We're moving!

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 local missionaries make an initial contact within a day or two the chances of teaching a discussion increase significantly. Louise works hard to get the referrals out each day.

Richard tries to keep the mission afloat financially. This involves very precise and painstaking computer bookkeeping procedures, combined with very human conversations with missionaries who have wrecked their cars (two write-offs in the last few weeks) and spent all their allocated funds and are hungry. Sometimes the missionaries are more impetuous than wise, like the pair that didn't buy an expensive bus pass but bought lots and lots of individual ride tickets, including spending £8 each to get a free meal at a member's home. This does not make sense. However they are enthusiastic and hard working missionaries that just need some coaching in long and short term planning and spending. They are good people, and will mostly do well. 

Talking of baptisms the mission is doing well--if baptisms is your measure of success--we are targeting 400 baptisms this year and will probably reach that goal.

Now on a personal note ... 

We're Moving

No, we are not changing our mission, but we are changing flats. (for Americans, this does not mean changing tires, (which would be changing tyres), it means we will be living in a different place. The swap has plusses and minuses. Our current flat is old and luxurious and overlooks the golf course. It is spacious and six minutes from the office. The new one is more modern, not nearly as luxurious, close to the tourist attractions and to Holyrood Palace, with its associated park (walking, running, hiking trails) and eighteen minutes from the office. It also has a dishwasher which we hope will make up for both the flat and its parking space being a trifle on the compact side.

Senior missionaries have been living in the current flat for fourteen years and each set of missionaries buys a few things and then leaves them there for the next occupants. They also throw out old and broken stuff--which actually belongs to the landlord. So we get the job of sorting through it all, and finding stuff (and buying new stuff) for the new flat. This has been consuming our free time. Fortunately we have an overlap between the two flats of several days, so we currently have two flats in Edinburgh, one by the golf course and one in town by the palace (My, aren't we posh!).

Holyrood park not only has the palace, but also Arthur's Seat, a large hill described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design". RLS was, of course, Scottish and yes, Arthur does refer to the Arthurian and Camelot legends but not very specifically. In any case the hill is known to Mormons as Pratt's Hill since Orson Pratt, as Mission President in 1840, climbed it to dedicate the land of Scotland for the preaching of the gospel.  An energetic fellow, he apparently climbed the peak multiple times. We shall attempt it at least once, since it is in our (new) back yard.