Sunday I sat in on ward council as we discussed Family Search and how to get everyone in ward council on board with finding a name to take to the temple. We have a few new members, just baptized who are really enjoying family history and we are hoping the ward council will start by setting the example of taking their own names to the temple. We will see. I am available for anything but I don’t always get results in attendance or in actually finding anything. I keep at it as much as I can though.
After church was our departure dinner with our missionaries going home this time. These are all great missionaries who I have known so well. I am going to miss them. It was a small group going home which made the day a bit less hectic but I was still very busy planning moves for 91 missionaries who were moving around the next day. It takes so much work and coordination. But I love it. I don’t know how I let the whole evening get away without taking any pictures. But I did send my phone out with the boys when they put on their kilts for a picture with the Donaldsons. Elder Wright is one of our APs and not going home yet. Then we have Elder Huang going home to Taiwan and Elder Woodfield to Texas, and Elder Yip to Australia.
I will really miss Elder Huang who I became very close to since he served here in Edinburgh. He would call me often even after he was transferred and would always end his calls with – thanks Sister Call, I love you.
Monday Sister Gifford needed to go pick up some keys in the city so we took a few minutes afterwards to find a street I’ve been wanting to find. It’s named Circus Lane and is supposed to be one of the most photographed streets in Edinburgh. It was a quaint little street and I’m glad we wandered over there.
On Tuesday we got our new missionaries. Only three in this group. Sister Coffman was here in the office while her companion was going through some training so she helped me out with my projects and she was a super office worker. I appreciated her so much. She took care of a big job for me.
I had to take a picture of Elder Calley this week while he was in for meetings. Every time I see him I tell him my grandson Everett is going to look like him when he grows up. This time I showed him a picture of Everett and he agreed. His baby pictures look like Everett.
More pictures from lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday with our trainers and new leaders.
We had a baptism on Wednesday night. This was extra special as Hamish was able to baptize Andrew Kenny. It has been so wonderful to watch Hamish get baptized himself, work in Family History, pass the sacrament, attend ward council meetings and now exercise his priesthood power and baptize a new member into the church. Andrew is going to be a great addition to this ward as well.
Here is one more picture I want to add to my blog. This is a picture of Sister Allred and Sister Belliston “gqing” on the street. I really like this picture.
Friday after work Sister Gifford and I were so tired and hungry we ran to Five Guys to get a good ole hot dog. We had been gone about an hour when my phone rang and President called me back to the office. I had found out that morning that some of our missionaries were stopped at the border trying to get back into Ireland and were told they had one week to leave the country and they couldn’t proselyte during this week. The requirements have changed on religious volunteers in Ireland and we are going to have some real problems until we figure out how to get everyone legal again. It’s not going to be an easy task. So President decided we just as well get them out of there Monday because he is out of town for the next week.
So I was at the office until 10:30 Friday night and back again at 7:00 in the morning working on moving 10 missionaries around. I still didn’t have everything figured out but we had tickets to sail out to the Isle of May and find the Puffins so I had to leave knowing I would be back early Sunday morning to finish everything up.
Well, after a very busy week we took Saturday to go in search of puffins. The Miller’s came with us and we took an hour ride on the North Sea out to the Isle of May. We were not disappointed. No rain, even though the forecast said we were going to have heavy rains. There are over 48,000 pairs of Puffins on the Isle of May. I have no idea how they count them but we saw hundreds at least. We couldn’t get really close to them. There are several different species of birds that nest on the isle and the Tern were right on the ground so we had to stay on the paths. The Puffins nests are actually in holes in the ground and once the babies are a few weeks old they go to the water and stay in the water for a three to four years before returning to the Isle to lay eggs. Puffins find a mate for life. They fly fast from the water to their nests with their beaks full of fish. I did the best I could with my iphone. I was envious of the people who had their big cameras and huge lens. I bet they got some really neat pictures. We had a great time though and hiked all over the isle. There is a lighthouse there as well which we could go in. I made the mistake of sitting down on a bench outside the lighthouse while we were waiting for it to open and decided I was way too tired to venture in the lighthouse. I just sat and enjoyed the fresh air and the sound of thousands of birds while the others explored the lighthouse.
I want to document that we also stopped at Burntisland
and saw some beauty around the water there. And stopped in Leven and found some beautiful poppies that were huge. 
The town we got on the boat was Anstruther. Another really nice place. I wouldn’t mind exploring Anstruther again.
We got home around 10:00 PM and pretty much just went straight to bed. This morning, Sunday, I was back at the office by 7:00 AM to finish up the emergency moves. Now it is off to church. Love you all.
