This week has been a whirlwind. First I missed my grandkid’s Primary program this week. I’m sure they had a great program and Janelle being the Primary President is probably very glad it is over.
Yesterday was my “I will be home in 1 year” day. I just have to do what I’ve done two more times and then I’ll be getting on an airplane back home to my family and friends. I can do this!!
So Monday I started the end of a big project we have been working on. The mission used to have page inserts that the missionaries loved in the back of their planners. Actually, they weren’t inserts but they were printed out on sticker sheets and stuck on the last few pages of the planners each transfer. It got to be too big of a project though and so it was dropped before I got here. Missionaries still ask for the “spiked” planners though and President is starting a new program at leadership this next week and he asked if we could figure out a way to do the inserts again. So along with the APs and the STLTs we have been revising the pages and adding more and making them so they fit exactly the same as a regular page in the spiral bound planners. And we are printing them and laminating them, cutting them, spiral bound hole-punching them and having them ready to give the missionaries this next week. (I hope). 
You should see the stacks of pages I have all over the office at the moment. I am really excited about them and the few missionaries who have noticed what we are doing are excited too. I had one missionary last night (a zone leader) ask if he could just take one now. So I know they are going to be a hit. Now we just have to teach the missionaries to un-spiral their planners, add the pages to the back, and spiral them back up. Then every six weeks when they move to a new planner they will take the sheets out and put them in the new planner. We have dry erase markers for them to use with the sheets as well.
Monday was final draft of the pages, Tuesday they went to the printer to be printed and cut – thank goodness. 1400 sheets of paper that had six cuts in them would have been impossible. The printer cut them for no extra money. We will go back to him. Now between me and Sister Six they are all laminated and everyone I can get are helping me cut them. If you are standing around the office you can expect me to stick a pair of scissors in your hands.
Monday night after work Sister Gifford and I went visiting teaching to one of our six ladies. It was so nice to get to know Rowann and learn a bit about her. She is originally from England but she has lived in Scotland since she has been married which is about seven years. She has a little boy named Lehi and a little girl named Sariah. Darling!!
Wednesday was a busy day for us. We were extra busy in the office for some reason and moves planning of course is going on. And after work we spent about an hour with our Relief Society President to see what we could do to make her job a bit easier. She is working on her doctorate and falling a bit behind at school due to the demands of her church calling and she was just needing some support and a boost. So here we are, ready to do what she needs. She came prepared with some ideas and assignments for us which made us very happy. I was worried she wouldn’t really ask anything of us. Then we all walked over to the baptism which was wonderful. We had three baptisms tonight. And since conference is this coming weekend they were also confirmed. We have seen a change in the ward participation with baptisms since I have been here and I have to say it is so nice to have that support of ward members coming to baptisms. It really adds to the spirit and other investigators who are attending the baptism see the support and it has to make a difference.
After the baptism I took Sister Gifford out to dinner to Mia’s. It was her birthday on Thursday and that was my gift to her. Not very original but there it is. We had a great dinner and we needed it. It had been a long day. We got to work at 7:00 AM worked until 5:30 then met with Lucy until 6:30 then went straight to the baptism then finally out to dinner. I never get time to eat at the office unless Sister Donaldson takes pity on us and brings something in for us to munch on. Sister Gifford does pretty well to make herself a lunch each day but I am not a sandwich person so unless I take a yogurt to work I just wait until I get home.
Thursday was my first crunch day for moves. It was about 3:00 in the afternoon when I was finally given the okay to go see what the transfer board looked like and to start planning the moves for the missionaries. I knew that I had to do as much as possible on Thursday because Friday Lacey and her family were coming to Scotland. So I worked a 16 hour day on Thursday going home just after 11:00 PM. But I left with almost all tickets purchased for airlines, ferries, trains etc. I had the moves charts put together for the APs and Zone Leaders to use when planning their part in moves and I was feeling great. So the 16 hour day was well worth it for me.
Friday morning was the longest morning of my life. I had plenty of work to do. When I buy tickets I also have to make sure I’m printing out invoices for Elder Winter and keeping all my records up to date so I was working on all that but I was so excited for a taxi to be pulling up in our parking lot. Before I even realized it, Elder Gibb came walking in the office saying, “Sister Call there are some people outside looking for you.” And there they were. The boys remembered me!! Everett came right to me and wanted me to pick him up and he was content to stay right there with his arms wrapped around me. He kept kissing me and saying Grandma. He couldn’t talk at all when I left and now he says Grandma!! Along with everything else. He has become a great talker. I know Cal is very patient and teaches him lots of words. Everyone looks great and we were off for our day together before they needed to be back to the airport to catch their plane.
First stop was my flat to put their luggage in my room. They are taking a bit less to France so some things are staying here while they are gone. I had soup going in the crockpot but our crockpot wasn’t big enough to get all the ingredients in so I borrowed one from the mission home so I got the soup going better and then we went to Craigmillar Castle. One of my favorites and right near home.
Then it was back to my flat for lunch and then they hopped in a taxi to be whisked back to the airport and off to France. (They are coming back next week with Blaze and Kelsey for a whole week.) So I got back to work and all of a sudden my phone rang. It was Lacey. Now, what I haven’t talked about was the hard time they had getting here. They flew here on Thursday landing in Scotland on Friday. Well on Wednesday Lacey woke up with a fever, achy body and ears and throat really hurting her. Then just as she made a frantic call to the doctor so she could get some antibiotics (she knows her ears well, they’ve always been her problem – 3 sets of tubes as a child), they got another call from the fraud prevention people. Their credit card had just been charged $4000 in Mexico to a hotel. They had just put their money into an account to come to Europe and that was the card that was used. So now their balance on their card is 0. So Wednesday was spent almost four hours between the fraud people on the phone and sitting at the bank to get a line of credit since it will take several weeks before they can get the money back that is on hold on the credit card they were bringing to Europe. And then at the doctor getting some medicine. Then Thursday morning Cal woke up sick with a tummy ache and all that goes with that. They rushed him to a restroom six times while waiting for the first plane in Salt Lake City. Luckily he did great and never had an accident but he really had a bad case of food poisoning or something.
Well the taxi left them at the Edinburgh Airport just to find out that we bought the plane tickets for the day before they were really supposed to be flying to France and there were no other flights out that night. They left Salt Lake on the 28th and I knew they were coming here but not sleeping over, just stopping by and then heading to France. I must not have thought about the fact that they wouldn’t actually get here until the 29th and I got the tickets for the wrong day for them. So I got a bonus day with them today (Saturday) until their next plane left. They were so tired and the kids were exhausted so I think other than they will probably miss the Monet Gardens in France, this turned out better because they got a great nights sleep at the Marriott by the airport.
I got a call from Sister Kim and Sister Irvine at about 7:00 PM and they had missed their bus and they were a ways out from the city and they had an appointment at the church at 7:30 with Bahadere. He has a baptism date, the same day as Nikki. So Sister Gifford and I ran back over to the church to get Skype set up for Bahadere since he is French speaking and working with Sister Brodien who is in Dundee. He has been living the word of wisdom for the last couple weeks and he is doing great. After the girls got there I ran over to the office to work a bit more. I had a few questions for the APs and I wanted to meet up with them. Then I ran the girls home to their flat and I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
This morning I got up early
and drove over to the Marriott and had breakfast with them. It was great. Yes that is Haggis on his plate and Everett actually loved the haggis. Cal loved the kiwi and the little roll with jam. Then we got their room packed up and we had a bit of time before they needed to be to the airport so we got in the car and turned on the navigation and found a castle only 2 miles away. I had never heard of this place – Lauriston Castle so we took a chance and it really paid off. We had a great time exploring the grounds of this little castle.
Well, that’s probably about it for this week. We have lots of work at the office so we aren’t going anywhere today. But Monday we are heading out to find a place for a senior couple to move to in Stranraer which is a beautiful place down in the bottom of Scotland so we are excited for that. Lacey and Jake are safely on the plane to France now and they will be back here next Thursday and Blaze and Kelsey fly in next Friday. So I still have lots of great things to look forward too.
Love all of you. I miss you – but we are 1/3 of the way through!! See you in 364 days.
oh my goodness your grandkids are absolutely adorable! how fun!