Thanksgiving & After Thanksgiving Wanderings

FIRST I'LL START OFF WITH PICTURES THAT WOULDN'T POST LAST TIME

 

Yummy Sister Gifford Sauce!! This is Sister Donaldson, the President's wife.

My Italian "sauce" dinner for 40
Missionaries

This is the Mission home kitchen & my
garlic bread in the foreground :-)

         The following are pictures from the Mining Museum

Mining Shaft - deep & dark

It was dark down there!!

                     

Engine Room - original engine from the "1800's"

Thanksgiving table set for 22 missionaries & yes
it really is just one long table in the mission home!

Chalk the dark bird up to "Scottish ovens!"

Senior & Jr Missionaries - Seniors did the cooking!

      These are our Edinburgh Missionaries

O.K. we are caught up in pictures--hope you enjoyed. Now let me tell you about a fascinating week at the office (well maybe fascinating isn't the right word). To start with two of our young sisters on a dark winding road lost control and ditched their car, totaling it. The Lord took good care of them as the only injury was one slight concussion. But it shook the sisters up. They came to the mission home for a couple of days to rest and de-stress. Then we discovered that two of our Elders were living in a haunted house (believe it or not) and so in one day, I had to find a new flat in Dublin, no less. Which I accomplished and they are at peace now (the missionaries, not the bad spirits). Next two sisters, again in Dublin, were threatened by a homeless person with a hypodermic needle as a weapon. She had been watching the sisters and followed them to their flat. They gave her what money they had, so the President figures they aren't safe in that area. So guess what--another new flat to find in one day in Dublin. I'm convinced that this "flat finding" in one day or even a week is truly the hand of God in the works. I'd go into real estate when I get home, but I know it will never be the same! Nor would I want it to be.

Thanksgiving was quite an adventure! It was a regular office day for us because they don't celebrate the holiday here. We were back and forth from office/desk to the kitchen all day--quite tiring to say the least. Then there was the clean-up! Oh boy! It was worth it all when each young missionary filed by to say thank you. They were from England, Romania, Taiwan, China and, of course, the US. After a wonderful evening, we went next door to the church to help teach an investigator. The Lord's work is never done, and we are finding some of the best times are when we are helping to teach the Gospel.

Saturday we started the day at a private school across the street from the church/mission home at a Holiday Bazaar. Didn't buy a thing but enjoyed mingling with the Scots.
                                                                         

At the Holiday Bazaar

Private School across from the church/mission home

                            After the Bazaar, we visited Dollhousie Castle and it turned out they had a Falconary Habitat, which was amazing. Thought my grandkids & great-grandkids would enjoy seeing these pictures. We got to watch them feed the birds, which was pretty gross, but educational -:)

                                                                                       

Two young women ran the Habitat and actually held the birds and cuddled with them. We kept our distance since
they weren't used to us! The white owl above was at a
wedding today, he held the wedding ring in his beak at
the ceremony. Pretty neat huh? There were probably around
25 birds and most of them outside. Did I mention that feeding
time was pretty gross?

My last picture shows snow on the mountain caps just outside
Edinburgh. We drove up to the ski slope and found it to be
very busy.

NOTE: Well Hi mom--I don't have too much more to say (which is unlike me), but want you to know you are always in my prayers and I miss you a lot! Stay well and stay happy.

NOTE: Hi Levi, how are you. It's ggma writing and I just want you to know that I'm so proud of you. I'll bet you are a great big brother to Holly Dale. I loved the picture of you in your hockey uniform. How is your team doing? When I get back to the United States after my mission I plan on coming to visit you. So until then, keep happy and help mom and dad all you can. Love you bunches.

                                       

Full weeks and Full weekends & some Wandering

Sister Call & Me enjoying the evening!

Wednesday evening we had 5 baptisms--yes, five! One right after another. Pretty special evening. I'm posting a picture of those that were baptized and the missionaries that taught them. It is wonderful to watch Nicholas & Bahadir (newly baptized) pass the Sacrament they are both wonderful and it is such a joy to know that we helped teach them. They are both French and doing well at learning English. Our other friend, Nicky, who was recently baptized is coming to church every week and is really strong in the Gospel. Sister Call and myself have been assigned to be her Visiting Teachers. Oh yes, with everything else we are doing we have to find time to do our Visiting--we have 5 sisters assigned to us. My Sunday school class is going well. I taught Self-Reliance through Education & used my sweetheart husband as the example of someone who succeeded through education. I cried, but just a little!

Sister Call and I were asked to decorate the church foyer for the Building's 50th-anniversary celebration. We did the best we could with the time we had, which wasn't much! It was a pretty big deal and several members of Parliament attended. We shopped for decorations and ran to one store or another every day last week and then decorated on Thursday night. Friday was the big event and almost 200 people attended from all over Scotland. Did I mention that this was also exchange week for missionaries coming and going (Doesn't that seem to roll around fast?) It's every 6 weeks, but sure seems like the weeks just roll into one another. After taking the decorations down we readied ourselves for some wandering. Off to the National Miner's Museum. Now, this may sound boring, but it was actually one of my favorite things we have done. An actual miner was our tour guide and took us down to the mining shaft. A little freaky. Sister Call & I both have miners in our ancestry so this was an interesting adventure. I found out that the pasties the miners took down with them for their lunch were made with one side pudding (dessert) and the other half savory with meat.
I had never heard that before. I learned to make pasties from my husband's grandmother, Grandma Hansen.       

Because it was exchange week, we spent lots of extra hours at the mission office. We had 7 missionaries leave to go home and 13 new ones arrived. We usually help our mission president's
wife with some of the cooking, but this week the housekeeper/cook was not able to be there so we each sort of took a day of cooking & organized it. I planned dinner for 40 missionaries. I made Andy's (my son) Italian Sauce, cheated and bought the meatballs, had salad and my now famous garlic bread. Brownies and ice cream for dessert. I have posted some pictures of that fun day. Boy was I pooped! Well maybe I'll post some pictures, I'm having trouble with the computer & phone working together. Will have to post the mining pictures and the Italian dinner pictures some other time.

Of course, Scotland does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so the office staff will be in the office and cooking up a Thanksgiving dinner at the same time. Our President & Sister Donaldson are from England, so we are treating them to an "old-fashioned American Thanksgiving dinner." I am making baked corn, cranberry fluff, and pumpkin bread. I wish all of my American friends & family a very Happy Thanksgiving. To all my children, I love you and I will surely miss you.

PS: Turkeys are hard to find when the country doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving LOL


NOTE: Well, hello mother! how are you doing? Can you believe that I have been on my mission 7 months? My goodness, how time flies. It is fairly cold here now and lots of cold rain. Hoods & umbrellas are very useful. Hoods are easier, but really mess my hair up! I'm starting to calendar plans for Christmas while Lorre is here. We are going to see a stage play, Aladdin and, of course, to my favorite castle. It will be just the two of us for Christmas because my companion will have family here and they will be traveling during Christmas to Ireland. I have 2 days after Christmas off from the office. The day after Christmas is Boxer Day here, which is a national holiday. Lorre and I will be spending that day on the Royal Mile which is the mile between Edinburgh Castle and Holywood Palace, where the Queen of England stays while she is in Edinburgh. They fly a special flag when she is staying at the palace. So anyway it will be a fun time. Take care and stay well. Lots of love from your daughter.

NOTE: Hello Grayson. Sure was fun to talk with you and seeing the special things you brought back from Disney World. I loved that sword, but just remember not to hit the dogs with it because then you can't play with it. I think you will be making lots of interesting art-work at school for Thanksgiving and Christmas. you'll be able to bring it all home and decorate the house. If you can, take a ride around your neighborhood in your car on Thanksgiving day and pretend I'm with you. Then you can tell me all we saw together on the ride next time we talk on the phone. Well, I sure do love you. Be good and help mommy and daddy all you can. Love ggma


                                                                                   

Pictures of the building being built. Real Scottish Heather in the centerpiece

                                                                                       

5 new members==very special

 

Look better in person!!

My helpers!

A BUSY LIFE . . . but still some time for wanderings!

I never knew the life of a missionary could be so busy! We are in the office from 7 am - 5:30 pm. We are gone almost every evening teaching with the missionaries. We very seldom get back to our flat until around 8 pm. Saturdays we try to clean our flat early, do a little laundry and then head out for some wandering and lunch. We are determined to see everything there is to see in Scotland, and as much of Ireland as we can while serving our mission. But in the meantime, here are some other things that are going on. I've been asked to take a long-term assignment teaching the youth Sunday School class. They can;t extend an official calling to a full-time missionary but can make an assignment. My call is large 8-10 and is made up of primarily 17 yr olds. I have taught six weeks and I'm really enjoying it I've also been asked to head-up a committee for RS to take care of sending birthday cards, event calendar items, etc. to the RS sisters. My companion, Sister Call, is the organist and heads up the ward music as well as being the genealogy specialist. Our ward seems big, but most of the people are visitors--so we do feel like we are really needed. This week we have an assignment for the 50th celebration of our ward building. Lots of dignitaries are attending (some parliament members) so they have asked us to make the foyer look really special as a welcome/staging area. We are so busy during the week that our Saturdays are really important to us. Saturdays are the only days we can wear slacks & we appreciate that! Actually, we stay in our missionary attire with our badges on until we go to bed at night or 9 pm. You can believe me when I say that I'm usually in bed by 9 pm. :-). We do a lot of walking and lots of stairs, so we get plenty of exercise. No one has elevators, not even stores--so if a flat we are going to inspect is on the 3rd floor, it's all stairs! Sometimes it seems like a thousand steps--oh my gosh sometimes it's quite miserable. But my heart must be getting pretty strong!

The office has been very busy . . .with the colder weather coming on and the missionary flats all turning their heat on I've had to do what we call a "safe house" check on all 107 flats to make sure there fire alarms and CO detectors are working (and that they have both). Last year two Romanian missionaries died in their flat as a result of CO poisoning. Along the same lines, I have had many flats have their boilers (everyone has a boiler that heats the water for both heating and faucet/shower use) burst, leak or just plain stop working--so no heat or hot water until I get someone out to fix the boiler. I had to go into the office before church today to solve an emergency boiler problem. It all keeps me really busy, because along with all these "little problems" there are always new flats to find and some to close down. Does it sound like a crazy mission??? Well, I guess it might be, but I really do love it. Yes, a lot of it is temporal, but there is always spiritual mixed in.

Saturday's wanderings: We were on the way to see Edinburgh Castle, but never quite made it. We decided on the Oiink for lunch, which is down on the Royal Mile, which means you have to park far away and walk. They pull the meat off a whole pig and put it on a yummy roll with your choice of stuffing flavors and sauce. I will post a couple of pig pictures that I took outside the window. It was worth the walk and wait--it was delicious.

The Oiink - Really Yummy!

After lunch we started walking to the castle and found ourselves exploring every "Close" we came upon. A close is an alley dating back to the early 1800's where the really poor people lived. We found all kinds of interesting stuff and also some gardens that were completely hidden away. I took lots of pictures and as you view them just remember that these were taken in various closes. We never did make it to the castle--that's for another Saturday.

NOTE: Hi mom, just catching up with my blog and wondering how you've been doing. Anything interesting going on there? How about the family--what's new? It is starting to get a little cooler here, but milder than I expected it to be. I'm not wearing a winter coat yet, but will probably need to start this week. They say it has been an unusually warm fall and much drier than usual. Lorre is coming to visit on Christmas Eve. She will stay almost a week. I'm very excited. I'm really looking forward to showing her around Scotland. Matt and Jennifer are coming to visit in March for a week. Then Andy and Heather & children in I think May. I hope you are well and just remember I love you bunches mom!!

NOTE: Hi little Ainsley. how are you doing? Are you having a fun time at school? I was looking at pictures of you and Grayson on my telephone last night and couldn't believe how much you have grown. I love the picture of you in your dance class. Are you still going to dance classes? I also liked the video of you and Grayson at the beach running into the water. Is it too cold to go to the beach now? ggma loves you to pieces--here is a great big hug and kiss!!!

Love to all,
Sister Gifford

Lovely old building in background.--loved the plants found this in a close.

A close filled with old statues.