Wales numba 2...is cool.

Alright. So the morning of day 2 in Wales was great. I woke up, and turned on the TV to some crazy fish show. Seriously, maybe it's a good thing I never watch TV, even in the states - because if I did, I'd probably just waste away watching random shows about fish. NOT fishing shows...don't worry, I'm not THAT crazy.
Alright, after leaving the beautiful and spacious hotel, we headed to Caerphilly Castle. I LOVED it. Probably because it was pretty much the coolest playground I've ever been to. Michelle and I had a party running up and down all of the stairs, through the corridors, tromping across the moat bridges, and playing wartime with the giant crossbows and trebuchets. Once again, I felt like I was seven years old again. That was probably in my top two or three favorite Castles so far.



The Great Hall

Holding up the leaning tower.

Being a dork and diving into the moat...strike that...pretending to dive into the moat.

After the Castle, we set off for our Church history sites. We went to Benbow farm first, where Wilford Woodruff baptized many early converts to the church. The first ones were baptized in this pond in early March, and I couldn't believe that hundreds of people volunteered to get in that water seeing how cold it was that day. Brrrrr. I guess baptism is KIND OF important. Either way, it was beautiful countryside.


The Pond

We then drove down the hill a ways to see an old parish church where many of the converts would have attended, and many convert families have a long history of ancestors buried in the church cemetery.

Next stop was Heredforshire Beacon. Basically it's a really really big hill that looks over Wales. Significance? Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards had meetings about the church up there. Pretty cool. Once again, I couldn't imagine anyone discussing anything there, because it was cold, and windier than anything I have ever experienced. I'm serious. I jumped up in the air and it moved me over about a foot.


the view

roommates

super duper windy

Brittany thought it was windy, too.

Last stop was the Gadfield Elm Chapel. This is a church meetinghouse (supposedly the oldest LDS meeting place in the entire world). Since the missionaries weren't there to let us in, we got to do the special "answer-the-questions-and-punch-in-the-code" thing. See photo below for details. We all gathered inside and learned a little bit more about the history of the building, and listened to our friend/guide Pete read us a journal entry from Wilford Woodruff about his experience preaching there. Things like that remind me that the early members of the church were just regular people too, and it makes me grateful for their hard work. At the end we sang "The Spirit of God", which was very cool. An ending to a very nice time in Wales.


Do YOU know the answers?

the chapel