Monday, July 15, 2013
July 15
It's been
crazy nice weather this past week! It hasn't rained once and it's been warm
(well, warm for Scotland). It's funny when we'll ask someone how they're
doing and they'll say, "Oh, it's roasting!" and it will only be like
19 degrees and cloudy. People are definitely used to the cold around
here.
Last week
was a lot of fun! For P-day we went and played football on the beach. We
even had a former investigator join us. It
felt so good to be active and running around. We all got super sunburnt
though because for some reason no one thinks to wear sunscreen in Scotland
(probably because you usually don't need to). The beach was pretty packed
because all the schools just got out for summer holiday but it was still really
fun!
Oh, and me
and Sister Birch had our first knickerbocker glory this week, which is
also a tradition here. Think Harry Potter book 2 (?) when Harry goes with
the Dursley's to the zoo and they get ice cream. Dudley gets a
knickerbocker glory and then gets scared by the snake so Harry gets to finish
it. Anyway, that's what I first thought of when I heard the name.
But I thought it would be this big thing of ice cream, but actually there's
very little ice cream in it. At least the one we had. It was ice
cream, jelly (jell-o in the states), digestive biscuits bits (kind of like
cookies, but REALLY good), sprinkles, whipped cream, and a bunch of different
colored sauces. It was really colorful and almost didn't look real.
But it was so good.
Me and
Sister Passey were able to play a musical number in church this Sunday which
was a lot of fun. The mission president was able to borrow a violin from
someone in Edinburgh and bring it down so Sister Passey played the violin and I
played my viola. We played "I Need Thee Every Hour" with some
improv in it. It turned out really well I thought and it was funny
because after we were done you could hear an audible gasp from the congregation.
And someone started to clap which was funny. But I was so grateful for
that opportunity to play. Actually I was wondering if I would even be
able to because right after I got here the pegs on my viola expanded so they
were completely stuck and I couldn't tune at all. I think it happened
because of the change in climate/humidity and elevation. I was really worried
but we were able to take it to a music shop here in town and they fixed it for
free. I was so grateful for that!
We are teaching
this sweet old lady who is so hilarious and fun to teach. She is in her 80's. She has a lot of health problems and she
lives alone but she is so kind and is my favorite person
to teach. When we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ yesterday we
laid out pieces of paper with all the steps on it. We had one that said
"You" and one that said "Heaven" and laid them on the floor
and talked about what steps we need to take in order to get from one to the other.
We asked her what she thought about how we can get from here to heaven.
She said "well you could try to swim but I don't know if that would work
too well." She says things like this all the time out of nowhere and
it's so funny but I love teaching her because she is so sweet and it's easy to
have the spirit in the lessons.
That's it
for this week, love you and miss you all!
Sister Jackson
July 8
Hiya!
This week
has been great! In large part because of the weather. We're in a heat wave
right now as they call it. It should get up to 28 degrees this week (which is really
hot for Scotland) and be sunny for the next 10 days! So that's awesome.
It amazes
me every day how much Scottish people can talk haha. We stopped a man the other
day on the street and he was super nice but he was blethering to us
for over an hour! I love talking to people here but sometimes I wonder how they
breathe with talking that much nonstop:)
For the
Fourth of July we had a barbecue (indoor) and we ate American
food which was awesome! We had beef burgers, potato salad, and apple pie. And
we've been singing the patriotic hymns this week in our companionship study.
We got a
new district this week since 3 of the elders in it went home. We now have 5 sisters and 2
elders in our district. But it's a lot of fun and everyone gets along great!
One miracle
this past week. We were talking to people on the street and as we were walking
towards this man on the street I felt like I should talk to him. I almost
didn't but I'm really glad I did because we found out his brother has
been meeting with the elders in our district. When we talked
to him about the Book of Mormon he actually said, "oh my brother has one
of those. He won't let me see it because he's always reading it but I'd like to
have one." It was awesome! He gave us his address for us to come by
sometime this week.
Another
miracle: An investigator accepted a date to be baptised! She's been meeting with
missionaries for years but she finally agreed to a baptismal date on August 4th.
This was a testimony builder to me that we can't give up on people and we have
to be persistent because you never know what can happen! We had done a zone
fast this Sunday that every companionship would have an investigator with a
baptismal date going in to August and it was a miracle to see this happen for us
so quickly.
We took the
train to Ayr yesterday for the mission president broadcast and it made me laugh
when I looked out the window and saw a bunch of steeples. It reminded me of
seeing all the steeples back home of all the church buildings in Utah. Except
the ones we saw were castles. But it still made my day:)
Everything
is going great and the work is really progressing here!
Sister Jackson
Monday, July 8, 2013
July 1
This past Wednesday we were able to go on a historical tour of
Irvine and that was really neat! We saw the school that Edgar Allan Poe
went to and we saw some old castles and buildings that were built in the
1500s or earlier. It was crazy! Also that day we tried an authentic
Scottish food that is common for the locals to eat. They're called
bridies and they're kind of like mince pies except it's ground beef
instead of lamb. It's onions and ground beef and a sauce of some sort
in a pastry. It was SO good.
We had an interesting experience a few days ago. We were leaving an investigator's house and this lady walking her dog saw
us and stopped us. We didn't even say anything before she proceeded to
tell us her life story and her experiences with religion. She told us
that she had a really good friend who was a member of our church. After talking for about 15 minutes we
managed to talk with her a little and Sister Birch asked her why she had
stopped us. She thought for a moment and said, "I thought you could
answer my questions." We quickly asked her if we could talk with her and
help answer her questions but then she told us quickly that she wasn't
interested and walked off soon after that. It was kind of sad and all I
wanted to do was to be able to talk with her and help her but she
wouldn't let us. Learning to accept that other people have agency has
been a lesson that I've learned a lot this week. For instance, we had 8
specific people tell us that they were planning on coming to church
yesterday. None of them showed up. At first I was really disappointed
but then it made me think more about agency and about how Heavenly
Father feels when all of us make promises or commitments to Him and then
don't keep them. It was pretty humbling for me to think about. I am
so grateful that we have the ability to choose and especially choose to
follow Jesus Christ. Because that's how we really learn how to trust in
Him and that's when our faith grows the most.
Yesterday, all the missionaries in the ward and the ward mission
leader gave the lesson the last hour. It was a combined relief society
and priesthood class. We talked about how the ward and the missionaries
need to work together in order for the work to really progress. It was
really neat as we discussed all the many ways that everyone can do
missionary work. It made me think about how missionary work was so hard
for me to do (or so I thought) before my mission but that it doesn't
have to be! Even doing something like inviting someone who
is less-active over to your house for games and a spiritual movie can
bring that person back to church, but beyond that, help them gain
greater friendships with people in the church and just help them feel
better. You never know the impact you can have on people by reaching out
to someone and being an example of Christ.
Hope ye's are doing well!
Sister Caryn Jackson
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