April 25, 2016

Here is the e-mail we got today . . . still no car . . . 

 

This week has been okay for the most part. When we need to go to Wick we get an hour nap on the bus so there is a good thing about not having a car. So this week. On Tuesday we were going to see Rebecca and Aaron but Rebecca's brother-in-law wasn't able to make it so we just rainchecked it to Thursday. So we went by David and what a surprise he was drunk but we went in and talked to him. It was alright he was saying how he wants to stop smoking and drinking so we will be helping him with that this week. 

Wednesday not much happened during the day. But we got invited to play basketball with the youth since they figured me and Elder Kinville would have the most experience with it. So that was really fun. 

Thurday we went and saw Rebecca and Aaron and it went pretty well. Other then that I can't really remember anything else happening on Thursday that would be noteworthy. 

Friday we were going to see the Billingtons but they had to cancel so we will be seeing them later this week. But we ended up having a meeting with the branch mission leader. 

Saturday was the usual service Saturday. But at the croft, Sister Tolworthy wants to learn leather work and she got some leather and basic stuff at Tandy to make some stuff for the horses so I gave her a bit of a leather working lesson which was great. Then they gave us a lift to the flat.

Sunday we walked around Thurso after church then we had dinner with the branch President and then he gave us a lift back to the flat and that was that. Sorry Thurso isn't too exciting but that was our week. 

Love and miss you. 

 

Here is a picture I borrowed from Elder Kinville's blog Mason, then two missionaries from their district, and then Elder Kinville on the right.

 

 

April 18, 2016

 Here is today's e-mail from Mason . . .

So the week started out pretty nice. On Monday we went to the Jones' for dinner which was awesome. 

Tuesday we started off by doing some yard work for a less active lady, but while doing that the assistants called and asked if we could drive, I said we couldn't, and they said they would work something out and give us a call and don't drive the car. But we had to so we could get to the croft on Wednesday. 

(They have provisional driver's licenses for one year after they get to the United Kingdom. So, Mason hasn't been able to drive since September and Elder Kinville just passed his one year mark so he shouldn't be driving either. They didn't think they would both stay in Thurso because they need a car and neither one of them is able to drive without getting a UK driver's license and that costs about $400 or $500. That is why Mason said they couldn't drive.)

Wednesday it was really just croft service.

Thursday the APs called and we thought we would be in a trio or an have an emergency move and one of us would get transferred. But they are TAKING THE CAR!!!!!!!!!!! So this is going to suck, and this move is another 7 week one.

We also started using the buses on Thursday we went to Rebecca, the one who wants her son to get baptized, we ended up just hanging around with them and then we were going to go to the Billingtons but we just barely missed our bus and the next one wasn't for 2 freaking hours!!! Then we got a bus back to Thurso. 

Friday we weekly planned. Then Elder Kinville had a doctors appointment cause his ear was blocked up. Then we went to a members house for dinner. After that we had a meeting with our branch mission leader. And the Zone Leaders called that night to talk to us about getting the car down. Elder Clay and Elder Roach were going to come up to Thurso and we drove down with them to Inverness so the ZL's could get the car to Aberdeen. Then we told them about our area and how spread out it is and that for most of the members for us to go to see them they would have to pick us up and drop us off, which would be a 2 hour trip for them, and that we couldn't spend the day around the members cause there are about 5 houses with in 2 miles around those members. So they told us to call them at the end of this week to see how it goes up here without a car and they would see what they can do.  

Saturday we did service at New Start Highland then Elder Clay and Elder Roach came up and we went down to Inverness. That night all six of us stayed in Inverness and had another camp fire night.

Sunday we had stake conference and it was so good to see everyone again. Everyone remembered me and was really happy to see me again. But we only got an hour of stake conference cause the broadcast cut out. Then we went to one of the members houses for lunch, all six of us. Then the Invergordon team went back up to Invergordon. We did some finding then we went to Gail's. It is always great going to Gail's. Then Inverness picked us up and dropped us off at the Invergordon flat where we stayed the night. And now we are emailing in Invergordon and then they will drive us back up. 

Also I found out what Elder Perkins is doing. They put five missionaries together and gave them one of the mission vans so now they just drive around the mission and blitz different city centres. We have called it the "Wolf Pack". 

Love and miss you guys.   

April 11, 2016

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

It was moves call last night and we are both staying together, but Elder Perkins (district leader) is moving down to Edinburgh but only president and the AP's know what he will be doing all he was told was that its new and creative. So this week it was just a lot of finding and some service. But we did get to see two less actives. One named Brenda is older and lives in a care home, when we went to see her she invited one of her friends from the home to play chess with Elder Kinville and I played Brenda. Then the other one's name is Rebecca and she wants to get her 7 year old son baptized and his birthday is in May we just need to get her active again, but that is something good to work for. We have an appointment with them again on Wednesday.

Also something really cool I got to do at the croft this week was I got to wash one of the horses then I dried him off and warmed him up. I took him on a bit of a run, just leading him, and Sister Tolworthy commented that I did pretty good at leading the horse. Also on our way back from the croft, Elder Kinville hit and killed a bunny so we turned around and got some pictures of it. Elder Kinville felt like a terrible person the rest of the night. 

On Tuesday when we Skyped with with our district in Inverness for our district meeting we had a bit of fun - we went with our top halves all dressed up but had pajama bottoms on and with the table we were sitting at they couldn't see our pajama bottoms so it was the most comfortable district meeting ever. We need to have some fun so we don't go crazy. 

It is crazy that I only have 3 moves left. I for sure am going to keep working hard. Also the Ewarts (from Montrose - Mason's last area) emailed me and they are getting baptized!!! Sadly, I won't be able to go so that is another one I am missing out on, but it is still awesome. 

Sorry this was a bit short but that was pretty much the only exciting things about this week. Love and miss you guys. 

Here is a picture from their district meeting with the pajama bottoms - he also sent pictures of the dead rabbit they hit with their car, but I won't post those.

 

 

April 4, 2016

Here is this week's e-mail from Mason - this coming Sunday will be moves call again already and it will be 19 months since he left - only 4 1/2 months to go!!

 

So this week has been good - here is what happened. Tuesday we didn't have much going on, but later we had to drive down to Inv

ergordon and spend the night with the missionaries there. It was so much fun they had this game called "Boss Monster" which was just crazy fun.

 

Wednesday morning we got up at 4 a.m. to get ready to make the drive down to Aberdeen for ZIT (zone meeting), and even the drive down was so much fun - one of the Elders, Elder Roach, was trained by Elder Barton. But when we got there we found out that ZIT was going to be in the YSA room instead of in the chapel. So we had the most relaxed meeting ever. I got a big leather arm chair which was great - best seat in the place, and I didn't fall asleep. Then after ZIT we stayed the night at Invergordon again and played Boss Monster again and had a great time.

 

We woke up Thursday morning and drove up to Thurso, and got showered because we just woke up and left from Invergordon, then went to the Tolworthys for service. This time we were mucking out the cow's stall which hasn't been mucked out in about a year so it really needed it.

 

Friday we went over to the Tolworthys again in the morning since we couldn't come on Saturday cause of conference. The cow broke the stall gate so me and Elder Kinville built a new one out of some old wood they had around. Then we had branch council later on. So that was Friday

 

Saturday we did service at New Start Highland then we went to try by that one drunk less active in Wick, then we weekly planned since he wasn't in. Then we went to the Jones' house for conference. The Jones are an American family who live up here in Thurso, and they are so cool. So we watched conference and the LDS World Report with them which was really cool.

 

Sunday we went to the church to watch conference and the computer was hooked up to the TV in case anyone wanted to watch it at the church. So we watched the Priesthood session by ourselves. The choir was made up of students from the Logan Institute and I was looking at the choir to see if any were wearing tartan ties, and one of them was. It was really cool then I recognized the guy wearing it as Elder Thackary an old Zone Leader of mine and one of Elder Barton's old companions. I turned to Elder Kinville and just yelled "its Elder Thackary" then he recognized him and we both had a mini freak out. Then for the Saturday afternoon session some members showed up and we watched it with them.

 

Then afterwards we went to a member's house, the Winkles, to watch the Sunday morning session but they couldn't get it because their the broadband was to narrow so we ended up just having dinner with them so we still have two sessions to watch.

 

That was our week love and miss you. 

 

Here is a picture of the cow with the new stall gate they made (borrowed from Elder Kinville's blog).

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago when they made smores with the missionaries in Inverness.

This picture is for Bryn - this is Elder Crowe who was in a Mormon boy band - Beyond 5 - before he went on his mission. Mason and Elder Crowe were in the same zone for a while so Mason took this picture for Bryn.