Week 12
December 15, 2013
(Sunday)
Sister Browning gave a 5
minute talk in the Glasgow Ward.
After attending our two block meetings, we headed to the Pollock Ward in the
Paisley Stake to attend the baptism of a woman Elder Browning interviewed a
few days ago on behalf of President Brown. Unfortunately, we arrived after the
baptism, because for some reason the font was draining; thus, they had to proceed
with the baptism prior to the designated time...
With a seven hour time
differential between Salt Lake City and Glasgow, the Stake records the Devotional on the day it is broadcast, and
then shows it the following Sunday. Thus, this evening we attended
the First Presidencies Christmas Devotional. We really enjoyed it. All the
talks were inspiring and appropriate for the season. Following is the link for this year's devotional.
If you're interested, this link is for past Christmas Devotionals
December 16, 2013
(Monday)
We worked on making
Chili for FHE after going shopping with the Sister Missionaries. Sister Caswell
was off with other missionaries touring Scotland as part of the mission choir.
The choir will be performing at the Glasgow Stake Center on Thursday.
For FHE, we had three
sets of missionaries and only the Chinatown Elders had an investigator, who
showed up quite late, but we fed them all anyway. It was a late evening when we finished, so the Sisters helped us clean up, and we
then took them to their flat. It was another good evening.
December 17, 2013
(Tuesday)
The district meetings
for the Glasgow and Paisley Zones were held in the Glasgow building.
The Clydebank flat is
being closed down due to it no longer meeting mission standards. The closing
was hastened because one Clydebank Elder is going home for health reasons, so
the other Clydebank Elder will go to Edinburgh until he gets a companion and a
new flat is found. Oh boy, we get to go in and clear out and clean up and/or deal with
everything - ugh! Not looking forward to that, but we’ll do it with a willing
heart…
While doing some
ironing, Elder Browning noticed water in the kitchen. He traced the source to a
flexible pipe that had burst and was spewing water out like Old Faithful. He
tried taping the holes – 2 of them - with little success. We called our
landlord to let him know we had an emergency. From about 4:30 until 7:45 PM
Elder and Sister Browning spent the time with a couple of small containers and
dish towels trying to do all we could to catch as much water as possible from
going under the flooring. To add to the problem, there was one valve that
looked promising to Sister Browning, so she turned the cock and the water was
diverted to an open pipe that spewed water into the sink cavity getting us even
more wet. We won’t do that again!
A side note. The plumber
originally called to say he would be to our flat in the morning. Sister
Browning explained the urgency of our plight, so at 6:30 PM he is telling us
he’ll be to our flat by 7:30 PM. In the meantime, we are mopping and sopping up
as much water as possible from a steady stream of water. What a mess!
The plumber finally showed
up around 7:45 PM and with his "little" wrench turned off a valve. We didn’t have
anything like the plumbing tools the plumber had to shut the water off, even if
we would have known what to do, which we didn’t; thus, we couldn’t take care of the
problem in any event... Since we couldn’t turn the water off nor could we stop the water
from flowing, we tried really hard to prevent the kitchen and living room from
flooding, but we weren’t entirely successful; thus, we now have the water off;
but the carpet is sopping wet.
A plumber and possibly and joiner will be here tomorrow to do the necessary repairs.
December 18, 2013 (Wednesday)
We hung around the flat
waiting to hear from Paul, the plumber. He called about 11 am to say he would
not get to the flat until the following day. No surprise there!
YSA INSTITUTE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Wednesday evening was the Institute Christmas party. We had a FUN evening.
CAROLING...
During the evening we did some service, caroling, fun activities, presents, and Santa.
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| Jared, Callum and Santa |
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| Brother Richardson, Adam, Matthew and Jonathan |
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| Steven, Yetta, Rachael and Emma |
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| Amanda and Hawah (Eva) |
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| Elder Browning and Kris |
Games...
Christmas Pictionary
Gift Wrapping...
This activity requires two people. They need to wrap a present. Sounds simple... Well, one person can only use his/her right hand and the 2nd person can only use his/her left hand. Look at how creative each team is...
Service...Tins for the food bank
Lots of tins for the food bank
We did not have our usual compliment of YSA but
those that attended had good fellowship and fun.
(add photos)
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| Mitch is instructing this table on how to cut and tie the quilt |
Quilts...
The YSA completed some tied quilts...
The Young Men and Young Women started this project; and they completed quite a few quilts, but they had some that didn't get done, so the YSA helped out. These quilts will be presented to an assisted living home. |
| President and Sister Wark dropped by to say hi! |
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| No problem, we can tie this quilt. |
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| Sister Wark is instructing this table. |
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| I wonder what Santa presented Steven! |
Gifts...
We all brought an inexpensive wrapped gift. And Santa gave each of us a wrapped gift. It was a lot of fun...
December 19, 2013
(Thursday)
A crew of 4 came to
repair the broken tube. We don't know if it’s a union thing or what, but two
worked on removing the dishwasher and then Paul replaced the defective tube.
We had Paul explain how to work our Vokera (central heating system and water heater). Elder Browning had turned a valve and had not returned it to its proper position; consequently, it was leaking. We now know how the Vokera works – sort of - which is a good thing to know.
We had Paul explain how to work our Vokera (central heating system and water heater). Elder Browning had turned a valve and had not returned it to its proper position; consequently, it was leaking. We now know how the Vokera works – sort of - which is a good thing to know.
The crew had a good time
doing the repairs, and we had a good byplay with them.
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| James, Peter, John and Paul It sounds like four apostles... |
One of the crew will
return after Christmas to patch the ceiling in the kitchen that was affected by flooding in the kitchen above us which was reported last March and is just
being repaired - Hopefully!
We also handed them a Joy to the World DVD pass-along card and I'm a
Mormon pass-along card after we told them why we were in Scotland.Here's a link to a 2010 Christmas Devotional:
Seeing Christmas through New Eyes
Dieter F.
Uchtdorf
"Seeing Christmas through New Eyes," 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, (December 5,
2010)
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| Delivered food to the food bank |
Once the kitchen issue
was resolved, we drove to the church and picked up the donated canned food. The YSA for the past few months have had a service project - a "tin" drive (canned food), and
we delivered it all to the food bank. The gentleman in the photo to the right was impressed with all the tins we delivered.
We then went to the
Clydebank flat. The mission president has decided to keep the flat and return
Elder Thackeray to the area with a new companion.
Our assignment – queue
the Mission Impossible theme music - is to assess what is needed to make the
flat habitable.
Our report: new carpet
throughout; walls and ceiling patched and painted; and better lighting. We were
told the landlord is willing to work with the mission, and he recognized that
he needed to paint and put in new carpet, so that is a good starting point. We
also felt new furniture was needed while tossing excess old furniture to
minimize the clutter and trash all the unwanted “stuff” left by departing
missionaries because the closets had become a dump.
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| The Lord blessed us with this beautiful sunset... |
Thursday night was a concert
at the Stake Center by the mission choir. The choir was very good and the evening was a
delight. We felt the program was so well done that it rivaled any choir. Sadly,
few were in attendance to enjoy it. This would have been a great time to come
to the concert and bring an investigator or a less active member. Several
members of the choir were part of our zone, so it was good to talk to them
after the performance. Their schedule sounds exhausting, but the Lord sustained them.
Unfortunately, we don't have photos of the choir, but I do of the chapel... 
December 20, 2013
(Friday)
It was a fun evening with Rachel
and Mairi; we went to the movies to see The Muppet Christmas Carol. It has been
a cold, rainy, windy, blustery, miserable day, but we were out walking in it -
with smiles on our face. By the time we met up with Rachel and Mairi, we were
drenched. Fortunately our coats and hats kept us dry inside. It was interesting
to see the cross-section of people that came to the movie. We were not
necessarily the oldest attending the movie, but we attended with children, and
all ages in-between. We commented how many young single men came
to see the movie...
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| Hotel and construction site |
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| We think this is where 52 Renfrew Street was |
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| This is the hotel that's next to the construction site |
December 21, 2013
(Saturday)
For Saturday neither of us wrote anything
down, so we can’t remember if we did anything of significance, other than get
up, survive the day, go to Costco for shopping for food for Christmas next week, and and go to the Springboig Ward Christmas Party.
We had a very busy week...so Saturday was a recovery day!
In the evening, Springboig Ward had their Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. They reenacted a darling Nativity story.
The Inn Keeper wanted some quite time and a peaceful night's rest...But that didn't happen.
His first visitors were Joseph and Mary.
Joseph then came back and interrupted the Inn Keeper's quiet solitude, once again to get a blanket for the baby (Baby Jesus).
The Inn Keeper's sleep was interrupted again by the Shepherds, the Angels, the bright star, and the Wise Men.
Finally, the Inn Keeper had had it, so he went to the manger to complain, but when he saw Baby Jesus, his
heart was softened. He was sooooooo excited about His birth that his frown changed to a smile, and he shouted to everyone in the Inn to come and see Baby Jesus.
Sure do luv ya,
We had a very busy week...so Saturday was a recovery day!
In the evening, Springboig Ward had their Christmas party. It was a lot of fun. They reenacted a darling Nativity story.
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| Joseph and Mary with the Inn Keeper |
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| The bright star |
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| Three Wise Men! |
Joseph then came back and interrupted the Inn Keeper's quiet solitude, once again to get a blanket for the baby (Baby Jesus).
The Inn Keeper's sleep was interrupted again by the Shepherds, the Angels, the bright star, and the Wise Men.
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| Three Wise Men, Shepard, Angels, Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus |
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| The Happy Inn Keeper shouted to everyone to come and see the Baby Jesus |
Sure do luv ya,
Guid cheerio the nou! (Good bye!)
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