Helps Celtic Mission

Some people collect castles, some collect tartan ties and some collect restaurants. We collect seaside villages. Exploring castles and noble houses is a great way to explore Britain and Ireland's history and glory, and we enjoy, have done and will do more of it. We do find, however, that when you have visited a few castles, both decorated and ruined, and a few ancient palaces and mansions and realized that Mary Queen of Scots or Robert the Bruce or one of the King James' lived in or visited them, well, then they do start to blur together a little. On the other hand, coming from Utah, we have not yet come close to getting tired of seeing, smelling, and walking along the seaside. So instead of collecting castles, which others have done, we have decided to collect seaside towns and villages. we are not doing this systematically or with any intent of writing a book, or drawing up a catalog, but just casually, either intentionally or by 'thistling'. 'Thistling'...

Another frantic month—although this appears to be our new normal in the mission. This time the ‘extra’ events that made our life interesting included a visit to the mission from Elder de Feo. He spoke to all the missionaries in two zone conferences (all-Ireland and all-Scotland). The conferences both followed the same format, testimonies of missionaries going home before the next conference followed by instruction from President and Sister Macdonald and then the rest of the time handed over to Elder de Feo for teaching.  All-Scotland with guest Elder de Feo (centre third row) That’s when it became interesting.  Elder de Feo has a gift. He starts off his presentation by commenting on the previous speakers. For example, Sister Gifford, who is going home shortly, commented briefly in her testimony that she had felt the mantle of her mission. Elder de Feo picked up on this and gave us an illuminating 30 minute discourse on the subject of spiritual mantles, weaving in commen...

Body art is pretty common in Scotland. As with the art that people hang on their walls, some of it is quite beautiful; some of it makes one wonder if a doting grandparent set their grandchild loose with a needle and some ink; and some of it is just plain regrettable. There are numerous tattoo parlours, and their names are as punny as those of hairdressers in the US. We do not, in general, care for ink and needles body art. Some of this attitude comes from religious bias and some from the fact that tattoos are so permanent. I am not a total stick-in-the-mud. I'm not crazy about most hair dye, but appreciate that at least the perpetrator can create something glorious to suit their current mood and age, and then later change one's mind. Nail polish as an art production medium has my personal seal of approval. More especially when used to adorn nails. So you may or may not be surprised to know that Richard and I recently spent a whole evening and tons of money (a goodly percentag...