February 24, 2014

We didn't get an e-mail from Mason until today (Tuesday) because they had Zone Development Day (translation = Zone play day) yesterday so they had their P-day today.  Here is his e-mail -

Things have been going pretty well this past week.  It almost all seems to kind of mix together when we are doing a lot of the same stuff every day. This week has mainly been finding and trying by people. The Austin's (the family from South Africa) came to church on Sunday and had a few concerns about the members, but we brought the bishop with us when we went to see them so he really helped out a lot and we will be seeing them tomorrow, so they are still doing really good.

Yesterday was Zone Development Day from about 11:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.. We went to the stake center in Glasgow and it was raining so we just played in the gym at the church. We played chair football which is where if the ball touches your chair you are out and you sit on the chair but you can get the ball and throw it and if it hits someone's chair who is in then they are out and you are back in. Then we had two dodgeball tournaments and the teams were our districts and my district won both. But then we got destroyed at volleyball. We then played some fun games until dinner which was Costco pizza!!! (Mason LOVES Costco pizza!) One of the games we played we all sat in a circle and the person in the middle would pick a topic like a country then they would go around the circle with a cup of water and whoever had the same answer as them would get splashed with the water. So it was a really fun day.

So not a whole lot else has been going on this week - love you guys and miss you.

Mason

February 16, 2015

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

This week has been pretty good.  We have see the South African family, the Austin's, three times this week.  We went there for dinner on Tuesday and the made lasagna and they are doing awesome. Every time we go over they just get better and better.  The lessons are just mainly answering their questions. They said that whenever they are home they walk around with a copy of the Book of Mormon for whenever they have time to read. They keep on telling us stuff that they already do - like tithing.  They don't pay tithing, but they set money aside and donate it or do something to help others with it. One of their dogs died this week from eating too much chocolate so that was sad. We went to see them when that happened and left them a "Plan of Salvation" pamphlet and when we went back after that they had read it three times. They also have the Gospel Library app on their phones so they just keep studying more and more - it is awesome! Something else is that they have watched some of the "I'm a Mormon" videos but they also watched some of the "I'm an ex-Mormon" videos but they said that the ex-Mormon ones were just petty and they found any reason to leave the church. They all have a really solid testimony so it is great. They should be getting baptized next month. (I e-mailed back and forth with Mason for a few minutes this morning and asked him about the family - there is a mom and dad a 19-year old girl, 17-year old boy, and a 4-year old girl - or maybe that was supposed to be 14 - I will ahve to ask next week.)

Some of the members here are really cool but we don't have fixed dinner appointments with any of them, and nobody can match up to the Gilardi's (the family in Ayr that really takes care of the missionaries). I have talked to other missionaries and they say it all goes downhill from Ayr. I also haven't heard anything from Elder Scheuermann about Alistair so I will need to e-mail him and find out what happened. (He sent an e-mail to Elder Scheuermann while we were e-mailing back and forth and Alistair ended up not getting baptized this weekend and Elder Scheuermann said he was still getting baptized but it will be in the Lord's time.)

Something else that happened this week was that we went to this little chippy (fish and chips restaurant) for lunch in the small town where we were working and it was just mobbed by punk school kids. After we got our food we walked a bit away from them to eat and then one of the kids threw a fish at us then a small rock and the were just yelling at us.  I wasn't paying any attention to them so I don't know what they said but then after that we just walked away. That along with the Austin's were the most exciting things that happened this week. Sorry, but I don't think you will be getting many pictures while Iam here because there really isn't anything exciting in Cumbernauld.

We also had zone interview training so it was good to go and see other missionaries and then Sunday was stake conference so we got tot see the zone again so that was really good. So that is my week.  Love and miss you guys.

Mason

February 9, 2015

We got a great e-mail from Mason today.  Things were better the second week in his new area than they were the first week so that was nice to hear.  Tomorrow is his 5-month mark - and I feel like time is finally starting to speed up a little.  Here is the e-mail . . .

Things are going better this week.  Elder Rogers (Mason's new companion) is doing a bit better and isn't quite so disobedient anymore but it still kind of feels like he is dragging.  I think his companion before me was the bigger problem and Elder Rogers just didn't do anything about it. I went on exchanges on Tuesday with the district leader and they live in a four-man flat. I had more fun in that one day than the rest of the other two weeks I have been here combined.

The coolest thing ever happened this week.  On Wednesday I was closing up nightly planning and I just felt like I should pray for people to teach. Then, the next morning we got a call from the mission office about 2 self-referrals we got that asked for a Book of Mormon. The first one was a single woman who had heard about the church and wanted to see what it was like and she really seemed to like what we talked about with her. We just explained a bit about the church and the Book of Mormon. Then the second referral was a family from South Africa who moved to Scotland and the entire family of 5 is really interested in the gospel.  First off they said they found a video on YouTube about our beliefs and found they believed the same things. Then they had a family prayer about the church and turned the whole thing over to God saying if it is what He wants them to do they will do it. Then the mom had a dream of her oldest daughter getting married in the temple!!! How crazy is that? They had already done research about the church so most of our time with them was answering their questions. We talked to them about the priesthood and relief society and home teaching. They brought up the Word of Wisdom and said they don't drink alcohol and they would give up coffee in a heartbeat. They are so awesome and the spirit was so strong. They already seem like members - they are so awesome! We are seeing them again for dinner on Tuesday and I can't wait!

So not much else to report on this week other than that, and I got my second haircut of the mission so it has been a good week.  Love you and miss you!

February 2, 2015

Mason made it to his new area just outside of Glasgow, and he is serving in the Cumbernauld ward.  Here is this week's e-mail . . .

So, first things first - I MISS AYR!!!!!!!! When I told the members that I was getting moved to Cumbernauld they said that it started out nice but went into a slum as fast as it could and stayed there, and they were right. (The rest of this paragraph are the answers to the questions I asked him about his new area.)  Our flat is okay. It has a washer and dryer in the flat and the bathroom is warmer than the Ayr bathroom so that is very nice. So with moves, me and Elder Scheuermann took a train to Glasgow where we met up with a lot of other elders and then we met up with our new companions and went to the new areas. We don't have a car here so it is mostly walking or taking trains.  The ward is pretty nice and there is a girl here who is studying to be a hair dresser so she gives free haircuts and she has your color hair and acts kind of like Bryn so it is a bit weird. There are some really nice members here. We have two investigators - one has been coming to church for over a year now so really all she needs to do is get married to the less active guy she is living with and she is good to get baptized. Right now they are planning on getting married in October. And the other investigator is an older Catholic lady who is an "eternigator" but I haven't met her yet. I did get everything packed in my suitcases and I had the perfect amount of space for the deep fryer so that worked out really well.  The weather here is about the same as Ayr but we do have snow up here.

Before I left Ayr one of the members told me that I'll be one of the missionaries they really remember. He also said that his kids call the four of us missionaries in Ayr the Scooby Gang, and that we really made an impression on his kids. He said that his oldest son, Michele, who became a priest while I was there models the way he blesses the sacrament after the way I do it.  He said his son says "alright, this is the way Elder Wynder does it." Needless to say, when we come back to visit Scotland, we are going to Ayr. That is all for this week.  Love you guys!

Mason

He did tell us a little about his new companion, but he asked me not to put all of it in the blog - apparently his companion is not the most rule-following, hardest working missionary in the mission from what he did say. I did a little searching on Google Street View maps and I think I found his flat. I will have to send this picture to him next week and ask him for sure - but I think this is where he lives.

And this is the Cumbernauld ward building.

I made a Dropbox account for him so he could upload his pictures so if anything happened to his camera he would still have his pictures. Here are a few pictures that he uploaded that we hadn't seen.

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.