Southall

Last Friday went down to a town outside of London called Southall. At Southall we went to the Sikh's Temple. In the temple we had to cover up our hair with our scarves and we could not wear shoes inside the temple. Once we got inside the Temple we went straight to their main worship room. We were told before we entered the room not to turn our backs to the scriptures. We walked in their was a line to get to bow in front of the scriptures and donate money. Everyone would give money and then bow down in front of the scriptures. All of us girls did not know what to do when we got to the front so we placed in twenty pence and then half way bowed and started heading back to our seats. I do not know how right or wrong that was but we thought it would be respectful for being in their temple. When walked backwards (not to face against the scriptures) was kind of awkward because people were scattered everywhere and it was a bob and weave not to trip over anyone. My friend Emmy tripped, but that is why we love her! Haha We sat and listened to the prayers for a while and then left to do some more learning.




One thing that is cool about the Sihk temple is that they provide a free meal to anyone that needs a meal. Our professor told us what a big impact this has made in India for those who are starving on the streets and could come in to the temple and receive a free meal. How do they pay for this? They pay a tithing. There are a lot of unusually similarities to the LDS church. For example the tithing that they pay, and the garments they wear. Pretty cool huh? We had a man from the church come and speak to us. One thing that stood out to me was that he said they do not think of themselves as a religion they think of their beliefs as a way of life. It was an interesting way to put it. That the way they worship their God is a way or part of their life. Another interesting thing is that they always have five things on them, their: garments, bangle that represents eternal life, knife, hair ( which they do not cut because they believe it is a gift from God and that they sould love their hair and never cut hi) and a comb. I enjoyed this experience very much, their a similarities in our beliefs and their our differences; however, when you were at the Sikh Temple you could tell of their sincerity in their beliefs and desire to be good.



After we went to the Hindu temple, we did not really have anyone describe to us what they believe except for this old man. He did not speak very good English so I think that he pronounced the spelling wrong because I am even more confused on what they believe in.

Here on some other fun things we did in Southall.

We got some magic corn! It was on our list of things to try. We were stopped at one of the stands for a while debating if we should split some and everytime anyone walked buy he would raise the lid to give them a smell of the corn and then he would raise his eyebrows and give this little wave like you want? haha it was classic.



We got hena!