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).
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).
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