This has been a week of creating. The university has been asking for some literature they can give out when their students ask about the missionaries so we created a tri-fold brochure for them to hand out to their students. This involved several hours at home looking through different things on lds.org and having a photo shoot out in the meadows. 
It was fun and a nice change from my usual daily activities. The brochure was finished on Tuesday and the APs ran it up to the university.
In working on the brochure for the university we thought it would be nice to have a pass along card that fit university students as well. So I started working on creating a new pass along card patterned after one that they had in our area for a short time.
And as long as we were creating new things we also worked on our Baptism Calendars and added a whole new section to that.
On top of that I am still busy trying to get the lesson manuals bound. Anytime someone asks if I have anything they can do – I pull these out and get a few more done.
Oh, I have to throw this one in here. After our photo shoot Sister Wahlquist and Sister Wu went back to my car to change their clothes into their P-Day clothes. They were going to play Frisbee at the park with a group of missionaries. Sister Wu thought that was so exciting. She had never changed clothes in a car before!!
I have started studying hard for my drivers license exam. It’s not easy. They use words we don’t. Their crosswalks have different types and names – zebra, pelican, puffin and toucan. They all look different and work differently. They use words like dual-carriageway, and lorries and …dreadful meters. If I am traveling on dry roads going 30mph how many meters will it take for me to stop? Oh boy, I need to know all those answers for 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. I think I have them down. Then there are the signs. Most of them don’t even look like anything. And the ones that do have a picture are not that obvious in many cases. So I hope I can pass this next week. I’ll keep you posted.
Tuesday we got two new missionaries. These are two young men from Utah – one Alpine and one Bountiful who are coming as Mandarin speaking missionaries. So the president collected them from the airport and they got back to the office about 6:00 PM. I stayed until about 8:00 processing them in, sending a letter to their parents and taking their pictures. They are both in good hands with great trainers.
Wednesday Elder Bradley called and asked if I could help him and Elder Miao out. Elder Bradley is from Canada and Elder Miao is from Bejing. They had a dinner appointment out quite aways and didn’t have time to take the 45 minute bus ride out and wondered if we could run them out. This is the first time Elder Bradley has ever asked for help and I was so happy he asked. He’s a quiet guy and we don’t see much of him even though he is right here in the city. But the times I’ve had him in the car he has always been talkative and I have really enjoyed our conversations. So of course, Sister Gifford and I were happy to help them out. We left work just a bit early and picked them up at the university and drove through rush-hour traffic to get them to their appointment. It was at one of the bishopric members flat so we thought for sure he would bring them back into the city since there was a baptism tonight so we ran and got a bite to eat and then walked into the baptism just in time for me to sit down at the piano and play the opening song. This was a Chinese girl named Meggie getting baptized. She is a really cute girl. (Elder Worley and Elder Butler have been teaching her.) 
Just as it was time for her to be baptized my phone rang and it was Elder Bradley. They were done and didn’t have a way back. So we left to go back out and get them. When we got there, they were standing out on the corner on a busy street in the cold. They were so relieved to see us. The first thing Elder Bradley said when he got in the car was I’m so glad you could come. I didn’t even know which direction to start walking to get home. We love helping these missionaries.
It’s been a great
week. Not as busy as the last few weeks. I’ve actually had a little free time and feeling like I’ve progressed in my personal studies. I have been trying to memorize “The Living Christ” and I have gotten through 4 paragraphs and have them down with no hesitation. I’ve read my scriptures every day and studied the things I’ve been reading. I love weeks like this. The sun is peeking out earlier every day and we are no longer going to work in the dark each morning. And it is staying light until about 6:00 now which is wonderful. I love the light. We need light. What great symbolism. Light.
Friday I got to leave the office for a bit. Sister Quintana from California and Sister Schulze from Germany took a train into Edinburgh for an appointment so I picked them up at the train station and drove them to their appointment. I practiced my parallel parking while I waited for them and then we ran to get a prescription filled, grabbed a snack and then they were back on the train. They are both such cute girls. I wish I had more time to get to know all the missionaries.
Oh, and I have a picture of Elder Gowans who always stops by my office for a chat when he comes in for exchanges or leadership. I’ve known him as long as I’ve known anyone here. He is from Orem. Anyway, he walked in this week and I took one look at his tie and said – “That’s an Anderson Tartan tie. He said yes, it is and pulled it out so I could take a picture. My Scottish Family History is the Anderson Clan. 
Today being Saturday Sister Gifford and I decided to go to a place called Pucks Glen. So we went in a bit of a circle going one way and coming home another. We drove up past Glasgow on the M8 and then just after the Glasgow airport we took the A82 up into Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park. It was a beautiful drive alongside a big beautiful blue lake that was brimming full of water. There is so much water here. All the lakes are right up to the top almost ready to bubble over. They are so beautiful. I was just thinking as we passed by all these little holiday caravan parks how fun it would be to just spend a week in this park by one of these beautiful lakes. It’s so quiet and the amazing feature of Scotland is there never seems to be any bugs.
Well we stopped for lunch in a very little town just as we were to the end of the lake. The cafe was hooked to the post office and general store which consisted of one very small aisle. (Smaller than Aunt Delena’s store.) But we had a great meal and then we drove the final 15 minutes to Pucks Glen. For those of you that have read Fablehaven – or any other fantasy book about fairies. This is what I kept thinking about as I roamed around the glen. It was beautiful. Incredibly still and calm, no sound whatsoever but an occasional song of a bird and even though we saw a few people there, for the most part we felt completely alone. And I did feel completely alone for a good 30 minutes while I explored the area that looked a little too frightening for Sister Gifford. We walked some steep little paths and by the time we got to the top and then found ourselves at the top of lots of steep stone steps leading down into the glen she was content to sit on a bench while I wandered off on my own. She does pretty dang good for a lady in her 70’s. And by the end of the day, I was the one who took a tumble down a mossy little section of the path. My hands and knee are a little sore. But I’m fine. I caught myself so I didn’t totally lose control and that is why my hands hurt. I think I bent my fingers weird catching myself. Anyway, I will put the pictures all together here at the end. I’m so glad we went today. The weather was perfect and once we got walking we never felt cold at all. Going home we drove the opposite direction and actually took a ferry across Loch Long to get back over and above Paisley and Glasgow area. It turned out to be a great day.
I hope you are all well and I hear you finally have lots and lots of snow. Of course it would come but sorry, and please be safe. I love you all.
