Week 28
July 31, 2017
Wow the time is sure flying by here in Cumbernauld! I can't believe how
quick this week has gone by. It has been very rainy and cool this week. Elder
Udy and I went on exchanges this past Friday with the Elders in Airdrie. I was
on exchanges with Elder Baklan. He is an Ukranian Elder that is in my MTC
group. Airdrie is different than Cumbernauld. It is smaller but has a town
centre to talk with people. Also the ward in Airdrie is supposedly one big clan
with one or two families in addition.
This past week Elder Udy and I have been continuing to teach John and
trying to figure out how we can help him. Yesterday in Church we had a really
good lesson in gospel principles about the Holy Ghost. It was really good.
There were some really good experiences shared and the Spirit was definitely
able to testify there. We later had an opportunity to follow up with John and
help him to identify ways the Spirit can teach us and some basic things that we
can do to invite the Spirit to testify to us. It is interesting how small
things such as reading scriptures everyday, praying, and going to church (we
sometimes call that spiritual CPR) can provide us with so much more. We also
met with an excommunicated member this week, Gordon. He told us that he had
been reading his scriptures this past week and really felt good about what he
was reading. He said that he wants to come back to church but was wondering if
it was okay. We told him to get in touch with the bishop but that we would love
to see him at church and to continue to read the scriptures. It is really
amazing to see how the Holy Ghost can testify to us through the small things
that we do such as scripture study.
Anyways, the Scottish phrase that I picked up this week was dour. Dour
(pronounced do-r) essentially means rough around the edges, gloomy, or not
feeling good.
By the way I did remember to take a picture of the kitchen in our flat.
It is also where we do our laundry. Most flats have a combined washer and dryer
which is nice. You can't see it in the photo but it is right around the corner.
By the way, I had haggis for the first time this week at John's house.
He served us a Burn's night dinner which is haggis, heaps, and tatties. Heaps
are turnips and tatties are potatoes. Haggis is definitely unique. I liked it
but it is covered in a lot of spices. The food here in Scotland is similar to
the food back home. So for grocery we will sometimes catch the bus or usually
John will drive us there if he needs to get groceries as well. So when we take
the bus we just bring the bags with us on the bus or put them in the boot of
John's car. They sell a lot of similar things but the stores here are not as
big as back home and almost everything is sold fresh. For example the milk here
only lasts about a week before it goes south because they don't put any
preservatives in it. We usually, go shopping at Lidl in Kilsyth. Kilsyth is
about a ten minute drive north west of our flat. Lidl is kind of like a Hy-Vee
back home. It only sells food but I heard that they opened the first Lidl in
the States this past week. Probably didn't build it in Rochester though. Haha.
The biggest difference from Ireland to Scotland has been the people (as
well as the accent haha). The Scottish can be a little rough at first but are
really friendly once you get to know them.
Anyways, it has been great to talk to you guys. Thank you so much for
your emails. They really make my P-day! Speaking of P-day we will probably go
to Glasgow again. There isn't much to do here in Cumbernauld. We mainly go to
Glasgow so that Elder Udy can get a few things before he goes home. We also go
to look around. The architecture there is really impressive. They have a lot of
older buildings but they are neat to see. I'll make sure to take some more
pictures.
Love,
Elder Calley
P.S. We do email from the Cumbernauld library as well.
