March 30 , 2015

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason today . . .

So this week has been pretty busy. On Tuesday we went and saw the guy Ryan and his family. His oldest son, Connor, sat in for most of the lesson then had to leave to do homework, then the wife came in and sat in for the rest of it. They really seemed to like the lesson and sent us a text saying they really enjoyed having us around and told us to let them know if we need anything. The lesson went for quite a while so that was about all we did on Tuesday and then we went and had dinner. Ryan said they would come to church, but some family stuff came up so they couldn't make it but we are still seeing them.

Wednesday we went on exchanges. I was here in Cumbernauld with the district leader, Elder Yates, from Logan - he is a real country boy. We did quite a bit of finding and we found a lady while we were tracting. We left a Book of Mormon with her and we will be seeing her on Wednesday. We weren't able to see Peter - he had some things he had to take care of. Then we had dinner with one of the families in the ward and as Elder Yates said "they are funny as crap," so dinner with them is always good. That was pretty much it for Wednesday.

Thursday we exchanged back and did weekly planning. We took a break halfway through to go and see a member who was helping a recently reactivated member getting started on family history. Then we went back to weekly planning. Then we went and saw the Austins and that was awesome. We got them all set with a date for them to get baptized and had dinner to that was really good as always.

Friday we went up to Airdrie because we needed to do another exchange. But the Airdrie elders had double booked themselves so we just stayed there. I was with Elder McAffee from Gunnison - he is pretty trunky because this is his last moves before he goes home. In the morning we went to a food bank and did some work there, but it was really slow. So after organizing stuff for about 2 hours we left to get some lunch. Then we went around to three appointments, but two of them fell through and we ended up walking about 3 1/2 miles and we actually walked out of the area. Then we went to an excommunicated member who is coming back to church that was really fun cause her younger cousin  and her husband came for the lesson and they are all just way cool. I would really like to just get area moved and go to Airdrie - the more people I meet there the better it gets. Then we had a really quick lesson then walked back to the flat. So, I think in total we probably walked about 5 miles that day so not too bad.

On Saturday we got a text from the Austins asking if we wanted to meet them for hot chocolate in the afternoon. So we met up with them and they asked us about what they needed to do logistic wise for their baptism so we talked to them about that and they were also wondering about how to tell their friends and family that they were joining the church. But then we had some bad news to break to them. President Brown said no to them getting baptized in Airdrie and that they would either have to get baptized in Cumbernauld or wait until they move towards the end of April. They said they would wait, but that is after moves so we will just have to see what happens.

Sunday we had the family history couple missionaries come to church and they spent the whole time talking about family history. Then we went out and did some more finding. It wasn't the most productive day but it was still good. So that is it for what happened this week.

Next weekend they will be having conference at the stake center in Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday and we will be able to go and the Austin's are going with us so that will be great. Love you,

Mason

March 24, 2015

We got Mason's e-mail today (Tuesday) instead of yesterday because they had zone development day on Monday. Before I post the e-mail Mason sent today, I copied a comment that was on the last blog post. Peter Blair is one of the people that Mason is currently teaching and he took the time to write this comment and it totally made my day.  So, Peter, if you are reading this, thank you, again, and I hope you don't mind that I am sharing.  Here is the comment he wrote (this week's e-mail is below the comment):

Hi, I am "Peter", I hope you don't mind me saying that Mason is a truly inspirational young man, it is so refreshing to find a young man with so much faith and passion for the church. He is a credit to you and you should all be very proud of him & the work he is doing. Mason was at my home tonight and I thought as a parent it would be nice to let you know just how hard Mason is working teaching me about The Book of Mormon & sharing the word of the Lord.
As Mason has told you I have a friend who is a member of the church and have never been interested in learning more about the church. That soon changed & I welcomed Mason into my home after I noticed the Elders go round the homes in my street trying to share their knowledge yet unfortunately receiving rejection after rejection. Somehow Mason continued to knock each and every door and introduce himself with a smile. (That in its self is a testament of how resilient Mason is)  When I opened my door to the Elders I was initially going to turn them away, however Mason's ability to smile and remain positive intrigued me and made me change my mind.

I am now slowly rebuilding my faith by reading The Book of Mormon and through the Elders teachings the bible is finally beginning to make sense to me.  I look forward to seeing him again next week. 

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason today - I feel like he is finally starting to get the hang of writing and letting us know a little more what is going on - I guess it just took a while!!

Hi -

So last Monday was really good hill walking with the Austins, it was really fun. We went on a walk around the Banton Loch then got lunch at this cool little pub then walked back and played in a park by where their car was parked. Then after that we went and got changed and did our shopping then had a lesson with them. One of the members from the Airdrie ward came with us and it was a really good lesson.  The member kind of took over but he was awesome.

Then on Tuesday we really just spent the day doing AUF's because we needed to get those done, but not much happened. Then we had ward council that night.

Wednesday at zone conference was really good. It seemed to go really quick and a lot of the instruction was about getting members involved in missionary work. We did get a bit about the missionary dress code from President and Sister Brown and I got used as an example of what is good.  Then we got back and had a lesson with Peter and he is doing really good.

Thursday we did weekly planning and did some more AUF's and had dinner with one of the members then it was back to more AUF's so not the most exciting of days.

Friday we saw a recently reactivated member that has been struggling with quitting smoking, but he is really getting there. Then we did some service at the salvation army charity store in the town centre. After that we went out to a small town and did some AUF's out there but we got a bit lost looking for the second one so we decided to do some chapping (what they call tracting here) and we met a guy named Ryan who invited us to come back and we left him with a Book of Mormon and we will be seeing him tonight.

 Then on Saturday as we were walking to try by some people not too far from our flat, we walked past a memorial garden for World War I and saw they were doing some work digging holes for planting trees and hedges, etc. So we went back to the flat, changed into service clothes, and went over to help. The guy in charge of the project told us what he was doing and that families who lost people in WW I would be planting some of the trees and we dug the holes for them. After about an hour and a half of that we went to an appointment we had with a guy who talked to the missionaries before. But when we got there, someone else opened the door and gave back the Book of Mormon we left with him and said "not interested" and shut the door. So we went back to help out more with the memorial garden. The guy in charge told us to plant one of the trees in memory of the church. So as we were starting to plant the tree, we started to think of a famous church member who did something in Scotland, so we planted the tree in memory of Orson Pratt.

Then Sunday we had church and then we had lunch with the Bishop and his family and then did some work out around there. Not too much on Sunday.

Monday was zone development day and it was way fun. My zone (the Glasgow zone) combined with the Paisley zone (my old zone).  We played a bunch of outdoor games on a field like capture the flag, but it eventually got to where the people who didn't want to play just hung out with each other while some of the other people kept playing. But I got to see Elder Campbell, and the missionaries from Ayr so I got to hear what is going on there.  Alistair is still doing really good and he even taught part of the priesthood lesson one Sunday. But I also found out that Brother Gilardi has opened up a restaurant that has fish and chips and other stuff and missionaries still eat there for free. So, if I am ever back in Ayr I know where I am going!! But after we played games outside we went back to the stake center and had a dodgeball tournament. It started off as districts vs. districts until the winners from the Glasgow zone were against the winners from the Paisley zone. My district was the team from the Glasgow zone, but we lost. Then we had a giant zone-on-zone game and we ended up doing a best two out of three and the Glasgow zone won. Then we had Costco pizza for dinner and watched The Best Two Years. That movie is almost exactly what a mission is like.  We were all laughing so hard because now we all know missionaries like the ones in the movie and I really like and appreciate that movie so much more now. The zone has a new sister from the Netherlands who translated some of the Dutch they spoke and laughed really hard at the greenie trying to speak Dutch. So it was a great day.

I just read President Brown's e-mail and JEFFREY R. HOLLAND IS GOING TO BE SPEAKING HERE IN SCOTLAND!!! I just need to be in or around Edinburgh in June because only the more local missionaries will be able to go see him in person.

That is all for this week. Love you.

Mason

And we also got some new pictures today . . .

This first picture he took with the Austin family (mom and two of the kids) while they were hill walking last week.

He bough some Haggis flavored potato chips (I thought that sounded gross - but he said they weren't too bad) - I guess he thought he better document the purchase.

This was at their zone development day and these are missionaries who he was with in the MTC that were in either the Glasgow zone (blue) or Paisley zone (red).

March 16, 2015

Here is the e-mail we got today . . .

We are e-mailing a little earlier today because we are going hill walking with the Austins so that will be really fun. (When I e-mailed back and forth with him for a few minutes I asked him if hill walking was just walking in the hills or if there was more to it and he said it was pretty much just walking in the hills.)

So this week not too much happened. On Monday we took one of the young men from the ward out tracting with us. We did try by a few people but none of them were home.  Tuesday was pretty good. We did a lot more tracting and we found a street that missionaries had knocked on before and some people were more than happy to have us come back. Then we had dinner with a family and the daughter is a bit like Bryn - just wild and crazy - so it is always fun to go there. It was just the mom and her daughter, Heather, so one of the guys from the ward was there, too, and Heather kept threatening to punch him in the throat. She is a redhead and it is really easy to wind her up so it is always a lot of fun.

Wednesday (it was moves day so at least part of Wednesday was another p-day) we went to the church to use the computer to put the CDs of talks you have sent me on to my iPod. Then we spent the rest of the day having lunch with a family in the ward then we had ward choir practice and then dinner so not much happened that day. Thursday we got a new investigator, his name is Jazz and he is a born again but seems interested in learning about the church so that is really good.  Friday we did some service at the Salvation Army charity store and saw a less active person who is working to come back to church so that is great. Saturday was a lot of tracting again - nothing too exciting. Sunday after church we went to find some people that are on church records but have moved and didn't tell the church - they are called AUFs - Address Unknown Files. But while we were doing that, we saw and got stopped by a group of like 12 year olds smoking trying to be tough. I just ignored them but one kind of tried to burn Elder Rogers badge so that was crazy stuff. But, there really wasn't anything to worry about because they were 12 and like 4 feet tall so I wasn't worried. Then we had dinner with Heather and her mom again, so that is my week.

Also, we haven't been able to see Peter because one of his boys got sick and then he got sick so not much going on there. This Wednesday we will be having zone conference so it will be good to see other missionaries and then next week we have zone development day again but it will be combined with my old Paisley zone so that will be really fun.

This is what he wrote about zone development day in the e-mail he sent to Dru. For the next zone development day we got challenged by my old Paisley zone to a battle for the River Clyde so that will be really fun. Then last night we got a voice mail from Elder "Bane" (someone doing a Bane voice) and he just gave this big monologue about how they are going to beat us. The best part was he said "You think you can defeat us - a zone so secret we aren't even in the mission song." That bit had me laughing because when I was in that zone and we sang the mission song we would all say Paisley at one point instead of one of the other places in the song. So this next week is going to be good and I'll be getting to see other missionaries.

March 9, 2015

Here is Mason's e-mail from today - and for anyone who is counting - he has been gone 6 months tomorrow!  One-fourth done - only 3 more 6 months to go.

So the Austin's are back on track.  They went to another ward in a place called Airdrie that is still in our district and it is actually a bit closer for them than the Cumbernauld ward, but they loved it and are really looking forward to getting baptized! The meeting with Peter went great and he is loving what we are teaching him and we will be seeing him again on Wednesday. So, me and Elder Rogers are staying together in Cumbernauld for another six weeks (moves/transfers are this Wednesday).  I am glad I am staying because of the Austins.

We weren't able to go to the Birds of Prey Center (a place in Cumbernauld that I found on the Internet and told him about because he said they hadn't been able to find anything to do on P-days) but since I will be here for another 6 weeks we will have plenty of time to go there, and there is an Irn Bru factory (soda pop made in Scotland) not too far away so we are going to do a tour of that sometime.

Saturday (Mason's birthday) was pretty much a normal day.  We went and saw one of the members and he found out from Elder Rogers that it was my birthday and he gave me £30 - he is a really good guy. Then later on we went and saw another family and it was also the dad's birthday so we had birthday cake with them and talked to them for a little while.  Then we went to Tesco (a grocery store) and got a cake and ordered kebabs so that was fun.  

Sunday, we saw the Austins again because they loved Airdrie and we answered some questions they had, then we went to a member's house for dinner. So, that is pretty much my week. Love and miss you guys.

Mason

And we got finally got some new pictures . . .in his last e-mail he said he thinks he has lost about 30 pounds and he looks thinner in these pictures.

 He bought some red velvet pop tarts at an American candy store that is close to them - they don't sound good to me but Mason said they weren't bad.

They found this big triple combination while they were cleaning their flat.

The Austins taught Mason and his companion how to make some fry bread/scone kind of things so these next few pictures they made them at their flat.

Mason's birthday cake and the kebab he ate for his birthday dinner.

They got a mission yearbook and this is the cover.

March 2, 2015

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason today . . .

This past week has been a bit crazy. I went on exchanges up to a town called Airdrie. They have a 4-man flat so there are two sets of missionaries so it was flippin' crazy. They have a scale in their flat and I got on the scale and I think I have lost about 30 pounds since I got here. Not much else has happened. We saw Austins on Saturday and they showed us how to make some stuff. One thing they showed us how to make they call Jesus bread. It is flour, milk, and a bit of salt and then they fry it in a pan. It tasted a lot like one of your scones. But then after we had dinner with them they told us that they really didn't like the Cumbernauld ward so they won't be joining the church here :( - but they said they will keep studying and we are seeing them tonight for family home evening. Everyone we have told that to has said that it is weird. But they are planning on moving to Glasgow soon so we may have to send the missionaries to them when they get there.

But then on Sunday, we went and saw a guy we tracted named Peter. We gave him a restoration pamphlet and he said that it got his mind going like nothing before. He also has a friend who lives in Canada who is a member so that is how he first got introduced to the church. We are seeing him again on Wednesday. After we met with Peter, we had dinner at a member's house and we were telling them about the Austins. One of the guys that was there served his mission in South Africa and he said that they sounded like typical white South Africans who are a bit stuck up. So we will just have to see what else happens with the Austins.

(I asked him if he was going to be able to go out and eat or do anything on his birthday) - My birthday is on MANIK (don't know what that stands for) - that is where we go get kebabs for dinner the night before moves call, so Elder Rogers said he would buy me a kebab. It is crazy that I am going to be 20!!

That has been my week - love you and miss you.

Mason