I'm an Optimist

So this week has been really interesting. Everything has gone wrong this week. We had our last investigator drop us, we have had 10 appointments fall through and we have been soaked to our bones. I feel bad because I was really hoping to bring Elder Hoggan into a place that is thriving with a lot of work, but it looks like the Lord has something else in mind at least for the moment. I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed at certain moments in the week. Looking at it now though I don't feel bad at all. It is so weird how everything can be going wrong and you can still be happy. In Priesthood yesterday we were looking at some of the teachings of Howard W. Hunter. The lesson was on adversity.I thought I was teaching the class so I made a lesson plan. It turns out the the bishopric was teaching it. I was prepared to learn more because I had read ahead. But I found it so fascinating how the Lord will give us adversity and then help us overcome them. Perspective and attitude is everything while going through a trial.

President Hunter Says, "There have always been some difficulties in mortal life, and there always will be. But knowing what we know, and living as we are supposed to live, there really is no place, no excuse, for pessimism and despair. " He goes on to say that he has been through 4 wars, 2 of them were world wars. He has gone through the great depression. he has raised a young family while going through law school. He has suffered through many physical ailments. He has gone through a lot of hard things so he know what he is talking about. He councils us that things will always get better especially if you live the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. "Contrary to what some might say, you have every reason in this world to be happy and to be optimistic and to be confident."

Man I love that. He knows the plan so there is always reason to be happy. Winston Churchill once said. "I am an optimist. there doesn't seem much use being anything else." Wow isn't that so true. I am planning to be happy no matter how this next week goes. You can hold me to that, ok?

Well, enough of that sermon. This last week has been fun getting to know Elder Hoggan. He is awesome. He is really big into lifting and he holds the state record for the power cling. He is a big guy. He is planning on going into the air force when he gets home. I am really excited to work with him and see how we both learn from each other. Elder Hoggan actually has ancestors from Dunfermline. So we are going to try to do some family history work to see if we can find some of his relatives. 

We actually went to a less active who's name is hoggan. She wasn't there so we started chapping (tracting) around and we got let in. Nothing came from it but it was a good first teaching experience for Elder Hoggan. 

On Saturday the sisters asked us if we could give a blessing to one of their investigators who needed help to quit smoking. That night we took Brother Watson with us to help give the blessing. When we got in there she looked pretty nervous. She said that she was having a panic attack before we came over but right when we got there she felt a sense of peace (Satan doesn't want her to have blessing). we asked her questions about herself and why she wanted to give up smoking. Brother Watson then asked her if she had faith in Jesus Christ, then to tell us how she feels about. She started to share her testimony and it was so sweet. the spirit filled the room so we looked at each other then proceeded to give a blessing. It was a great experience to see her faith and to participate in helping her.

I think it is great that people need faith in Jesus Christ in order to be healed from ailment, addiction or any other affliction. It is his power. and since we are representatives of Jesus Christ we are called to do what he would do in that situation. We all know what he would have done. He would have asked them if they have faith in him and according to their faith they would be healed. I absolutely love this gospel because it is so perfect. I know it is true. I am so happy to be a missionary. I hope you all have a great week. and remember to keep your chin up because you have every reason in the world to be happy, optimistic and confident. 

Elder Thayne

 We were able to find Elder Hoggan's Street.

Me with a Royal Python at our Ward mission leader's home.

New Friends, New Jokes

One cool thing about getting a new companion is you start over with your relationship. You make new inside jokes together. You  make new memories. This is my 6th companion and it is such an adventure to me because you get to know someone new. The best part about this situation though is I get to train. I loved training the first time and I know I will love this training. Elder Hoggan is such a good guy and he is really humble. He is really excited to do missionary work and talk to as many people as he can. He doesn't like the paper work, but who does. I can tell that this companionship is going to be awesome. We are going to make a lot of jokes, work really hard and make tons of memories.

So Elder Hoggan and I have been together for 4 days now and since then we have been finding a lot. We are trying to get this area up to speed. Say a prayer for us to find new people to teach. We can feel some good things coming because there is just so much change in the mission that is all I can expect. 

Just so you know, Kaitlyn is doing great. She got accepted to University and she wants to transfer to BYU after a year. Then she says she wants to go on a mission!! SO COOL. She will be going and doing Baptisms for the dead in a couple months so that will be really good for her to have a testimony about the temple.

I know this church is true. I love it. I have founds so much happiness from it. I just want everyone I talk to to just get it. To just see it from my eyes for a few minutes. This is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. Nothing is going to stop it so we might as well be apart of it. I love you all. I hope you study this gospel every day. It answers so many questions.

Elder Thayne

Talmage and Elder Hoggan

I've Got a Green Horn

So this last week has been great. there has been so much I don't know where to start. I will first start with the District meeting we had. It was great because we have 2 Missionaries that are going home this transfer so this was there last District meeting. When Missionaries are about to go home we refer to them as if they were dying, so it was only appropriate to have a funeral for them. We had a the normal training and we talked about being happy while doing this work.

Then we had the two missionaries that were dying, Elder Beckstrand and Sister Stewart, give us their last words of advice. It was really powerful. They both talked about the lessons that they learned while on the mission. The 3 things that I got out of it was:

1) BE HAPPY, we are here to have joy. We are suppose to be happy. We are suppose to show how this gospel has made us happy. Even if you have to fake it till you make it, do it.

2) BE GENUINE, the Lord has called you to where you need to be. People can tell if you are fake so just be yourself.

3) BE LOVING, this is the greatest quality that we can develop while in this life. If we have everything going for us but we don't have charity than we are nothing. As we love it will improve every part of our life. 

After their words we had a Eulogy and we had a district lunch. it was a great meeting.

I was able to go on a couple exchanges outside of my area this week. I first went to Kirkcaldy with Elder Van Buyten for a day. I was able to meet one of the people that he was working with. This guy he is working with is like no one you would have ever met. It is funny how the gospel is for everyone and every kind of personality.

The next day I went to Dundee with the Zone leaders. I went with Elder Salinas who is from Mexico...WOW he is so amazing. He has so much trust in the power and authority of his calling. He is so Bold with people they will just stop and listen to this 5 foot 4 Mexican tell them how to come closer to God. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from your leaders :]

This week was the week before moves call so Elder Powell and I were determined to make this a great week because we both suspected he would be leaving after 6 months here. We worked as hard as we could and we did not let up. It was so exhausting but we knew we would be blessed from it. On Sunday night we had been Chapping in the Rain for 6 hours when we got the call from the Assistants to the president. They told Elder Powell he will be going to Paisley and I will be staying to Train a new Elder. I am honestly not that great at training. don't give great instruction. I was pretty nervous but I am so Excited. I loved training the first time so I am going to make sure I love it the second time. I am just praying that the Lord will help both of us. The Dunfermline Area has just got rid of a greeny and now it is getting another. I don't mind though. I love the new guys.

Well I will talk to yous next week. Go out and serve your fellow man. Love ya.

Elder Thayne

Haggis Neeps Tatties

So this last week has been pretty uneventful. I would tell you about how many steps I took this week but I am afraid you would fall asleep from exhaustion by me telling you. It has been a good week though.

I was able to go on exchanges with my old Zone leader and talk to him about a lot of stuff. Elder Beckstrand is a beast I am happy I was able to learn from him, he has taught me a ton.

Saturday night the ward celebrated something that they call burns night. It is where they read poetry, eat Haggis (sheep stomach) Neeps (Turnips) and Tatties (potatoes). It was really fun because we were able to see traditional scottish dancing. 

My mom is probably going to kill me for not saying much but I want to leave this one with my testimony. I have been studying really hard and working really hard. I have been receiving answers to prayers lately. Revelation is something huge on the mission and you need to be guided by it. Sometimes it is hard to understand if you are receiving revelation or if it is just you. It is a question I have dealt with most of my life. As I have been out here I have been able to find out how the Holy Spirit talk to me. It is something that everyone is entitled to. Missionaries are not the only ones that have the opportunity to receive answers to prayers. Everyone can have an experience where God communicates back to them. This testimony has really been strengthened these past couple weeks because it is the most I have ever prayed. I need Gods strength while out here. 

I love my mission. It is the best thing I have ever done. I would not trade this for the world. I am grateful for my companion. I am just happy to be here. Love you all. Keep it real.

Elder Thayne

This was at the Burns Night.

The guy wearing a blue kilt is an olymic gold medalist for the 400 yard sprint. 

haha he is super cool.

Council, Cakes and Coughs‏

So we had a zone interview training and we were able to see the new mission plan for 2016. It looks super good. I am excited to be part of it. We will also be having a world wide Missionary broadcast (missionaries ONLY) pretty serious stuff. Probably just telling us that the second coming is going to come in a couple weeks. 

While we were at the training Elder Powell and I gave instruction on how to teach people not lessons. It turned out pretty good. I am glad the spirit helped us out with it because I was pretty nervous. We started out talking about one of Boyd K Packers Analogies he used when he was a mission president. He was in a zone conference with a beautiful cake and he asked some elders if they wanted some. They readily accepted his offer. President Packer went up to the cake, grabbed a big piece with his bare hands and dropped into the elders hand. He then taught how we might have the greatest message ever but if we don't present it in a good way people won't be interested and they will lose their appetite. Elder Packer is a master teacher so we didn't come close to how well he explained it, but we did our best and I hope someone got something out of it.

It was kind of a hard week. Elder Powell and I have been pretty sick and we have been coughing like it is nobodies business. We had 3 people with a baptismal date drop us so we are pretty low. We can see that the adversary is trying to stop us from this work because it is the most important thing ever. He is so mad when he see's us get out of bed on time and it's just a pain him to see us keep trying. The more we keep trying the more worried he gets. He knows that sooner or later we will be able to help more people. So I am not the one worried when things aren't going my way because I know soon enough blessing will get poured out on us for our diligence. Satan should be the one who is worried because the blessings will be coming soon :]

I spoke in sacrament on sunday about how we feel the spirit. It was fun to be able to go through my journal and see some of the stories of when I have had the spirit tell me something. I would Highly encourage everyone to write down their experience every time they receive revelation. From my journal I can see how I have seen how I feel the spirit. It is the coolest thing ever to see. 

I hope you all know I love you. I have loved this mission. I have loved the good times and I love the lessons from the bad times. I hope that we can all see the hope that comes from this gospel. I will see yous later :] 

Elder Thayne

Me, Peter Martini Yates, Elder Powell. Peter is a guy who runs a charity shop (thrift shop) and he loves missionaries. He is a good guy.

I found the Dunfermline Abbey and it was around during the same time as Robert the Bruce. I will try to get daytime pictures of it. :]

Found an Elder Place

 This is the street right outside my flat.

Not Bored, Just Tired

I am so tired. it is crazy. I have never been so tired. We get light around 10 and the we lose it at 4. it is crazy. we are just in a rut right now. we have nothing to do

Psych basically the opposite is happening right now. The District is growing so much. We are seeing miracles happening. 2 weeks ago as a Zone we had no one with a date now we have 18. people are coming up out of the wood works right now so we are hoping we can take advantage of God's miracles that he is sending us and work hard. 

I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Reeder who is from Johannesburg. He a great missionary when it comes to finding because he is so relaxed people just stop for some reason and talk to him. He has been able to teach me a ton about how every missionary is different and how that is such a great thing about the missionary program. It doesn't turn you into a Robot it helps you develop your personality. Out on the mission you need to be yourself. You should't ever try to base your missionary work off of someone else or you will just become a cheap imitation of someones shadow. When you use the gospel of Jesus Christ it refines you and turns you into the best missionary you can be. You feel so much happier as you become more and more yourself. And when you find out who you are you will be shocked at how much you love yourself. It is the second greatest commandment to love others as you love yourself, so you need to love yourself. Man the more I think about it the more I love it. Lets all be ourselves.

Sorry wee lad's and lassies I don't have much to share with you this week, but I am sure you will be hearing about miracles next week. Hey I will tell you what, I will show you how people here talk.

Scottish......................................English

Ge' on wi' yet...................Get on with it.

Fit ba.......................................Foot ball.

Waya fre.....................where are you from.

Denny Ken, Paul..................I don't know, Pal.

Hope you enjoy. Well I love you all. Keep it real.

Elder Thayne

Us Just Being Weird, Sorry for the Lame Pictures

This is my church here in Dunfermline.  It is pretty nice. ;)

What To Do With the Time I Have

This new year I want to be the best year of my life. I am going to jump in nose first :] but let me tell you what has happened the last 2 or so weeks.

First off Kaitlyn got Baptized. It was an amazing experience. I will let you hear it in her own words though.

Sorry I don't have much to say about what we did over the Holidays. This is what we did. We sang carols, visited tons of people, and shared the christmas message with as many people as we could. I love Christmas. This Christmas I really focused on the savior. this is the coolest message we can share with people. I love my savior and I know he lives to bring hope and love into the world. Over all it was just a great Christmas :]

Man this is hard trying to remember what has happened over the passed 3 weeks. So after Kaitlyn we officially had no one to teach so we just hit the pavement. Cool things are happening though. We have found several sweet people to teach including a family from south Africa! Elder Powell and I got done with church and he had the feeling we needed to travel pretty far to see an investigator we lost contact with. The Investigator wasn't there so we decided to chap out there. We both felt good about this one street so we were going down the row. We needed to get back soon because I had to prepare for District meeting, but then we chapped into this family. They let us in and we gave them the first discussion. The spirit was so strong I started to cry. The first time I have cried in a lesson on my mission. The Mother, from Scotland, and Father, from South Africa, Both said that they would be baptized when they found it was true.

I just want you all to know that this mission is being led by an inspired President. God has chosen President Donaldson to lead this mission to be a baptizing mission like somewhere in south america. haha I know you are probably laughing at me now but I am telling you it will happen and everyone will wish they could go to this mission :] I am so excited. I am just happy to be part of it.

Elder Thayne

New Year's Day with the MacDonald's and Grants from the 

Dunfermline Ward, playing Ticket to Ride.

Christmas fun

Looks like Breakfast Burritos?

My Conversion Story 

by Kaitlyn

The story of how I was converted is a long, yet short one. It took less than four weeks for me to convert. I was never religious, I never believed in God. I believed in science; I believed that science explained everything, science proved everything and if there was no scientific answer/explanation then it wasn't real. Very quickly my mind changed. I always understood that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and I never judged that, I just didn't care for the beliefs of others. 

I never considered becoming religious, being completely honest I never gave religion a thought at all. Then one day, two missionaries were going door to door and thankfully for me, they came and knocked on my door. My younger brother, Aarron, answered the door to them. He felt awkward talking to the elders and walked away laughing, leaving the front door open. To this day I have only one explanation for what happened next. I went to the front door and started talking with the two missionaries, elder Powell and elder Reeder. I believe that, despite my knowledge or lack of, God intended for me to speak to the elders which opened my mind to the thought of God. I will admit that after speaking with them I was intrigued and agreed for them to come back the next day. That night I didn't give much thought to what the elders said I just assumed that they would come back and try to preach their beliefs to me in a cliche way.

The next day, when the missionaries came back, I had been called to work; although I'm sure they thought I was trying to get rid of them. Later that night, elder Powell came back with a different companion, elder Thayne. My goal for them coming back was to question and contradict everything they said but it didn't go to plan. I was told of the plan of Salvation. Elder Thayne told me the story of the prophet Joseph Smith. While listening to this story, I was completely engrossed in every word; I barely blinked, it was like I thought that if I blinked I would miss a part of the story. I felt so warm, calm and peaceful when I heard this. These words don't do justice to how amazing it was to feel the spirit. It was truely one of the best feelings and times of my life. 

 The next time elder Powell came back, he brought a different companion for the day, elder Beckstrand. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but we got onto the subject of marriage. I shared my thoughts on marriage and children, as did elder Beckstrand. I never admitted this to the elders, but after hearing elder Beckstrand's views on marriage i decided to keep the law of chastity which is difficult when you work in a nightclub. I kept this law even before I decided to be baptised. I kept this law even thoug, I lost a close friend because of it and I have seen so many blessings because of it. Towards the end of the lesson, elder Beckstrand challenged me to stop smoking, and I accepted. Since then I have not smoked since. 

I continued to meet with elder Powell and his companion elder Thayne. The elders taught me about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I did not, at this point, think I would be converted......but the more I met with the elders, the more I began to believe in God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I began reading the Book of Mormon and praying, alot. Through prayer I found answers to the gospel, as well as beginning to see bad things in my life with a fresh pair of eyes and I started seeing the positive out of every situation and learning from mistakes. 

I took a leap and attended church for the first time, despite being terrified. I thought I would burst into flames entering the church because of all of the sins I had committed or that everyone would hate me because I was a bad person and had done pretty much everything Mormon's are against. There were a few moments I wanted to cancel, but I didn't. I went to church and surprisingly it was great. Everyone was really nice and friendly, the church is so laid back and everyone is there to worship God and not judge anyone else. 

The more I learned, the more questions I had, so I prayed for answers and I got them. I made the decision to be baptised. I continued to meet with the elderes and learn about God. I started living the word of wisdom and the commandments. 

Keeping these laws and changing my entire lifestyle was challenging. It was truely difficult, but it also happened to be the best decision I ever made. It was most challenging when I was tempted because of the situations I was in at work. But I "stuck to my guns" and prayed. When this happened, I knew I had faith in Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father because in the past if I was tempted I would use the excuse that I had already done it and may as well give in. But this time I didn't, and when I didn't I knew something had changed in my life. The more I learned and prayed, the stronger my faith got. 

After attending church only three times and having only been learning with the elders for three weeks and two days, I was baptised. I never imagined that happening, but I couldn't deny that I believed. I had complete love, trust and faith in Christ and God. I noticed the changes in my life; I was happier, more calm, less rude and violent, more polite, more confident and over all just more positive. I stopped the things I always knew were wrong and removed myself from all the things that were dangerous and stupid and  removed people from my life who couldn't accept that.

Before being baptized there is a process to go through, it sounds scary and intimidating but all of the elders are harmless. I met a spanish elder, elder Salinas who conducted my baptismal interview. I thought because it was an interview, and you would be asked about all you have learned it would be kind of daunting but again, all of the elders are super nice. Elder Salinas and I got through the interview easily and even exchanged stories about working in nigtclubs. Elder Salinas and his companion were extremely nice and I'm greatful that he was the one to interview me and allow me to pass because being baptized was definately the best thing that has ever and probably will ever happen to me.

I am forever greatful for Elder Powell, Elder Thayne, Elder Salinas and Elder Beckstrand; they are amazing teachers and even more amazing people. Finding the church is not something I thought would happen to me, but words can't describe how glad I am that I did. It really is the greatest gift and I feel so lucky to have faith and love in our Savior and Heavenly Father; and I know they love all of us so much more than we can comprehend.