We had a good week this week. On Monday (P-Day) we met up with a set of sister missionaries from our Zone and went to Cuzlean (pronounced Culleen) Castle near the town of Maybole on the the northwest Scottish coast. It was amazing! The castle is beautiful with lots of beautiful architectual detail. It is the second great house we've seen that was designed by Robert Adams. He also did Hopetoun House, which we saw the week before. The Castle sits on the Firth of Clyde and has wonderful views of the ocean. We took the Sisters because Sis. Paxton is on her last transfer and will be going home in July and she hadn't had an opportunity to see the Castle. We are trying to give at least the Sisters in the area a chance to see some of the sights of Scotland while they are in the area. Tomorrow we are taking another trio of sisters to Stirling Castle near Edinburgh for the same reason. Sis. Parker is also on her last transfer, so we wanted to give her an opportunity to see Stirling before she goes. Next week we are reuniting with our dear Sis. Kim from Tralee who is serving in Glasgow and we'll go back to Stirling, making it the third time we'll see it. Fortunately, we invested in a Scottish Heritage Pass, so we will get in for free both times. In case you are wondering why we only take sisters- they are a lot more fun to take to places like this. They get way more excited than the Elders do. Besides, no Elders have asked us.
Tues we went to visit the Elders in our district because the mission home had gotten a complaint from the landlord about how they were taking care of their flat. All was fine there, so tempest in a teapot. While we were there they gave us a referral for someone in our area. Her name is Irene. We called and made an appt to go meet her. When we got there we found that she had just moved to the area and had literally nothing. The Council had put her in a flat and were in the process of getting her assistance , but it was going to take a week or so. She had no money, the clothes on her back, one fork, one plate and one cup. The Council had provided her with housing and a bedroom set. After visiting with her for a bit and finding out a little about her, Dad told her we were taking her shopping for some food because we couldn't just leave her stranded, and you know Dad. The next day we picked her up and took her to a charity shop in town and she got some dishes and some clothes. Her money should come through by the end of this week. She is a wee thing and looks like a strong gust of wind could blow her away. She's coming off a heroin addiction (8 weeks sober, according to her) and trying to turn her life around. She has a deep smoker's voice that doesn't match her appearance and she says she's had 10 kids! She has had a very hard life; father died when she was young, mother became an alcoholic, had a husband who beat her, etc, etc. It seems to be the story for a lot of people around here. We taught her the Restoration discussion yesterday and she came to church with us today. She says she liked it. We'll let you know how it goes with her.
We're getting to know some of the less active people in the area. One is a cheeky lady named Mhorag or Mo. She's a large woman with short dyed red (literally) hair. We first met her when we went on our first shopping trip here. She works at the Tesco in Kilbirnie where we shop. As we were standing in the check out line, I looked over to the next till and saw this lady waving at me. I looked around to see who she was waving at. Finally she got our attention and we went over and she told us she was a member. She didn't tell us she hasn't been to church for years. Her nephew is counselor in the Branch Presidency so he told us a little about her. We've visited her twice and she is a hoot! We are looking forward to some good times with her.
On Thurs we went to dinner at Robert and Anne's house. Anne has been a member for years, but not active. Robert has been learning; they were being taught by the Elders and Anne loves to mother the boys. Now she has taken to mothering us. We are set up for dinner there with them every Thurs now. She is going to teach me how to do strand knitting. She LOVES to talk, but has a very thick accent which is hard to understand sometimes, tho' our ears are starting to tune in. She's cheeky too and I think we will get along great!
Another sweet sister is Agnes Brown, or as she is known to everyone Wee Nan Sans. She's 85, I believe, and a wee tiny lady, but with a personality twice her size. She brings sweeties (candy) to Church every Sunday and has her cousin or someone else in the Branch take it around to everyone to share.
Today we went back to the farm in Shutterflat where Dad's ancestors lived and the woman was able to show us the pages of Stevenson genealogy that someone gave her 10 years ago. Dad was able to take pictures of the pedigree chart as well as 10 written pages of details about the Stevenson line. What little we've read doesn't line up well with what is on Family Search for what Dad has on the Stevenson line, so it will be interesting to see what it says when we get into it deeper. There is a library here in Glasgow that houses a lot of records that might also be a resource for us to find more on the Stevensons.
HASTE YE BACK!
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