January 26, 2015

Here is this week's e-mail. I did get up early today to see if I could catch him while he was still on his e-mail because I knew if he got transferred he wouldn't tell me everything I would want to know.  He had just sent his e-mail when I woke up about 4:30 and he was still logged on so we sent a few e-mails back and forth so I will just work in the information I got into his original e-mail.

So I am getting moved to Glasgow, but I won't actually be in the city itself.  I'll be in a town called Cumbernauld just outside of Glasgow. (It is actually only about 10 miles outside of Glasgow.  Right now he is about 40 miles south and west of Glasgow and now he will be just a little north and east of Glasgow - so he is going to be about 50 miles from where he is now in Ayr.) My companion is going to be Elder Rogers and he is from Australia, and I haven't met him before. I will leave on Wednesday morning and I will probably take a train to get there. And, there is a ward in Cumbernauld.

This week has been really good apart from the fact that I really wanted to stay in Ayr. We taught Alistair twice this week and he is doing great and going really strong. (I asked him if he thought he would maybe be able to go back to Ayr for Alistair's baptism since he isn't going to be too far away but he doesn't think he will be able to.) It was kind of cold the first half of the week, but it wasn't too bad the rest of the week so it has been nice here.

On Thursday I hurt my back just by picking up a piece of paper and turning, so I was out of commission Thursday and Friday and that wasn't too fun. My back is still a little sore but it is doing better. I am taking ibuprofen for my back so it isn't too bad right now.

Other than that there really hasn't been anything too exciting. I think it would be a good idea to make a Dropbox so I can upload my pictures and some videos I have taken so you can watch them.  This week at district meeting I got a really funny video of Elder Campbell eating three teacakes at one time with Elder Stringer egging him on and it was so funny.

Well, that is about it. I love you and miss you.

We found the LDS church on Google street view where Mason is moving and I did a screen shot - so here is the church in Cumbernauld . . . and it kind of looks like it is in the middle of nowhere!

January 19, 2015

It is going really good here, but not a whole lot has happened this week.  The weeks really are going by faster.  Just the other day I said to Elder Scheuermann that on Tuesday I get up and wish that it was Monday so I could e-mail you and then I said now all of a sudden it is Saturday. We did get what Elder Scheuermann called "manna from heaven." So we were out street contacting about 5:30 and we talked to this one guy, he must have been drunk, and he gave us his food which ended up being kebab meet with fries and then I got a burger and yes we did eat them.  It was the most sketchy thing that I have ever done in my life (I guess he hasn't lived a very exciting life if this is the most sketchy thing he has ever done!).

Alistair is still getting baptized and everything is going really good with him. "Moves" call is on Sunday and Elder Scheuermann feels like he might be getting moved so I don't know if I will stay or go.  It would be nice to stay in Ayr until Alistair gets baptized.

Not much has been going on this week.  We just hung around the flat last P-day - I was really tired.  I did get a Scott tartan scarf which is really cool - I might need to get a Scott tartan tie and kilt.

(In my letter to Mason I told him I had seen he was getting a new mission president.) President Brown sent out an e-mail a few weeks ago about the new mission president but what you know is about as much as we got. (The new mission president is George Donaldson from Wales who is currently over the CES in the United Kingdom.) 

That is all for this week.  Love you guys.

Since Mason wrote his usually short and sweet e-mail, I will add an article we found (thanks to my cousin and Breanna and my sister Jana) about the Scotland and Ireland missionary choirs from the Mormon Newsroom.
 

Scotland and Ireland Missionary Choir Delights Crowds

Dublin — 

Delighted shoppers in Limerick. Republic of Ireland, whipped out their smartphones to video a flash mob coming together to sing the hymn “Joy to the World”.  The missionary choir was formed from missionaries of the Scotland/Ireland mission serving in Ireland.  Their counterpart choir of missionaries serving in Scotland also brought the message of Christmas to hundreds of people through their music in various public venues as well as our own church buildings.  Several grateful hosts expressed the hope that they would return.  

The Revd Helen Alexander of the historic St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, welcomed the choir back where they had given a memorable performance at Easter.  In Ireland the choir broke new ground by singing in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.

Between them the choirs performed in 14 venues. The tours also provided an unforgettable experience for those taking part.  One missionary said, “…  It was the greatest week of my mission. It has given me such a renewed spirit that I have never had a greater desire to go forward and invite others to learn about the restored gospel.”

And here are the pictures that went with the article - in the first picture Mason is right in the middle of the choir and in the second picture, Mason's companion is the 2nd Elder from the left.

 

January 12, 2015

We got a great letter today.  I went back to asking him a few questions to see if  I could get more information out of him - it helped a little but not much . . . here it is.

This week has been really good! We had the Scotland West conference in Glasgow last Tuesday and we were instructed on the mission plan for this year and a lot of other things like housekeeping instructions from Sister Brown.  I went on exchanges with Elder Campbell (the other missionary from Cottonwood who is now in Mason's district) this week and that was really fun.  He is a great missionary.  Alistair (the investigator they are teaching) is doing great.  The sisters here had a baptism so Alistair came to it and said he really like it so he seems pretty solid.  We will be teaching him more this week.  But, the baptism here was great.  I was one of the witnesses for it, and it took 5 tries to get him all the way under.  Right after they closed the doors to the font one of the bishop's sons yelled out "I counted 5 times," so that was fun.There isn't much else that is going on this week.  The days are starting to go by really fast. 

So here are the questions I asked with his answers . . .

How are you getting along with Elder Scheuermann (his companion)?
Elder Scheuermann is still really cool.

Did you actually eat the duck eggs that you bought (see the picture from last week's post)?
Yes we did eat some of the duck eggs - not much of a difference from regular eggs other than the fact that they were bigger.

How is the deep fryer (that I bought him from Christmas) holding up and do you use it?
The deep fryer is great and this week we made fish and chips at the flat so that was fun.

What is the next transfer date?
 The next moves call is the last Sunday of this month and moves is the Wednesday after that.

I also told him we liked having the missionaries at our house a lot because even though I am sure missionary work is a lot different in Scotland than in Salt Lake I at least felt like we kind of had an idea of what he was doing, and he did have a comment about that.
Mission work is way different here than in Salt Lake.  Apparently they work mostly with referrals and we have to try to talk to the most stubborn people on the planet! But it is still good!

And he sent some pictures -

This picture is me and Elder Campbell at the conference in Glasgow.

Elder Scheuermann got a bag that describes him perfectly.

January 5, 2015

Here is the e-mail we got today - I am just getting used to the fact that we aren't ever probably going to get very long e-mails from Mason - just the basic information . . . maybe I should go back to asking a bunch of questions!

So our investigator, Alistair did come to church this week and on New Year's Day we committed him to baptism on February 14 so that is awesome!  Not much else has been going on this week.  Elder Scheuermann has sick off and on the past two weeks, so one day all I did was stay in the flat while he slept.  He finally got some medicine and he is feeling better now.

New Year's Eve wasn't very exciting - we had to be in by 6 p.m. and we went to sleep by 10:00.  Then New Year's Day we went to a member's house and played board games with them and watched the new Doctor Who Christmas special because Elder Scheuermann and one of the sisters are big fans. Then we went to the ward mission leader's and had dinner with them so it was a good day.  But overall not much has happened. Tomorrow we are going to Glasgow for a conference with all of the missionaries in the west of Scotland so that will be really fun. And, Elder Scheuermann does know Uncle Brent and Aunt Anne (this summer when we went to my aunt and uncle's ward we took a picture of the program because one of the missionaries from their ward was in Scotland. I totally forgot about it, but the other day I was deleting some of the old photos from my phone and found the picture again and the name I took a picture of is now Mason's companion!).

Here are some pictures.

While we were knocking doors this cat started following us.  We realized it was actually an albino cat and we named him Ghost. 

This next picture is a poster we found while we were deep cleaning the flat one night.  I had heard about it from Elder Lauricella but he told me it had been thrown away because the couple that checks the flat told the missionaries to take it down and I had never seen it, but Chewbacca lives.

This picture is just Elder Scheuermann being awkward like always - this will be the picture that goes in the mission scrapbook.

This is a selfie we took on New Year's Day while in a member's car - me, Elder Scheuermann and Sister Buhler.

One day while we were out knocking doors we saw this sign for duck eggs so we bought some.