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| Beautiful and interesting buildings in downtown Glasgow! |
Week Ten (10)
Week 10 (Ten) - December 1, 2013 (Sunday)
Fast Sunday and another round of good hearted
people bearing their testimonies. We also had the blessing of enjoying the famous Patsy Dinner after the last
block meeting. We’ve explained the Patsy dinner before, so look at past
posting. It was another delicious meal with great company and
conversation. Every month she has a different theme, and the food is always
wonderful with a plethora of food. It is a true labor of love on Patsy’s part. And Scott's contribution is doing the plethora of dishes...which is a true labor of love!
December 2, 2013 (Monday)
We took Sisters Caswell and Allen for their
weekly shopping trip then returned home to work on the spaghetti sauce for the
YSA FHE.
In the afternoon we went to the home of Helen
C., who cares for her 100 year old mother, to show her the church film, How
Rare a Possession. The film gives two accounts of being converted to the Book of
Mormon. One account is of Parley P. Pratt's introduction to the Book of Mormon
and the other account is of Vizenzio DiFranchesca (don't know the
spelling, so it was done this way). He was an Italian pastor in New York when
he came across the Book of Mormon. However, he did not know the name of the book, because the
title page was missing and the front of the book was worn; thus, it became the Book
with no Name. He read it, and then he put Moroni's challenge to the test and felt
the confirming warmth of the Spirit testifying that the book was true. That led
to all kinds of problems; and eventually he was excommunicated from his
protestant church. His story goes on with all kinds of problems until he
finally finds out the church that is attached to the Book of Mormon. He wants to be baptised, but then
event after event intercedes to prevent his being baptized until after World
War II. It’s an amazing true story of perseverance and commitment. Truly the
Book of Mormon is a rare possession as it contains the words of God in a pure
form and translated by the gift and power of God - and not of men.
To view the video go:
or us this link:
We had a good group at FHE with long time
members associating with a recent convert and then some missionaries. One of
the Chinatown Elders gave a spiritual thought about the Holy Ghost and asked
for comments of when others have been aware of the Holy Ghost helping in
non-church settings. There were some good experiences shared. To learn more
about the Holy Ghost go to (the Bible
dictionary definition and related
scriptures in the Bible topical guide).
Bible dictionary definition: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/holy-ghost?lang=eng&letter=h
Holy Ghost
The third member of the Godhead and a personage of Spirit, not
possessing a body of flesh and bones (D&C 130:22). The
Holy Ghost has been manifest in every dispensation of the gospel since the
beginning, being first made known to Adam (1 Ne. 10:17–22; Moses 6:51–68). The
Holy Ghost is manifested to men on the earth both as the power of the
Holy Ghost and as the gift
of the Holy Ghost. The power can come upon one before baptism and is the
convincing witness that the gospel is true. By the power of the Holy Ghost a
person receives a testimony of Jesus Christ and of His work and the work of His
servants upon the earth. The gift can come only after proper and authorized
baptism and is conferred by the laying on of hands, as in Acts 8:12–25 and Moro. 2. The gift
of the Holy Ghost is the right to have, whenever one is worthy, the
companionship of the Holy Ghost. For those who receive this gift, the Holy
Ghost acts as a cleansing agent to purify them and sanctify them from all sin.
Thus it is often spoken of as “fire” (Matt. 3:11; 2 Ne. 31:17; D&C 19:31). The
manifestation on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) was the
gift of the Holy Ghost that came upon the Twelve, without which they were not
ready for their ministries to the world.
For some reason not fully explained in the scriptures, the Holy
Ghost did not operate in the fulness among the Jews during the years of Jesus’
mortal sojourn (John 7:39; 16:7).
Statements to the effect that the Holy Ghost did not come until after Jesus was
resurrected must of necessity refer to that particular dispensation only, for
it is abundantly clear that the Holy Ghost was operative in earlier
dispensations. Furthermore, it has reference only to the gift of the
Holy Ghost not being present, since the power
of the Holy Ghost was operative during the ministries of John the Baptist and
Jesus; otherwise no one would have received a testimony of the truths that
these men taught (Matt. 16:16–17; see also
1 Cor. 12:3). When a
person speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost that same power carries a
conviction of the truth unto the heart of the hearer (2 Ne. 33:1). The
Holy Ghost knows all things (D&C 35:19) and can
lead one to know of future events (2 Pet. 1:21).
Other names that sometimes refer to the Holy Ghost are Holy
Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, Comforter, and Spirit.
Here’s the website for the scriptures:
We finished the evening with a game where we
took the letters that spelled Christmas, and then did several topics to apply
the item to the letter. For example: The first topic was Christmas songs. You
had to come up with a song that went with the letter "c" then
"h", and so forth. If no one used your song you received 10 points
and the others 5 points. We had three rounds. The last round was movies and
books. Do you know what happens when one’s mind goes blank? Yes, you end up in
last place… LOL. Oh well, it was only a game.
While Elder Browning was praying, he had a
couple of thoughts come into his mind. One impression involved the YSA making a
commitment to reach out to the YSA we no longer see at church and to have
them develop a program that invests the YSA in the venture rather than a mere challenge
to pray about someone.The thought is still formulating but the reality is that Elder
and Sister Browning can’t do all the work without the help of the active YSA in
the two stakes.
December 3, 2013 (Tuesday)
Today was Zone Meeting conducted by the Zone
Leaders. When they broke to do some role playing, it gave us a chance to meet
and talk with the new senior couple assigned to the Oban Branch. They will be
here for 6 months, which seems too short. However, it seems in the shot time
they’ve been here they are already making a difference in the branch.
Sister Browning had her visiting teachers come -
and they had a wee blether – they spent 2 hours visiting! Elder Browning
sequestered himself in the bedroom.
December 4, 2013 (Wednesday)
We did flat inspections in the morning. We gave
out pieces of Texas Sheet Cake to the missionaries as our way of thanking them
for all they do.
We then went with the District Leader and his
companion for a couple of call backs. The first one said he had been on the Internet
looking up Mormons and that he was now not interested. It begs the question as
to what he saw. Below is the link to the “I’m a Mormon” website for the UK.
We then went and met a woman who said she spent
the whole day and night reading the Book of Mormon.
We then went back to their flat and walked down
the street to a restaurant that has been around forever and ordered out fish
and chips. We had to eat on the run as the Elders had to be to the Stake Center
by 1 PM and they still needed to use our printer to print off a Portuguese
baptismal calendar they use to help people know what and when lessons will be
taught prior to their baptism.
In the afternoon we did flat inspections with
the Glasgow Sisters and the Clydebank Elders. The latter flat needs updating, so
we all need to be on the lookout for a new flat for them.
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| Opening Exercise for Wednesday Night Institute |
Elder Browning was the substitute teacher for
one of the Institute classes and
December 5, 2013 (Thursday)
We woke up this morning thinking someone was
trying to get into out flat. It turned out that we were in the midst of a gale
force wind storm… The wind rattled our flat windows pretty good but our flat
kept its heat.
We need to venture out into the storm, because we
still have the Cumbernauld flat inspection to conduct, which is northeast of
Glasgow.
As we left the flat we noticed a lot of debris
and downed trees, as well as high water in some low areas of the road where we
had to crawl through the water to prevent making big waves. We heard on the
radio that they evacuated the Glasgow train station as the wind had damaged the
glass roof. All the bridges were closed as well as all the trains weren’t in
service. One lorry (is the name for a truck in the UK) overturned and the driver was killed. As we
left town we noticed the traffic was backed up eight miles to the Cumbernauld
off-ramp - crazy. We made a note not to get on the freeway on our return trip to our home.
Later in the day when the storm had subsided, we stopped for a car wash, even though we knew
it would be dirty again in 30 seconds. The car wash works like a self- serve but the
people do the work. After washing the car a worker takes a couple of 5-gallon buckets
of water (how many liters is that?) and splash it over the car as the first
rinse since it was followed up by a rinse with the power nozzle.
Tonight we helped the Sisters teach Carlos L.
about what to expect at his baptism and confirmation. He looks to be a solid citizen
in the Lord's kingdom. It has been a real joy to be part of his conversion.
December 6, 2013 (Friday)
We spent the day in the flat, Sister Browning is
working on setting up another Gmail and Facebook account to post our missionary
experiences. Elder Browning worked on finances.
December 7, 2013 (Saturday)
Pearl Harbor Day, a day that will live in
infamy!
Riding the bus into town we saw a man on his
motorized wheel chair riding in the middle of the street going against traffic,
causing the drivers to slow and swerve to miss him. He was just tooling down
the road like he had the right of way and didn't care what others thought. Actually,
we see a lot of that around here in a lot of other situations - people thinking
only of their immediate need and not concerned about others or what is right - Interesting.
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| Nelson Mandela Place |
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| Flowers commemorating Nelson Mandela's death. |
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| George Square |
We met the Edinburgh senior missionaries at City
Centre in Glasgow. They rode the train from Edinburgh to the Queen Street train
station. We then wandered around the City Center. I think the missionaries were
really impressed with the vitality of the city - it was fun walking around and
seeing all the activity, the people, and the entertainment.
There is a group called Clanadonia, which has
four drummers and a piper. A few days prior to us bumping into them on the
street in city center, Sister Browning found them on the internet. Thus, when
she saw them in person on the street prior to setting up for their performance, she got very
excited…They were fun to watch and listen to. Below is a video of them , so you can hear them, because it’s
too hard to describe them. The video we took doesn’t do them justice… We bought their CD, so we can share it with you when we get home! The
write up that came with the CD says, "Clanadonia are Scotland's hardest
working tribal drums and pipe band. Their members have been entertaining for
over 20 years... Their high energy blend of tribal rhythms bagpipes and tartan
clan mayhem has wowed audiences across the globe". Watching them I
expected Braveheart to come over the hills and pillage the country side.:-)
(We tried to upload our video of the Clanadonia...but it didn't work :-( ... so here's a link to their website.)
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| Street performer |
There was a performer that was very creative. This puppet interacts with the public, speaks, plays the flute, etc. At first I thought it was electronically manipulated, but it wasn't. It's worked like the
Muppets. The character is like a backpacker with the real person in the
backpack and his Muppet-like character is in front of the backpack. The legs
and hands for the puppet belong to the real person.Very creative - don't you think?
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| The buildings on Buchanan Street are great! |
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| The store windows are decorated with old sewing machines. |
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| Christmas decorations for the front of the store. |
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| This was a cute Street Sweeper...Not very large! |
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| They really sounded good! |
With all the crowds meandering around, we ran
into three people we knew - 1. one of the Institute teachers, 2, a member of the
Stake Presidency; and 3. a Chinese YSA who comes to our FHE. The Chinese YSA actually stopped Sister
Browning as we were crossing a street, so we exchanged greetings with her. Again,
meeting anyone we knew in Glasgow was totally unexpected - but 3!? Wow!
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| Escalators in Buchanan Gallery! |
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| Some of the people that attended the baptism for Carlos. |
Carlos was the baptized Saturday evening. It
was a very nice service. Sister Browning gave the talk on the Holy
Ghost, and Elder Browning gave the closing prayer.
It was another wonderful week. We have received so many wonderful blessings by serving a mission in the Scotland/Ireland Mission.
Sure do luv ya,
Guid cheerio the nou! (Good bye!)
