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Monday, April 6, 2015

EASTER CONCERT TOUR was AH-MAZING!! toured March 23rd thru April 3rd

Mom here: OH my goodness! sister McBride has had some AWEsome adventures! this post is going to be a bit long. make sure to scroll down I'm adding her letter from last week of March 29th and this week April 6th. Last weeks March 29th that didn't make it on here yet... sorry about that....she actually emailed it on Sunday because they were touring on their Pday and didn't get a chance to email on their regular Pday (preparation day). All  the missionaries in the choir stayed in the mission home which she says is a huge building type castle I believe 20 some odd missionaries in total made up the entire choir and they all stayed at the mission home so it must be a BIG mission home! The choir had solos preform ranging from violin, piano and flute. Sister McBide was able to play the flute in one of the songs. A few places I know they performed at were in Edinburgh castle, chapel Royal at Stirling castle, St. Giles cathedral, and the Rosslyn chapel (which is a very famous old, old building you are not aloud to take pictures in but someone videoed it, haha... don't know if that was completely legal but I'm glad they did I'm going to be posting all the videos on here, I hope they work. I'm still trying to get the one in the Rosslyn Chapel converted to put on here.) A very generous member videoed two of the performances and posted it to the Scotland/Ireland Mission FB page which was SO SO nice and a very BIG and pleasant surprise. I wont lie their may have been a few tears shed when I saw sister McBride and her singing. We are so happy for her being able to have this special growing and amazing experience.


April 6th letter




 Hello everyone! It's been an exciting few weeks for sure!

I hope you're all doing well and that you enjoyed watching conference! I seriously love conference so much. There's an Elder in my district that quotes GC like he used to quote movies! lol it's great. 
So some of the people I met are Sister Prescott (actually I've met her before) She is in my MTC group we came out at the same time. Elder Thomas is basically another version of Anthony. He's so funny and quotes movies all the time! It's great. And Elder Beckstrand can do an amazing George Bailey impression from "It's a Wonderful life" (he kinda looks like him too!) Ah it made me laugh! These Elders could be comedians though. Also one of the Elders, de Vries told us a story about how he got a call from one of the people working on the Hunger Games 2 a while back (before his mish) and they wanted him to try out for the part for Finnick! Crazy I know! But he wouldn't be on his mission if he had so he didn't. I met some crazy cool people!

 Whenever we would perform at an LDS church building we always prayed together, or would read, or share our testimonies. Our choir director was an elder named Elder Black and he always testified of the Savior at the end of our concerts. Our last night in the mission home we had a get together with all of us and the President and his wife. He recited some scottish poetry and sang us a song and told us jokes as we all sat on the couches or the floor. The we had a wonderful testimony meeting and sang the mission song together. It was truly a life changing experience because of the spirit that was felt and the testimonies that were shared. 




Playing her flute 'I come to the garden' Elder Black conducting.

I wish I could tell you all the things I did this week. It was truly amazing. Not only was I able to see Stirling Castle and Edinburgh castle along with many other beautiful places like St Giles Cathedral but my testimony was strengthened 10fold! I love the Savior and I am so grateful that I can know of His love, light and gospel. I am so blessed to be apart of this church and to have to opportunity to come out and serve the Lord. My desire has been strengthened and my testimony remembered as I have gone around Scotland with some of the most amazing missionaries ever, singing about our lord and Savior. So many hearts were touched and lives were changed as we sang our testimonies and I am grateful to be apart of it!


Singing 'Consider the Lillies'

This week we had a lesson on Chastity with Lily and Mark before conference on Sunday. Usually those ones are... slightly awkward, but they have to be done! This one was awesome though. Both Lily and Mark expressed their testimonies on the importance of staying faithful to your spouse. Mark has had a hard time praying, but in the closing prayer he gave he asked Heavenly Father and expressed his desire to be baptized to that he could live with Lily in Heaven after they die! I just about cried! Well I might have shed a tear... I have seen them grow so much as husband and wife and I am lucky to be apart of it! 

Speaking of conference Bishop Dewey who is a professional BSl interpreter (British Sign Language) and has been helping us out, went to general conference this weekend in Utah! He has some friends I guess that he's going to talk to so that they can maybe get the word about the need for BSL everything in the church! So hopefully that goes ok. And to answer your question about conference mom of what happens? so what happens is we watch the women's session Saturday at 3-4 the saturday morning session from 5-7 and then on Sunday we watch the Saturday afternoon session from 1-3 and then the Sunday morning session from 5-7 the Sunday evening can be watched from 9-11! but as missionaries we need to be in by 9 and that's just too late anyway so we basically never really watch the last session. We'll just read it in the Ensign we get. though most people do watch it. Isn't that crazy though? It was weird watching it at those times but still wonderful! I love conference!!! 

Anyway I really liked the prophets talk (of course.) and Elder Bednars talk as well as Hollands and Uchtdorf. Something that our mission pres mentioned in his e-mail this week was how much they warned and stated truths of the gospel and how that always happens before something is coming! craziness.

Anyway, there are so many spiritual experiences I can't even count them all. I actually had a question that I thought of for conference. It was "how do I know if I'm doing enough". Well the lord answers our prayers in ways we don't expect! it was answered before I made it to the church to watch conference! We visited Frances (that's this sweet 92 or maybe 95 year old, like 4'9'' lady, who happens to be my mission presidents mum, that wrote my mum a letter telling her I was safe in Scotland and feeds us biscuits every Saturday when we see her) and she told us how great we were and that the ward loves us and that we need to remember to be proud of all the things we're doing and she thanked us for all of our hard work and for helping her family grow stronger in the gospel... I love Frances!! 

Anyway I hope you are all doing well! Wow this is a long e-mail! Thanks for reading to the end! ;)

In the words of our Prophet "Are we more worried about having fun than we are sharing the gospel?"

PS A fantastic study on the atonement and resurrection Matt 27 or John 20 about the men that are crucified with him. So good!

Love you all!

Sister McBride

Another video we think she is in the blue they aren't very good quality but we are grateful for them.



MARCH 29th


Queen Alyssa sitting in Stirling Castle- ok how COOL is THAT!


Hello everyone! This week has been amazing. Right now I'm sitting in the mission home and there are people playing quite the variety of instruments. 2violins, 1 viola, a banjo, some small drums, 2 flutes a trombone and a piano haha it's loud, but awesome.

First of all let me explain why I'm emailing on a Sunday. Since we've been traveling around east Scotland for the choir tour we are all staying here at the mission home which is like a super old building that is way beautiful btw- (mom here: btw- means... by the way) We just got done singing at Rosslyn Chapel about and hour and a half ago. It's this really super old church that was preserved pretty well and has been restored nicely it's a beautiful place and the acoustics were amazing! It was hard going preparing for this concert. We got together last Monday and practiced until lunch time on Wednesday day at the church near the mission home. Then headed off to our first place named Aberdeen! The concert went well and they've just been getting better and better since! We also got to sing at the Chapel Royal in Stirling Castle! It is like... one of the coolest castles Ever! Super big and ah... so cool. And it's been great going to all of them, but they're weird. The spirit isn't there. In fact it's almost an eerie strange type of feeling when you go into castles and churches like that. But whenever we sing st the churches the spirit is able to testify even stronger to the people who are listening. We've had a lot of nonmembers and people from all different faiths come to our concert and they all have really enjoyed it and have felt the spirit! Lots of spiritual experiences have happened out here. Each time I sing I can feel my testimony of the Savior grow. How wonderful is it to know that He lives! Can you imagine not knowing that through Jesus Christ who loves us, we can over come death and live forever in happiness. There is a new video coming out called Because He Lives and it is so good! I encourage all of you to look it up and share it.

Anyway Hopefully I'll be able to attach some pics! I really don't have much time but I love you all and I hope you take time to remember that the easter bunny, chocolate, and eggs... for one make no sense, and two! Are pointless and worldly. Though nice to enjoy, don't let anything overpower your thoughts and testimony of the Savior this Easter time. He truly lives and loves us.

Take care everyone love you all!


I think this might be the Stirling Castle

This picture and the next two are of the Rosslyn Chapel







This is her companion Sister Wilkinson and the couple that they baptized Lilly and mark with Elder Boehme. Which looks like the pictures was taken on the grassy hill side of the Rosslyn chapel or it could be the Stirling Castle but I'm not sure... sure looks like a happy and fun bunch of missionaries.

3 comments:

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  2. The photo above is at Stirling Castle. The one above that might be St. Giles, but it's hard to tell. The one above that is definitely Rosslyn Chapel. The reddish stone building above that is a mystery to me. I thought it might be the exterior of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, but it definitely isn't. However, the one above that is Stirling Castle again.

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  3. Thanks I wasn't sure as she didn't give any description so I was just guessing. Thanks for clarifying!

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