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

Ali's New Mission President

From an article in the Deseret News

Scotland/Ireland Mission receives new Mission President Couple

President and Sister Macdonald share a bit about who they are and what they look forward to as they serve in the Scotland/Ireland Mission.

I was raised in a small coal mining town in Price, Utah.  My father is Ramsay Alaster Macdonald (spelled with a small “d”). My mother, Ann Dart, is a convert and a wonderfully strong woman who raised us after my father was killed in a coal mine accident when I was 12.  Both of my grandparents were born and raised in Scotland.

Sister Macdonald is the oldest of six girls. She has Scottish, English and Welsh ancestry. She is the love of my life and enjoys her grandchildren, organ.izing and serving in the Church. She has served as a ward Relief Society and Primary president and stake primary counselor among many other things, and as a seminary teacher.

I was baptized when I was eight years of age but because my father was not a member of the church and my mother not active at the time, I was not active until around the age of 15. The first book I ever read in my life was the Book of Mormon. It touched my soul in a way and at a time of life that caused me to desire a closer proximity to God and the Savior Jesus Christ.  I served in the Mississippi Jackson Mission from 1983 to 1984. Denise and I have known each other from the time we were in fourth grade. We dated a bit in high school but didn’t date again until I got home from my mission. Sister Macdonald was born and raised in Utah.

Much of my growth in the gospel and Church can be attributed to the good friends that I had growing up. These young men were active, and mischievous in a good way, and included me in Boy Scouts and other activities and eventually as a member of the Church. Each of them served missions and they remain good friends today.

My love for the Savior Jesus Christ is the reason I served a mission. As a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, I learned that I loved teaching the gospel and seeing growth in the lives of those who accepted the truth. It is also a reason I enlisted in the United States Air Force where I served four years of active duty.

Sister Macdonald and I have six children and 8.7 grandchildren. (a granddaughter will be born a month after we leave for Scotland.) My greatest passion is teaching. I also love to cook and bake, which feeds my habit of eating.

Right now, my goal for the next three years is to follow the lead of the great President George Donaldson.

Week 36

Just so this letter makes a little bit more sense...I asked Ali a few questions in my email to her the first 3 paragraphs are her answers.

My question: What have you learned about why it’s important to be obedient on your mission?

    honestly being obedient on your mission is the only way to get anything done. Like you can be disobedient and you will still see progress in the missionary work, but you wont see progress in yourself and you won't be happy. it's just not worth it. the time i was most obedient in the mission was when i was the happiest. i would wake up pumped to go out and to find and teach and i felt that as myself and as a missionary i was progressing the best. Just be stinkin obedient! it is just way better! Sometimes i would wonder why we even need to be obedient if we are seeing success. but there's a quote in preach my gospel that talks about obedience is showing how much you love the Lord, so whenever I am struggling with being obedient, because every missionary does, i try to remember that and continue to keep working. 

My question: What was the hardest day in your mission and what helped you get through it?

   I cant look back on my mission and think of the hardest day. but when you have hard days the only way to help them is to work. which honestly sucks sometimes because you're like, theres no way that working is going to help me and i don't want to go out, it has been such a crappy day. butttt when you do go out and work at the end of the day you look back and you realize that you showed the Lord that you did everything you could. It makes it all worth it man.

My question: What was your spiritual high this week? When did you feel the spirit the most?

    A spiritual high we had this week was when the town got dead and there was nobody out so then we knew it was time to knock some doors. so when we go chapping we usually pick a name off the less active list or a former someone that the missionaries used to teach and knock on their door and then knock in that neighborhood. we rolled up to this neighborhood and the minute we were about to park we both just felt that it wasn't right so we decided to choose another name and go somewhere else. we got to another neighborhood and it felt better, so we got out and the first door we knocked on this chick named Lorraine opened the door. we said we were sharing a message about families and started talking with her and she started crying and told us she had lost her daughter a couple weeks back and that she didn't feel support from her church. so we talked with her and shared a little bit about the great plan of happiness that God has for all of us, His children, here on this earth and she invited us back to her crib for this Tuesday to hear more of this message. After we went our seperate ways me and Sister Linco just were in awe of what just happened. we had no words. we just were like what the heck just happened? i think it really relates to going back to obedience. the day before i had really set a goal to be more obedient and being obedient plays a role with being in tune with the spirit. I am so grateful for the gift of the holy ghost that our Father in Heaven has provided for all of His children here on this earth. I don't know if on Tuesday if she will let us back into her home, but I do know that she felt the spirit enough to invite us back and sometimes that is all that matters, planting that small seed. But yeah that is my small spiritualness for the week. haha sorry i have been so bad at writing the past couple months haha. 

    Our homegirl Natasha was baptized this last Saturday! that was such a special experience for all of us. We had a good group of the branch members that came out to support her and it was awesome! And our boi Garry was at the baptism and it got him so excited for his baptism that is coming up this weekend! he kept telling everyone that was at the baptism that he would be doing the same thing this next week. 

    On pday this week we went up to Inverness which is literally so beautiful! it's the prettiest place i have seen in my mission. but we had a district pday and we went on this hike that was suppossed to be about an hour long and at the top of the mountain was supposed to be a castle. well the hike lasted about 10 minutes and we got to the top and there was nothing there. it was quite dissapointing hahha but we had a fun time. 

    On Wednesday we went down to Aberdeen for exchanges and i was with my homie Sister Lough. it was good day! If you look up Aberdeen all the buildings and homes are just made of granite so it looks quite depressing but cool at the same time haha. 

   Thats about all for this week love you all! 

1. Natashas baptism 

2. me cleaning the font. it was way gross! they haven't had a baptism since march so there was bugs all over it so we had to clean it

3. district council
4. my district

5. inverness view

6. and aberdeen

Week 35

Today my email is gonna be written by me spanish compannion,so excuse her.

This is a day by day email,fuego!

Monday:

 We went to the beach  in Aberdeen and it started raining.

 Sister Neilson demonstrated her basketball abilities and showed everyone who runs the world.

 Nothing else.

Tuesday:

 I do not remember but it was a good day because we had dinner at the Dawsons and whenever there is dinner at the dawsons one knows it's a good day.

Wednesday:

We contacted people on the street and my compannion ended up talking to an English lawyer who started talking to her and she didnt did not know how to answer him back in Spanish.
Also dinner with branch president plus 2 other random missionaries.

Thursday:

We spent the day with Lee, a recent convert who loves the missionaries and especially feed them so we ate some pizzas with him and then we went to do a lesson with him while we walked and we ended up in the middle of a field. See picture below for more information of what happened that day.

Friday:

I do not remember either but we also had dinner at the Dawsons so it was probably a good day.

Saturday:

Natasha had her baptismal interview and it went perfect!She will be baptized next Saturday wohoo! We also went to visit Lee at his workshop and he got us to fix his car. There goes another photo.

Sunday:
Sister Neilson got in trouble with the Gospel Principles teacher AGAIN. We were in the middle of the lesson when Trish, a recent convert, was waving at her because she wanted to come in, and Sister Neilson waved her back trying to speak sign language maybe? So the teacher said, and these were her exact words in the exact same way she said it,: IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT TO SAY SISTER? and sis neilson was like TRISH IS TRYING TO COME IN AND I'M JUST TELLING HER TO COME IN, and there were no chairs for her so we interrupted the class so that she could have a seat, it was fun.
In the afternoon we had a first lesson with this really cool chick named Chloe who showed up 30 minutes before and after that we got invited to branch president's house for dinner and after that we had a Lesson with Lee in the top of a hill and good things like that keep happening to us and we are scared. :)

HIghlight of the week: we adopted 2 new pets that used to live in the darkest corner of our room, Felicia and Roberto. It was love at eighth sight and we married them and they sent us a picture of their honeymoon in Florida.

And today we'll go to Inverness  :)
Aguante Argentina

the beach we went to

this is natasha teaching us the restoration

felicia and roberto on their honeymoon

pic of one of our daily drives

A Message from Lee Dickens

Today Alan & I got a facebook message & pictures from a recent convert in the area Ali is serving. His name is Lee Dickens and he had the sisters over for dinner. It is one of those times when you are a proud parent. :)


we have all just been for a walk up over the farm after pizza. had an amazing chat about life /the future and the gospel. she's one cool missionary! Total credit to you guys ... don't think I've laughed so much in my life ... Honestly, She's amazing. I've met heaps of missionaries. some are great friends, some are just missionaries, but in the short time I've spent with her she tops the lot

Honestly... the first night I met her I had just drove 1100miles and was really tired and upset that I hadn't a chance to say bye to our prev sister and she was so quiet. I thought, oh no this will be a struggle ........ the next day I ordered the kebabtisum and holy coke. within 20 mins I was literally trying not to pee myself.. and felt like we had been pals for years ...trust me, she will be fine

basically every missionary that comes into the mission usually gets a dirty big kebab. (Elgin usually has newbies so I've always done it) but usually the first companion does it. however I found she didn't have it so I had to fix that

She got me a cracker tho as I was half way thru mine she told me to "one bite it " so said if she could I will... hence the pic of her trying to squeeze it in lol

Yep .. definitely a bit of a rebel lol ..