LET'S JUST TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER. So here weather is actually a hot topic (no pun intended). It's not the awkward filler topic when you don't know what else to say. It is the first thing that everyone talks about. THIS WEEK WAS BEAUTIFUL (other than the 5 days that it rained). By beautiful I'm talking a full two days of not wearing tights, or boots, or a scarf, or gloves, or a COAT. That's right WE WENT COATLESS AND TIGHTLESS. It was amazing. We were even praying for sunburns, but that didn't happen. Today it is a bit colder and we had to revert back to boots, coats, and tights. BUT STILL it was amazing.
MIRACLE IN OBAN: So don't remember if I talked about it last week, but one of the few members up there (Donny) had a tenet move into his house and he invited him to church, scripture study, and to meet with missionaries. ____ accepted the invitation and went to all these things with Donny. Last week we taught him the Restoration and he readily accepted baptism. Because we split our time there with the senior couple they were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is loving everything he is learning and says the most sincere prayers! And another mini miracle is that he is a chef and will be cooking for us this week! We are so excited and we love to watch his enthusiasm to learn. As well as Donny's dedication to helping him learn and being his friend in the Gospel. It is amazing. We love member referrals!
____ is the first member referral I have received on my mission and what a miracle it is! We have really been working with the ward to find those people that they know to learn the Gospel. We continue to push them to pray for missionary opportunities, act on promptings, and open their mouths! When they do MIRACLES HAPPEN.
This week I have been reflecting a lot on what it means to Minister as well as something President Nelson said in the UK/Ireland Broadcast. He said something along the lines of, "How do we minister? Just like Jesus Christ...that's all." I love the simplicity of this answer. Truly all we ever need to do is follow the example of Jesus Christ. We have been inviting every member to think about what they can do in their lives to better follow Christ (3 Nephi 27:27). I invite you all to do the same!
I've also been thinking a lot about "Give Said the Little Stream." "I'm small I know, but wherever I go the grass grows greener still!" The smallest things make the biggest difference.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Monday, April 16, 2018 - "Today is a great day to be a missionary!"
Last week on Pday I went to my first castle of the mission! 7 months, 1 castle. How pathetic! This wasn't just any castle. This was a proper castle. Inverary Castle. Worth every pound. People lived in it until 2001 or something crazy like that! Also if anyone has seen Downton Abbey it was filmed there! We had fun exploring the castle and the gardens.
15 MIRACLES: Okay so 14 of the these miracles was the temperature. It was 14 degrees this week in Oban and SUNNY. We were walking around with no coats on, rolling up our sleeves, no scarves, praying to get a sunburn (we didn't), but it was soooooo nice! The biggest blessing. The 15th miracle is in progress. We got a call from the recent convert in Oban named Donny. He told us that a young man just moved in and they started talking about the Gospel. Donny invited him to church and HE WENT WITH HIM YESTERDAY. He also said that he wanted to learn more and would go to the scripture study this week that the senior couple puts on! Yay for member missionaries! We are so grateful for them, especially in an area where only 10 people attend church regularly.
Sad thing of the week: So President Nelson and Elder Holland are on a world wide tour with their wives. Their first stop was to the British Isles and they were going to do two broadcasts. One for missionaries and one for the general public. All the missionaries in the Glasgow area went to the stake centre to watch together. Only one problem. The internet wasn't working for the live stream and it wasn't recorded. We found out about 45 minutes in that the construction workers at the church accidentally sawed through the internet cable and that there was no hope of getting the internet to work at the church. We were all scrambling to see what we could do to at least watch some of it. The Glasgow Sisters called a member (as we were driving to her flat) to see if we could watch it there. Luckily we could and we caught the last 10 minutes or so of the stream. We were glad we at least got to watch some of it!
One thing I took from the broadcast in the short amount of time we had to watch it was how President Nelson said he bounces out of bed every morning in excitement to see what that day has in store. In our attempt to best follow the Prophet, Sister Anderson and I have started "bouncing" out of bed in the morning and saying, "Woohoo! Today is a great day to be a missionary!" I have noticed that little change to my morning routine effects the rest of my day and my attitude throughout the day.
Scare of the week: I almost had to play the ORGAN. It was 9:55 and there was no organist to play. As soon as I sat down at the organ the lady who normally does it walked in. Phew! I was then told that everyone who could play would be going on holiday next week, so I get to play the organ next week! YIKES.
One of the many highlights: Scottish scenery! The drive we get to do each week is seriously so beautiful. We always see sheep and highland "coos." We have been dying to get a picture with some coos and it was perfect. We saw them on the drive and there was a little pull out. We stopped for a few minutes to get some pictures with them. We were so excited. 3 big ones and 4 wee ones.
15 MIRACLES: Okay so 14 of the these miracles was the temperature. It was 14 degrees this week in Oban and SUNNY. We were walking around with no coats on, rolling up our sleeves, no scarves, praying to get a sunburn (we didn't), but it was soooooo nice! The biggest blessing. The 15th miracle is in progress. We got a call from the recent convert in Oban named Donny. He told us that a young man just moved in and they started talking about the Gospel. Donny invited him to church and HE WENT WITH HIM YESTERDAY. He also said that he wanted to learn more and would go to the scripture study this week that the senior couple puts on! Yay for member missionaries! We are so grateful for them, especially in an area where only 10 people attend church regularly.
Sad thing of the week: So President Nelson and Elder Holland are on a world wide tour with their wives. Their first stop was to the British Isles and they were going to do two broadcasts. One for missionaries and one for the general public. All the missionaries in the Glasgow area went to the stake centre to watch together. Only one problem. The internet wasn't working for the live stream and it wasn't recorded. We found out about 45 minutes in that the construction workers at the church accidentally sawed through the internet cable and that there was no hope of getting the internet to work at the church. We were all scrambling to see what we could do to at least watch some of it. The Glasgow Sisters called a member (as we were driving to her flat) to see if we could watch it there. Luckily we could and we caught the last 10 minutes or so of the stream. We were glad we at least got to watch some of it!
One thing I took from the broadcast in the short amount of time we had to watch it was how President Nelson said he bounces out of bed every morning in excitement to see what that day has in store. In our attempt to best follow the Prophet, Sister Anderson and I have started "bouncing" out of bed in the morning and saying, "Woohoo! Today is a great day to be a missionary!" I have noticed that little change to my morning routine effects the rest of my day and my attitude throughout the day.
Scare of the week: I almost had to play the ORGAN. It was 9:55 and there was no organist to play. As soon as I sat down at the organ the lady who normally does it walked in. Phew! I was then told that everyone who could play would be going on holiday next week, so I get to play the organ next week! YIKES.
One of the many highlights: Scottish scenery! The drive we get to do each week is seriously so beautiful. We always see sheep and highland "coos." We have been dying to get a picture with some coos and it was perfect. We saw them on the drive and there was a little pull out. We stopped for a few minutes to get some pictures with them. We were so excited. 3 big ones and 4 wee ones.
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Monday, April 9, 2018 - The Miracle Story of Mark
This week was kinda crazy. On Monday SISTER EGGETT, now Ariel, took us to lunch. It was crazy to see her visiting the mission with her family and weird to hear her called her first name. I loved seeing her.
Tuesday we spent in Edinburgh at All Scotland Conference. It was great to be surrounded by so many missionaries, see old friends, and be uplifted by the council from our leaders.
But the best part of the week... Mark's baptism! It is so amazing to see your friends take the step of baptism. Mark was prepared by God to hear the message of the Restored Gospel. I'm just grateful that I got to be apart of it.
The Miracle Story of Mark!
Mark's door was chapped in mid December. At the time he was busy, but scheduled an appointment to meet with the missionaries for the following week. He then rescheduled FIVE different times before finally meeting with the missionaries.
Mark has a Master's Degree in Theology and has an extensive knowledge of the Bible. He had read many other religious books before and had even read the Book of Mormon! After being taught about the Holy Ghost he was able to recognize the importance of praying to understand the truth.
One week later when the missionaries met with him he had read through the entire Book of Mormon again, received an answer of its truthfulness, and had strengthened his desire to be baptised. We were so blessed to be involved in teaching Mark and are grateful for the other missionaries and ward members involved in the teaching as well! He was so prepared. Every lesson leading up to baptism he expressed his desire to help others to learn and grow in the church and teach the Restored Gospel. Following his confirmation he also received the Aaronic Priesthood in the same day. He can't wait to be a part of Ministering and teach what he knows to be true for the next two years as he will be a minister on a submarine. God truly prepares His children and His work is hastening!
The Pre-Miracle (behind closed doors of actually setting up a baptism) Story!
So we got to the church in plenty of time to set up and make sure everything worked with the font, etc, etc. We had to prime the water heater for an hour and a half, but that's no problem we had loads to do. We went to check out the font. We were told the font was clean..........it wasn't. It hadn't been used for 6 months, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in about 6 years. So what do the problem solving, go get em, sister missionaries do?!?! They make it work. You can't exactly clean a baptismal font in a dress, wearing boots, and tights. So what did I do? Grabbed the basketball shorts that I had left in the car, went barefoot, and wore a shirt that came from the baptismal clothing. We found some chemicals and got to work. WHEN I SAY THE FONT WAS NASTY IT WAS NASTY. We're talking spider guts and LIVE SPIDERS and I just had to deal with it and clean them up. I kid you not I had to pray for strength.
I'm just grateful that Sister Anderson and I were the only ones at the church and no one saw me in the outfit I was wearing. After that almost everything ran smoothly, but they say there's no such thing as a baptism that runs perfectly.
I also tried to hug a sheep this week in Oban, but they ran away from me.
Tuesday we spent in Edinburgh at All Scotland Conference. It was great to be surrounded by so many missionaries, see old friends, and be uplifted by the council from our leaders.
But the best part of the week... Mark's baptism! It is so amazing to see your friends take the step of baptism. Mark was prepared by God to hear the message of the Restored Gospel. I'm just grateful that I got to be apart of it.
The Miracle Story of Mark!
Mark's door was chapped in mid December. At the time he was busy, but scheduled an appointment to meet with the missionaries for the following week. He then rescheduled FIVE different times before finally meeting with the missionaries.
Mark has a Master's Degree in Theology and has an extensive knowledge of the Bible. He had read many other religious books before and had even read the Book of Mormon! After being taught about the Holy Ghost he was able to recognize the importance of praying to understand the truth.
One week later when the missionaries met with him he had read through the entire Book of Mormon again, received an answer of its truthfulness, and had strengthened his desire to be baptised. We were so blessed to be involved in teaching Mark and are grateful for the other missionaries and ward members involved in the teaching as well! He was so prepared. Every lesson leading up to baptism he expressed his desire to help others to learn and grow in the church and teach the Restored Gospel. Following his confirmation he also received the Aaronic Priesthood in the same day. He can't wait to be a part of Ministering and teach what he knows to be true for the next two years as he will be a minister on a submarine. God truly prepares His children and His work is hastening!
The Pre-Miracle (behind closed doors of actually setting up a baptism) Story!
So we got to the church in plenty of time to set up and make sure everything worked with the font, etc, etc. We had to prime the water heater for an hour and a half, but that's no problem we had loads to do. We went to check out the font. We were told the font was clean..........it wasn't. It hadn't been used for 6 months, but it looked like it hadn't been cleaned in about 6 years. So what do the problem solving, go get em, sister missionaries do?!?! They make it work. You can't exactly clean a baptismal font in a dress, wearing boots, and tights. So what did I do? Grabbed the basketball shorts that I had left in the car, went barefoot, and wore a shirt that came from the baptismal clothing. We found some chemicals and got to work. WHEN I SAY THE FONT WAS NASTY IT WAS NASTY. We're talking spider guts and LIVE SPIDERS and I just had to deal with it and clean them up. I kid you not I had to pray for strength.
I'm just grateful that Sister Anderson and I were the only ones at the church and no one saw me in the outfit I was wearing. After that almost everything ran smoothly, but they say there's no such thing as a baptism that runs perfectly.
I also tried to hug a sheep this week in Oban, but they ran away from me.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Monday, April 2, 2018 - Conference was amazing!
APPARENTLY WE MISSED SO MUCH IN CONFERENCE!!!!!! We were able to watch Saturday AM/PM and Sunday AM. We didn't watch Priesthood (for obvious reasons) or Sunday PM (because it's from 9-11 pm here) and WE MISSED SO MUCH. THE TEMPLES, NO MORE HIGH PRIEST GROUP, NO MORE HOME/VISITING TEACHING, ELDER HOLLAND, ELDER UCHTDORF, THE TWO NEW APOSTLES. Crazy. This morning checking lds.org was crazy. The four sisters here were freaking out about everything hahahah.
General Conference was amazing. As I stood to sustain President Nelson in Solemn Assembly I couldn't fight back the tears that came. I had an overwhelming confirmation from the Spirit that President Russell M. Nelson is a Prophet of God! I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to testify of that each day. It was also amazing because we went over to a recent convert's house and we watched a few talks with her. She said she felt the Spirit really strong as we were watching and her non-member husband was paying attention as we were watching. Normally he is on his phone or playing video games, but he was paying attention. One day we will crack his shell and soften his heart. One step at a time.
This week has been absolutely crazy. On Monday we came to Glasgow to play sport with some of the Elders and had to leave at about 3 so we could make it to Oban on time. We got about 2/3 of the way there when we got a call from our Zone Leader (who we were with earlier) and he said, "Are you far? Tell me you're not far. The APs just texted us telling us to have a zone instruction tomorrow." So we had to turn around and head back to Dumbarton. We kinda felt like a ping pong ball and this week will be even more hectic. Monday we are spending in Glasgow again. Tuesday we will be in Edinburgh for conference. Wednesday Oban. Thursday Oban/Dumbarton. Friday Glasgow for exchange. Saturday Dumbarton, Sunday Dumbarton. It will be very hectic, but basically Sister Anderson and I will just call 1/2 of Scotland our area next week.
This was an AMAZING week in Oban. We were able to meet a lady named ____. She is from the Philippines and moved to Scotland to be with her husband. She told us how she decided to be Christian 8 years ago in DUBAI of all places. She talked about how much she loves Jesus Christ and talking with other about Him. We were able to introduce and give her a Book of Mormon and she was so excited to read it. We can't wait to meet with her this week!
On Saturday we were driving to the Stake Centre for conference and we got a call. I was driving, so Sister Anderson answered and I overheard, "Is Kristina Baker there?" She explained that I was driving and we were headed to Glasgow and BAM 15 MINUTES LATER THE CAMERON'S [our stake president and his wife] WERE AT THE STAKE CENTRE. They dropped off a package (added to it), took some pictures, and we parted ways! What a great surprise! Also two new dresses woohoo. I'm wearing the Easter dress from you right now!
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