Washington D.C. Capital of the free world and capital to one of the most powerful nations in the world. The mention of the name brings images of towering monuments to some and crooked politicians to others. And for the next four months I'll call it home.
But enough of the melodrama, let's get down to what has been happening for the past few days.
Saturday- the new name of Saturday is 'Trader Joe's Day'. There is a Trader Joe's right across the street from us and most of the items are pretty reasonable. I am quickly discovering that food is much more expensive (I'm sure my Mom and Dad are having a 'I told you so moment') than I had thought so I am quickly reevaluating my budget. My roommate Brock is from Alpine, Utah and he got in Saturday morning. After getting groceries and arranging our room we headed out to test our Metro/Bus cards. We hopped on the Metro and went to the Federal Triangle and walked around the EPA and IRS buildings. We walked over to the White House and walked around the square in front that has all the foreigners who came and helped during the American Revolution (Von Steuben, Rochambeau and Lafayette). They are already constructing the stand for the presidential review at the inauguration, so it will be exciting to see the city prepare for the inauguration.
Sunday-We got up on Sunday and readied and grabbed the bus for the forty minute ride to church. You already got to see my room so I hope I get to show you some pictures of the chapel next week, because it is beautiful.
It was originally a Baptist chapel so the windows and pulpit make it look like it could be used for a Church History video for the scene where Joseph Smith is visiting churches. The ward is really nice and we stayed for a baptism afterwards. The girl was so prepared and gave a great talk after she was baptized about why she decided to choose to be baptized and how she had come to that decision. Afterwards we made our way back home and made some dinner and played some games.
Monday-We had our final prep class. We went over a lot of day to day things and then we were divided up into groups of three to find our way to our internships. The trick was that all three of our internships were in different places so we got to see a lot more of the city which was really fun. So we did what always worked best to understand new areas on the mission-we got lost and now perfectly understand the Metro and street systems. One of the girls has her internship with one of the senators, so we walked from the senator's offices down to the Library of Congress and then over to the Capital building. We went to the Botanic Gardens when we had found found our offices. Being at the Botanic Gardens made me chuckle a little because that was the first thing I went to tour when I was in D.C. in 2007. So it was nice to start this trip out right.
I really enjoyed seeing the Capital building, the Supreme Court and Library of Congress. I know the next few months will have a lot of new challenges and experiences, but that I'll have opportunities that will never come again.
Abraços
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