. except it's cold.
We took a double decker bus to the Royal Britannia, the royal yacht that the royal family enjoyed sailing on. When we lived in Japan, we took similar tours on docked boats in Yokohama, and we really enjoyed it. so, we were doing the same thing, except we were not on a warship. we were on a royal boat in Scotland!

 as you can tell from my outfit, it was cold here!

 Wes really enjoyed his audio tour guide

there are probably a bajillion more pictures on this boat, but I'm just picking a few of my favs. after we finished our lovely tour, we were all hungry. I guess Dad was missing Japan, because he picked out this ramen place. a real Japanese ramen place, not just Top Ramen. that is probably one of the things I miss most about Japan. I love real Japanese ramen, and I didn't realize how much I missed it until I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland, of all places.

next, the Castle clan made their way to Edinburgh Castle! This place was awesome. It was on a hill, away from the rest of the city. we got to see where Prisoners of War were kept inside,

 J firing the cannon

 J in Jail

 Wes is mentally stable, I promise you. He is excited to see these hammocks. a bit too excited.

if we hadn't seen enough castles already, we went to Holy Roodhouse, Queen Elizabeth's summer palace. we took a tour of the inside, and got more swag audio guides. I love touring these places so much and learning about the historical significance. I also love seeing everything, instead of just looking at pictures or reading about it.

 

after a fun day of touring boats and castles, it was time to head back to England! we ate dinner at Subway, and boarded a 5 hour long train to Kings Cross! We didn't get reserved seats, so it was a struggle to find any close together! Wes and I sat by a gentleman from Doncaster. after the first stop, Justin managed to find a seat across from us, and Mom and Dad sat behind us. the boys and I probably really annoyed the guy from Doncaster by playing several games of Uno to pass the time. J won everytime, except I won once. I felt pretty good about myself. Wesley felt like we were ganging up on him. finally, we got tired of Uno and fell asleep. or at least tried to.
we finally got to London at 11:30 PM. and boy, were we tired! there was an announcement at Kings Cross saying "there is an emergency, please leave the station immediately. well, the fastest way to get out of there was to get on the subway! so that's what we did. there were so many drunk people on there. it was....interesting. we got off the subway at Earls Court and waited for Dad to get the key to our other apartment we were staying at, right by the Chelsea stadium. we watched many drunk people throw things at each other, yell crazy things, and puke on the platforms. sometimes, late at night, my ADD kicks in strong and I get real hyperactive. Wesley was happy to join me. Justin was half awake. Mom got impatient. Finally, Dad returns with a key, so we think we're just going to get on the train, and voila, be at our apartment. NOT THAT SIMPLE! the subway line branched. we had to make sure we were on the train heading towards Wimbledon instead of the other place. well, 3 trains and 30 minutes later, we find a train to Wimbledon. we didn't go all the way there, to my dismay. I plan on returning to London someday to watch Wimbledon. unfortunately, none of my family has that passion about tennis and they would get sick of watching it. I love watching tennis almost as much as I love playing it, which is a lot. anyways, we got off right by the Chelsea stadium, walked to our apartment, and by then, it was 1 in the morning. after unpacking and finding the free wifi, we crashed and went to bed, and slept really late.
part 4: London (again) will be coming soon! and by soon, I mean soon. school is almost done! so I will have time! dang. blogging about this trip makes me think of how much I miss it. those were good times.
this summer, to look forward to on the blog:

• youth conference in Salt Lake
• Philadelphia
• New York
• Another Girls Camp
• Summer Tennis
• Tournaments, tournaments, and more tournaments
• Bear Lake

but I gotta finish England first.
until next time,