Well this is going to be short. I didn’t take very many pictures this week. Monday Skyler and Janelle were still here and I took the day off of work. We went to Craigmiller Castle which is nearby where I live. It’s still one of the very best castles to explore. I think out of all the castles we saw this was first or second best in their opinion. We found this little bird down one of the
hallways just sitting inside the castle. He let us get right up to him to take his picture. He is a JackDaw and they make a very unique sound.
Then we went up to the Royal Mile and shopped and had lunch at an Italian Restaurant (we are not very adventurous when it comes to food), and then it was time to take them to the airport. It was a quick visit but I think we packed about as much as you can into the time we had. They headed off to London to spend two days there and then they got home Wednesday night.
Tuesday Sister Gifford and I were alone in the office. The Help’s went to Ireland and the President and his family was also in Ireland so we had a nice quiet day and were able to get a lot of work done. We did sneak out for about an hour and a half to go see David and Brittni Smith and their friends at Fringe. We saw the Best of Movies Music. It was so good. I loved seeing them again. We went to both of their shows last year and it was so nice. This year Rex Kocherhans was with them as well. Blaze was in South Pacific with Rex a few years ago and Cal was in a band with his dad – also Rex many years ago. So that was fun too. Rex has a beautiful bass voice. Of course David and Brittni are amazing entertainers and I could watch them for hours.
Tuesday night we ran missionaries to the airport and I was ready for bed very early. Still trying to catch up on sleep after the weekend.
Wednesday we took a couple missionaries out for dinner. Other than that it was just a long day at the office. I just can’t seem to get caught up. I have piles of work to do and I’m a week behind in emails. And yet I never stop working.
Thursday I went with Sister Allred and Sister Irving to teach Mars again. We have been working with him for several months. He is still reading the Book of Mormon and still attending church. I had a very precious experience this time when I was with him. I was overcome with a sense of love and felt like I was getting a glimpse of what our Heavenly Father feels for him. I had this feeling that God cares and loves him. I shared that with him. It was so real to me, it was almost a tangible feeling. I hope he can get all his questions answered and he will find what he is looking for. He is such a great guy.
Thursday night we went back to the Fringe to watch the other show with David and Brittni. This was Best of West End. It was also good but they sang a lot of songs I’m not as familiar with so I enjoyed the other show more but it was still a great show. The Miller’s came with us and we had a great time.
Friday I took Sister Kearns and Sister Winn to a doctor’s appointment and then to pick up a prescription and to grab a bite to eat before putting them back on a train to Paisley. They were so fun to talk with. I wish I had taken a picture.
Saturday Sister Gifford and I had to go back to Galashiels one last time to finish up the house we are closing. We had a charity shop coming to take the furniture. There was a lot and they filled their entire truck but now we are done and we will probably never go back to Galashiels again. I think we have exhausted the things to do in that direction. After getting done at the house we drove out to a place called Samye Ling. It’s a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery. We had lunch at their tea room, walked through their herb and vegetable gardens and their peace gardens. We also went inside their temple and watched them do their prayers. It was very interesting.
Then we drove about another hour to Drumlanrig Castle which is near Dumfries. It is more of a palace than a castle but it is called a castle. It has over 120 rooms and 17 turrets. It is steeped in history and we had a wonderful tour guide all to ourselves and one other girl from France so we had special attention and were able to ask lots of questions.
The paintings were amazing at this place. They even have a Rembrandt. They have a couple bureaus (they call them comodes) that are over a million pounds each and a Ming Soup Tureen sitting on one of them that is also over a million. It’s crazy the amount of money in stuff inside this place. They wouldn’t let us take pictures because a few years ago a DaVinci painting was stolen from there and so now you can’t take pictures inside.
Well, I’m ready for bed so I’m going to wrap it up here. I have my plane tickets now for coming home and my bishop wrote and told me my homecoming talk is on October 21 at 9:00 AM. So we will have to make some plans on a breakfast or something afterwards. I can’t wait to see everyone.
Love you.