Week 55

me and sister macnamara on our year mark!!!...

sister curtis is usually the one to make lunch but today i tried and she came in and it was a mess but it was the thought that counts, she continues to make fun of me…

 exploring the castle...

bro & sis macdonald...

trousers. not a fan...

Week 54

This week was wild. haha On Monday, for preparation day, we were able to go to the craig miller castle with all the missionaries. we played hide n go seek in it. it was sick. 

   On tuesday we had the Scotland North Conference. so we drove up to Aberdeen and were able to help out and instruct at that. We didn't get back home until late that night. it was cool being able to see some friends up there:) 

   On Wednesday we actually had a normal day. There is this girl named Niamh who met with the missionaries a little while ago. but they said that when they taught her, their lessons didn't really go anywhere and she would never progress. then she just fell off the face of the earth and would never respond to them. but i texted her the other day and asked if she wanted to meet up and she said she would! so on Wednesday night we met with her, and oh my goodness she is so rad. So when she was 15 she ran away from home and lived in a buddhist monestary for a little while and has kind of just traveled around. now she is in Edinburgh. then she apologized for not contacting the missionaries for awhile and continued to tell us that in November her mom committed suicide and so she left the country for a while to cope. She continued to tell us that she decided that she knows that the book of mormon is true and wants to make the church more a part of her life and told us she wants to be baptised. She also said that she remembered the missionaries talking about doing baptisms for the dead and that she wanted to do that for her mom. my mind was blown! so we had such a good lesson on the plan of salvation and set her on date to be baptised next month:) it was so amazing.

  On Thursday we had the Scotland South Conference and we did the same thing and instructed at that. it was in Edinburgh so we didn't have to travel which was nice haha.

me and my two kids that are still alive lol

  On Friday we had exchanges with one of our sisters and it was sway cool we had some good lessons and found some cool people! 

On Friday night the ward put together a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) or Burns Night, which is a social event with Scottish or Irish folk music, singing, traditional dancing, and storytelling. so they hired a scottish band to play and partner dance. all the missionaries just danced with their companion and made sure that we didn't get too close to each other. haha Our mission president rolled up in a kilt, so that was cool. everyone at the party was just dancing and having so much fun. at the beginning of the party they had some scottish story telling and then the cutting of the haggis. and oh my goodness, that was actually the best haggis i have ever had! it wont get better than that! (haggis’s main ingredients are sheep or calf organs, onion, oatmeal, suet & spices encased in a bag made from the animal’s stomach) we had neeps and tatties (yellow turnip or rutabaga & potatoes). but it was honestly one of the most fun times i have had on my mission.

  Then today we got special permission by our mission president to hike Arthurs Seat, which has been banned for missionaries for the longest time. but there was a lunar eclipse early this morning and so he let us all get up at 4 to be able to go hike and be up there by 5:15 for it. it was so dang cold, but so fun. i'm gonna be so tired though haha . and it was way dark because, well, the sun wasn't out. lol so i tripped quit a few times but everything is good in the hood man. 

We are teaching some really cool people right now. i never know what to write about the people we are teaching becasue i feel like it always sounds the same to you guys and you might get bored. haha but we are still teaching our friend Mung. she is a trooper because our chinese is not good and her english is okay. but we brought in an elder that is serving here who speaks chinese who was able to help us teach her and it went a little better. we also have exchanges with a sister who is serving in Belfast ireland who is coming in who speaks really good chinese who will be able to teach mung with me and it will help so much! 

We have our friend Sarah who has been taught everything but is getting heavy pressure from family and friends not to get baptised. but she knows its true. I can't even comprehend how hard it would be to know something is true, but your friends and family wreck you for it. that would be such a hard decision to make. but she is amazing and she will do what is best. she has so much faith. it's awesome!

We have our friend kacper who has been taught the first three lessons. he is from poland and has come to every activity and every church service since we met him. he is way cool, he has lots of doubts and questions but his questions are good, he just wants to be sure about everything which is cool. 

Those are like the main people we are teaching right now. we have others but those are the main ones and i dont want to write anymore. haha 

 

But yeah, God is good and this work is amazing. i am so grateful for all of it, the good and the bad. it is great! Obviously we all have our doubts and questions, even as a missionary you do, which can be hard sometimes. but it is cool because i know that as we always turn to God and sincerely and humbly ask Him our questions, then they will be answered, and all will be well. I was talking to a sister this week and we were talking about the struggles that we face and how hard they can be sometimes. and its cool to look at, because sometimes we are comfortable where we are at and don't want to move, but God sees our true and full potential and knows what we need to do to get there. so he has to knock us down a little bit, or a lot sometimes (which sucks) but is so cool, because if we allow ourselves to get back up, we will get back up better and stronger. and it's just kind of an ongoing process which can totally be the worst or the best depending on the way you look at it. if that makes sense i don’t know. haha but that was my rant for the day. i love you guys all so much!!!

also i pulled my toe nail off...

i panicked a little bit...

Week 53

   This past week on pday we played belly baseball. Thats where its basically play kickball but the bases that we run to are mattress and you have to have your chest on the mattress and if you dont they can throw the ball at you or touch you with the ball and you are out it was way fun.

   We had zone cluster on Tuesday and we introduced the missions plan for the new year.

   Then on Wednesday we flew to Ireland for the all Ireland conference. So first we flew to Belfast then we took a 2.5 hour bus ride down to Dublin.  It was cool being able to see everyone in Ireland we gave a little instruction at that. Then since we are so far away from the sisters in ireland and only see them once a transfer at conferences, we thought it would be fun to go on exchanges with one of the sister teams in ireland:)

  After the conference in Dublin we took the same bus back into Belfast and then the sisters that we wanted to go on exchanges with live about a 2.5 hour train ride out. so we took the train to their area the next morning and spent the day there. on Saturday morning we took the train back into belfast and then flew back to edinburgh that day. so lots of traveling but it was fun. haha it was cool seeing all the sisters. 

   We are still teaching our same people our Kacper from Poland he is progressing the most right now, lessons are pretty tight with him. 

   we are teaching our friend Meng and Anna still. their english isn't too great so the past couple lessons have been very interesting. but we have an elder here who speaks mandarin so we took him to the lesson with us and it went better than normal so that was good. it was still rough but a lil bit better. Meng has a 7 month old baby who is just this chucky little thing. so cute!

   Not much else happened this week but love you all!

1. me and my comp

2. look how big this carrot is! I drench it in hummus to hid the taste of the carrot. haha

3. picture of us at all ireland conference eating some dank pizza

4, 5. Pictures from MLC. missionary leadership council.

6,7. me on the train, passed out in ireland

Week 52

my goodness this week has been nuts! 

     New years was so great! So last week was moves week and here in this mission moves are crazy because we cover three different countries! so moving people can take lots of travel for some people. A lot of people had to come through Edinburgh and one of those people was Sister Lough! she was my trainer and was also my companion, sister Curtis’, companion. so we are all pretty tight. but sister lough was able to stay at our flat on new years eve and it was just us three and it was so fun! We were allowed to watch movies so we watched remember the titans. i love that movie! nothing can ever top that.

    Then on new years day (we had the day off) me sister lough and sister curtis were all able to hangout again and just chill. that night we played lots of games with the other missionaries. it was insane!

 

   Wednesday is where is got a lil crazy. All the departing missionaries were at the mission home waiting to go home but at the same time the arriving missionaries were coming in. so there were so many missionaries! but when new missionaries come in that means that there are trainers and the trainers need to learn how to train. so president, the assistants and me and my companion give instructions to them about the requirements as a trainer and such. it was very interesting. to be completely honest, even though i have been on my mission for about a year now, talking in front of a group of people still is not my favorite thing. teaching and finding on the street is my favorite and i have no problem with it. but when it comes to giving instructions and things like that im not the biggest fan. But none the less i think it went well haha.

 

   Then Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council, which was very interesting as well. thats where the all the leadership in the mission come in and we council together about the mission. and it was way cool because its the beginning of the year so we were able to look at the past year and then president introduced the new mission plan for this year. very cool. that ended around 3 ish and then we went out and did normal missionary work:)

    Finally friday was a normal day! A lot of the people we are teaching right now are still on holiday till next week so we were really trying to find new people this week. But we have some really cool people we are teaching right now. a lot of them are from china which is sick! its so different learning how to teach chinese people because they know nothing about God. we have to start from scratch with them, but its so fun learning how. frustrating sometimes but fun! hahha

    On Saturday we had Zone leadership council. thats where the zone leaders, us and the district leaders in the zone council together about the vision this transfer for our zone. it went so well! it was really cool to see everyone talking with each other about the zone. Then we had a lot of planning we had to do that day.

   We haven't had a ton of time to go out finding so me and sister curtis were really trying to have the focus to have more on the spot lessons, which means when you are gqing to be able to sit down right there and then with them and teach them. so on Saturday night we had a couple of hours to go out and find and that was our focus. the first person i started talking to that night was Casper. he is from Poland and said he was interested in meeting right then! so we went to starbucks and we were able to teach him a little bit. it was really cool to see how God is really on our side and supporting us in everything that we do! Casper was able to come to church on Sunday (i love two hour church by the way). But sunday was full of all sorts of meetings with the ward and then we had a meeting with president and the assistants trying to plan the zone conferences this transfer. but then sunday night we had to give another instruction to all the new leadership missionaries but since the mission is all spread out we did it over a skype call. now this was interesting because i was giving an instruction on something that i have never done before. i wasnt the biggest fan of that but we did it anyways. its been a crazy week and i am grateful it is over, i am learning lots but we have another crazy fun week planned this week so i am excited!

  Something really cool though, like i expressed in the beginning of my email, teaching and finding has always been something i loved and something i feel comfortable with. but when it comes to giving instructions i freeze and get so nervous! its actually so bad. haha so i was really nervous this past week with all the instructions we were gonna have to be giving. i was praying a lot i will tell you that. but when i was giving my instruction this week, it was so weird, but i felt totally calm and comfortable. i wasnt nervous at all when i stood up and it was actually fun. haha but it has definetly strengthened my testimony in the power God. he does work miracles because that was truly a damn miracle! but i am so grateful for heavenly Father and the support He gives us in the hardest times. i do know He is always watching over us, but that we cant just ask for things and expect it to happen. it requires action on our part. we have to do everything we can and God will cover the rest. Its so great! i love you all.

  Also side note, me and comp bought trousers this week and wore them out. it was an interesting experience. i am the not the biggest fan but it was cool trying it out. haha

us and the zone leaders planning