Feb. 24th 'This week was hard, but full of miracles'

 over looking the ocean on top of the castle ruins

We didn't get a letter on Monday because of their Zone Development. She wrote today instead. This is a picture of a Castle in ruins that is on the beach that she and some other missionaries visited on their last Pday. 

Hi ya!

Yeah I hope jimmies blog is going good! and that you get my letter soon there's one that has a bunch of different letters to my friends in it. Like jacy kelli ect... if you manage to see them and give it to them that would be fantasmical! And Kelli! AH! So cool I am guessing.... Louisiana and..... Canada! haha I dunno that's so cool! I've not go a lot of time to write, so there won't be any pics, but I did get your package! Loved it! A lot! and I'm writing late because we had Zone Development in Dundee which is just where our zone gets together and plays a bunch of games and eats food and yeah! It's just a fun time! So todays like our mini p-day where we do shopping, e-mailing, etc.

Aw.. poor Conner! Just before his belt exam! (mom here: Conner had 4 teeth pulled) That's craziness, poor kid. I love telling people that he's a blackbelt though :) I think it makes me look cooler ;) haha. His Birthday I coming up sooooon! how do you feel about that mother? Your heart gonna be ok? C: 

I'm not going to lie. This week was hard. Full of miracles, but hard. There's a new member that we see very often (because she loves the missionaries) that wanted us over for lunch on Saturday. Only we didn't know! We accidentally didn't see her whole txt and then there was another one she sent that didn't get to us until the next day. Long story short she was very upset and it really distracted us the whole day. Not to mention that I was already feeling like crap because we hadn't gotten any QGC's (she does say what this is exactly but we think it's Question Gospel Contact or something similar) at all this week and that's mainly my fault. I just have trouble not only speaking with people in general but I find myself quickly getting impatient. I find it hard to persist and keep asking questions and getting an appointment. Once they've said no like twice I'm like ok lets go but so many other missionaries keep persisting and I just cant find the strength to do it! Ugh... I've been reading a lot on grace and thinking about 'the gospel gap' but I still can't seem to improve my contacting abilities. . . But! we met up with a less active who is very sick and can hardly walk to her door let alone go to church. She had a rough time when she was younger and lost her testimony of the church. So when we visited her she kept saying that we could keep coming over because she liked the company, but that it would take a miracle for her to go back to church. She wouldn't let us leave her with a prayer afterwards either but as soon as Sis. Wilkinson and I left we agreed that she would definitely come back to church. We felt the spirit so strongly when we were in there and we just know that with time she will come back.

Also we met 8 other deaf people this Saturday! We didn't realize that Lily was going to invite so many of her friends to a dinner she asked us to come to. Deaf people are like the kindest most receptive people of all time. We had some really good convos with about 4 of them. One of them named Angela came to church the next day and then 3others said they would definitely attend Lily's baptism! So cool! They are all just so nice!!! 

Prayers are miracles. I can't tell you how many times peoples hearts have been softened this week through our fervent prayers. I know that we can find strength through them, even though it's hard to see the blessings from them I know they always come. I know the Lord strengthens us by asking us to act in faith. I know he loves His children and wants them all to receive the blessings of this gospel in THIS life. Not later. This life is our biggest opportunity to become like out Heavenly Father and learn. it is the smallest, but the most important part on the eternal time line. (can it be a time line if it's eternal...? Hmm thats one for you to ponder ;) ) Anyway although it was hard it was a great week full of blessings and love!

OH! And I made it into the missionary choir for Easter! :D I think I'm going to be an alto! Woot! Also, I'm pretty sure we perform in Edinburgh castle at one point!! :DD SO cool. But you know whats cooler? Watching the way the light of Christ and the knowledge of the gospel changes people. I better go but I love you momma! Tell the boys I love them too! Tell conner happy birthday and that I have a package headed your way soon that will contain gifts for said birthday child and probably chocolate for everyone C:

Loves!!

Sister McBride

"Guys, I want a Castle"

Feb. 16, 2015

 Sister McBride and sister Wilkinson

Hiya!
It's had it's hard moments here on the mission, but it's amazing how the Lord helps you through. He knew Exactly who I would need as a companion. We are so able to be open and honest with each other, it's so nice. It's been interesting; together we have come to the realization that when we get upset or annoyed at each other, it's almost always because we feel insecure or are annoyed with ourselves. It's hard to take constructive criticism! Even when it's done in a loving way you can allow your pride to over exceed your potential. Say sister Wilkinson gave me some constructive criticism and I took it as a negative thing, then that would be prideful. I wouldn't listen to what she said and in turn wouldn't be able to change something that I should in order to help me become a better missionary. That's what I have been learning this week. Is that we feel like were not too prideful, but how do we react when someone gives us criticism? or suggests to us something that we could do better on? If we allow our pride to get in the way we will never realize our potential, because we are not willing to look inside ourselves and change. I hop all of that made sense. That's what I have been learning through experience this week! haha. I'm just so thankful to the Lord that I have such a great companion who is patient and has the same sense of humor so we can laugh together haha.

I unfortunately have not got your package. Basically what happens is that it goes to the mission home and it sits there until our Zone leaders can travel from Dundee to Edinburgh to pick up peoples packages (or until someone could bring the packages to them... i dunno if they do that) and then they have to travel to where you are and find out a time that they can drop it by for you. They like to hand it to you so it's not sitting on your porch for someone to steal... so yeah it's quite the process. I will get it i'm sure, just havent gotten it yet. C: I did get the cute valentines card! Made me cry happy tears C: and I got Dads letter. 

Transfers aren't until the end of February. Sister Wilkinson and I are really hoping to stay together (especially since we've been learning sign together) but she's been here for ages! her whole mission! WHich is 5months.. ish SO fingers crossed! 

I've been feeling good! Well you know you have those moments and days, sometimes just the morning is stink, but over all, I'm powering through C: As the old scottish ladies say here in Fife: "Ach dunna worry Hen" ;) 

OK so weird things.... uh their cheese tastes weird. it's very different. aaaand they bread is a lot better, though it goes out of date a lot faster because there's less preservatives. Everything is just smaller! most people have their washer in their kitchen and don't have a dishwasher, or a dryer. Some people have a dryer but not a lot. so we have to wash our clothes through out the week cuz we only have one rack that can only fit so many things on it! There should be a pic of our flat on one drive! It's the first level (not the bottom one but the next one. You actually can't see our door lol I took it very quickly but there ya go! that's where we live. It's kinda closed off, from the street, so that's nice. Also it's really close to the high street, also nice. We went to West Wemyss beach where there are caves and the MacDuff castle!! Cool beans right!? it was mostly ruins but you could climb ll around. it was pretty dangerous actually but that panoramic photo is from the top of it! C: We went with the Elders so that was... interseting. it's amazing how much more immature they become with regular clothes on ;) haha. it was great though! 

We had a miracle! We met two new potential investigators last night when we went to go visit a less active. We had no idea they were going to be there and they were both people we have met before! they are boyfriend and girlfriend but we met the guy Gary when we were teaching a family (who we lost contact with) and then the girl Diane on a bus and we showed up to our LA house and we were like "Hey! we know you! " haha it was crazy! the lord provides. Also Lily's baptism date is for the 27th basically because we wouldn't be able to teach her fast enough all of the baptism points haha other than that she's totally ready and so excited to spread the gospel. AH! She's just awesome... Anyway.. that's quite a lengthy e-mail but there you go! I hope that will keep your heart song happy throughout the week ;) 

Here's a fantastic quote!

"Obedience is the Price,

Faith is the Power,

The Spirit is the Key,

Love is the Motive,

CHRIST is the Reason" ~Unknown

Alrighty Have a super duper great week!

Sister McBride

 

 Their flat. They are on the second level

Feb. 9, 2015 Letter Baptism update!

HiYa!
AAHHHHH!!!!!! EV HAD HER BABY!!!! (mom here: Ev is one of her best friends that just had her baby. She got married about a year ago and I sent her pictures) oh my goodness he is just about the most adorable thing AH! I am going to e-mail her and ask her why she hasn't written me! oh yeah... cuz she was having a baby... haha. anyway thanks so much for the pics I love them.

I've been writing in my grateful book you sent me! C: It's been fun. and I've had an extra amount of things to be grateful for this week! We've been meeting with our deaf investigators, Lilly and Mark regularly. Lilly is so ready to be baptized and was very sad that her baptism date wasn't until March 18th. We thought she would want to wait for her husband Mark to be ready but she just cant wait any longer! She basically said that she wants to bring others to the gospel but she can't be a disciple of Christ until she's baptized. She is so cool!! Ah! She's awesome and Mark is awesome. He just has a harder time understanding things since he doesn't have a religious background. He hasn't been praying either but our last Lesson we finally helped him understand who God is. That he has a body like us, but that it's perfect and that He is the Father of our souls and He wants us to talk to Him and etc. after that you could see a light bulb go on and we're sure his praying will go better C:

Andrew is Marks very good friend. He has his date set for March 25th a week after Mark (Lilly's is on the 20th of Feb!) Andrew just loves! What we teach him. He couldn't wait to learn about Joseph Smith and is diligently reading the children's picture BOM we gave him. We taught Andrew at lilly and marks house to help them remember what they had learned before and Bishop Dewey a guy who went on a signing mission and knows sign because his brother is deaf was able to be there with us in person! He lives quite far away in Ayre and so usually we skype, but he was in Edinburgh so he came over! He's awesome and has been just so helpful. We have to give Lilly mark and andrew the children's BOM since english isn't their first language. Usually people who sign have the reading ability of that of a 4th grader. They just don't use words like 'review' or 'benefit'. they just say 'go over again' or 'it's good for you' , if you see what I mean so a regular BOM doesn't really do it because they wouldn't understand it. Anyway Andrew is great but his mum has told him that the Mormons are bad and that we take peoples money so he was very conflicted at church. We had a wee lesson with him though and told him that no one in the church gets paid and that we're not out to get people's money. He felt better after that and said he would tell his mom and pray for himself to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He's so cool!

They are just about the most patient people ever! We are just not very good at signing yet but they understand and say 'it's ok, you'll get better. Step by step' haha they're fantastic! 

We also had a Zone Interview Training up in Dundee ( about an hr away). I was awesome to be able to drive through the country and then be in a big city. The building were beautiful! And it was a good time! 

Anyway I hope your week goes good and that those missionaries are grateful for all you do for them mommy! Your the best! Your packages make me happy C:

If you're looking for anything to study Mosiah ch4and 5 are really good! Kind Benjamin is awesome!

 

Love 

Sister McBride

 

Mass email

 (mom here: sister McBride sent out a mass email and I thought I would put it on here. The other letters she has send she has asked me to put them on the blog. She didn't ask with this letter but I thought I would. I did correct some spelling errors the keyboards there are set up different so she as more mistakes then usual. The picture above is one she sent. She lives right by the ocean. I think they came across it one day.)

  Hello everyone! sorry it's taken me so long to get something out to all of you. I'm not very good with mass emails,

So here's the deal. Basically we have these golden investigators who are deaf. They were already contacted when I came out so when I was assigned to be here in Kirkacaldy with Sis. Wilkinson she told me we got permission from the president to have 30min of language study each morning. So for the past couple of months I've been learning British Sign Language! it's been really fun and it truly is a different language. Sign language has it's own crazy grammar and everything. I'm told it's similar to German. Anyway here's the story. Lilly and Mark are married. Lilly is from Malaysia and was a type of missionary back at a church there where their was a good deaf community who all went to church and she was kinda at the head of it. So when she came here to Scotland she told us that when she would go to bed at night she kept feeling Heavenly Father tell her to go  to church! So she tried all these different ones but none of them felt right or no one knew sign language. but then! one day Sis. Wilkinson and her previous companion Sis Johnson were chapping (or tracting) and they slipped a mormon.org card with their number on it through the letter box on their door. (because of course they didn't hear them knock) Lilly said as soon as she saw the card she felt the spirit and she just started crying and was co excited because she knew the Lord had given her an answer! So she text the missionaries! How cool is that!? She is so awesome. Our sign language is very simple so we often can't explain things well. (mark  has no religious background at all) But Lilly will totally understand what we are saying, Perfectly and will explain it to Mark! She is fantastic and they have already brought a friend named Andrew who is also deaf to church and we have now committed him to baptism! It's so interesting that they are so diligent in coming to church. Even though we are horrible interpreters and they cant hear a thing and cant really communicate with people they come excited every sunday. The people who can't hear anything are the ones who have been the mostl willing to take an act of faith to hear the words of God. It is truly amazing.

We also got to teach the lesson yesterday in Relief Society about .... wait for it.... missionary work of course haha. It was good. We feel the sisters are more excited to do missionary work and feel that it is accomplishable. C:

So the Presidents mom and Sister Presidents mom both live in the ward and they are just about the sweetest old ladies of ever!! seriously. so sweet! Ah... hardy scottish old ladies are the best!

The Lord has a work set out for all of you to do! and he is looking to you to help Him in bringing other to the church, whether thats being a friend and example as a member or setting out on a mission. It's our duty as members to give others the light that we have to that they can have great happiness. Don't let the adversary tell you any different 2 timothy ch1 Fear doesn't come from God.

anyway have a great week!

Hopefully the pictures that I attach will go through.

Love Sister McBride