At the Glasgow Art Gallery

10/1

Sorry that this email will be super short but due to a holiday yesterday where the library was closed and a missed train today from Glasgow after District meeting I only have about 20 minutes for email. Oops!

Here's a quick update on what happened this week.  On Wednesday we had exchanges with the Sister Training leaders again and surprisingly I went back to Irvine with Sister Passey.  So I went home with my mission mom haha.  It was cool to see familiar faces again. 

We're moving flats tomorrow morning.  We're moving to Main Street in the Village which is the original area of East Kilbride.  So it's supposed to be a nicer flat but the bad thing is it will be super noisy on the weekends because it's right next to a lot of shops and pubs.  Oh well, we're excited though! To distinguish us from the Elders we were asked to pick a new name that would be approved by the zone leaders.  So the Elders are now the East Kilbride elders and we will be known as The Village sisters.  Haha I thought it sounded pretty cool!

Yesterday was really sad though.  It was probably one of the hardest days on my mission.  Our investigator with a baptismal date in December dropped us.  We were so sad because he's been investigating for over 2 years and he was doing so, so good the past couple of weeks and he said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true but he feels like God has called him to another path.  We were devastated and nothing we said could make him change his mind.  But finally at the end we felt like we should just bear our testimonies and then I felt like we should extend one last commitment to him so I asked him to not make his decision until after General Conference.  I told him to have his question about whether or not he should keep investigating in his mind and pray about it and that he would find an answer in General Conference.  It was a miracle but he said that he would! We are going to be praying SO hard this next week going in to General Conference. 

Anyway, have to go but just know I love you all and miss you and thank you so much for your emails!!

Sister Jackson

9/23/13

Great week! Last Monday we went in to Glasgow again and saw the Glasgow Art Gallery and Glasgow University.  They were both amazing! They even had some works by Picasso and Monet in the art gallery and they had a whole exhibit on the history of Scotland which was really cool to see. Learned a lot about where tartan came from. Unfortunately we got lost in Glasgow for a while trying to find the train station but a nice lady on the bus directed us where to go.

 

We met the Elders who will now be serving with us in the East Kilbride ward and they're really great.  There's Elder Cziesla and Elder Shubin. Elder Cziesla is our new district leader. He's from Switzerland and had to learn English over here so sometimes he's kind of hard to understand but he's really funny.  Elder Shubin is from Colorado but actually moved to Alpine, UT two months before coming out.  He is a new missionary so it's his first week here.

 

I learned how to make mince, tatties, and dough balls which I was super excited about--I now know how to make a really authentic Scottish meal! Also, I've found out that I really like cabbage and you eat it a lot here!

 

Our investigator came to church yesterday which we were super happy about! She tells us she wants to be baptised but it's just finding out when would be a good time that's the hard part.  Her husband isn't a member or interested in learning so that's what's tricky.  But she's going to London for the week and she texted us last night when she was at the airport and said that she had forgotten her Book of Mormon but then she realised she could get it on her iPad so she was happy about that and told us how she could read it on the plane and at night! That made our day:)

 

We also had a really good lesson with this less active family.  I brought my viola and Sister Ricks played the piano and we played some hymns for them.  They really appreciated it because the mom has had a lot of health problems (cancer, broken bones, etc.) so she hasn't been able to come out to church for a long time.  But she's doing a lot better. Her son takes care of her and he said that he wants to come back to church so hopefully we see them there soon!

 

The weather was milder today so we really appreciated that.  It's been really humid and grey skies every day but not much rain yet!

 

We're going to play football (soccer) for Pday with our district so I'm excited for that.

 

Love you and miss you all!

Sister Jackson

Great Week!

We had a really great zone conference last Tuesday where they talked about making goals for our individual areas and where we want the work to be for the next transfer.  Then we talked about what sacrifices we need to do in order to achieve those goals.

One thing me and Sister Ricks have been trying to do as one of our "sacrifices" to reach our goals is we're doing at least one bus contact every day. So we're trying to chat more with people on the bus and bring up the gospel somehow.  Not been the easiest thing (I don't know why but talking to people on the bus has always been a wee bit awkward for me because if they're not interested or they get offended then you still have to sit next to them the rest of the bus ride...) but we've already seen blessings come from doing this!

Our investigator set a baptism date this past week!! December 20th. When he said he wanted to be baptised then both me and Sister Ricks were kind of stunned and tried to act all cool about it but inside we were both going crazy! Haha. If everyone could remember to pray for him and this date we would really appreciate it. We both hope really bad that we'll be here to see it but if not, it was still a miracle that he set a date since he's been investigating for so long.

We also got in contact with our other investigator yesterday! We've been trying to get a hold of her for weeks but she's been really busy with her job and family and wasn't returning our calls/texts.  But then yesterday Sister Ricks just felt like we should go by her house and she was there and let us in! She said her and her husband had been just talking about us.  We were able to set up an appointment with her for this Wednesday and we're going to commit her to a baptism date then! We're so excited and know that it was definitely a miracle that we were able to see her. 

So we're encouraged to do 2 or 3 hours of community service a week and me and Sister Ricks just started volunteering at a local charity shop.  We're going to be sorting clothes, ironing them, painting furniture, and anything else that's needed.  It's been really fun and the owner kept telling us how grateful she was for our help and how she believes it's a blessing from God.  I definitely believe that when you serve others, you're really helping yourself more.

We had a really great Stake Conference yesterday for the Glasgow stake.  We went on the bus with a less active we're working with named and we played LDS Hangman the whole time (an hour and a half) so that was really fun haha.  President Brown spoke at the conference at talked about the importance of doing member missionary work.  So many good ideas that made me already think about how I want to be a better member missionary when I get home! Then the Stake President spoke about not being casual with church attendance and being late to it.  I liked the comparison he used.  He said, "Christ wasn't casual when He went to the Garden of Gethsemane, so why would we be casual when we go to partake of the sacrament each week?"

It's getting in to winter here so the weather's been getting colder and rainer but the leaves are starting to turn colors and falling off the trees so that's been neat to see.  Both me and Sister Ricks love to step on the dead leaves to hear them crunch but the sad thing is here everything's so wet and damp that the leaves are still pretty soft.  So it's a real treat when we find a crunchy leaf.  Haha kind of ridiculous but it did make me realise all the blessings I took for granted back home (even a super small blessing like a crunchy leaf!)

Anyway, great week that had its challenges but definitely had its blessings and miracles as well! Love you all and miss you!

Sister Jackson

P.S. Learned a few more Glaswegian sayings the other day.  We were talking to this older less active lady, Mary, and her son, Jack who come from Glasgow.  Apparently they say "quain" (queen) for "lady/girl" and "loon" for "man".  Then they say "fit like?" which means "what are you like" or "how are you doing?" So they would say something like, "Fit like m' quain?" which would mean, "How are you my lady/How are you my lass?"

Pics

Me and Sis. Ricks

  Eating first chippy!

Chapping at Rowallan castle.  No one was home unfortunately.

Mexican food after district meeting!

Met a kilt-wearing storm trooper and Captain Jack Sparrow in the Glasgow train station this last Wednesday. They asked what we were doing in Scotland and we had a nice wee chat about the church! When I said we were Mormons they said, "oh like the Osmonds?"

Me and Sister Ricks in Glasgow last P day

Week of Firsts!

Hiya everyone!

This week was great in that we had a lot of wee miracles happen.  Me and Sister Ricks had prayed specifically that one of our investigators would make significant progress this week and it happened! We asked someone (who's been investigating the church for a couple years now) about baptism (again) and he said that he felt good about baptism in December.  Even though this wasn't as soon as we would have liked it's a huge step for him since he has been going back and forth between wanting to be baptised.  He also has been doing really good at trying to quit smoking and he hasn't smoked since last Tuesday!  This was a testimony builder to me that the Lord answers our prayers when we pray in faith and believe that He will answer. 

Another miracle happened last week after email time actually.  As we were leaving this man came up who had been investigating the church before and talked about wanting to come to the FHE we do on Monday nights and also get taught again.  This was really exciting for us!

This week was a lot of firsts for me, specifically in regards to food.  I had mince and dough balls for the first time which is a really common Scottish dish.  I really liked the dough balls even though Sister Ricks wasn't too keen on them.  I also had Mexican food for the first time on my mission--and it was SO good! We found a Mexican restaurant (the only one I've seen) in Glasgow after district meeting.  A member also took us out to eat for Chinese and I almost laughed out loud when they brought my food out with chips on the side.  First time eating chinese food with chips (french fries)! Have to admit it looked weird and tasted weird haha.  Also tried haggis for the first time! It wasn't proper haggis unfortunately (or fortunately) because it wasn't encased in the lining of a sheep's stomach and I have to admit, I was alright with that.  It wasn't too bad actually.  Tasted very similar to black pudding--kind of a spicy sausage taste.  Oh and I made lentil soup for the first time (which is super popular here) so I was quite chuffed with myself over that:)

Also, I chapped a castle door for the first time! We went and saw the Rowallan castle last week for Pday which was amazing!

Funny story: This man came up to us on the street and started talking to us like he knew us even though we'd never seen him before.  He talked about how he was reading the Bible again and started going off about this "Book of Georgia" he'd read that was all about Mary and Joseph apparently.  It was pretty funny:)

Another funny story: There was this big YSA talent show they held in Glasgow and me and Sister Ricks were planning on doing something.  I was going to play my viola and she was going to play the piano.  So I brought my viola with me everywhere to all our appointments since we wouldn't have had time to go back and get it and when we got to the talent show they already had all the acts planned and there ended up not being enough time for us to play.  I was fine with this but then when we left to travel back to East Kilbride, our train was cancelled and we got the wrong bus so we didn't get in to East Kilbride until later than curfew.  So we were both nervous and accidentally got off on the wrong stop so we ended up having to run back to our flat to try and get in as soon as possible.  The viola was definitely not that fun to have around at that point.  We were exhausted when we finally got back!

Great week! Love you and miss you all!

first chippy, exchanges, and a new investigator!

This week was so good! We were able to find a new investigator to teach which was awesome. He's 9 years old and his mum used to be in the church but has asked for her name to be removed. But she wants her son to learn and to get baptised. We've had two really good lessons with him already and the spirit was so strong in the one we had yesterday.  His mum was talking about her memories of going to the temple and of having family home evening with her kids and it was amazing to see the difference in her face as she talked about the gospel.  You could physically see a light in her eyes when she talked about how beautiful the temple was and how she used to teach Primary and take the kids on a walk to the temple.  We're going to have a family home evening with her and her family next week which I'm really excited for!

We also had exchanges this week which was a lot of fun.  I actually went back to Irvine and was with Sister Ryan, one of the sister training leaders over the Paisley and Glasgow zones.  Then her companion, Sister Passey, went to East Kilbride with Sister Ricks.  It was fun going back to Irvine and bumping in to people on the streets than I know. Sister Ryan has been out about 13 months so she's experienced and I learned a lot from her.  We talked to a lot of people on the street and even got some potential investigators! She also took me to get my first chippy (fish n chips) from a take out restaurant.  So good.

Went to my first district meeting last Tuesday which was really good.  Every Tuesday we take a train in to Glasgow and then our whole zone meets at a church where we then break up in to our separate districts.  Our district leader is Elder Parsons and his companion is Elder Lewis (who was in my MTC district).  They are in the Airdrie ward. Then there is Elder Thompson and Elder Phippen and Sister Hulet and Sister Watt who serve in the Motherwell ward.  Glasgow is so cool except really easy to get lost in as we found out last Tuesday when we tried to find the train station after District Meeting.  We were walking around for a long time but on the bright side, being lost was a good excuse to talk to people!

The weather has been crazy this past week! Sunny one minute, pouring rain the next.  I've heard that's common Scottish weather.  We were walking home from church yesterday and it was nice and sunny.  Then the clouds came in and it started to rain.  I have never seen so much rain coming down at once! All my clothes were completely soaked and dripping withing seconds.  Then before we got home, the sun came out and it was warm again.  Ach aye I don't know if I'll ever get used to the weather changes here haha. Funny story: we went out of our flat one morning and saw that it was pouring rain so we went back in to grab our umbrellas.  When we got back outside again it had started raining.  Well at least the weather isn't ever boring here! I've learned the importance of waterproofing everything.

Church yesterday was good but also kind of nerve wracking because I had to give a talk (on fasting) and then do a musical number in Relief Society.  The musical number was fine but the talk was pretty scary because I hadn't had much time to prepare for it.  And one of the speakers had called in sick at the last minute so they asked me to speak for longer if I could.   So I kind of felt like I was rambling the whole time.  Oh well, at least it's good practice for the rest of my mission, being put on the spot! Also, our investigator came to sacrament meeting which was awesome! And plus, one of the less-actives we've been teaching was reactivated yesterday.  He was baptised 3 years ago from yesterday.  He told us how he found the church and it was really cool.  The sister missionaries just went up to him on the bus and invited him to church and then he kept coming! It made me motivated to talk to more people on the bus even though those can be sometimes awkward situtations.

All in all, a great week! Miss you and love you all!

Sister Jackson

P.S. They have these really weird bugs here that our flat has been "infested" with lately.  Not really, but we've seen a lot of them.  They're called Jenny long-legs and they're like daddy long-legs except they have wings and fly. 

My new address is:

19 Falkland Place

West Mains

East Kilbride

G74 1JQ

United Kingdom