First Days in D.C.

We are alive and well here in the city! Getting here was an adventure in and of itself. We flew over on Southwest and sat down next to the cutest, funnest lady named Pam who I chatted with the entire time. Brock made friends with the flight attendant (Michelle) serving us, and the whole plane ride seriously became a party. Michelle serenaded everyone at the end, made Brock a crown of small peanut bags and drink stirrers, gave him clip-on Southwest pilot's wings for his shirt, a coloring book, and loving reminded him to wash his hands while he was in the bathroom. Over the intercom.

After arriving in Dulles and getting on the SuperShuttle, we hit some major traffic coming into D.C. But we found our way to the Barlow Center easy enough, and grabbed some Papa Johns that night to fill our ravenous bellies. While waiting for our pizza, we took a little stroll up into Georgetown to check out our surroundings. We literally walk over a bridge into the heart of Georgetown: dozens of restaurants, Banana Republic, H&M, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Anthropologie, J. Crew, American Apparel, Steven Madden, Betsey Johnson, Urban Outfitters, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (great running trail!), Barnes & Noble, Dean and Deluca, Trader Joe's and so much more.

Yeah, it's gonna be a good summer.

On Saturday we woke up late (our bodies are still adjusting to Eastern time . . .) and headed out for brunch at a cute little French cafe in Georgetown called La Madeleine. Brock made fun of me for ordering what was literally called "the American breakfast", but it was freaking good. And hey, it came with a croissant! French enough for me.

After brunch we explored Georgetown a little more and made a grocery run to Trader Joe's. Then it was off to Ben's Chili Bowl to meet our friends Tiffany and Ryan. The half-smokes at Ben's did not disappoint, and afterward we went to Tiffany and Ryan's apartment in Silver Spring to just sit around and chat. It was so great to see them again. Tiffany was such a trooper, too--she'd just gotten her wisdom teeth taken out the day before!

Today we went to our ward for the first time. It's the D.C. 3rd ward and we love it! It's very diverse--lots of people from Haiti and Cameroon, so a good portion of our ward is French-speaking. They have a Sunday School class taught in French and today the Sacrament prayers were said in French as well. The ward is just really friendly and has a ton of great traditions. Like whenever a brother or sister gets up to bear their testimony, they say "Good afternoon, brothers and sisters" and the entire congregation says "Good afternoon" back to them in unison. And whenever a ward member leaves or moves away, the entire congregation stands up and sings "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."

Random story: An older sister missionary serving in the ward, Verla Walters, taught my mom in Mia Maids and was my Grandma Kern's visiting teacher while they lived in Richland, Washington! Freaking crazy. The world is so small. Truly.

The thing I love about the ward is that many of them are converts who bring such a genuine, sincere, and pure understanding of the gospel along with them. They haven't grown up with the Church in their lives, so a lot of the social norms of Mormon culture are lost on them--which I love. Church is very interactive (a lot of Mmmmm hmmms and Aaaaamens coming from the congregation)--we even had an older woman get up and sing a gospel song as her testimony today! What's more, ALL the African-Americans in the ward sang along with her (us whiteys didn't know the song, but we'll learn!). To top the Sunday off, a couple young men got baptized right after church ended, which was awesome to see. The gospel of Jesus Christ is such a beautiful, wonderful, empowering thing.

Anyway, that's it for now! I'll post pictures of the Barlow Center later (including our awesome Murphy bed. Oh yes. We're sleeping on a Murphy bed for the next three months). Thanks for reading, and sorry for such a boring post! You may have to get used to them--this blog is essentially going to be my journal while we're in D.C., but I'll try to pepper it up with funny stuff, too :)