June 27, 2016

Here is the e-mail and some pictures we got from Mason this week - it is now less than 50 days (47 to be exact) until he comes home!!

So this week we pretty much just stayed in Thurso except to see the people who live outside Thurso. And I do know I go home in 50 days I'm doing the Doctrine and Convents count down, that is where you read D&C starting from official declaration 2 and go to section 1. I hope I don't get moved I want to die in Thurso, If I die in Thurso my last Sunday on the mission will need to be in Inverness then I can say good bye to every one there and maybe do something with some of the members Saturday night. 

Things are going good with Elder Burgess. This week it wasn't too different we did a lot of finding, but we got a new investigator. His name is Neal and he seems like a really cool guy we have only seen him once and now he is on vacation for the week, so hopefully we will see him next week. Other than finding we saw Lee and Naomi on Wednesday, Rebecca and Arran on Thursday as well as another less active named Brenda. And we did some service on the Winkle's croft this week as well as the Tolworthy's. So its been a good week. Not a whole lot of really exciting stuff. But Invergordon is up today so we are going to have some more fun with them. 

Love and miss you guys.

These pictures are at Dunnett Head which is the mostly northerly point of the United Kingdom. Mason's new companion, Elder Burgess is on the far left. The other two missionaries are the elders from Invergordon.

At Loch Ness so Elder Burgess could become immortal.

Some place in Inverness.

Bryn's Blog

June 20, 2016

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason this week -

So for this week the Invergordon elders took us down to Invergordon. After emailing we went down to Inverness really quick so Elder Burgess could gain his immortality (by drinking water out of Loch Ness).

Then on Tuesday after district meeting we went to Inverness and pretty much just GQed all day. But while I was with the new greenie in Inverness we met some members from Utah. They said they were with a big tour group from Utah but then Elder Hollburg, the greenie, wanted to chap so we headed off to do that. But on the way from the other side of the road we heard a bunch of people yell out "hey Elders" and it was the whole group waiting at a bus stop to get picked up by their bus so we talked to them really quick and they took some pictures of us. One of them asked if you were on the facebook page mission moms or mission mamas, she said she would but the pictures on that page for you to see. (But I haven't seen it yet.)

Then after the finding we went to the Sutherland's which was great, then Sister Sutherland showed us a cool place which I took pictures of and will be on the Dropbox, we then went to the Culloden battlefield and I have a video of Sister Sutherland talking about it and that will also be on Dropbox tomorrow. So that was a fun day.

Wednesday it was more finding. But then all four of us got to go to Gail's which was great! Then we went to YSA there were only 4 of them but it was awesome to see them again so we just played some games with them and had fun.

Thursday it was back up to Thurso then after shopping and cleaning it was finding the rest of the day. Friday was croft service which was nice - I got to do some work with Alfie the bigger horse which was awesome. Sister Tolworthy said if it wasn't for the no horseback riding rule she would have me riding Alfie which would be awesome.

Saturday after the charity shop it was more finding.

Sunday after church more finding. But we did get to speak with some cool people and set up an appointment for Tuesday so hopefully that goes through. So this was a good week. But due to the blitz we weren't able to see Rebbeca and Arran or Lee and Naomi but we have it all set up to see them this week.

But for finding we have been told to just stay in Thurso but it is actually working pretty well. And with what you said about not getting trunky, yesterday I prepared my last planner. I will forward my travel planes to you when I get them.

Love and miss you guys.

Bryn's Blog

June 13, 2016

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason - only 9 more Monday e-mails (after this one) from him until he is home!!

Sorry I'm emailing a bit late - we are going on exchanges in Inverness Tuesday and Wednesday so we are with Invergordon right now. They came up and spent the night with us then drove us down this morning.  ZIT was good, but we aren't gettting the car back. President Donaldson told me that with the car they took fro, Inverness that was 11 cars taken from the mission and that now he is looking at Zone Leaders to possibly lose their cars. So its pretty crazy. 

But for this week it was a lot of travel and staying with Invergordon. We spent Wednesday and Thursday night with them. We had a lot of fun. Tuesday we saw Rebecca and Arran, as well as Lee and Naomi. Then on Wednesday we went and did service at the Winkles then Invergordon came and picked us up. Then Thursday was ZIT. Friday we went to the Tolworthy's croft. Saturday we went to the charity shop then updated the progress record and that was about that.  

Sunday after church we had a meeting with the branch mission leader and did weekly planing. Then Invergordon came up and it was another party. So its been a crazy week of travel. I got the "trunky email" but it isn't the full travel plans yet I just need to respond telling them were I'm flying to and all that so the travel plans will be coming soon.

Things are going good. Love and miss you guys. 

Elder Kinville and Mason made a video of them lip syncing to the song "Agony" from Into the Woods - it is pretty funny - if you want to watch it here is the link - 

Agony Video

Link to Bryn's Blog

June 6, 2016

Here is the e-mail we got from Mason this week - 

This week has been crazy - no one had any idea what was going on this moves. But Elder Burgess (Mason's new companion) is pretty cool and he is from Australia. He was going to bring a car with him but then we found out his Australian PROVISIONAL license isn't good over here. You need to be 21 to get a full license in Australia. So Inverness kept the car because their car is going to Germany for some reason. 

So this week, Tuesday we got up and got on a bus to Inverness. Once we got there we got Elder Kinville on the train to Edinburgh then I waited with Elder Hornburger for our new companions. Invergordon was there as well so I hung out with Elder Sorenson for some of the day. Then our companions showed up and we were told by the zone leaders to spend the night in Inverness and I had nothing so I ended up wearing everything for two days in a row. 

Wednesday the ZLs showed up and took Inverness' car and said the car they brought up still needed to be assigned to either us or Inverness so we had to hang around with them until we heared from the AP's. They said to give the car to us but then we found out about the license problem so Inverness kept the car and we took the 3 hour bus ride up to Thurso. After that we went and saw Lee and Naomi so that was fun. 

Also something else that happened on Wednesday after seeing Lee and Naomi  -- our bus didn't show up so about 9:20 we gave up on the bus and started walking the 5-6 miles back to Thurso. And it is mainly fields between Thurso and Castletown , where Lee and Naomi live. But after walking about a mile or two some nice guy turned around and gave us a lift back to Thurso so that was lucky without that we would have gotten into the flat around midnight. So that's one taste of Thurso without a car. 

Thursday we did shopping and looked to see what Elder Burgess would need to do to get a UK license and it will take 6-8 weeks. So we called the ZLs to see what they could do and they said that no one will be getting e-moved (emergency moved) up and the mission doesn't have any cars to give to a team. Then we went out to Wick and saw Rebecca and Arran real quick. 

Friday we went over to the Tolworthys since there was a branch service project on Saturday. We didn't have to do any mucking out but we did some mega weeding; then we washed the horses. 

Saturday we went to the branch service project which was painting the Winkles croft it was really fun. We were there the whole day and painted their whole house. They also gave us lunch and dinner. 

Sunday after church we went and tried by some people and that was about it since we can't really leave Thurso on Sundays because the buses stink. 

So that was our crazy week I am so done with the car thing so this week is ZIT and we are going to talk with president about this and see what he can do. So next move one of us will more than likely be moving I kinda hope I stay I really like the members here and all the service we get to do. Love and miss you guys. 

Here is a picture borrowed from Elder Kinville's blog - their last companion selfie. Now Elder Kinville isn't Mason's companion we probably won't get many pictures!

Bryn's Blog