Week 8 – Glasgow, Paisley and a crazy baptism

Sunday found us once again on the road. We didn’t have a car to exchange but I was looking for a flat in Glasgow so we used that as our excuse to make the drive and attend church in the Springboig Ward, and we are so glad we did. What a fun ward.

We sat down and immediately people got up and walked over to us to shake our hands and introduce themselves.  I honestly don’t even think they saw our badges before coming over. They are just a friendly ward who are so excited to have visitors. We could all take a lesson from them in welcoming and warming up to people that we don’t know when they come to church.

Sunday School was lively with everyone participating in the discussion and we even watched parts of the really old President Snow and the St George visit movie that I remember watching as a child.  It was very nostalgic.

Later that day we had Sister Six and Sister Sam over so they could call their families on our computers. They were so excited.  After they left I gave my own mom a call and talked with my sister, Shannon as well.  It was fun to hear their voices and to wish them both a happy mother’s day.

I also tried my hand at making salsa with ingredients not quite the same as at home and even though it isn’t quite what I usually make, it is pretty tasty and I have had nachos four nights this week.  (That’s a good thing.)

Wednesday found Sister Dent and I on the road again to trade cars with another set of missionaries in Paisley.  We were told there wasn’t much to see in Paisley but when we got there we asked the missionaries and they told us there was an abbey in town.  So we decided we needed to go check it out.  I’m glad we did.  It was a beautiful, old abbey and we enjoyed strolling through it reading the history and taking pictures. It is still in use today. As you walk out you pass through a gift shop so I had to grab a couple cute little things for the grandkids.

 

On Wednesday evening we once again went to a baptism.  I really wish I had a camera going the whole time so you could really visualize this night but I’ll do my best to describe it.  I also wish I had pictures of Amy Nelson and Toni Cameron, two young ladies who were baptized.  My guess is they are in their 30’s and 20’s.  Amy is a single-mother of 3 rowdy children, Alan, Axana, and Aycee.  The missionaries found Amy because her boyfriend had submitted a referral as a joke. When the missionaries came to her door she opened it and before they could say anything she said to them, are you Jehovah Witnesses? When they said no she said come back in two days and closed the door.

Alan was feeling pretty bad that he was only 7 so he couldn’t get baptized yet.  Toni is a pre-school teacher of one of the little ones and was introduced to the gospel by Amy.  Amy is so excited about the gospel.  It just rings true to her and she is already sharing it with everyone she knows.  I think our missionaries are going to be busy just because of her.

They do baptisms just about every Wednesday night at our church.  First off, Amy had asked a neighbor to come and keep an eye on the children while she was being baptized.  This nice neighbor came along happily until she realized that they had pulled into a “Mormon” church.  That didn’t sit very well with her and I don’t know if that is the reason or not but she didn’t watch the kids at all and kept leaning over to me to mutter something I couldn’t understand.  Everything started off pretty normal, just a bit noisier, and the talk on the Holy Ghost was given by Dylan who was baptized just four weeks ago.  It was a very spiritual talk as he taught what he felt when he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and how he treasures that gift.

The children were so excited when their mother went in to enter the font but as Brother Bonner, our counselor in the bishopric stepped into the water he had to quickly step out.  The water was scalding hot. So then we got to watch as the bishop crawled over to the middle of the font along the edge with missionaries hanging onto him so he wouldn’t fall in so he could unplug the font, and sand pails were found and buckets and buckets of cold water were poured into the font. The children were climbing up onto the glass and I was just sure one of them was going to go head first into the water. We tried to sing a few songs but the distractions were over-powering and the children were having a great time watching all the commotion.  Finally, with the water still pretty hot but at least bearable the baptism continued.  The spirit was there and it was a night they will never forget, I’m sure.

Thursday I was sitting at my desk thinking things are about to change.  My new companion, Sister Gifford from North Carolina arrives on Saturday and I’m changing positions.  I’ve been preparing my area with projects for her to learn on and it occured to me that I should take a few pictures of what I see every day for often 11 hours.  So here are the views from my desk in the mission office.

This is looking straight ahead and that is about the most I see of Sister Winters all day long.  She is the receptionist and is either on the phone, working on baptism records, making the slide show for zone conferences or opening and sorting mail.

 

This next one is looking to my right.  I get to enjoy this beautiful view of nature every day, all day long.  I see squirrels and cats, blackbirds, crows and enormous bumble bees.  My new view
is even going to be better because of the rhododendron bushes.  The third picture is the top of my cabinet and the last is looking out from my desk across to Sister Dent sitting at my soon-to-be desk.  So there you have it.  My views. The closed door on the left below goes into the mission home.

Thursday after work we did our weekly dinner with the Winters.  We took the bus over to Fountain Bridge area and ate at Zizzis.  That is easily my favorite place here.  I’m so glad Blaze told me about it.  He and Kelsey frequented it in London on their honeymoon.  He realized there was one really close to me.  The Winter’s didn’t believe they were going to like it very well. They really came to make me happy but they loved it and want to go back next week with Sister Gifford.

Friday I went and got my hair colored, practiced the organ (because I’m playing for ward conference next week) and we went out to eat again. The Winter’s treated us for Sister Dent’s going away party.  She is still here for two more weeks but this is the transistioning week since Sister Gifford will now be here and I will be training her on housing and phones and also getting trained on travel, visas, transfers etc.  We went to a very nice restaurant and had a really nice steak dinner.

Today is Saturday and we got up and finished cleaning then headed off to the airport to pick up Sister Gifford.  I will post pictures next week.

Have a wonderful week everyone.  I love you.