Mission 1/2 over. . . and more wanderings

Ruins of  Caerlaverock Castle

Hello everyone! My goodness, I've had a hard time finding minutes to do my blog--I know, no excuses. But honestly, I'm just busier and busier at the mission office. My days are full and our evenings are spent teaching with the missionaries, attending baptisms and yes, even the office. We just welcomed 9 new sister missionaries and seven elders to our mission and transferred missionaries all over Scotland and Ireland. Guess what; one of the new missionaries is from my hometown of Flushing, Michigan and graduated from my high school. His name is Elder Hicks. He got quite a kick out of my graduating in 1959 and he just graduated last June! We had fun talking about places we both knew.  Speaking of places, let me take you back through pictures to Giffordtown. If you remember, I couldn't get them to post last time. So here goes!

Love the sign!!

Giffordtown Hall

Standing in the middle of the only street in town!

                                                               

     Giffordtown was fun to find and explore; no gas station, no store, no fast food. Pretty much just a little quaint town where people live and are happy with very little.  

Gifford  Farm 

                           On to our next adventure . . .  Caerlaverock Castle. With its own authentic moat and has the shape of a triangle. We found this one in Dumfries Scotland about 2 hours from Edinburgh. Very well preserved ruins with many sculptures still intact even though it was built in the 1200's.

  I need to start keeping track of how many castles we've seen and how many we have yet to see. I only have 8 months left to see them all!                                                                                           Our next adventure was our 1st "Burns Dinner" Everyone in Scotland celebrates the life of the author/poet      Robert Burns. The restaurants are full to capacity and many private dinner parties are held all over the country. It is a night of bagpipes, dancing, singing old Scottish ballads and lots of poetry reading. But the biggest part of the evening is the introduction & carving of the Haggis. At the beginning of the evening, a man dressed in full kilt attire dances out to the bagpipe music with a tray of Haggis (formed into a shape like a big pot roast or ham).  A poem was read and then another man wielding a big sword whacks the Haggis into two pieces.  The dinner was mashed potatoes, turnips and, of course, Haggis! My companion had never tried Haggis--see the picture below. I decided that night (my 3rd time for Haggis) that I really don't like it--I don't care how you fix it!

The ceremonial "bringing forth the Haggis" dance!

                                                     

Haggis up close & personal!!

 Our next adventure was a 3-day trip to Dublin, Ireland.  We made the trip specifically to see/hear the General Relief Society President, Sister Bingham. She & her husband and a General Authority Elder Tonycliff
& his wife all spoke at a Sunday night fireside. I'm not sure how or why they came to Dublin, but it was sure a special meeting. Sister Bingham and the General Authority also spoke in the Sacrament meeting. We flew to Ireland (only a 1-hour flight) and then used taxi and bus service to get around. During the day we used the tourist Hop On-Hop off bus.  We stayed in a little cottage owned by the mission that was right behind the church. No one told us to bring things like soap, towels--you know, the bare necessities! :-)  So we roughed it a little--maybe more than a little, but it was free. This was a total historic journey. I loved Trinity College, and the Book of Kells, which are lavishly decorated manuscripts of the four Gospels (in Latin) dating back to 521 AD. Trinity College was founded in 1592.

Elcho Castle - closed for the season, we'll go again in the Spring.

We drove all the way to Perth to have our picture
taken with this statue!

       

O' Boy, Haggis for the 1st time!!

A snapshot of beautiful Scone Castle. We went there for the
 Snowdrop {winter flowers} Festival

I saw my first Highland Coo (cow) while at Scone Castle. they are the coolest cows ever. . .and I know my cows!

Isn't he cute!

So that's a few adventures, but this is Saturday and we just arrived back at our flat after another whole day of adventure--fill you in next time!

NOTE: Hi mom, sorry it has been so long between blogs--I've just been very busy enjoying my mission! I wish you were able to visit me here. I know you would love it. Scotland is such a diverse country. Edinburgh, where I am, is such a big & really old city and then today we drove about 2 1/2 hours and found mountains with snow on the tops. We drove along the Loch Lomond lake for miles and miles with mountains on either side. Just beautiful! Then we went to Pucks Glen and hiked for about an hour straight up, it seemed. We saw beautiful old trees and several waterfalls. I'll probably me sore for church tomorrow. Did I tell you that I teach a Sunday school class for young adults from 12-18 quite a challenge with such a large age spread. But, I'm enjoying it most days at least--sometimes they just sit and act like their are bored too death!! I think it's just their age, can't be my teaching Ha Ha! I will set a time up with Kay to talk to you on the phone soon. We'll just have to figure out our time differences. Love you to pieces and hope you are doing well. 

NOTE:  Hi Holly Dale. This is your ggma just writing a note to you to say hi and tell you that I love you and miss you. When I get home from my mission I promise you I'm coming to visit you. I might have to share your room, would that be ok? I've been wondering if you play hockey too or do you do something else you really enjoy? I wish you would draw me a picture and send it to me so I could hang it up in my office. I was also wondering what your favorite book is and what your favorite toy is. Please give mommy, daddy and Levi big hugs for me and consider yourself hugged with a great big kiss on the cheek. Love you and I will be waiting for a picture.