Week 51

i am terrible with emails guys i am so sorry! but we got our moves this week and i am staying in Edinburgh with sister Curtis! We have been in a trio for the past week and sister Irving is going home this week! i am excited to be here though!

We went to this cool beach for boxing day last week and had a bonfire inside this old ruined castle it was fun! 

this week is gonna be crazy for sure but i am excited to see what will happen this transfer:) 

thank you to everyone who sent me a letter for Christmas! It was by far my favorite gift! Love you!

heres a pic of me and my companion teaching our friend ming in the park:)...

the beach we went to on boxing day...

this is a member we visited who has cancer :( he served his mission in california!...

Week 50

Skyping on Christmas!

Week 49

Hey so this week was kind of just chill. We had our normal week in Elgin just trying to do a lot of member visits and inviting less active members to the special carol service this month! Hopefully some people will be able to attend. With all of this I still had no idea when president was going to tell me my new area and companions. He finally called and said that i will be in a trio with the sisters in Edinburgh! So that was interesting. but it will be good! the sisters are way nice so were chillin. So now I am here in Edinburgh and just back to normal missionary work life, which is so nice honestly. To be honest there’s not much to say today. sorry! but i hope you all have a good week and have some cool plans for the holidays:)

 Love you all

1. missionaries in edinburgh

2,3,4. pics from conference

Week 48

This week we had our CHRISTMAS conference! it was the best. We had some instructions in the morning and then we had a big lunch, which was so weird because they didn't give us a time limit on the lunch like we always do or like i have had for the past 11 months. but it was nice just sitting there and talking with everyone. then we were able to do a white elephant exchange with all the missionaries it was insane. I got this like african dark wooden mask. it was actually pretty sick.Then after we got to watch a movie! We watched Incredibles 2, i loved it haha i really think since being on my mission i find a lot more things entertaining and funny because i was dying that whole movie.

  Afterwards we had interviews with president and crazy stuff man! So my trainee seriously hurt her back a year ago and was a solider but at the start of the transfer it was causing lots of problems so with talking to president and the mission home for a few weeks they have decided it's best for her to go home and get surgery. So i am getting taken out of Elgin and put in a new area in a trio. but president has no idea where yet so we are still waiting to find that out. so while we are here we are just going to continue to teach our friends and then tell them we are leaving and then pass them to the next missionaries. SOooo i don't know where i will be for christmas but it will be an adventure!

  

   There is this family here called the Dawsons and they were planning on having us over for christmas eve, christmas and boxing day (the day after christmas) and when we told her we weren't gonna be here she was way sad and then invited us for dinner last night. And we showed up and she had made a really nice dinner and had taken out all her christmas dishes and her christmas tablecloth that she only ever takes out for christmas day and we used all that for dinner it was so cute! then we shared with them our christmas message that we were saving for christmas and it he spirit was very strong, it was a fun night:) We also set up their Christmas tree.

   We had the chance to teach some of our friends this week and at one of their homes they gave us apple juice from there own apple tree that they made themselves. it was way good! We taught this couple in their 60s that we met while at the resource center that we volunteer at. it was so fun! we were able to teach them the first lesson. 

    

   LOVE YOU ALL!!!

the dawsons for dinner 

Week 47

but i had a cool spiritual experience, so because i have been with companions who are younger than me basically my whole mission i was heavy stressing because i was like how am i suppossed to improve my missionary skills, because i really just want to be a missionary and i had been really praying about it lately and we were teaching some lessons and they just weren't going well and i was getting really frustrated. and then we taught this first lesson to this man David and it was such a good lesson and felt like i had improved some of my skills and really taught to HIS needs. and i came out of the lesson and was thinking what was so different about it? you know what it was? it was the flippin Spirit.. i was like oh my goodness. then it hit me that i have had basically nobody like other missionaries helping me improve my skills and that the Holy Spirit would be the that guides me and teaches me. literally something that i teach everyday to other people but didn't realize about myself. To be honest it is really hard when it is just the spirit but it is so cool to see how the Spirit has worked with me especially these past two weeks. He is this only thing i got right now and it has taught me to rely completely on the spirit. so that was cool. 

Week 46

   On Tuesday i was in Edinurgh picking up my new trainee, her name is sister Glassford! she is from Mapleton, Utah and she is way cute! we left Edinburgh that night and traveled back to Elgin it was about a four hour drive. 

  We had a lots of finding this week:) and we found some really cool people!

  We were able to teach our fromer investigator Steve. we had found him when i first got to Elgin but then we dropped him because we didn't feel his intent was there. then last week he called me and said he had read some of the book of mormon and had a few questions about it. he invited us to his home and so we went and talked to him about them and he expressed that he does have a desire to want to know if it's true. so we shared some scriptures with him whiched helped him understand how he could know. he said he would pray that night to find out. we are meeting with him later this week so i will let you know whats up next time! 

  We taught our two friends Mark and Jacob. They are both 22 and are best friends. They are pretty interested in finding out if the book of mormon is true so we comitted them to reading the book of mormon and pray about it. we are meeting with them this week so i willl let you know:) 

  Not a lot happened this week, but it was a good week. we went to this place called the resource center. i think its a center that helps people who are struggling and a lady in our branch does arts and crafts with them and invited us along to join. so we did that for an hour on friday and it was so fun! the people there are so funny! we cant wait to go back on Friday again:) 

1. P-day in Edinburgh with other missionaries while waiting for the trainees

2. Me and my new child:)

Week 45

We had moves calls this week and I am staying in Elgin but I am training a brand new missionary again! Crazy stuff man. This will be my 4th trainee, don't know why they keep sending me the newbies lol but it's chill! So I am in Edinburgh right now waiting to pick up her up and see who she is. I dropped Sister Linco off at the train station today and I was very sad to see her go:( But she is gonna do great in her new area.  

 We were able to find some cool people this week and to teach some of our friends who are progressing towards baptism so thats cool. i feel like i am making progress here in the branch. I was able to give a talk in church on Sunday and I really think it opened up some doors for me and the members which i am stoked about. 

Honestly i dont really have much to say but i hope all is well back home! all i hear about is the fires going on. whats the deal with that? haha love you all

Week 44

 This week was kind of a slow week. We were able to go out and find new people to teach this week :) We met lots of new people. Last week we taught this guy that we found on the street named Mark. he is 22 and lives right outside Elgin. He was pretty open minded about religion and what is really out there, so we were able to teach him the first lesson and committed him to reading the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Then we brought up baptism and he booked it out of there so fast and said he would call us if he was interested in meeting again. So we were like yeah peace out dude, we will never see him again. Well this week we received a text from him saying that he was going to be in Elgin this week and wanted to meet up and wanted to bring his friend with him as well. So we met with mark and his friend Jacob. and the whole time we were with them Jacob was just rapid fire asking us different questions about the church and it was really cool because everytime we would answer them mark would stand up for us and say yeah that's true or yeah that makes sense, so it was a really neat experience. we would try to bear a short testimony when we would answer his questions so that the spirit could be there. at the end of the lesson mark turned to Jacob and said, "i dont know if these things are true that they talk about but i am willing to do what i can to find out for myself." i was like duuuude no way. then jacob said he was interested in learning more. so it was a really neat experience for all of us. 

    It was remembrance Day on Sunday, which is celebrated for all the people who have fought in the wars. so there was a parade on Sunday at 10 am that we participated in so that means church was moved to 1pm. We sang in church and let's just say i dont think they will be asking me to sing again haha. SIster linco is really good, me not so much but its cool. 

    We met this really cool guy named Richard when we were knocking doors the other night. we were able to teach him the first lesson and he said that he is interested in what we have to say because the older he gets the more he realizes he knows nothing about life and really just wants to find peace in his life. that was cool. 

   Our friend Kemal who is from Turkey was able to come to church this sunday. we found him on the streets a little while back, but he is interested again about learning more about the church. he has no background with religion, like he doesn't even know what the bible is, so we are starting at the very basics with him. it is really fun. 

   For last pday we went to Glenfiddich Distilery. it was way out in the middle of nowhere but it was surrounded by the most beautiful trees and the place smelled sooo good! we each got our own free bottle of whiskey haha.

pics of the beach in our area...

Week 43

Week 42

This week was an interesting week for sure. Me and Sister Linco were able to get our flu jabs. I didn't really want to get them but Sister Linco really wanted hers so we decided that we would. We walked into the pharmacy and i was a little nervous and being weird and sister linco was like dude whats wrong with you haha because i get quite antsy for needles haha. but sister linco got hers first and i was sitting there like sweating and squirming in my chair as i watched hers and then it was my turn and i was like crap. and i was so nervous haha and it showed but nevertheless i got my flu jab without any tears so it was a successful day. 

   We met this guy this week while GQing and we were talking and he was like my friend would be really interested in what you have to say why don't we meet back here and talk more about it and ill bring my friend. So we were able to teach him and his friend the plan of salvation which was super cool.

     Funny story me and sister linco were approached in church this sunday by a member and were asked (well told) to sing a duet in two weeks at church.. lol. after they see me sing they wont ask us again haha. i have no idea why she asked us to sing but it will be interesting haha.

     So as you probably know Glen was supposed to be baptized this last Saturday, well everything was set, we had met with him everyday before his baptism and he kept saying how excited he was and just wanted it to happen already. then Friday night came along and he texted us and said that he doesn't feel ready and needs more time. So the baptism did not happen unfortunately which was quit sad for us. It is so sad to see things like this happen. Me and Sister Linco were pretty upset that Saturday but we are glad that if he didn't feel ready that he told us and didn't just go through with the baptism anyway. So we are going to meet with him today and hopefully talk to him and see where he is at with everything. Prayers would be much appreciated :) 

   This lady in our branch asked us if we could come to her home and wallpaper her kitchen for her. Well wallpapering is pretty interesting. but we did it and during the wallpapering i didn't realize how much of a perfectionist i am. She kept saying it was fine but i was dude no do you see it isn't matched up? haha but it was fun. 

   It is starting to get very cold here and my toes are freezing! it's way colder here than in any of my other areas because we are so far north. We were chapping last night and we started to talk to this guy at his door and this lady in our branch gave us gloves this week that are really fuzzy and i took off my glove as i was talking to him and these fuzzy things flew everywhere and into my mouth. i started dying and i couldn't get them out of my mouth! it was a mess but God is good because we set up an appointment with him! Super cool

Sis Neilson

my pumpkin i carved

awkward picture on the high street

Week 41

Week 39

This week has been insane! this past Tuesday we were street contacting and I was able to meet some really cool people. I met this girl Sarah, who is 17, and she expressed that she had just moved to Elgin and that she was looking for a new church to join! we were able to set up an appointment with her the next day. We taught her the restoration and she is so cool. she completely understood what we were teaching and then she told us that she was baptized just this last June. we were like, oh no how are we gonna bring up baptism? we talked about baptism and then invited her to be baptized and she accepted! she just said that the things that we were saying to her made sense. we asked her what she felt as we were teaching her and she said she could definitely feel the Holy Ghost with her in our discussion and that he was comforting her because she was really nervous to meet with us. haha It was so amazing to see how the Holy Spirit can touch someone's life and to testify of the goodness of the message that we share with people!

I also met this guy named Glen while we were street contacting earlier this week. he said that he doesn't have a belief in God and that he just really wants to know what his purpose in life is and why he is here. He really wants to know if God is really there. I explained to him that the Book of Mormon can answer each of those questions that he has and i set up an appointment with him for two days later. The morning of his lesson he texted us and said, "I remember you said that the book you were holding answered some of my questions. where can I find one?" i was like dude this guy is sick! We got to the lesson and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and and what his purpose in this life was and shared a ton of scriptures with him from the Book of Mormon to answer each of his questions. We asked him some of the feelings and thoughts that he had while we shared with him these things and he said, "Well, whenever you gave me a scripture to read I would feel something. It wasn't a big powerful thing, but something was there that i could definetly feel."  we testified to him that that was the Holy Ghost testifying to him of the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted! he doesn't have a belief in God or anything but we know he was able to accept baptism because of the Holy Spirit. It was really able to strenghten my testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. It showed me that this book was able to literally bring the feelings of the holy spirit and to testify to him. we missionaries cannot do what we do without the spirit. He said he just needs to go home and read the book and to pray and ask god so he can know for himself. it was such a spiritually powerful lesson with him. We set up an appointment to meet with him the next day and he showed up to the lesson and he had brought his girlfriend with him! We sat down and taught them both the restoration. at the end his girlfriend said everything we said makes sense and this is something that she has always wndered about and she thinks its time she starts to learn more about these things. we invited her to be baptized and she accepted as well! They were able to come to the Saturday morning session of General Conference,which is Sunday night here. at the end of the session I asked Glen what he thought of conference and he said, "it felt like i belonged somehow. I dont know but it was just this feeling." we talked more about the Holy Spirit and i asked him if that was what he thought it was and he said he hopes so! We were able to teach him the first three lessons this weekend and we will be continuing to teach them this week! :) 

I loved conference this past week. it was so great! I loved Elder Rasband's talk. it was my favorite! talking about Helaman 5:12 and how we have to build a firm foundation! so good! I also loved President Nelson's talk about the name of the church :)

It's amazing to see that wherever you serve, big cities or small towns, that the Lord has people who are prepared to hear His message and accept it into their own lives. People are prepared! We just need to do our own part, so get that message out! The power of The Book of Mormon is real. i know this to be true. i have seen it work in peoples lives and change them for the good. We need to read from it and study it and apply it into our lives. God is good, man. 

LOVE TO YOU ALL :)

garry

our car

Week 38

Loch Ness was sick! it was so beautiful. we had a zone pday so we all brought our own meat and had a bbq on the beach. then of course we had to drink from loch ness, so we went down to the water and one of the elders took his yeezy off (kanye west tennis shoe) and we all drank from it. it was sick. 

Transfers are this week and i am pretty sure me and linco are staying for another one together. i would be shocked if they moved us.

We were driving home from an  appointment that was pretty far out this week and we were on the phone with president (sis linco had the phone, I was driving) because we had to talk to him about one of our friends. out of nowhere this chicken runs into the middle of the road and i'm like oh no! i didnt know what to do, so i start screaming and hoping that the chicken would move. but it didnt and we hit it! president was on the other line and was like what is going on? it was pretty funny. 

these are my kids Sister Khoo and Sister linco minus sister carabott 

sister killian sister khoo and me

Our zone at loch ness...

some cool pics we took while driving to an appointment...

sis dawson

Week 37-weekly craic

Hey! This week was great!

on Monday we didn't do much we just stayed in Elgin and got some things done that we needed too, not much to do in Elgin lol.

Funny story.. so we were driving to Edinburgh on wednesday night and we had to pick up some other sisters and we are in the car and the next thing i know there is a cop car behind me and his lights are flashing and i am just like crap! SO they come to my window and oh my goodness they were so rude and harsh with me. they made me get out of the car and told me to get in their car and i was just like uh no i don’t think. I don’t want to do that. and they were like get in the car now. so I did. my companion came up to the car window and tried talking with them and he said get back in your car, we need to have a few words with your friend here. and so it was me and the two cops in the car and they just ripped into me about how i was speeding and then threatened to arrest me. i gave them my license and its a utah drivers license. they said oh you're from utah cause you're mormon and i was like actually i am from california. nice try though. haha. the other sisters in the car were freaking out and my poor trainee hahha

we taught our friend Sheila this week she is a wonderful lady and as Scottish as you can get! she is such a mom to us we love her! but sadly when we taught her this week we realized that she wasn't going to continue to progress and we decided that couldn't meet with her any longer:( it was so sad, because she totally knows it's true and feels the spirit when we are there but just won't accept it, very sad. 

We had a dinner and lunch appointment that day which was awesome! but for sure gonna gain weight here because they feed us so much! they're too nice! 

We taught our friend George who we have been teaching for the past couple weeks. he is 73 and is so nice he used to play football but hurt his leg and wasn't able to play the same afterwards sadly. He has been smoking for about 30 years now and we taught him the word of wisdom and he completely stopped smoking which was amazing! Coffee is another story though :( 

Wednesday we traveled to Dundee, which was about a 3 hour drive, to make it to Edinburgh the next day for all Scotland! then from Dundee to Edinburgh it took us 2 more hours. lots of traveling but it was worth it because the conference was great! Elder Masimo De Feo was there and he gave two instructions to us which were great! Then 5 missionaries were chosen to have an interview with him after the conference and i was able to be one of them, which was way cool. Something that really stuck out to me this conference was something that Elder De Feo talked about. he was saying how we need to have the light of Jesus Christ from within us and from that we can have internal motivation and we will begin to change. we as missionaries need to find that personal connection to the Lord and to missionary work and always have that small flame inside of you to continue with the work and stay motivated. Staying motivated is sometimes, well a lot of times, difficult. haha which is interesting because I am out here to share this unique message with the people of Scotland and Ireland, something that can benefit them and change there life, and sometimes i wake up and have no motivation and it has been something that I really want to change. With Elder De Feo talking about this after the conference we had about 5-10 mins to pray and read and I opened up my scriptures to a 'random' page in The Book of Mormon and it  was Mosiah 18;17-23. (I think this can relate to missionaries and to members) This is when Alma was teaching the people in private and the people have just been baptized. he explains to them that basically they have just been baptized and have made covenants with our Father in Heaven. He is telling them to preach the words of the prophets. but verse 21 is what really stuck out to me, "And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.” 

Do missionary work out of love not because you are supposed to but because you WANT to. I think we sometimes forget how lucky we are to have this gospel in our life. Think of the many blessings we have received from living the gospel and having it in our life. Think of who else do you want to share those blessings with? Don't be afraid to share you spiritual experiences in church or with your friends, don't be afraid to invite someone to a church activity or to church. Give them the opportunity to learn more about these teachings. Do you your part in building up the kingdom of God so at the last day you can say you did everything you could. Doing missionary work isn't just going out street contacting. You can do missionary work with other members by sharing your testimony by serving someone, just the little things. Sorry for that spiritual rant lol. Conferences always get us pumped! so exciting to be back in Elgin and back to work!

 

Our friend Garry was baptized this last Saturday and it was so cool! 

This past week we were knocking doors and our area is really big so we decided to go out a little ways and try where missionaries haven't chapped in a while. We went to this town called Huntly, which is like the old time Scotland that you would think of when you think of Scotland. the first door we knocked on this lady in her 70’s, Cynthia, with purple hair (she's straight up a hippie, it's sick) answered and she let us inside and we were able to teach her a little bit! it was such an interesting experience teaching her because she is Jewish! and so cool learning about her background and everything. the stories she tells us are so cool!  it's going to be a slow process teaching her because they don't believe in Jesus Christ, so it is going to be very little baby steps with her. she said she would pray and try to listen to the Holy Ghost so that was super exciting! That lesson was such a testimony builder for me because we went into the lesson planning on teaching the restoration but when we got in there it was very clear that she wasn't ready for all of that, so while we were talking to her I was praying to Heavenly Father asking what we should teach and what she would connect with and what I could say and let me tell you, that whole lesson was completely from the spirit. there is no doubt. i wasn't even sure we were going to be able to commit her to do anything, but i knew we needed to at least try to commit her to do something so we invited her to pray and try listening for an answer. she accepted our commitment, which is a big step for her because she said in the Jewish religion women don't even speak to God. it is frowned upon apparently and they don't believe in the holy ghost is what she told us. So very cool experience! I am excited to continue to keep teaching her :) 

We met this cool guy on the street this week named Wesley. he said when he was younger that missionaries had come to his home and that he still has the book of mormon from them! HE said that he loves how our religion is centered on families because he has two daughters himself. he said that his polish friend comes over and is obsessed with the book of mormon and that they would both be interested in learning more so we are going to try to teach them this week! we are pumped for that!

We taught this guy from Turkey and he had us over to his home for a first lesson and fed us turkish food and it was amazing! Then we started teaching him and he literally didnt know anything, like even what the bible was or anything. it was so exciting for us. so we are literally teaching someone with a clean slate so it's super cool! he lives right on the beach and it was beautiful. the sun was about to set and everything. 

LOVE YOU ALL, PEACE

1. this is George notice the book of mormon between us.. lol. also we taught him the word of wisdom while he was drinking his daily coffee.

2. this is sheila 

3. This a member named annie. we use her a lot to teach with us and her family has us over for dinner twice a week:)

4. annie

5. pic at the beach