Another great week in Scotland!

This has been an interesting and also fun week.  After our Church meetings last Sunday, we had some meetings with the new Branch Pres and also the Stake Pres. Last week's church was not the best experience we've had.  The stake changed our Branch boundaries and brought  new people over from the Paisley Ward, and they were not happy to have to switch, to say the least.

Today was a little better.  We had a open discussion during Priesthood/RS time where we talked about feeling safe, trusting and showing love.  The new Branch Pres explained a little about some of the difficulties the new Branch members are experiencing over the move and it is somewhat heart wrenching for these people to leave a large ward, good friends and their kid's associations.  We could really feel their pain.  At the same time, we were able to share how hurt the current Branch members felt about how they felt they were treated last week.  People who they have known for years actually snubbed them and they were confused as to why.  This was not a Branch choice to do the boundary realignment, it was the Stake's decision(The Lords Will), so the current members were hurt and confused as to why the new members were so cold.  Anyway, I think it got discussed well and what needed to be said got said, so hopefully we can all move forward and do the best we can to become unified.

We had a meeting with our Stake Pres on Thurs after Institute during which time we gave him a report of what we have been doing during our 3 months here, as far as finding "lost sheep".  We found quite a few had moved, determined who was not currently interested. and found some that they hadn't been able to find.  We have determined who we can work with and have been doing so, so it was nice to have something to report.  Pres Dewey was quite pleased to see what we have been able to accomplish and our reporting of it.  Then we told him that now that we have done all that, we find we don't have much to do and are finding it difficult to fill our time with missionary related activities.  He was glad to hear that we have time to do more  and he said he has some more for us to do.  He told us that he is not going to let us go without a fight, and he recognizes that we have left our lives, our families and are spending our own money, so he wants to make sure we have plenty of missionary stuff to do.  Now that the boundaries have been realigned, more "lost sheep" in that area need to be located, so that will take up our time for the next wee while, and there is another struggling branch in the stake that may have us do it for them too.

So, because right now we don't have that much to do, yesterday we took an extra P-day, and went down to Caerlaverock Castle just over the border from England and attended a Joust.  There is a group with a long french name that I can't remember just now, but they put on what they call Spectacular Jousting at various castle venues around the country.  They have a group of historical medieval reinactors that put on demonstrations of medieval life and then have scheduled jousts along with it.  You all know how much I love historical reinacting, so I was in my element!  The joust itself was rather cheesy, but the rest was interesting.  When the knights first came out on horseback, I looked at one of them and said he was not very big for a knight.  When he got off his horse to do hand to hand sword combat, I was proved right.  He looked like a skinny 14 yr old boy!  As I said, it was cheesy and a little silly, but we got an idea of what happened in a tournament.  Believe me, "A Knight'sTale" was probably a better representation of jousting than this event.

On the way home from the jousting, we stopped by the old ruins of a church called Sweetheart Abbey.  It is a beautiful, peaceful place (see some pictures on FB, posted this morning). The story of Sweetheart Abbey is that Lady Devorgilla loved her husband, John Balliol (parents of the Balliol King of Scotland before William Wallace) so much that when he died, she had his heart embalmed and carried it around with her in a beautifully made box. She called it her "silent, loving companion".  When she died, the box was placed on her chest in the tomb and the stone effigy on her tomb had her holding his heart.  Thus, the name "Sweetheart Abbey".  She was a lady of great wealth and standing, so she had this big abbey church built and brought in Cistercian Monks to run it.  We got some wonderful pictures of it.  Some I think we will have blown up and will hang on our walls when we get home.

Last Monday on our actual P-day we went up to a fairy tale castle called Inverary Castle.  It's not really a very old castle since it was built in the 18th century but they tried to make it look like an old castle with round turrets on the corners and a moat with no water in it.  It is beautifully decorated inside with lots of large portraits of former family dukes and earls and wonderfully painted walls and ceilings.  It is the ancestral home of one of the Campbell clans and the current Duke of Argyll lives there with his wife and 3 kids.  Also, one of the episodes from Downton Abbey was filmed there. It's the one where they go for Christmas at a friend's castle, which they called Duneagle in the episode.  So they had pictures of the cast in costume at various places in the castle.

We also went to a small picturesque town called Killin that had a nice river front area called Dochart Falls.  The weather was beautiful for our outing which was a plus.  While we were having lunch in a little town called Crainlarich, we were waited on by a young man who came up to us while serving and asked if we might know where a branch of the church might be.  That caught us by surprise, but it turns out that he was baptized last Apr and then moved up to this town to work for the summer. He had looked around for a branch but couldn't find one.  We, sadly, had to tell him that we were not aware of any Branches or even missionaries in the area.  Fortunately he is only there for the summer and then will return to Kirkcaldy where he was baptized and be able to go back to church.  

On our way home from Inverary, we stopped in at Doune Castle, which you will all be familiar with if you have ever seen "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". The outside of the castle and the kitchen were used in scenes from the movie.  The outside was the French castle they "attacked" where cattle were thrown over the walls at them, and the kitchen was actually turned into a bedroom where Lancelot, I think, was recuperating from battle.  I have only seen the movie once, so none of it was familiar to me.  Guess I will need to see it again.

We are taking advantage of beautiful weather and our P-days to see as much of Scotland as we can before winter sets in.  It really is a fabulously beautiful country with breathtaking vistas, that we feel very fortunate to be able to live in for a time.

We have standing dates with a couple of people we are working with every week.  We visit the McKees, Robert and Ann, every Thurs for tea, which is actually dinner.  She's one who joined the Church years ago and was inactive all that time.  In fact, the Church record the Branch had for her was still in her maiden name.  About 8 months ago, the Branch sent letters out to everyone on their rolls and asked them to come back to church, or at least contact the Branch to let them know if they were still in the area.  Not many people responded, but something nudged Ann and she decided to come back. Her husband, Robert is not a member, but they both come to Church every Sunday as their health permits.  Ann says she would not miss Church now for anything, except when their health is bad.  The young Elders worked with them before we came, and they loved the Elders, but they said they like having us because we share more of the same life experiences and have an understanding that the Elders were too young to have.  We have been sharing gospel messages and testifying of the Lords love for them.    As soon as Robert can overcome his addictions, he will be baptized.

The other person we meet with regularly is Mhorag.  She is related by marriage to a brother in the Branch and is a convert.  She came to Church for several years after she was baptized, and then someone said something mean to her and she stopped coming.  She works at the local Tesco grocery store and during our first shopping trip there, before we had really even met anyone in the Branch, I turned from the till we were at and saw her waving at me.  Of course, I didn't know who she was or why she was waving at me, but we walked over and she told us that she was a member.  As we left I said "see you on Sunday", not knowing that she didn't come to Church.  She is a cheeky soul and she and I get along famously.  She tells us places we should go and visit and tells about people in the area.  She has been here for years and because she works at Tesco, she knows LOTS of people. In fact, we watched one day while we were in the shop and she was working the express till, everybody stopped to chat with her as they went out of the store.  People will wait in her line to have her check them out, even if there are other tills open.  She's one of those people who everybody loves because she is so much fun. She knows that we are working on getting her back to Church, but she just goes along with it, never really letting us know if we are making any headway.  We have 7 more months and we are determined to see her at Church at least once before we leave!  We are sharing lessons about various gospel subjects with her and leaving our testimony.  

We love you all!

Haste  Ye Back!

Elder and Sister Walker

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Recent Update

Dear Family and Friends

We hope you are all doing well.  We hope you are all enjoying your summer with your families.  Believe it or not, we are envious of your hot weather. It was 57 degrees today and rainy.  I don't think I am ever going to be warm again!

So, we started off this week with taking a hop on/ hop off bus tour in Glasgow.  We thought it would be more fun and interesting than it was, but we did learn a couple of things.  We learned that in Scotland they have 3 legal verdicts: guilty, not quilty and not proven.  Not proven basically means "we know you did it, but we can't prove it, so you better not do it again." Gives a whole new meaning to "getting off Scot free"!  Glasgow University is a beautiful old (1400's) campus and the River Clyde was home to 163 ship building yards at one time-now there are only 3.  They also used to be one of the major manufacturing cities of locomotives.  So, that's Glasgow. which the natives sometimes pronounce Glas-gee and natives are called Glaswegans.  I'm just glad they have both an IKEA and a Costco! Makes them almost civilized!

Tues we made two big pots of chicken tortilla soup and served lunch to 22 missionaries at their group district meeting.  4 Districts meet in the stake center, so we decided to treat them. One of those missionaries is Sis Kim who was with us in Tralee, so we told the Elders that she was the reason they all got lunch.

Tues afternoon we met again with Scott, who is our referal from the Church because he asked for a Book of Mormon. He had some questions, which I think we answered to his satisfaction.

Thursday, I finally got a haircut.  My last hairdresser in Tralee butchered my hair and it was so uneven.  Finally got it looking better.  We met with our Branch Pres in the afternoon to go over the less actives on the branch list, and then dashed off to Institute.  We had a great Institute class with several more new people.  We are really enjoying getting to know these young adults.  Some are lifelong members, some of which have left and come back, and some are new converts. One is an investigator.  It's an interesting mix, but we are all having fun.  It was our last week with Katie who leaves Tues for the Provo MTC before she comes back over to Europe to serve in the France Lyon mission.  We are really going to miss her as she is one of our stalwarts.

Friday we did our service thing at the Town House, transcribing more legal documents.  This time it was a trust by a father for his children, written in 1806.  We sure are learning lots of legal terms.  Friday night we hung out with Mhorag for a bit. She said the closing prayer to our meeting and agreed to start reading the BofM again.  She told us that Sat was the day of the Orange March.  I knew they had Orangemen and Orange marches in  Belfast, but I didn't know that the Scots do it too.  The Orangemen are basically a political Protestant group who dislikes Catholics.  Mo warned us to stay out of Dalry, the next town over, so we did.  She said that there would also be a mini march in Beith, but we never saw anything. 

Sat morning was another stint at the Town House.  I swear, we have done about 6 or 7 legal documents about the same place: "the north or gavil end of the dwelling house high and laigh with the office houses back and fore, with the universal pertinents thereof lying and described in the aforesaid Precept of Sasine, blah, blah, blah".  (Can you tell I have typed that particular phrase more than once?)  I swear, this must have been a popular house in this town because it seems like everyone owned it, had owned it or was trying to own it.  We are becoming very familiar with some of the well known names around here, many of whom have descendants still here.  I don't think we mentioned it: one of the more famous residents to come out of Beith is the Rev. John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  He was a minister here in Beith at the Auld Kirk before going to the Americas.  Apparently the Town House gets several American visitors every July 4th who want to see where John Witherspoon came from.

Last night we attended a farewell Ceili for Katie.  It was quite fun. Dad and I even danced a little.  Most of our Institute students were there, plus some parents we hadn't met yet, and others we knew.  Someone there told me that in Scotland, instead of after school sports, they teach the kids ceili dances because they need to be able to do the dances when ceili's are held or at traditional Scottish balls.  I think it is great.  Kids in America need to do more of the old dances like Virginia Reel and such. When I used to teach that one at Old Deseret Village, the kids would whine and complain at first, but were begging for more by the end.

Haste Ye Back!  

Love, Elder and Sister Walker (Dad and Mom)

Goodbye Ireland, Hello Scotland!

About a month ago, we were taking a little holiday from our missionary labors because our dear friends, Layne and Kris, came to Ireland to visit.  As we were touring the Ring of Kerry one day, we got a phone call from Pres. Thompson, 1st counselor to Pres. Donaldson, the mission President.  Pres Thompson is over the Ireland area at the request of the President.  Anyhoo, we got this phone call, wherein Pres. T tells us that we are being transferred to Scotland!  That was a big surprise.  Pres had discussed with us the possibility of being moved at the last All Ireland Conference and we told him that we would serve wherever he felt we should serve.  Then we left it in his hands.  So we knew it was a possibility, but the surprise was that it was Scotland.  The area where we were to be assigned is Beith, a tiny village 20 min west of Glasgow.  Obviously, we've never heard of it, nor have most of the people we talked to.  The news of our transfer was bittersweet: bitter because it meant we would be leaving behind all our great friends in the Branch, the English class and the town of Tralee.  Sweet because we would be heading on to new adventures in a new place.  We hadn't entertained the thought that we might be able to serve in Scotland.

Pres D decided to take Senior missionaries out of Tralee completely for the time being, so besides packing ourselves up, we also had to close down our flat, which meant we had to pack up, give away, and dispose of everything in the flat except the furnishings.  That made the move somewhat more difficult.  It took us several days, in between teaching our final English classes, trying to find a new flat in Beith, arranging for a baptism, and saying goodbye to all our friends.  It was a whirlwind few days.

It was so hard to say goodbye to all the dear friends we've made.  At our final Park Run, they thanked us for our volunteer service for 24 weeks, and we received goodbyes and hugs from the many friends we made there: Siobhan, Pat, Tony, Triona, Jerry, Joan, Stella, Malachy, Caroline, and several others.
Saying goodbye to our dear, sweet neighbors, Kathriona and Sophie was particularly hard.  Kathriona did so much for us and took good care of us so we would love Ireland.  Then, of course, there were all the members we worked with in the Branch: T and Aggie, the Brownlees, Louise, Jack, Robert, Tadd (formerly E. Hoppe, that "trained" us when we came to Ireland) and the Knight family. Also the investigators, Con and James.  We had so many wonderful, and sometimes hard experiences, with all these people-they will be always in our memories.  We pray that they will all stay active and growing in the Gospel and will help that little "twig" to grow into a full ward someday.

It took us a while to find a flat in Beith.  We only had pictures on websites to go by.  Sis Broadfoot, the Branch President's wife was helping us from the Beith end.  She had looked at the flat here in Beith and was scheduled to look at 3 others, but we felt like it was going to take too long, and none of the other flats were in Beith, so we took the plunge and decided that the Beith flat would be the one.  We wanted to be able to go straight from the All Ireland Conference in Dublin, to Belfast and then on to Scotland, we we pushed things along a little.  The landlord agreed to furnish it for an extra 100 pounds a month, so we sealed the deal.

The Sisters were continuing in Tralee, and we all wondered how they would get by without us and a car. Fortunately, E Peacock, who was our ZL for 11 days before being elevated to AP, worked his magic and got them a car. Now we didn't feel so bad leaving them.

So, the night before the Conference, we packed up our car, added 6 cakes for the Conference to the pile in the car,and sent the Sisters by bus to Dublin. Tues morning at half 5 we departed Tralee for Dublin and ultimately Scotland.  Farewell, Tralee!

After the Conference, we headed out for Belfast, where we spent the night.  We found a lovely B&B guesthouse called "The Gregory" to stay for the night.  The concierge was a lovely young woman named Ines, from Portugal.  She was so sweet and helpful and delightful to be around.  We had a beautiful room with a kingsize bed that was so soft and comfy.  It was heaven to get a restful night's sleep in such a bed.

The next morning it was on to Beith!  We enjoyed the 3 hour ferry ride to Scotland and had a beautiful sunny drive to Beith.  We didn't know our flat address so had to call the Mission Office. We finally arrived at a row of terrace houses and located ours.  Our first view of the flat was not encouraging.  It was old, shabby, had holes in the walls and was papered in a black and silver design on one wall and dark grey green on the other three walls.  Thank goodness there were two big window fore and aft to make the room more light. The stairwell is cramped, we can feel holes in the floorboards in a few places and it's pretty tiny.  One of the first things we noticed was that there were no closets in the bedrooms, or dressers.  No place to put our clothes.  When we mentioned it to the letting agent she said, "well, you didn't ask for closets."  Maybe because we just assumed there would be closets.  Overall, we weren't too thrilled with our new accomodations, but decided we would just have to make do for the present.  Our letting agent ordered wardrobes and dressers and we finally had them after two more days.  We did a wallpapering and painting DIY on the living room and finally feel comfortable there.

We have now been in Beith two months and we are loving it! Yes, the town is small and crowded, but we are close to the big city, we are making wonderful friends, the Branch is fabulous and we are being given many opportunities.  Come along with us as we continue on this Scottish journey!

HASTE YE BACK!