WANDERINGS to Giffordtown

What a wonderful "almost 9 months" this mission has been. Our mission had 407 baptisms in 2017. How wonderful it is to attend these baptisms, as each week there is at least one if not more friends baptized. Many of them my companion or I have helped teach, so we have a real bond with them. Our ward is growing by leaps and bounds. Our Chinese new members are strong in the gospel and continually invite their friends to join them at church. Most of them will return to China and being members there will be a real challenge for them. They have strong testimonies of the Gospel and I'm sure will influence many when they return to China.

One of our senior couples (The Winters) are finishing their mission this week so we will have another couple (The Helps) taking their places at the mission office. They were both born & raised in Africa and have fairly strong accents, although they have lived in the states for 30 years. It will be fun getting to know them. We actually have 4 new couples joining our mission over the next few weeks, but they will be in outlying regions of Scotland/Ireland serving in various roles.

WANDERINGS: We have visited some interesting places--New Lanark, Scotland was a thriving cotton processing plant in the 1800's. It is a whole village built on the Clyde River that has some fairly powerful rapids, which, of course, provided the power for the mills. Robert Owen was the founder of New Lanark and the cotton mills. He had a vision as to how people should be living and working. He opened schools, built houses for people to live in inexpensively, introduced the "8-hour workday, changed the age to 12 (from 8) for working at the mill and built shops that employees could shop in cheaper than in town. For those of us who have "Endicott Johnson" memories; kind of reminds me of the methods they used for their employees. We finished our day there hiking 2 miles along the river's edge, sometimes with steep dropoffs on the side of the path--scarey!
                                                                                                               
            Clyde River - New Lanark

Along the path of the river

                                                     

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Village of New Lanark 

Our next WANDERING was to "The Scottish Deer Centre" It was just that! Lots of deer, but only so, so on our rating scale of wanderings. Here are a couple of pictures & you'll see what I mean--just lots of deer!! But as we left the deer park we saw the "SIGN" of all signs--"Giffordtown" to the right.

Happy New Year! and some wanderings

Entrance to the Edinburgh Christmas Market  

My daughter, Lorre, came to visit over the Christmas holiday. It was a rush at the office until she arrived, trying to get everything caught up for a few days vacation. I actually had Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday off, then worked Thursday & Friday while Lorre was in London. She went to London by herself, by train (only 3 1/2 hours)-- very brave! It is the first days off I've had since I started my mission in May. We packed a lot into a few days; had a schedule and stuck to it. We walked the mile between the Edinburgh Castle and the Holyrood Palace & toured the palace--darn, the queen was not there; Lorre was sure she had an appointment with her! We ate typical Scottish foods & Lorre tried Haggas, which she likes better than I do. We took plenty of taxis and buses and walked what seemed like miles and miles. We saw a stage play, Aladan, I took her to my two favorite restaurants, we went to Mary Kings Close (which is a tour of how the poor & middle-class people lived in the early 1800's). A "Close" is an alleyway with dwellings on either side. On Christmas Eve Lorre and I  spent the evening with one of our newly baptized sisters at her flat eating traditional mince pies and then

Lorre touching Greyfriar's Bobby's nose for good luck

we all took a taxi to St. John's Cathedral at 10 pm for the special organ music before midnight mass. Keep in mind that Lorre hasn't even had a nap and we are going to midnight mass! The church is a famous, very old Episcopal cathedral. We went to the mission home early Christmas morning and helped prepare breakfast for 18 missionaries. We played games after breakfast and then had some beautiful piano music. During all this time, my companion, Sister Call, was with her family in Ireland. Senior missionaries do not have to be together all the time like the young missionaries, but actually most of the time we are--I have missed her and it has been very lonely since Lorre left Sunday morning. I hope you enjoy the pictures of our Edinburgh wanderings.

At the theater to see Aladan!

                                                   Lorre in front of the Elephant House
                                                (where much of Harry Potter was written)

I just loved all of the cards, notes & pictures I received from family and friends. What a surprise to receive the envelope full of cards from Amy Martin.  And, oh my goodness my grandchildren and great-grandchildren need to stop changing/growing so fast.


Could I get a little serious now . . .  I am almost half-way through my mission, which is very hard to believe.  I truly feel like a different person than I was last year at this same time. I'm much stronger emotionally and indeed just much "stronger" from walking so much. I feel younger and I'm certainly more adventuresome.  But the biggest change is in my humility and compassion,  I have found that I can live with so few personal belongings, I can live without a lot of personal belongings, without a clothes dryer and without the safety net of family and friends close by. My testimony of my Saviour Jesus Christ has grown by leaps and bounds. I know that God lives, that my Savior Jesus Christ lives, I know that the Holy Ghost is there to guide me and to teach me.  I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true,  and I'm so grateful for the strong testimony that I have of knowing that families can be together forever. My Temple marriage to Larry is my most prized possession, just knowing we will be together for eternity is such a blessing.  I pray that I can seek after Christlike attributes this next half of my mission and pray that each of you will be touched by the Saviour's love that He has for each of us individually.

Mia - one of my favorite restaurants. Yummy food/good company.

Lorre at the Holyrood Palace, waiting for the Queen!

Ruins of the original monastery at Holyrood Palace.

Famous Victoria Row - cool Harry Potter store here.

The Palace

         

Ruins of Holyrood Monastery

NOTE: Hi Mom! Sorry, it has been so long since my last blog==I just got carried away with Christmas and getting ready to have Lorre visit. My mission is busier than I ever thought it would be and I love it. I'm in the office every day from 7 am until 5:30 (if lucky, sometimes much later). I work lots of hours trying to find new flats for the missionaries to live in and also closing flats that we are not going to use anymore. Plus lots of other things that fill my days right up. My visit by Lorre was lots of fun and she loved touring Edinburgh. I made four batches of peanut butter fudge and they all turned out perfect (a miracle). I gave all the missionaries in Edinburgh a container of fudge, plus Lorre and I ate our share LOL. We didn't even make popcorn--just ate lots of fudge! The weather has been rainy for days and it is dark by 3:30 pm, so we are now going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. Matthew & Jennifer are coming to visit in March and then Andy's family in May. Lorre & I are thinking about going to Spain when I finish my mission. She would come here to meet me when my mission ends in November and we would go from Scotland to Spain. Spain isn't that far away. Then I plan on visiting each of my children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren from there. I've got big plans, hope they all work out! Well, mom, I hope you are feeling good and staying your usual happy self. I sure do miss you and will look forward to a visit with you after my mission is over. Much love, your missionary daughter-Sister Gifford

NOTE: Hello, little Holly Dale. This is ggma writing to you. I loved the pictures of you and your family shopping for a Christmas tree. Sure reminds me of when we lived in Vermont. What did you get for Christmas from Santa? What was your favorite gift? Have you and Levi been able to go sledding or ice-skating--I bet Levi is really good on skates since he plays hockey. Why don't you draw me a picture that I can hang up by my desk at my office? I would really love that. Maybe Levi could do one too. I love you a whole bunch- can you give your family a big hug from me?