Pre-mission, little brother Connor came to visit his old-sis in the Big Smoke. It was lovely to have him to myself for a couple of days, where I showed him off at church, and showed him some of my favourite haunts. Here he is in Trafalgar Square:

Sibs. Connor and I are nine whole years apart (I know, I look not a day over twenty myself- stop living in disbelief). I very much like being his big sister.

I took him to my favourite Mexican place, which fast became his favourite too. The chef had us try a bunch of “experiment recipes” – we didn’t care for the cactus tacos.

We ran into- literally- Hulk Hogan. He was not impressed that I was creeper-peeper-picturing him. But I got away with it, ultimately:

We love the British Museum! We were on the hunt for the weirdest artefact or thing we could find…

We ceased our searching after we found this guy, pretty perfectly preserved through time.

London has its pull even on the worst of days. There’s always something to do and see. Despite this, Con and I found ourselves at the Princess Dianna Memorial every day. We rolled up our jeans and dipped in the freezing ice water, and walked around and around the memorial path for hours as we discussed memories and news, our loves and our fears. We talked of our faith, and of his upcoming mission. I gave him temple prep class! My favourite thing was that Connor told me this was what I was in his life- the person he comes to for that stuff. Which made me feel pretty lovely because I don’t think he realises that actually I get more out of it than he does. What a love.

Momma joined us for a couple of days. Here’re my guests in Greenwich, outside the Royal Observatory:

Greenwich…

Examining the Painted Hall (struggs):

Mom and I walked to St Pauls, one of my favourites in London…