Monday, July 2, 2018 - Please help Yourself

This week it was so hot!  We were loving the heat.  It's been so nice.  When I say hot I mean it got up to 35 (celsius) this week.  Toasty!

____ and ____ were able to come to church again this week.  After church there was a baptism for an 8 year old in our ward.  ____'s daughter begged her to stay so they could see it.  Unfortunately, ____ had to leave because their other daughter was sick.  ____ loved the baptism.  She said it was really emotional for her and that those feelings came from the Holy Ghost!  We are so excited because that's something we've really been focusing on with her.  Another miracle!

This week we were able to do service for a family in the ward that is moving and just had a baby.  We were trying to put a bunk bed together for them and move some stuff in.  It was so difficult!  No one said how hard it was to put a bunk bed together from IKEA.  The instructions were horrible and we almost figured out the whole thing hahha.  It was also SO HOT while we were trying to help them.  That day it was 35 and we were in our jeans in a house with no air conditioning (because no one has air conditioning in Scotland).  But we were happy to help them.  Especially because one of their other kids got chicken pox this week!

In Oban this week we found the box that said, "Books - please help yourself!"  So what did we do?  Grabbed a Book of Mormon and put it in there.  It was like someone else was doing missionary work for us.  We thought it was the perfect opportunity.  Also the BEST WAY TO HELP YOURSELF.

We had exchanges this week in Glasgow as well.  I got to be with Sister Lopez from Ecuador.  It was fun and we bonded over Peru hahha.  It's always great to be on exchange because you learn so much from each missionary. 

I love the 4th of July.  Please enjoy it 742897x more this year for me.  I have my outfit planned, complete with my navy skirt and a red and white stripped shirt.  I'll probably be doing my nails red tonight because I don't think I have time/the materials to do flags this year :(

Monday, June 25, 2018

My joke of the week:  Why did the missionary cross the road?  (answer at bottom)

Well we had a great week.  On Tuesday we had All Scotland Conference in Edinburgh, so we drove down for that.  It was our last conference with President Donaldson and we all said some tender goodbyes.  I'm definitely very grateful for him and Sister Donaldson.  Conference was also great because we were able to skype and have a question/answer session with Elder and Sister Bednar.  It was amazing to have the chance to do that.  He put a large emphasis on learning from the Spirit rather than what was being shared.  I'm grateful for him and his insights, but most importantly the Spirit he brought! 

As sad as we are to have the Donaldsons leave, we are even more excited to have the MacDonalds come this week.  We have a conference again on the 3rd, so we'll get to meet them then!

____ and ____ are doing well.  They are both still excited to go to church and meet with us!  This week we were able to read the Tree of Life with them and talk about the importance of the Book of Mormon.  It really made sense to them the imagery of holding to the rod of iron.  Unfortunately, they had to leave church early because their baby was just throwing an absolute fit and they couldn't get her to calm down.   That's okay though because MIRACLES HAPPEN PEOPLE!

9 MONTHS OUT.  It honestly doesn't feel that much different from any other day, but I have completed half of my mission.  It is so fun to have 9 months of wonderful, tough memories to look back on.  I feel like I have met so many people that will forever be in my heart.  This mission and the people here definitely have my heart.  I couldn't think of a place I'd rather be in the whole world.  I love the Scotland/Ireland Mission.  9 months down and 9 months.  Everyone says it's a downhill slide from here, but really I still have so much mission left!  What a blessing.   I truly mean it every morning when I bounce out of bed and say, "Woohoo!  Today is a great day to be a missionary!"  Here's to 9 more wonderful months! 

Answer (to above joke):  Because her companion did. 

 

Monday, June 18, 2018

EVERY WEEK HAS AT LEAST ONE MIRACLE:  ____ and ____ are amazing. We were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation this week and their questions were so good!  I love when our friends ask application questions instead of just surface level questions.  It is the best.  They were paying super close attention as well because I made cute little cutouts for the Plan of Salvation.  Another miracle is that they were able to come to church this week!

Scottish summer seems to have come and gone.  We're back to wearing coats, tights, and boots.  Enjoying the rain hahaha.

 

Monday, June 11, 2018 (Two days away from halfway point)

One amazing this was that we were able to give away a copy of the Book of Mormon every day this week!  We were also able to chap into this awesome Christian man that had met with missionaries before.  He was confused on many of our beliefs and we were able to clarify a lot of what he believed about our faith.  We will be going to visit him again as soon as he's back from holiday to Ireland.  

Unfortunately, ____ and ____ were not able to come to church this week because they were sick, but we were able to meet with them earlier in the week and it was amazing!  ____ asked _____ to sit in and participate in the lesson.  He came and he grabbed the copies of the Book of Mormon off of the shelf for them.  He was hesitant at first, but as we started to read the Book of Mormon his whole demeanor changed and he was excited to read with us.  At the end of our lesson they even asked if we could read another chapter with them.  We had to go, but we told them they could read it together.  We are so excited for them and love to watch their excitement.  

Sister Anderson and I became real adults this week.  We had to take our car in to get serviced.  We aren't allowed to approve anything ourselves, so we had to keep calling the Mission Home to ask about things and to pay as well, so I guess we weren't really real adults, but hey the service was done under the name of Mrs K Baker.  Yikes.  It was really funny too because we had to leave our area to get it done.  It only took 20 minutes to get there, but we were in an entirely new zone!  We laughed because 20 minutes one way is out of our zone and 3 hours the other way is in our area hahhaha.

Also when we had to take the car in we had to leave our flat at about 7, so we just woke up and got ready.  When we both walked out of our rooms we were matching and there was no time to change.  Comp unity on display for the day.  

Monday, June 4, 2018

MOVES CALL:  We're staying in Dumbarton/Oban for another 6 weeks!  We are glad to still be together, but pretty much all of our Ward is gone during the summer on holiday, so it might be just us here hahaha.  They seriously go on 6 week vacations.  Don't know how they do it.  We are so happy to be here to keep working with the friends we have right now and the friends that are waiting for us to knock on their doors!

The sun is always out!  We got to bed with it light and wake up with it light!  The good thing is most of the time you are tired enough it doesn't matter!  (In response to questions about it getting light at 4:28 am and dark at 10:05 pm.)

This week was full of sunshine...and rain...and whatever.  It was BEAUTIFUL all week until Saturday.  You read correctly.  I got a sunburn on Wednesday in Oban.  Luckily, by the following day it turned into a lovely farmer's tan.  Then on Saturday we got thunder (quite unusual here) and a storm.  It rained yesterday as well and today is just cloudy.  A lot of people say, "Well, hope you enjoyed the Scottish summer!"  And we just pray that it will last longer than what these people say!

The best thing about the lovely weather is that more people are outside and willing to have a conversation with us.  We ran into a man in Oban this week who was outside painting his fence.  We struck up a conversation with him and told him that we talk about how to grow closer to God.  His response was, "Go ahead."  He pulled up chairs in his front lawn and we were able to teach him there on the spot!  He was so sincere and open with us.  He told us about an experience he had at a devotional thing where he burst into tears uncharacteristically.  He said he didn't know why and we were able to teach him about the Holy Ghost.  He was saying how he isn't sure why he has drifted away from God in recent years, but loved talking to us and said he felt reassured after our lesson.  We are so excited for him.

The Highlight of this week is definitely from Sunday.  ____ and her family came to church for the THIRD WEEK IN A ROW!!!!!  She also told us how she is going to send her partner and daughters to Hungary, so her daughter can get a surgery there.  She will be staying here, but she asked us to find a church for them to go to while they are in Hungary, so they can keep learning while she is here going to church!  They were also invited over to our Bishop's house for dinner yesterday and really enjoyed that.  It's amazing to see them carve time out of their busy schedules to make God, church, and meeting with us a priority!

More spiders.  Hate them.  Got a sunburn in Scotland.   Thanks for all of your love and support.  Do good, be good.

Monday, May 28th, 2018

Let me just say, WHAT A WEEK!  It has been so so sunny and beautiful.  I don't even think it's rained on us in a week and a half.  I have a solid white line from the straps on my shoes and the rest of my feet are turning tan.  On Saturday we were talking to people on the street and I bent over to fix my sock.  I undid the strap from my shoe and a random lady actually laughed out loud and had to apologize for laughing at my tan lines.  That's quite the segue into having to talk to the missionaries!

You'll never believe what we did on Saturday.  We got to go to a concert!  You read correctly, a concert in Edinburgh.  The Nashville Tribute Band.  They sing songs as a tribute to Joseph Smith, the pioneers, etc.  It was great and their music is pretty popular among all the missionaries.  They are related to a sister that just left this mission and so we got a performance from them.  One of their songs really hit home for me.  It's called American Dreams, talking about a man who met the missionaries in Dublin💓 and left to go to Ohio to join the Saints.  

Sunday!  What a day!  A day of miracles!  We had confirmed with ____ and her family that they would be coming to church on Saturday, but yesterday morning when we tried to contact them her phone was off.  We waited for them until about 2 minutes before church started and we didn't see them, so we sat down.  Five minutes later they all walked in!  What a blessing!  They loved church again and I think there was a change of heart even from last week.  

We also had another lady show up to church in time for relief society.  We taught her earlier this week because she texted us and asked us to meet!  We were driving back from Oban and got a text from her asking if we could meet in the next hour.  We got there in perfect time and we were able to have a member there as well!  It was amazing.  She has a really deep interest in family history.  We were also able to have her meet the family history consultants and they are going to get together sometime this week to help her with family history!  Yay for the Spirit of Elijah!

After church we were chapping and tried to go by an inactive lady's house.  We think she moved, but we decided to still chap the street.  We were able to meet two awesome ladies who invited us into their homes.  One had a mother who used to meet with the Elders in Paisley before she passed away and we had a great conversation with her.  She asked us to come back later and we were thrilled!  As we were leaving I complimented her succulents and plants and she decided to give us two of them!  She was so sweet and now we have two succulents.  Another woman invited us in immediately and started asking a bunch of questions.  She's going on a two week vacation and we were able to leave her with a Book of Mormon.  She said it was perfect because she needed something to read while on vacation.  

Unfortunately there was another loaf of bread (aka - huge spider).  In the exact same spot, about the exact same size.  We saw it and Sister Anderson was having none of the spider that day.  She immediately got our mold spray and starting attacking the spider with it.  It pretty much died on the spot and we haven't seen another big bertha since then.  

Embarrassing moment of the week:  We were GQing and I saw a woman coming up.  I greeted her by saying, "Hello sir!" very loudly without a man in sight.  There was no recovery and Sister Anderson had to walk away because she was laughing so hard.  Oops.  Luckily that is the first time I've done that, and hopefully the last hahhhahah.

 

Spiders/Blessings/Miracles

There wasn't too much about the royal wedding, but we did see a few more British flags flying and people asked us why we weren't watching it.

OKAY I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT MY MONDAY MORNING.  I woke up this morning, bounced out of bed, prayed, and started walking out of the room when BAM ALL I SEE IS THIS MASSIVE BLACK BLOB ABOVE MY CLOSET.  What was that black blob you ask?  A SPIDER THE SIZE OF A LOAF OF BREAD.  Okay a small loaf of bread.  As soon as I saw it, it ran to the corner, so it was not in a good shoe smacking place.  We were watching it periodically, but the wonderful creature decided it wouldn't move out of the corner.  That is bad news.  Finally, we decided the best option would be to get the vacuum out and suck it up.  The only issue is that the vacuum has horrible suction power.  We worked up the courage (I worked up the courage) and got the vacuum at the ready.  It took everything in my power to muster up the courage, but FINALLY I did it and big Bertha died.  Right after,  the vacuum broke, so that is a miracle in and of itself.  ANYWAY, not a great start to my pday, but at least there isn't a massive spider chilling above my closet now. 

This week we had conference in Edinburgh.  At conference I was able to catch up a bit with Sister Osmond (who Sister Scheib trained after me and replaced me in Dublin).  I asked her about all of my recent converts and how they are doing.  She said they are all doing really well and another person I taught while in Dublin Sister Osmond baptised.  It gets better.  She told me that WILLIAM IS ENGAGED.  He met her when he went on a trip to Galway and went to church.  She is a returned missionary from Utah who came to Ireland for University.  They met and have been dating ever since and now they are engaged.  They will be getting sealed sometime in November I think.  When she told me that I burst into tears from the pure joy I felt.  It is amazing to know that he is continuing on the covenant path.  Also it has been amazing seeing how God had played a role in this.  Who would have ever thought that a Brazilian and a Utahn would meet in Ireland and get married!  What a miracle.  

This week our zone had a fast for our friends to progress and attend church.    _____, who we have been teaching off and on due to her busy schedule who hadn't been in contact with us for a while let us know that she would be coming to church.  She also brought her husband and their two children along with her.  We had a very powerful lesson with them in Gospel Principles.  The ward was also great with making sure their kids were taken care of and fellowshipping them.  Our ward mission leader even invited them over for dinner and they came.  They had a really great time and they committed to come to church next week as well.  We are so blessed to be trusted to participate in these miracles.  This was such a blessing because we had never been able to teach her husband and then he came to church!  Yayyayay.

I love the Scotland/Ireland Mission!