My Scotland Mission: 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