Hiya Fam!
I feel so
happy to have people writing me!! It's great!! :) Only had a few emails from
family this week, but it was a hidden blessing because I had a lot of DL stuff
to do, which I was worried about accomplishing. I barely have enough time to
email family normally! So what a blessing! :)
We've had a great week this
week! Lots of fun. This coming week we will be going on an exchange with the
Stirling Elders. That'll be fun! We'll also be on an exchange with the Zone
Leaders over in Edinburgh. So this week will be packed!
Monday I got to go to my
first castle!! Blackness Castle. M took us. Elder Ward had been told by his
previous companion that Blackness Castle wasn't that good. So I had low
expectations. But it was incredible!! We only had a half hour before the place
closed down, but it was awesome!!!! The History Nerd inside of me was just
freaking out!! What an incredible structure!
After that we visited E in
the hospital with M, A and Ma. That was our last visit with her there. She got
let out the next day. Woo! The difference from our first hospital visit and our
last was incredible! She was a lot better. She's still struggling, but there
was a difference.
Tuesday's District Meeting
had Elder Ensign, our Zone Leader, and Elder Haller, our AP, there with us. I
was reeeeeeeeally nervous, as you can imagine, but they said it went well! They
gave me a few things to work on, but I had already thought of those, so it
wasn't anything too bad. It was all focused around finding, and I'd asked
Sister Paxman to give some training on Former Investigators, and she gave a
great idea: bring our area book to our Branch Mission Leader and have him look
through the records to find people he remembered. More on that one later.
It was a long day, we got
in contact with a few people we were looking for, we had dinner with G, and
that was us.
Wednesday afternoon we went
to Brother McGowan's house to have our Coordination meeting with him and we
brought our area books. He gave us 10 names initially, but asked to keep going
through the records. So we left our book with him. That evening we did some
service for C G in his garden. He's a LA. Nice guy, he just has really bad
anxiety, particularly around crowds of people. He had an ancient lawn
mower, probably from the time of Mom and Dad!! You pushed it, and it spun these
blades around and chopped up the grass! As old as it was, I was surprised at
how well it cut the grass! I actually enjoyed using it, in all honesty ha
Thursday was absolutely
gorgeous weather! First time in a loooooong time that I specifically chose a
short sleeve white shirt! Normally I only wear them because they're in my
rotation of shirts, but not that day! Elder Ward actually got a sunburn ha
Anyways, we spent most of
the day finding. We were looking for a few people that we had been given by
Brother McGowan. We found one. The other had moved from the address we had been
given. We knocked into a guy who said "I'm the wrong person to talk to,
lads." Naturally we asked why and he told us he had just finished reading
a book on demonism. Then he closed the door. Looking back on it, I think he was
just trying to scare us away. Had a similar guy use a similar tactic in Bray.
But oh well. Still a story to tell!
We had BSL class that
night, which went well. Taught colors, clothes, and such.
Friday morning we went to
Sister Major's house. She'd asked for help with moving some new furniture into
the house and some yardwork. G came along and brought her lawnmower. You
remember the one that I just mentioned? Well this one was perhaps the first
lawnmower to ever be powered by something other than pure muscle!! Like all
British lawnmowers it had to be plugged in to work it. Again, it was kind of
fun! After we were all done, Sister Major made for us chili dogs!! I haven't
had THOSE in ages!!
After that we went by a LA
named J B. He recently had a fall where he broke his collarbone. Poor guy. But
really nice. Strong testimony of the gospel. But pretty old. After our visit
with him I prepared my next District Meeting. Looking forward to this! I've
told you about the Big Five? Five trainings the AP's have given that they want
us all to emphasize. So Elder Ward and I will be giving some training on how we
can make them more natural, instinctive, and flowing. It'll be good! I hope...
Then we met with A and M.
Had a good lesson with them! They are doing very well! A has just finished
reading the Book of Mormon! She said she reads it during her breaks at work,
particularly if it's a rough day at work (which, unfortunately for her, is all
too often). M wants to get back into the habit, so we're calling him every
night and quizzing him on what he read.
Saturday was a special day!
In the morning we met with Ma! (As if I don't have enough names to confuse, now
we have two Ma's!!) He is a referral who, throughout the week, would call us to
confirm our appointment! We unfortunately met with him at a cafe. I can't stand
cafe lessons. Some missionaries love them. I cannot focus enough. Oh well.
Despite all this, the lesson went really well, primarily because he's a very
spiritual guy! He's a Catholic, but he's had some great experiences with the
Holy Ghost. We'll be meeting with him soon.
We also met with the St's.
Did some service for them, then had dinner with them. I had the best Chinese takeout
I've ever had!! Unfortunately we didn't share a lesson with them. :/
After that we met with M S.
We were able to get the Ir's, a wonderful member couple, to come along. Sister
Ir was a close friend with M when they were growing up. M's doing a lot better
now because she's started praying every day. What a change prayer makes!! :)
Sunday we got our Area
Books back from Brother McGowan. All total we received 35 referrals from giving him our records!!! The Zone Leaders
just about fell off their chairs when I told them last night ha ha! We've
contacted a few of them, so far no takers, but I'm certain there'll be more. We
spent the rest of Sunday contacting as many as we could.
Two sad things about
Sunday. First one was that M never came. No idea why. He said he would. Haven't
heard from him yet. Second was with E. She texted us last night and said she
wouldn't come to church. We immediately called her and spoke with her for about
an hour. I poured out my soul for her to come to church and she said she would!
Then just before church started she texted us again saying she changed her
mind. Well Elder Ward and I marched right out of church to her front door (just
across the street from the church) and spoke with her. She came! But later that
night we were in M and A's neighborhood contacting those referrals. We had ten
minutes before the bus came, so we stopped by their house. E was there. And
they were all eating food from a chippie. I was furious. But we didn't say
anything about it, hoping that the guilt they were surely feeling would take care
of that for us.
So please pray for Mi, E, M
and A.
That
was our week! Not bad, eh? I'll be sure to send pictures of the castle for ya. I
love Scotland. I'm more excited to someday
come back and visit Scotland than Ireland. Strange. I love both, don't get me
wrong.
Love
you guys so much! And I LOVE the scriptures!!! They have been so great!! Cannot
possibly express how I feel about those wonderful books!! :) Mom told me about the change to the Doctrine
Mastery for seminary. I am all for that!! The
scriptures are important, but the doctrine behind the scripture is what makes
the scripture powerful! Do it do it do it!! Those luckies! Oh, and I tried Haggis Fried
Rice! It was gooooooooood!!
Have
a great week!!
Elder Bates
PS Remember Elder
McPherson? My companion in Belfast? He's in Cumbernauld now!! How crazy is
that?
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