Helps Celtic Mission

On Saturday we went touring. Covenanters monument  Our first stop was just a few miles away, the Covenanter's Monument. All there is, is a column plus a dedicatory stone, so worn now as to be practically unreadable. It stands beside the road with very little fanfare but represents an important chunk of Scottish history. Covenanters were Scottish Protestants who took a covenant that supported their religious ideas and rejected the papacy and religious practices of the Catholic Church. This led to a number of bloody confrontations as the politics, royalty and religion of England, Ireland and Scotland swung between Catholicism and Protestantism in the 16th and 17th centuries. The memorial reflects a bloody period when a number of Covenanters were killed. Neither side in this conflict is without blame and it seems a great argument for a little more tolerance, which was a good introduction for our next visit of the morning and which deserves its own heading Rosslyn Chapel W...

Most people have heard of Robert Burns, or at least recognize some of his well-known pieces, such as Auld Lang Syne, A Man's a Man for a' that, or scraps of lines such as "wee sleekit cowrin tim’rous beastie" (To a mouse). If you have a taste for irony, here is a rather lovely recitation of "My heart is in the highlands" read by Prince Charles, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDmnd3Xu_so The housekeeper at the mission home, Wendy, and her husband John, were talking in a social gathering a few weeks ago and John mentioned that their ward would be holding a Burn's night celebration on Jan 27th. Richard and I expressed interest, and John promptly invited us and every other missionary in sight to attend, as well as the Mission President and his wife.  Correction - Richard expressed interest and I smiled politely and went along, vowing silently that any haggis that found its way onto my plate  would stay there, unless my good husband was willing to eat it. ...

So! We have been eating quite a lot lately. We have breakfast quite early, before we leave for the office. Mostly during the week we eat Weetabix or an excellent whole-wheat generic equivalent thereof, which is incredibly cheap (75p or about $1 per box). Some times we have it with milk, sometimes we spread it with butter, and sometimes we ring the changes by eating oats or french toast. So far so almost American. We usually pack lunch and eat in Richard’s office, which has a little more privacy (and room) than Louise’s, which is not so much an office as a nexus. Louise is not complaining, however, as she has the most comfortable chair in the history of the universe. When we first arrived and President Donaldson showed us the office, he suggested that she try out Sister Winter’s chair for ease and comfort. Louise sat down and bounced right back up again with a cry of “Nooooo” which would have done credit to a discontented buffalo. The chair was truly horrible. Pres D then got Louise...

First some news about mission work. We do this in various ways. We both start conversations with anyone we meet and make sure we identify ourselves as missionaries. We've had lots and lots of friendly conversations but nothing leading to a referral--yet. Talking of referrals, Louise processes those sent in to the mission office, which sometimes involves reading bad handwriting, resolving vague addresses to actual places on a map, and then forwarding the referrals to the appropriate missionaries. Occasionally this involves identifying practical jokes. One referral came in whose address was an extremely remote ranger station on an isolated and icy island in the North Sea; the associated telephone number was for a museum of art hundreds of miles away. Also the name didn't match that of either of the rangers on the island. She tossed that one.  Google maps and Internet searches are powerful tools here An interesting side note is that if genuine referrals are sent out and the loc...

Today, Saturday, was our first day “off” since January 1 st .  We worked insanely hard in the office this week, especially the first few days, as Elder and Sister Winter, the missionaries we have now replaced, would be leaving early Thursday morning, and wanted to get us trained. They are both well-organized and have left us folders of instructions which will come in handy.  The last hurrah of the Winters and the Markers (senior couples) leaving was a dinner at Papilio, a nice Italian restaurant about 5 minutes from the office. Most of the local senior missionaries were there, including the two missionary couples who were flying out next morning. Here's a picture: L-R Elder/Sister Miller, Pres/Sis Thompson, Elder/Sis Walker, Sis Gifford, Sis Call (red hair), Elder winter (Sis Winter blond behind him), us Thursday very early they flew out leaving us to run the office together with the two senior missionary sisters.  Life actually calmed down a little...

Welcome to Scotland We arrived! We stumbled into Edinburgh airport about 8 a.m. on Saturday January 13. Our flight had left Newark an hour-an-a-half late, to the tune of profuse apologies from the pilot and assurances that he would do his level best to make up the time. (The weather was bad in the Eastern US and many flights had been delayed. We spent an hour sitting in the plane waiting for passengers from delayed connecting flights) Anyway, the pilot kept his promise and we landed in Edinburgh only 30 minutes late. We had an interesting time getting through border control. (Lengthy explanation follows; skip if you like – Louise has tried on several occasions to set up touch ID on her Apple phone. The system recognizes her fingerprints for one, or at most two days, and then claims that it has never met her before. This would be great for her embarking on a life of crime, but is a bit of a nuisance for a normal, law-abiding existence.) Our fingerprints were recorded as part of our v...

A midday game of musical seats, courtesy of United Airlines. So there we were, in line at Denver airport, waiting to board the plane, when an announcement came over the PA system. "Will Louise Helps please come to the desk?" So I trotted off to the desk. Nothing too serious. They had a very frail old lady on the flight and her son would like to sit next to her. Would I mind sitting in not-my-assigned seat? I asked if Richard could move with me but this was not possible. I agreed of course, and then remembered that Richard and I had bought a bagel and a salad to share on the flight.This was going to be a little awkward if we were sitting in separate rows on opposite sides of the aircaft. Technically, he had a window seat and I had a middle seat, so we decided that I would ask whoever had the window seat next to me whether they would mind swapping for my husband’s window seat a row or two away. Then I would get to sit at the window. Richard and I have a deal. I always get the ...

The MTC experience was exhilarating, engrossing, uplifting and exhausting. We are glad we decided to live at the MTC for our two week training and didn’t take the option of living at home (5 minutes away). Being there was an "out of the world" experience. Everyone you meet is an active temple recommend holder and trying their hardest to do what is right. This feels a little bit like being at the temple. We attended everything we were supposed to attend and almost all the optional activities. The surprise of the second week was Elder Bednar as the devotional speaker on Tuesday night. We didn’t know he was coming until we were already seated at the devotional and 10 minutes before he walked through the door. There was an audible gasp and squeal of delight when his name was announced. He spoke on succession in the Presidency of the church, a rather timely topic, and mentioned the "apostolic interregnum" a couple of times, a term which we suspect was new to many of t...

We awoke on Sunday 7th to “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. The mist was real and deep and enveloped sleeping Provo. Keats’ poem is about autumn but our "mellow" came from the glowing golden emergency lighting along the MTC walkways-visibly dominant because of the power failure! Provo power went out in the middle of the night and came back and then went out again at 5:30 and is still out as I write this. I went for a walk in the 'misty, moisty morning' and walked past the MTCs giant generator roaring and puffing diesel fumes as it kept emergency lighting and heating going. All of Provo visible from the MTC was in darkness and mists, with occasional cars snaking through the fog along Ninth East. About an hour later the kitchen generator kicked in--presumably to keep the freezers cool. Very romantic and moodily evocative--but not useful for sabbath day meetings. Louise and I got dressed and walked up to the information desk to get an update and arrived there ...

We have arrived, both physically and metaphorically. The first couple of days in the MTC have been busy and hectic. Did you know that there are Church videos only available to missionaries? No, we are not talking about deep and secret rites, but some GAs have given talks specifically to missionaries at the MTC and the videos are only shown here. We watched a video of Elder Bednar and he shared an interesting thought. The best image of the "natural man", you know, the one that King Benjamin describes as an enemy to God, is the Cookie Monster! Totally consumed with his desire to fill his immediate hungers and desires, and if he gets a cookie immediately consumes it with great gusto and mess, and then immediately wants more. Quite a convincing image. Elder Bednar also talked about the character of Christ that allowed him to not only complete his mission (the Atonement) but also to always be turning outward to think of others. Whether he was recovering from his recent privations...

Life continues apace. Clarissa moved in two weeks earlier than expected. This is a good thing. She had the opportunity to rent her house mid-December, so she grabbed it. She only had a couple of days to finish moving out of her home and into ours, which was done with good friends and hard work. We were not quite ready for her to move in so for a while our downstairs looked like a poorly organized warehouse, but with patience all was handled. Clarissa moving in means we are now a household with a dog. She is a playful pup, fiercely loyal to those she likes and very excitable to all others (lots of barking and growling, but not biting—so far) We had also planned a "trial pack" to ensure that we had enough suitcases of the right size etc. Then we were struck by the plague!! Actually Richard was struck right after Thanksgiving with a nasty cold (yes we have all had flu shots--this was a cold.) Richard, Louise and Clarissa took turns feeling sick and sorry for themselves i...