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)