Monday, February 22, 2016

Broken Shower, Chapping, Stake Conference, and More

It’s been another really great week out in the country side! Everyday has been a new adventure and lesson learned.

Feb 15th 
P-day was great! Elder Harman and I went to the Gym again because you don't get half the exercise you should when you have a car! We also got our shower fixed, and had a wonderful lesson with Vicky. We are going into deeper detail on the Restoration. The only bad part was when I jumped into the shower and somehow ended up braking the glass door... We spend the next little while going on a wild goose chase all over Stranraer for looking for a shower curtain; I never thought that would be something so hard to get a hold of!


Feb 16 
I got back in the shower, and the shower broke.... I swear this place hates me. After taking a freezing cold bath we took a road trip out to Ayr for district meeting. It was the first one I’ve had in ages! It was really good getting to know the other missionaries. After DM we took the Ayr Elders down to Stranraer with us for a Blitz/Exchange. We mostly just chapped doors in a crazy storm, but it was still fun stuff!


Feb 17
In the morning was another journey back up to Ayr to drop off the other missionaries, afterwards we rushed back down to see Kevin, but caught him as he was headed out the door, so we only got a 5 minute hello. The only other real excitement of the day was when we went down to a used furniture place to try and find some mattresses for the flat we are going to move into. We went down with a member we call Mumma Nance and she talked the prices down and got us a killer deal!


Feb 18
For most of the day we were tracking down less active members who have supposedly moved into our area throughout the year, we couldn't really find any of them but we did run into a couple crazy atheists and that's always quite the experience! We also had coordination meeting and did weekly planning! 


Feb 19th
We did lots of finding today and moved all our missionary supplies to our new flat. Oh yeah and we ran into another insane atheist... Those things are hostile! 


Feb 20th
First thing today was a rockin recent convert lesson with Dayna. After that we got lost trying to find a potential... eventually we got lost and just decided to chap some doors. The very first and only door we knocked was a man named Sandy who invited us in and let us teach the Restoration! That’s what I call Jesus taking the wheel right there! Later we drove down to Port William and had a nice visit with an old man named David, then garbed our stuff and hurried down to Irvine to spend the night for Stake Conference Sunday morning! 


 Feb 21st
The day of Stake Conference. In the morning was more driving, this time to Paisley. I couldn't believe my eyes when the first family I saw as I came through the doors was the Higgins! What a blessing that was, that family has had a huge impact on me, and it felt amazing catching up with them. Not only that but Gavin was ordained an Elder after church and received the Melchizedek Priesthood! The blessings continued to come through the door, next came Eddie, and Gemma, along with many other friend I made while in Greenock! It was hard to say goodbye again to them again, but after procrastinating it for as long as I could we were back on the road to Stranrear.




It’s been a wonderful week full of incredible blessings, I know the Lords hand was been a part of every step! Tune in next week for more family fun and move's call!

Love, Elder Cluster


Monday, February 15, 2016

Scenic Adventures and Kevin Has a Baptismal Date!

It’s been a wonderful week here in Stranraer!  I'm low on time so I’ll just dive right in!


Feb 8th
Had some serious P-day swag today, did the normal emails, shopping, and cleaning, then Elder Harman and I got big at the gym, it was fun stuff! We also visited a member and had a great lesson with Vicky! We had to have it at the park so we were are all freezing cold but the Holy Ghost warmed our souls ;)


Feb 9th
Today was solid! First we had the boiler man over; he fixed our heating so we already had an awesome start to the day! Next up was a wonderful lesson with Kevin, we taught a wonderful lesson on the plan of salvation and he soaked it up! After our lesson we had a beautiful drive through the countryside to a nice little village with an amazing view and a legit light house! It was call "Mull of Gallaway" you can Google it if you want to have your mind blown! We did a lot of chapping there then made it back to Stranraer in time for our lesson with my favorite friend from the Czech Republic.



Feb 10th
We did loads of chapping today! Nothing too interesting... we got a bit of sunshine though!!


Feb 11th
More chapping, but this time in the most stunning little village I've ever seen! A place called Port Patrick; we got a lovely view up by Donald Trumps mansion! Later on we tried by loads of less actives, then finished off the night with some weekly planning.



Feb 12th
We got to do some service today and dropped by a member’s home to take out there dogs, it was a lot of fun, and made me miss my pup! We also had another lesson with Vicky and did more chapping. Get this, when we were coming into our flat for the night this dude came running up from nowhere and starting getting in my face and yelling about how he is our neighbor and that he heard a bang at 12AM. This guy was completely insane! We kept trying to tell him we weren't even awake at that time and he just kept freaking out and saying he was going to call the police! (Because of his accent I thought he was saying "I'll have your place" I was even more confused!) We were eventually able to get away from him, but I was extremely tempting to punch him in the face a couple times....


Feb 13th
In the morning we had another lesson with Kevin. We committed him to be baptized on March 5th! It was exciting stuff, he's a promising one! We did lots more finding today but it wasn't bad, we got to go on more scenic drives and those are always fun!





 Feb 14th
Sunday was interesting, church is weird here, and it feels next to impossible to get our investigators out! We get to sit on comfy coaches for sacrament though, that's gotta be a plus!  The main highlight of the day was when the Mc Lean family had us over for a wonderful Sunday dinner.


Things are looking up, my foots getting better, the days are getting longer, and there are great things on the horizon!

Love, Elder Cluster 


Monday, February 8, 2016

It’s been one wild week! 2-8-16

It’s been one wild week! Adventures are on their way! 

Feb 1st
Monday was probably one of the most hectic p-days I’ve had! We said a lot of goodbyes. It was hard to say goodbye to the Reids and to Natasha. A lot of good memories were made with them! We had a solid farewell and testimony lesson with Natasha! The rest of the night was mostly made up of writing notes for the new missionaries coming in. 6 Pages should do!




Fed 2nd
Did some cleaning, then met my mission mum Anne at Tony Macaroni's for lunch! That was some dang good Italian food! The best part was this tootie fruity Sunday I had for desert! It was celestial... We had another tender goodbye, and then made our way over to Ann-Maries for another last lesson. Pretty similar to the one we had with Natasha! These new Elders coming in are pretty lucky! It was a long night packing..... didn't end up getting to bed till 12:30! That probably doesn't sound that bad but it’s pretty ridiculous in the mission world!




Feb 3rd
Moves day! Woke up at 4AM and slowly made our way down to the train station. Trying to move three suitcases, my bag, and a guitar all with my bad foot was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I must have had a lot of help from on high because I somehow made it to the mission home! I said goodbye to Elder Blosil as he got on a bus, and spent some time with all the new Greenies! It was a strange experience, feels like I was just in their shoes the other day! To kill some time we got a group to and tossed around a Frisbee for a while, it was good fun and felt amazing outside! Soon enough I found myself on a train to Glasgow with Elder Tang. When we arrived we met up with the Paisley ZLs, the Ayr Elders, and my new companion Elder Harmon! From there we took another train to Ayr and picked up our car! I was thrilled until I found out I was the driver.... That'll be interesting. We drove down to Irvine, got some Vanilla Joe's Ice cream with the ZL's and the sisters, then spent the night in Irvine's flat.



Feb 4th
We headed on a long and very beautiful drive through the country side to Stranrear. I managed to settle into my new flat. This thing in ancient, and it smells terrible.... Hopefully it'll grow on me; all I know is there's a lot of weird junk growing in it! Later we did some weekly planning, chapped around, and had a lesson with our investigator Victoria, she seems cool.

Feb 5th
We took a long drive to a small village to chap. That’s pretty much what we do here, drive to some remote village and chap in the rain. Most people hate that stuff but I’m lovin it! We chapped into a man named Kevin who invited us in, and let us teach the Restoration! After wards we realized we weren't even in the same village we thought we were. The GPS had taken us somewhere completely different. Jesus literally took the wheel. What a blessing! We Taught Vicky again, I met a funny man from Czechoslovakia, and then we went to a basket ball activity with Vicky and a recent convert! It was a lot of fun, first time I’ve seen a basket ball in 7 months! It was a shame I couldn't really get into it with my foot. 
PS. our shower broke this morning and we are already starting to stink...

Feb 6th
Took another 30 minute drive down to see Kevin where we had another awesome lesson, he said he would come to church! Later we helped a kind older member named Duncan pack up and get ready to move. One of our only members is headed off to Aberdeen. It’s pretty sad, but we on the bright side we might be getting his flat soon! Another highlight was meeting up with this grandpa named David in a different village. David is a cool guy, but he has the creepiest house ever!  He had paintings of some pretty bizarre stuff, and had them framed all over the place. Not to mention all the freaky dolls hidden in every corner!

Feb 7th
Got ready for church and headed down to the Old Folks Day Center. That’s where our branch meets for church... It made sense when I found out we only have 8 members, and one of them is moving today... It didn't even feel like church to be honest, but it was a really cool experience! David came though so we might get turn it into a full fledged ward soon enough ;) I also had the coldest shower of my life today! Oh yeah and now the heating isn't working either. I feel like I’m serving in the arctic at the moment!

Stranrear is definitely something new, but I’m excited to see what it has in store! Change is good right? Thank you for your prayers, I know great things are to come!


Love, Elder Cluster


Monday, February 1, 2016

White Washed Out of Livingston

What a week! From Move's call to getting a nice big carvery at the Pub, it was action packed every day, and lots memories were made!

Jan 25th
Did the normal P-day stuff, and then met up with Pres. Henderson from the stake. What a cool guy! He took us out to this pub to get a carvery. It was delish! I don't know how I’m going to live without carveries back home! After getting the meat sweats from an over dose on gammon, we drove around visiting lots of Less Actives! 

Jan 26th
In the morning we took the train down to the mission home for our last district meeting together, it was a good one! Afterwards I did more paperwork in the mission office while the rest went down and did some work in Livingston. A few hours later they picked me up and took me to Coordination meeting. Then I ate some food and slept like a baby.



Jan 27th
Back to the mission home! This time they had every zone leader in the mission over in a big MLC conference! Even the ones over in Ireland flew over. And to my surprise my best buddy Kat was there from Paisley! She was the best helper, mostly in helping me stay entertained and not going crazy! It was fun having lunch with all the crew in the mission home. It was another day of awesome food and then the Leith Elders picked me up and drove us down to Five Guys for dinner! Spent the night in Leith. 



Jan 28th
Today was one heck of an adventure! I was dropped back off to the mission home in the morning, expecting to do the same old paper work junk, but there was a change of plans!! Elder and Sister Broughten took me with them to a cookie factory to pick up some of the missions favorite biscuits! I finally got to see where all the magic happens! They took me back, and not even 20 minutes later President Donaldson comes in, and invites me to go on a drive down to Glasgow and back (On Official Business of course) So there it was, just President, Sister Donaldson, and I on a road trip in to Glasgow. Being in a mission that is so spread out, you’re lucky to get a couple of minutes with president every couple of months, and here I was getting some serious bonding time! What a blessing. I finished the night off right with a game of Uno in Leith.



Jan 29th 
We traveled back to Livingston with the Leith Elders in the morning, and had lunch with my mission mum Anne! Pizza and Iron Bru. It was on point. As far as the rest of the day was concerned, we did a lot of work in the area book and tried to survive the crazy weather!






Jan 30th
I got to spend a bit more time on my feet today! It still hurts pretty badly, but its lots better than it was a week ago! We helped some members move into Bathgate, there was this funny little kid there that kept making Star Wars references with me! The Boyles had us over tonight for Chinese, I got some pineapple chicken stuff! The Chinese is nothing like back home, but was pretty good considering. As I'm writing this week’s email I'm starting to understand where all this weight came from...


 Jan 31st
The day of moves call... Church was a lot of fun, unfortunately we didn't have any investigators there, but our spirits were lifted when we got to teach the primary class! Kids are crazy! After church President Henderson offered to give us a ride home, but he ended up taking us back to his home for a Mexican lunch! It was the first time I’ve had Mexican in over 7 Months! Not only that but he had some homemade root beer for us!! As if the excitement wasn't already too much to handle, then came the call. "We are White Washing Livingston" What the flip!? I just got here! Elder Blosil is going to the Republic of Ireland, and I am headed back to the West Coast, a place along the borders of England called Stranrear. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I trust that it is where the Lord needs me. And on the bright side, we have a car! 


And between it all we've been getting beaten and torn apart from the tail end of the storm that hit New York. It’s funny how they even blame the weather on America over here!! Well, we better head out, its sounds like the Library is about to fall on our heads. Or ours “heeds” as the Scottish would say! 
I'll be sending out my new address next week, Love you all!
Love, Elder Cluster