First Sunday

Well, the jet lag finally caught up with me. I slept in until 12:15 PM this morning, when I was supposed to meet everyone at 12:00 PM sharp to go to church. Luckily I got a wake-up call. Two members of the ward came to show us how to get to church, so one left with the group while the other waited for me. The ward was awesome. It was so refreshing to be back out in the mission field. The first speaker got up to the pulpit and said the customary "Good afternoon" to start her talk. I was caught off guard when the entire congregation enthusiastically answered with a "Good afternoon!" of their own. Apparently the ward has been having some very good success with missionary work. It is an inner city ward, so it is a very good cross-section off the population of the city. There is a large population of Africans who have immigrated on account of political turmoil. Many speak French, and it seems that the ward tries to accommodate the French speakers as much as possible. I hear that in June they will switch things up by doing all the meetings in French and translating into English rather than vice-versa. The Bishop was anxious to get us all callings. I'm very excited to be a part of the ward.

After church I decided to take a trip straight to Arlington National Cemetery. The land that the cemetery is on is historically significant in its own right. It was formerly owned by Robert E. Lee, but was appropriated by the US government during the Civil War as a burial place for Union soldiers. I spent some time just walking through the different graves. I was sure to catch the changing of the guard (pictured below), which was an extremely elaborate ceremony. The changing of the guard takes place in front of the "Tomb of the Unknowns" (formerly known as the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier"). It is guarded 24 hrs a day, 365 days a week.

Tomorrow we have to start class and Tuesday my internship will begin. I'm going to have to put my explorations of the city on hold. I hear that the bar next door does 50 cent tacos on Monday nights. I think you all know where I'm eating dinner tomorrow. All of the married couples were invited over to the couple missionary's condo this evening to have dessert and watch "The Amazing Race." I'd never watched the show but I know all of my family are fanatical followers. It was pretty good. Apparently we're invited back for next week's episode so I may just become hooked myself. While eating dessert we played a game where we answered hard questions. My question was, "If you were about to crash in a plane, who would you want sitting next to you?" That was easy. With the sting of the Jazz loss still fresh on my mind, I quickly replied, "Phil Jackson." Phil Jackson is the coach of the LA Lakers and was formerly the coach of Chicago Bulls. It's sad to see the Jazz on the verge of coming up empty handed yet another season. I'm going to try and catch a baseball game sometime when I'm out here. Of course it won't be to watch the Nationals. I'll wait until some high profile team comes to town.