Training is a labor of Love.

Wow training is very different week to week. We are finally making progress on our companionship, and I am seeing him grow. It's really insightful to be on this side of missionary work. I see how well he's doing, when he doesn't at all. I also see where he needs to improve in places he doesn't see yet. It's a powerful tool, being in the position of a trainer.

This last week I was on exchanges with Elder O'Connor, one of our zone leaders, and my companion Elder Fabiano was over in Paisley for the day with Elder Palmer, the second Zone Leader. I was able to learn from a very seasoned and very talented missionary about how to talk to people, how to approach missionary work in general, and I've had such a good time doing so. 

Today I've spent a lot of time in Irvine just hanging out with the Elders here, This week we got a lot of travelling to do. Tomorrow I'll be in Ayr, and Thursday I'll be in Edinburgh for our Scotland South Conference.

I read the letter from the First Presidency about missionaries, and it seemed most people skipped over this pretty important extra detail.

  ''In addition to communicating weekly on preparation day, missionaries also are encouraged to communicate with their families on special occasions such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, their parents’ birthdays, and other holidays that are significant in the missionary’s home country or culture'' So that's exciting. 

We've got a crazy week ahead and lots of really good experience at the forefront.

This work is great. I'm loving it, even in the hard times.

See you next week!

The Grand Taste of Mexican Food

This last week has been a huge learning experience. Training is a whole new ball game. I've learned that I don't really know what i'm doing. It's made a huge difference going from a companion that's served for an entire mission, and he's got all this experience, to my current companion, who is finely pressed out of the MTC. 

Cool things that happened this week were we had Chicken Enchiladas at the Walker's flat yesterday for Dinner, which was SUPER nice, since she got a few things sent to her from back home. I missed some proper Mexican food, so it was really good. Also last week the walkers went to the Costco in Glasgow and bought us a big package of Krusteaz Pancake mix so we are living good at home. We visited with 3 less actives yesterday and all of them are super excited to come back.
So the story is this lady called us on thursday during weekly planning and told us she wanted to start coming back to church. When we went to her house last night, her mother was there as well as her husband, they hadn't been to church in a long time and they felt they needed to start their journey again. We talked to them about Come Follow Me, and our study group on wednesdays, and they thought that would be amazing, so they are going to be coming to that this week, as well as coming to church on Sunday.

I haven't taken any pictures this week, except for a picture of a contract that My companion and I made this week in order to focus our efforts and increase our capacity to follow the rules, and to inspire us to be missionaries. I picked this up from my Vegas missionary friends (Luv ya!) and it works really well. I'm going to continue this tradition my whole mission.

Not sure what i'm going to do for todays adventure, but I'll let you all know next week what went down. See you all later!

Life In Killie

This last week has been super fun! We had a dinner appointment almost every day last week. We chapped into 7 infinity houses. 

The week went by really fast, Elder Price is done and gone off to his mission tour. His parents are picking him up today in Ediburgh and they are spending the week going all over the mission and then headed home this Sunday. What an excited missionary he was when he left!

All of my thoughts are mixed up and jumbled together, not sure what to say. 

I'm in Irvine for the weekend since Elder Price has gone away, and I'm training this transfer!  I get to wait in Irvine's area till I get to go up to Edinburgh tomorrow to pick up my new companion.

We saw a Chav Parade yesterday. Basically there's a weekly tradition in Irvine where approximately 100 teenage kids march down the streets every Sunday evening drunk, high, and they go around terrorizing the town for a few hours. Good thing we were on our way out of the town when they came in. We saw the damage they did this morning. Several stores had been broken into, rocks thrown through windows, garbage cans and street signs tipped over and busted, wow I didn't think I'd see that happen here. and It's especially surprising that this is a weekly tradition in this town. Guess I know what i'm planning around. Good thing i'm only in Irvine this weekend.

We had a great last P-day. The bridge in the pictures is at the Brig o' Doon in Ayr. The other pictures are from the gift shop at Dundonald Castle. And then the picture of the orange sun is from my flat's view. There are some good pictures in this week, particularly me with a Knight's helmet on and I keep getting a laugh out of it every time I look at it.

And you know how theres that big S design thing that everyone is shown when they are in 3rd grade, you do the three lines on top and three lines underneath then you put the connecting two lines in between and triangles on top? they have that in Kilmarnock too.

Not sure what else to say, I'm doing good, got plenty of money for the rest of the month. Happy and healthy! See you next week.

Mull of Galloway

Hey! This last week has been very amazing.

I've sent plenty of pictures home of last Pday, but that's not what makes it great.

Earlier this week we had been out of town in a beautiful village called Stewarton. We ate at a local tavern called King's Arm. Since it has been snowing they hadn't been able to get fresh ingredients from their shipping, so the food we got was actually pretty bad. anyway, we got back in Kilmarnock at about 6:30 and after updating the progress records, we were in a strange spot where we didn't know what to do. We had hoped the day would last a bit longer in town, so we were a bit lost in the evening. However it just seemed as soon as this happened, and at the moment I began to pray for direction, we got a phone call from 2 recent converts, asking us to come over and give a blessing. The guy had been in the church for 10 months, and his girlfriend for 6. She was sunk into a deep ravine of emotional trauma. Upon arrival I recognized with immediate realisation that in the source from which her depression came from was almost Identical with what I had the burden of experiencing just a few short months ago. The blessing that I gave was one of the most powerful and most humbling experiences I've ever had. after the blessing we stood in silence for several minutes just basking in the spirit. no one could speak, and all of us were on the verge of tears.

I gave them a talk to listen to from a recent conference. After they had listened to it they sent us a text saying that one of the exact lines in that conference talk were in her blessing.

If you want to know how you are being led by the spirit it is simple. Do what is right. if you are following the commandments, and diligently searching the scriptures, and praying always, you are endowed with the direction of the spirit. Instead of wondering if the thoughts you have are from God, simply follow them. If you are obedient and a thought comes to you that entices you to do something good, It will always be from God. Others agency will choose to accept or understand it. We are here to choose God, so choose him.

Here are some pictures from our pday at the Mull of Galloway.  This is the most southern point of Scotland. You can see England, The Isle of Man, and Ireland from here. 

The mull of Galloway is a Lighthouse with the only active foghorn left in the country. While there a technician actually showed us the horn. It was a beautiful day, (but really cold!!) and a really good district only adds to it.