SCOTLAND
Okay okay okay.
The field has been great! Our mission has eight zones, five in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland, and two in Ireland. I'm in the Dundee zone, dundee district, Montrose area in Scotland! It's so great! and guess what! John Schmidt's (from piano guys) son is my zone leader! So crazy!
Anyway, it's been a little difficult but good. I cried the first couple of days thinking about the beautiful MTC. Everyone around me had the same exact purpose and beliefs and it was the most wonderful thing ever! I really miss it, but I'm not despondent anymore. I've been praying for joy and peace, and I have definitely received it. This work is so good!
So, cool story. When we got here in Edinburgh where the Mission Home is, we climbed Pratt's Hill/Arthur's Seat, and made commitments to God. It was where Orson Pratt dedicated this land to the work of the Lord, and so it's a tradition to go there when we get in the field, and then again when we leave. We were with President and his Wife and the APs. We just got a new pres right before I got here! Macdonalds from Utah haha and they're wonderful. Anyway, then we had lunch with the trainers back at the office, and none of us knew who we would be with. Now, this is the cool part. Apparently I was supposed to go to Ireland with a different sister, but President changed his mind at the last minute to send me to scotland with Sister McNamara! I don't think I was supposed to know, but I know that I'm SUPPOSED to be here with Sister Mac! She's absolutely incredible and the sweetest person ever. She's from Anaheim California, almost 21, and went to BYU. She sings! And we're singing a musical number at our Northern Scotland conference tomorrow. We're also both sick, and my voice isn't working well, so pray for us. Anyway, she told me yesterday that she had already learned more from me than her two last comps combined, and that I'm incredible and amazing and so prepared to be here. So she's crazy nice! I feel like I've been built up so much since I began my mission. So many sisters have been complimenting my singing and "beauty" and have told me that all the elders are in love with me haha. I of course don't believe that latter one for a second, but my confidence has risen so much. I ACTUALLY SING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE NOW. WAT.
Anyway, Montrose covers a whole bunch of spread-out villages, so we often need to take a bus everywhere. It's so hard because it takes forever, and I feel like we waste so much time! But I'm trying to look at it in a good light. I just hope we can maybe get a car soon. We're also both whitewashing the area, so we're both new, and kinda lost. The ward is so nice though. We've had dinner appointments almost every night, and an older sister Helen Stronach feeds us almost every sunday! And let me tell you, her food is so so so delicious. The best I've ever had. Last night we had chicken, mashed and roasted tatties, peas, baked carrots, corn and gravy and what do you know? I LOVED IT ALL. And then she gave us some homemade chocolate cake and ice cream and we both DIED. I love her and her husband so much. We also were eating with a James Lynch, who is also pretty old, and he's from Glasgow and absolutely hilarious. He spoke with us in church today and I had met him on the street while we were GQing (golden questioning as we call it)/finding). He called me over and gave me the whole "you're from utah? I have a friend there! Nelson is his name. Russell Nelson. He's a great pal of mine." Of course I fell for it. Afterward he told me he was a member It was so funny!
When we first got here they had us set a goal to invite a person to baptism before sunday, and I did it! I guess it's kind of a rule here to extend the invitation on the first lesson--only if we really feel that they could actually say yes. It was to an on the spot lesson while we were GQing in Albroath. He just turned 17 yesterday and seemed super interested, and so I'm really excited! We have a nigerian family that was passed over to us by the zl's. They seem so ready to receive this but aren't wanting to accept the book of mormon. They're beginning to call our lessons "bible study".
Sister Mac and I also made some friends with the town drunkards. They stand outside the pub some days for a smoke, and we just talk with them. John, an old guy was in a kilt when we first met him, and yesterday he tried to give us money from his friend's pocket to buy a Book of Mormon from us. He's so so funny and sweet and actually said he would read the BoM and write down the questions he had. We'll see. Hopefully he pulls through! The pub actually caught on fire yesterday and a whole fire truck and fire men were surrounding it. And what do you know? There was drunkard John, standing outside in his kilt, still drinking away. Haha just kidding just kidding. He wasn't really there, but the fire was.
There are so many nice people here, but also a few meanish ones. No one has sworn or spit at us yet so that's good. Most just brush us off when we approach them on high street, but we've been able to have some awesome conversations and get a few potentials.
Two days ago we went chapping (door knocking) in the evening and there were two different old people, almost right after the other, where they talked about losing a loved one and not really believing in God. We testified to them both that there was, and that He was mindful of them and loved them, and that we can be with our families again. The spirit was SO strong and tears were streaming all around. they were stubborn and didn't want to change their views, but we know they felt it. We're gonna keep going back. Persistence and love are the keys to changing someone's heart. PLUS THE SPIRIT. ALWAYS THE SPIRIT.
I love this work so much. It's so beautiful here and I'm so happy. My comp is seriously the best and I'm so happy to have her. She's bold and really pushes me to be the same.
This'll be a super random paragraph: our flat is the greatest! It's so big and nice and I'm in love. We also had scottish trifle yesterday. I thought it was pretty good except for the lemon jello in it, but sis Mac was pretty close to throwing up. There's this place called Gregg's that we go for donuts and there's this caramel one with custard filling and oh my heavens I'm in Heaven!! They also have these chicken bakes that are so yummy. OH MY GOODNESS I'M GOING TO GET SO FAT. We barely had any food in our flat this last week so we've been eating out for lunch and tea (dinner) the days the members don't feed us, and we've gone to Gregg's and Subway multiple times haha. I'm waiting to have some more REAL Scottish food!
I can't believe I almost forgot! We have an investigator named Sarah. The sisters have been teaching her since the end of March and she really seems like a member! She's only missed going to church four times since beginning the lessons and she's so ready to be baptised! She knows it's true, but somethings holding her back. We had lunch with her our first day here, and chatted with her and her mum while they were "fetching their messages" a different day, and then at church. She's so amazing! She's having us for tea this next week.
We've been sitting down with some muslims. There's Huseym who owns a restaurant and barber shop on high street. We didn't think he would be too interested, but asked if we could come in to his restaurant and eat some food and talk with him, and he said okay, so we went the next day, got some mozarella sticks and nachos, and he actually sat down and talked with us! His place is called "Kai's Kitchen," and "Kai's Barber Shop." Apparently he named them after his five year old who has a learning disability. So cute. Anyway, he told us that the food was on him, and said he would read the Book of Mormon if we got him one in turkish, and we had one in our Flat! So we made sure to give it to him. yesterday we met three muslims who barely speak English. One understood a bit, and had to translate most of it to his friends in French and Arabic. We drew pictures, found some french mormon messages on one of their phones, and used Google translate. We're giving them a Book of Mormon in French and hopefully Arabic sometime this week.
Sorry that I'm always so crazy and everywhere in my emails. I don't have time to read through them and I just type whatever random thoughts come into my head.
Oh! SISTER HAMMOND MY MTC COMP IS WITH SIS BAKER--THE GIRL WHO'S BLOG I READ BEFORE COMING HERE. I sat by Sis Baker during lunch and was telling her how I had read every single email on her blog, and she kinda looked a little scared haha. It was so funny but so cool! She's awesome. And they're in our zone! Woot woot!
Love you all so much! ps I love emails and my friends so if you want to email me you're all more than welcome. If any of you have questions or want to know specific things, let me know and I'll for sure answer them!
-Sister Syphus
Fam Bam!
I love you all so much and I'm actually starting to really miss you hahaha. The field has been great, I was actually really struggling the first few days though because I missed the MTC so much. I still cry a little when I think about it. My trainer is amazing though! She builds me up all the time.
Send me lots of pictures and emails! I think I've been struggling a little in part because somehow I feel like you guys don't exist anymore, or that I'm forgotten. Silly, I know, but I just feed off of updates and pictures. So if you have any time at all that would be wonderful. I love you all so much and I miss you!
_Sister Syphus
Mom,
I really do love you you know. I just got done with my big email and just wanted to email you again. Thanks for faithfully emailing me every week. It gets me through each one knowing that I have a least one email. And that's from my beautiful, incredible mother whom I love more than anyone else in the entire world! I shared all of my pics from montrose with you guys, but I have a couple more videos that I didn't have time to send, so I'll try to do it next week. One is a video of me going through our whole flat! The ward is really amazing. Apparently Helen, the one who fed us, takes a bunch of pictures so you'll see even more on the facebook page since we'll be dining with her every sunday almost. When you see those pics of me on facebook could you send them? She really makes amazing stuff. Her food was SO AMAZING. I truly felt like I was in heaven. I've discovered that I haven't been picky here at all! Everything's so good!
My DL Elder Hoaldridge is awesome. He knows one of the popular girls that went to dixie with me. We weren't doing well finding one morning so we texted him for some encouragement, and he said he would give us a pack of happy hippos (as seen in my video with sis hammon) for every person we got a following appointment with (QA). We got three, so 15 happy hippos!
Sis Mac and I will be singing Be Still My Soul together tomorrow at our mission conf. Our voices are wacky since we have colds, so we're praying! Since our mission is so big we have an Ireland Conf, Southern Scotland conf, and Northern. We're part of the Northern.
At least I think. I'll have to check for sure when we get back to the flat and let you know next week. Still send packages to the mission home unless you contact a member in my area and they say you can ship it to them.
I'm out of time now, but I love you!
The field has been great! Our mission has eight zones, five in Scotland, one in Northern Ireland, and two in Ireland. I'm in the Dundee zone, dundee district, Montrose area in Scotland! It's so great! and guess what! John Schmidt's (from piano guys) son is my zone leader! So crazy!
Anyway, it's been a little difficult but good. I cried the first couple of days thinking about the beautiful MTC. Everyone around me had the same exact purpose and beliefs and it was the most wonderful thing ever! I really miss it, but I'm not despondent anymore. I've been praying for joy and peace, and I have definitely received it. This work is so good!
So, cool story. When we got here in Edinburgh where the Mission Home is, we climbed Pratt's Hill/Arthur's Seat, and made commitments to God. It was where Orson Pratt dedicated this land to the work of the Lord, and so it's a tradition to go there when we get in the field, and then again when we leave. We were with President and his Wife and the APs. We just got a new pres right before I got here! Macdonalds from Utah haha and they're wonderful. Anyway, then we had lunch with the trainers back at the office, and none of us knew who we would be with. Now, this is the cool part. Apparently I was supposed to go to Ireland with a different sister, but President changed his mind at the last minute to send me to scotland with Sister McNamara! I don't think I was supposed to know, but I know that I'm SUPPOSED to be here with Sister Mac! She's absolutely incredible and the sweetest person ever. She's from Anaheim California, almost 21, and went to BYU. She sings! And we're singing a musical number at our Northern Scotland conference tomorrow. We're also both sick, and my voice isn't working well, so pray for us. Anyway, she told me yesterday that she had already learned more from me than her two last comps combined, and that I'm incredible and amazing and so prepared to be here. So she's crazy nice! I feel like I've been built up so much since I began my mission. So many sisters have been complimenting my singing and "beauty" and have told me that all the elders are in love with me haha. I of course don't believe that latter one for a second, but my confidence has risen so much. I ACTUALLY SING IN FRONT OF PEOPLE NOW. WAT.
Anyway, Montrose covers a whole bunch of spread-out villages, so we often need to take a bus everywhere. It's so hard because it takes forever, and I feel like we waste so much time! But I'm trying to look at it in a good light. I just hope we can maybe get a car soon. We're also both whitewashing the area, so we're both new, and kinda lost. The ward is so nice though. We've had dinner appointments almost every night, and an older sister Helen Stronach feeds us almost every sunday! And let me tell you, her food is so so so delicious. The best I've ever had. Last night we had chicken, mashed and roasted tatties, peas, baked carrots, corn and gravy and what do you know? I LOVED IT ALL. And then she gave us some homemade chocolate cake and ice cream and we both DIED. I love her and her husband so much. We also were eating with a James Lynch, who is also pretty old, and he's from Glasgow and absolutely hilarious. He spoke with us in church today and I had met him on the street while we were GQing (golden questioning as we call it)/finding). He called me over and gave me the whole "you're from utah? I have a friend there! Nelson is his name. Russell Nelson. He's a great pal of mine." Of course I fell for it. Afterward he told me he was a member It was so funny!
When we first got here they had us set a goal to invite a person to baptism before sunday, and I did it! I guess it's kind of a rule here to extend the invitation on the first lesson--only if we really feel that they could actually say yes. It was to an on the spot lesson while we were GQing in Albroath. He just turned 17 yesterday and seemed super interested, and so I'm really excited! We have a nigerian family that was passed over to us by the zl's. They seem so ready to receive this but aren't wanting to accept the book of mormon. They're beginning to call our lessons "bible study".
Sister Mac and I also made some friends with the town drunkards. They stand outside the pub some days for a smoke, and we just talk with them. John, an old guy was in a kilt when we first met him, and yesterday he tried to give us money from his friend's pocket to buy a Book of Mormon from us. He's so so funny and sweet and actually said he would read the BoM and write down the questions he had. We'll see. Hopefully he pulls through! The pub actually caught on fire yesterday and a whole fire truck and fire men were surrounding it. And what do you know? There was drunkard John, standing outside in his kilt, still drinking away. Haha just kidding just kidding. He wasn't really there, but the fire was.
There are so many nice people here, but also a few meanish ones. No one has sworn or spit at us yet so that's good. Most just brush us off when we approach them on high street, but we've been able to have some awesome conversations and get a few potentials.
Two days ago we went chapping (door knocking) in the evening and there were two different old people, almost right after the other, where they talked about losing a loved one and not really believing in God. We testified to them both that there was, and that He was mindful of them and loved them, and that we can be with our families again. The spirit was SO strong and tears were streaming all around. they were stubborn and didn't want to change their views, but we know they felt it. We're gonna keep going back. Persistence and love are the keys to changing someone's heart. PLUS THE SPIRIT. ALWAYS THE SPIRIT.
I love this work so much. It's so beautiful here and I'm so happy. My comp is seriously the best and I'm so happy to have her. She's bold and really pushes me to be the same.
This'll be a super random paragraph: our flat is the greatest! It's so big and nice and I'm in love. We also had scottish trifle yesterday. I thought it was pretty good except for the lemon jello in it, but sis Mac was pretty close to throwing up. There's this place called Gregg's that we go for donuts and there's this caramel one with custard filling and oh my heavens I'm in Heaven!! They also have these chicken bakes that are so yummy. OH MY GOODNESS I'M GOING TO GET SO FAT. We barely had any food in our flat this last week so we've been eating out for lunch and tea (dinner) the days the members don't feed us, and we've gone to Gregg's and Subway multiple times haha. I'm waiting to have some more REAL Scottish food!
I can't believe I almost forgot! We have an investigator named Sarah. The sisters have been teaching her since the end of March and she really seems like a member! She's only missed going to church four times since beginning the lessons and she's so ready to be baptised! She knows it's true, but somethings holding her back. We had lunch with her our first day here, and chatted with her and her mum while they were "fetching their messages" a different day, and then at church. She's so amazing! She's having us for tea this next week.
We've been sitting down with some muslims. There's Huseym who owns a restaurant and barber shop on high street. We didn't think he would be too interested, but asked if we could come in to his restaurant and eat some food and talk with him, and he said okay, so we went the next day, got some mozarella sticks and nachos, and he actually sat down and talked with us! His place is called "Kai's Kitchen," and "Kai's Barber Shop." Apparently he named them after his five year old who has a learning disability. So cute. Anyway, he told us that the food was on him, and said he would read the Book of Mormon if we got him one in turkish, and we had one in our Flat! So we made sure to give it to him. yesterday we met three muslims who barely speak English. One understood a bit, and had to translate most of it to his friends in French and Arabic. We drew pictures, found some french mormon messages on one of their phones, and used Google translate. We're giving them a Book of Mormon in French and hopefully Arabic sometime this week.
Sorry that I'm always so crazy and everywhere in my emails. I don't have time to read through them and I just type whatever random thoughts come into my head.
Oh! SISTER HAMMOND MY MTC COMP IS WITH SIS BAKER--THE GIRL WHO'S BLOG I READ BEFORE COMING HERE. I sat by Sis Baker during lunch and was telling her how I had read every single email on her blog, and she kinda looked a little scared haha. It was so funny but so cool! She's awesome. And they're in our zone! Woot woot!
Love you all so much! ps I love emails and my friends so if you want to email me you're all more than welcome. If any of you have questions or want to know specific things, let me know and I'll for sure answer them!
-Sister Syphus
Fam Bam!
I love you all so much and I'm actually starting to really miss you hahaha. The field has been great, I was actually really struggling the first few days though because I missed the MTC so much. I still cry a little when I think about it. My trainer is amazing though! She builds me up all the time.
Send me lots of pictures and emails! I think I've been struggling a little in part because somehow I feel like you guys don't exist anymore, or that I'm forgotten. Silly, I know, but I just feed off of updates and pictures. So if you have any time at all that would be wonderful. I love you all so much and I miss you!
_Sister Syphus
Mom,
I really do love you you know. I just got done with my big email and just wanted to email you again. Thanks for faithfully emailing me every week. It gets me through each one knowing that I have a least one email. And that's from my beautiful, incredible mother whom I love more than anyone else in the entire world! I shared all of my pics from montrose with you guys, but I have a couple more videos that I didn't have time to send, so I'll try to do it next week. One is a video of me going through our whole flat! The ward is really amazing. Apparently Helen, the one who fed us, takes a bunch of pictures so you'll see even more on the facebook page since we'll be dining with her every sunday almost. When you see those pics of me on facebook could you send them? She really makes amazing stuff. Her food was SO AMAZING. I truly felt like I was in heaven. I've discovered that I haven't been picky here at all! Everything's so good!
My DL Elder Hoaldridge is awesome. He knows one of the popular girls that went to dixie with me. We weren't doing well finding one morning so we texted him for some encouragement, and he said he would give us a pack of happy hippos (as seen in my video with sis hammon) for every person we got a following appointment with (QA). We got three, so 15 happy hippos!
Sis Mac and I will be singing Be Still My Soul together tomorrow at our mission conf. Our voices are wacky since we have colds, so we're praying! Since our mission is so big we have an Ireland Conf, Southern Scotland conf, and Northern. We're part of the Northern.
At least I think. I'll have to check for sure when we get back to the flat and let you know next week. Still send packages to the mission home unless you contact a member in my area and they say you can ship it to them.
I'm out of time now, but I love you!
Montrose and Flat PICS
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