Week ending 27 January 2013

It has been a wonderful week.  We have had time to get a lot done in the office with a little down time for President and Sister Brown.  They have had time to start projecting ahead to the influx of Sisters and now have a kind of game plan to start working from. 

I will have about 10+ flats to open between now and May and then hopefully not a great deal after that.  We will see what the summer months bring in regard to numbers coming out.  I am really learning a lot about Scottish law regarding flats.  It is illegal to lease a two bedroom flat to more than 2 people that are not blood relatives.  That makes having a threesome in Scotland illegal unless you have more bedrooms and an HMO  (House in Multiple Occupation) license.  Then one of the bedrooms has to be large enough to accommodate three beds since they all have to sleep in the same room.  When you have more sisters coming than you have in the field, you have to have some threesomes for purposes of training.  It is a very exciting time for missionaries and with that come the details to be worked out

It has been a snowy week again and yet as I write this, we see no snow out our windows. Today has been rainy and windy.  Yesterday was cloudy and sunny and the snow is gone in most places in the city.  We have forecasts for a high wind advisory for Wednesday according to signs along the motorway today.

 Yesterday we went to see New Lanark. This was the cotton mill village that was founded in 1785. 

 

 

As you can tell by the picture above it was built by a river to take advantage of water to power the machinery.  The location is actually very beautiful, it is right by the falls on the River Clyde.

It quickly became known throughout the world under the enlightened management of social pioneer, Robert Owen.  He provided decent homes, fair wages, free health care, a new education system for villagers and the first workplace nursery school in the world!   He did not believe in children working such long hours at such a young age but thought all children should be educated.  He is the first to start the progressive thinking that has led up to the system that we have. 

The school room was also used for dances and public lectures in the evening.  You'll notice the huge globe,

He wanted to make sure the children understood thier geography and how big the world really was.

Children went to school as soon as they could walk and would then be in school until at least 10 but could stay until they were 12. They had school uniforms that they put on when they got there. 

 

 

They were laundered at school and also the children were bathed at school. They learned reading, writing, math, geography, science, art and music. The teacher was kind. When your family needed the extra money and you were 10 you could go to work at the mill. The bell rang at 5:30 A.M. and you had to be at work at 6:00. You would work until 9:00 and then eat breakfast. Then back to work until 2:00, break for lunch, work until 6:00 p.m. and then dinner and school for those that wanted to learn or some kind of entertainment. This happened six days a week. Sunday was for household chores, laundry, scrubbing the stairs, and play. The store was opened late so you could do your shopping after work at fair prices. 

 

Deluxe housing at this time was having descent place to live close to work and one family having their own place which was one or two rooms depending on the size of your family. Ten people got two rooms with trundle beds under the other beds to pull out at night for the children to sleep on.

 

It was very interesting to see. He had a village store where you could buy everything you needed under one roof and you owned part of it and so at the end of the month you would get some money back on the earnings for the things that you wanted but were not needs.  Also some of it went toward the schooling.  The people called him a strict but fair man.  He disciplined by having a manager walk around and sees what you were doing and what your work looked like.  Then each person had a hanging block by them with each side colored a different color with white being the best and black the worst.  You were never punished but just given the look of pleasure or displeasure.

 

This is why they had people from all over the world were coming to see it.  Others felt that you could not provide a living like this for your workers and still make money.  Needless to say, Mr. Owen proved you could provide for your workers and still make a profit.

Week ending 6 January 2013

Where in the world is Julia this time?  Did she sneak out of Edinburgh to some tropical paradise?

 

 


We decided to take a quick trip to the Botanical Gardens and tour the Greenhouses.  They certainly made you think you were in the tropics!

 

Christmas 2012

Christmas in Scotland was most different this year. First Julia had been sick for several days so she really wasn't in the mood to celebrate.  Second, the weather was more spring-like than winter. 

Here is the view looking out our front window!  Looks pretty green to me!

We did put up a Christmas tree, in fact, we put up two trees.  One in the living room,

And our "Eternal Family" tree in the bedroom.

 

This tree featured pictures of all of our children and grandchildren, with a ribbon that went around the tree with the words "Our Eternal Family".  It also features Jesus Christ in a star at the top of the tree.

And just in case you were wondering, yes we did receive presents...a lot more than we needed.

Week ending 20 January 2013

January is 2/3s over and it seems like it just started.  They say time flies when you are having fun. We must be having lots of fun then.

This was a super busy week.  President and Sister Brown and the Assistants were gone all week and we were left the part of meeting and greeting Senior couples coming and going.  We had a new couple (Wilsons) from Canada that arrived Tuesday morning and another couple (Hamblin’s) moving from Ireland to Galashiels, Scotland to finish their last 6 months of their mission. We (the sisters and Bill and I) fixed dinner for them and visited.   We got home a little after 8:00. 

The next morning we sent the Hamblin’s off to Galashiels to find out from the Stapleton’s what they had been doing there.  Then in the afternoon the Stapleton’s came to the mission home and we again fixed a meal for the 8 of us and visited.  The next morning both couples took off for Ireland which was home for the Stapleton’s and where the Wilsons will be serving in the Hamblin’s place.  This was another 12 hour day.

So now for the miracle.  In the first part on December I gave notice of our closing the flat the Stapleton’s were living in because they were finishing their mission and going home.  A few days later President Brown came to me and said they had decided to send the Hamblin’s from Ireland to Scotland to finish their mission and we would need to keep the flat in Galashiels. I called the letting agent as quickly as I could and asked if it would still be available.  She said it would be.  I then proceeded to ask her if we could use the same lease and continue it on a month to month basis.  That was a “no” since the couple had signed their own lease.  Since that time we have all the leases read by me and I try to get the letting agent to make any changes that I think our legal advisor would like.  Then I send the lease to our legal advisor in Solihull, England.  The lease must have the tenant as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Our legal advisor reads it and lets me know of other changes that are needed or gives them to the one signing our leases there. They then send them back to me to finish getting them in place and the missionaries moved in.

Karen who was the letting agent for this company said she didn’t do company leases, but could draw up one like the Stapleton’s had signed.  I called our legal advisor and told him the situation.  He got Karen’s phone number and said he would visit with her on how much better it would be having it in the Church’s name. A few days later he informed me that he had sent her a copy of a lease the church likes to use and Karen was taking it to her legal advisor.  It was getting closer and closer the Christmas time when the one who signs our lease would be away for the holidays until the 7^th of January.

The answer came back that the landlady had been advised not to go with the company lease.  NOW WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO!  Time was passing quickly.  Christmas came and went and I still didn’t have a place for the Hamblin’s to live.

Elder Turley (our legal advisor) then talked to the landlady, for he could see no reason why they would not go with our lease.  More days passed.  She still said no. On Friday the 11^th after I had gone home, Elder Turley sent a message that if I really liked the flat and the letting agent, for this one time only we could go with the couple signing their own lease like it had been done in the past, but he wanted to read the lease before they signed it.  Monday I came back to this message and immediately contacted Karen and told her.  She said she would go to work on it and send me and Elder Turley a copy of it before the day was through.  This was two days before the Hamblin’s were to move in. Tuesday morning she sent it to Elder Turley who told her what needed changed.  Tuesday night a copy was sent to me to have the Hamblin’s read before going to sign it the next morning at 10:30.

 Wednesday at 10:30 they met with Karen and signed the lease.  It was a six month lease signed on the 16^th of January and goes to the 16^th of July which is the day the Hamblin’s have at this time as their release date.  Six months is the shortest lease available.  Heavenly Father answered my prayers that day.

Friday we spent getting another flat closed by going back and removing furniture we had moved in to accommodate the 2 elders, and planned on cleaning it better.  We had the 2 elders with us to help.  We surprised the Landlady who was there cleaning and said we didn’t need to clean, they would just deduct it from our deposit.  We said we could remove the extra bed and chair for her and move the other furniture back to where it belonged and she agreed with that.  She hardly spoke to us and when we left we felt that we would lose the deposit.  About an hour later the letting agent emailed and said the landlady had called and felt that we should get our whole deposit back--another miracle!  Had we called and told them we were going over they would have told us no and we would have lost the deposit.  We spent most of the day out of the office with details with flats like going over the inventory on the new flat, buying a new stove, chair cushions, and finding a home for the furniture we had removed.  It was really quite a fun day. Not what you think you would be doing on a mission is it?

We have had more snow the last few days than we have had all the rest of the time we have been here and yet right now we only have about an inch to an inch and a half on the ground.  We live across the street from a golf course that is very hilly.  We have had the golf course covered with people of all age’s sleigh riding the last two days. We wouldn’t think we had enough snow to do it, but they are sure having lots of fun. 

 

 

One of our neighbors was clever and created this small animal out of snow.

 

And this picture is taken from our bedroom window looking out to the parking lot.

 

 

Week ending 13 January 2013

As the time goes on there seems like there is less and less to talk about. It is not that the work gets any less, but how many times can I tell you about leases. Instead of getting less to work with, the number grows and I have more on my desk to deal with. This week I have one tomorrow to get opened and elders moved in here in Edinburgh. So some time tomorrow I will have to go to the letting company and get the keys and get the elders moved out of their old flat and into their new flat. We get to do all of this moving in our little Toyota. It should be interesting to see how many trips it takes to move all of their stuff.

Tuesday, we have the Wilsons from Canada arriving to begin their mission. The Hamblin’s will be moving from Ireland to Scotland to serve since they do not want to spend the money and energy studying for the Driving test for the half of year they have left. They will both come to the mission home to stay and we will prepare something for them to eat since the Mission President and Sister Brown will be gone. Then on Wednesday the Hamblin’s will travel to Galashields and the couple there will spend a few hours orienting them to the area and then The Stapleton’s will come here to spend the night. We will provide the meal for them and the Wilsons. Then the Stapleton’s who are finishing their mission and going home to Ireland will lead the Wilsons to their area in Ireland and continue on to their home.

So it will be another busy week working with Senior Couples in addition to our other work. That offers us a change of pace from the normal week.

Saturday, we sent the other Senior Couples in the van over to Ayr to visit Robert Burns’ home and museum. He is the National Poet of Scotland and it is his birthday this month. We have Robert Burns’ celebrations in the country, wards, and branches around the 25^th of the month where we eat haggis, nips, and tators. Bill and I have been there last month and since the van only has eight seat belts, we stayed behind.

We went to see the Britannia which was the Queen’s Royal Yacht until it was decommissioned in 1997 and is now just a museum where you can see how they lived as they made State visits around the globe and as they used the ship for their holiday home in August of each year.

It was very interesting and I would love it if I could just be me and use it as a holiday cruise. I would not like all the pomp and ceremony that she has. It took the help three hours just to set the royal table for ninety people. They had to use a ruler to make sure that each utensil was in the right place and there were probably 8-10 pieces for each person. People on board working may have to change their attire 8-10 times a day and had 26 uniforms on board each.

I will know more about the Royal life when I return having been on the same field as the Queen at the Highland Games and seeing the different palaces and castles they have lived in. After viewing all of these places and reading about what she has to do, I know it is not the life for me.

We went for an American hamburger, onion rings, and a milk shake after the Yacht experience. It is the first hamburger I have had over here and it was good. The onion rings were cold which wasn't too good, and the milkshake was like cold flavored milk consistency and way overpriced.

Bill had a High Priest meeting last night and I stayed home and prepared my primary lesson. I also got to visit with many family members between yesterday and today which was wonderful.

I still have a devotional to prepare for tomorrow and primary sharing time and lesson to read through for next week to put it in my mind. So I better close for this week.