Helps Celtic Mission

As we have travelled in the Stirling area we kept seeing signs for Bo'ness. This seemed an odd name on a sign, although not as odd as the Native American names  on street signs in Vancouver, Canada, which use the digit 7 as a indicator for a glottal stop.  This didn't seem that weird, but we did wonder  what Bo'ness was, or what it was an abbreviation for. So we went to have a look. Bo'ness from the harbou The name, ( quite obviously, don't you know ) is an abbreviation for Borrowstounness, or the town (toun) near Beornweard's farmstead, which is near the headland (ness). Well, that seems perfectly reasonable, and also a good reason to just put Bo'ness on roadsigns, after all they would have to raise taxes to pay for all the signs saying "Near Beornweard's farmstead-toun-ness", and there would be safety hazards from distracted motorists trying to read all that while driving by, so Bo'ness it is. Puddleglum On visiting it Bo...

About half an hour ago - today is Saturday - I made some popcorn, a great big bowl of popcorn, of which Richard and I quickly ate every scrap. We inherited two great big Costco-sized containers of popcorn kernels when we moved into our original flat. I prepared some of the popcorn, only to realise that it was pretty dreadful stuff. The kernels had tough, tough centers even after they had popped. So we gave it away to some senior missionaries who feed a lot of YSA, hoping that the YSA would be much less fussy than we are. Then we trotted off to our local Costco, hoping that they would keep our beloved Orville Redenbacher's. Not only did they not have Orville Redenbacher's, but we soon discovered that they were actually the source of the popcorn we so disliked. We eventually settled for buying a small packet of popcorn kernels from Sainsbury's and said packet has sat in our grocery cupboard for nine months now, staring at me reproachfully every time I choose something else. S...

So we will have been in Scotland for nine months this coming Wednesday. Our mission actually started on January 1st when we presented ourselves at the Provo MTC, so we reached our halfway mark at the end of September. This seems a good time to write about some of the things that have been joyful for us, some of the things that have been hard, and some of the things we hope to accomplish. 1. Homesickness. I (Louise) am generally a happy soul, but I get miserably depressed every time I move. It takes a little while to put down roots, and then I am just fine again. I also get homesick when we are on holiday, btw. I was very much aware of this and hoped this depression would not be part of the mission experience, and for the first couple of weeks I thought we would get away with it this time. There was so much to learn and do, one would think there was no time to be miserable, but I have a special talent--I found the time! I think this was all exacerbated by the constant darkness and ce...