Senior Missionary Conference

 

This weekend we got to take part in a Senior Missionary Conference at the Mission Home. There were five other senior couples, three sisters who work in the office, and the Mission President and Sister McCrudden, his wife. It was really nice to spend time with couples who are doing the same thing we are. Everyone was about the same age- left their families for a time, and are trying to show our love for Jesus Christ by helping others in another country. 

After a training meeting Saturday morning, we had time to see some sights. We went to the Rosslyn Chapel with some others. A docent there gave us an impromptu tour after finding out we were LDS missionaries. She said she used to have the missionaries over all the time, and really liked them..

 

The castle is basically in ruins, but very cool-looking.

LIFE IN SCOTLAND

We had a chance to visit the Craigmiller Castle on our day off. It's out in the amazin green countryside.

We walked further on the Waters of Leith trail one morning and were very excited to see the beautiful area.

We are beginning to feel like we actually live here and are actually missionaries for the church! We spoke in church last Sunday and also taught the Young Adult Sunday School class, which hadn't been meetinf for a long time due to COVID. There were nine YA's there, which was pretty good. We are getting to know more of them.

For Family Home Evening Monday night, we played laser tag at a place one of the YA's manages and then went out for pizza. Everyone who went seemed to have a good time, and they really like being around each other.

We had a missionary district council meeting in person. This is something they have been doing by zoom. We were there with two young elders and four young sister missionaries. I'm really impressed with just how smart and prepared they all are!

 

SECOND WEEK

We took some time yesterday, on our day off, to ride a bus down to the old part of Edinburgh again. This we were able to go inside the castle, which is only allowed by reservation. It was really interesting, and there's a great view from up there! They fire off a cannon once a day at 1:00 p.m., so everyone knows what time it is. They save eleven shots by doing it at one instead of the traditional 12:00. Makes sense!

I started driving a little this week. Charles has been doing most of it. The roads are narrow, and some have cars parked on both sides, leaving only one lane down the middle. Drivers are courteous and cooperate with each other to make it work. It feels strange driving on the left side of the road, but we're getting used to it. There are roundabouts all over, rather than intersections and they are a little hard to get used to.

We had our first zone conference Thursday, and I was really impressed with the missionaries. The Assistants to the President ran the meeting, not the President, and everyone who participated seemed prepared and enthusiastic. The young missionaries are great!

We had a little better participation Monday for Family Home Evening, with four attending rather than the two from the week before! Charles taught the YA Sunday School class today, and we had eight YA's come, as well as three missionaries, a high councilor, and a member of the bishopric. It went really well. We are playing laser tag at an arcade, where one of them works, tomorrow, and it looks like a lot of them will be there.

FIRST WEEK OUT...

We went by the mission office and the mission president, President McCrudden and his wife invited us in to visit and get acquainted. We had only seen the office before, but the building is really beautiful inside. They have living quarters upstairs, but downstairs is for meeting with people and greeting and hosting new missionaries when they arrive. There's a big table where several new elders were eating pizza when we were there.

We ventured out into the countryside one day and found it very beautiful! I especially like the clouds.

We spent some time Saturday riding a double-decker bus to the historic part of the city and checking out some of the sights. This is the Edinburgh Castle, that sits up above the city. It's open for visitors, but only by appointment, and we didn't have one. We'll go back another time to see the inside. 

I don't know the names of all the buildings, but this one is the Baltmore Hotel. It's next to the train station, and keeps the clock set three minutes ahead to ensure travelers don't miss their trains.

 

PRATT'S HILL

I did not take this picture! It's one the mission office posted on the mission Facebook page, but it's very beautiful.

On Monday, our first day out of quarantine, the Assistants to the President took us and a few other missionaries who are new to Edinburgh, to Pratt's Hill, where Orson Pratt went to seek God's help in finding souls to share the gospel with in Scotland. He was blessed with the help he asked for. It's a peaceful place to meditate and ponder on the sacrifices made by others to open up this country for teaching about Christ, and to dedicate ourselves to continuing the work.

It's been wonderful to go out for walks in the morning- much nicer than trying to exercise in the flat! We are in a pretty area, next to a canal with a walking/biking path, where they actually train for rowing. It is barely big enough, but they make it work.

We had a brief driving lesson Monday, followed by taking the car out on our own. Driving on the left side of the road is challenging, especially when the streets are very narrow and oncoming traffic, as well as parked cars, are very close. They can park on either side of the street, heading either direction. We were warned that new drivers often hit the curb on the left side, due to a spatial awareness issue, and sure enough, we hit the curb and had a flat tire on our first day! However, now we know just how careful we have to be!

There is a store here called Asda, which I believe is owned by Walmart, because it's very similar. We found a black suit for Charles there that only cost about 50 American dollars, and it fits him vey well! 

Most things are more expensive here, partially due to the currency exchange, but also because there is a 20% "value added" tax on most everything you buy, excluding food. We have to figure that things actually cost about half again as much for us as the marked price indicates.

We had to get Amazon UK Prime, which is very handy for ordering things we can't easily find

in a store. The mission office is very close, so we have it delivered there to make it more secure. 

We ventured into the historic part of the city today, and found there is very little parking, and it's expensive, so we are going to try it again Saturday, only riding a bus.

 '