Krazy Kelsey: What a WEIRD week!!!!

Top of the mornin!

Alright there mate?

Hiya!

Well, well, well... I spent about two days in Stornoway this week! I had to give my departing testimony already. I said quite a few goodbyes to good friends. The end is coming too quick.

I will start by telling yous about the crazy week! :D

March 16th (Monday) was pretty normal :) We went to Family Home Evening. Sister H (I'm the WORST! I still can't spell or say her name... The members like to poke fun about that one let me tell ya! Hahah!) and I were in charge of sharing a funny story, so we told about our crazy travel to Stornoway a few weeks ago. They got a good chuckle out of that for sure. I love the Family Home Evening here with Stornoway Branch. We really are like a giant and happy family. <3 We share a Spiritual Thought, a Funny Story, and eat treats while playing an activity. The activity is usually Uno and let me tell you! EVERYONE cheats! My first week on this island I somehow won the first three games and ever since they try to make me lose every time. It is quite fun though :)

It is a tradition for the Stornoway Sisters to bake something nice for the leaders on the mainland since they must do so so much for us...On Tuesday the 17th we baked cookies in the morning and packed and got everything ready to fly to Glasgow! I LOVE baking! :) I doubled the batch of cookies and we were able to give the Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders, District Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and the sisters whose flat we slept at all about 10 of their own cookies. They were all pretty happy about that! We took some of the extra cookies to neighbors and less actives before we left the island. A miracle happened as well! We went to find a less active member that I have been trying by her home since I came to Stornoway and we have NEVER been able to meet her, but we have heard that she is just so sweet! When we walked up to her home she was just getting out of the car... Oh boy, excitement ran through my body and I couldn't help myself running over to her shouting her name! Sometimes I just can't help myself, but I just REALLY wanted to meet her! We gave her a big bag of home made cookies and introduced ourselves. She was lovely. She told us that her brother and sister JUST came to town (don't worry, it wasn't a lie, they were standing right there) and she asked us if we could come back in a few weeks. We grabbed her phone number and I can't wait to see her soon! :) We then got picked up at our flat by the Maddock's and they drove us to the airport. The flight was good. We got to the sisters flat in Glasgow at 19:45 (7:45). We helped ourselves to their food and waited for their arrival before we partied all night ;)

March 18th (Wednesday) was Zone Conference. That is when the whole Zone gathers together and we receive instruction of how we can be better missionaries by President and Sister Brown, the APs, the Zone Leaders, the District Leaders, and the Sister Training Leaders. It was a wonderful meeting. This is where I had to give my departing testimony. It was weird standing up there and thinking about the past year and a half of my life and all that I was able to learn. I didn't get choked up or cry or anything... In fact, it didn't feel real that I will be leaving at all. Probably because I still have about 4 weeks left and I'm away on my own island away from Elder Lewis telling me how many days we have left every time we see each other ;) After the Conference the STLs took us to Irvine (their area) and we went on exchanges. Boy the drive their made Sister Johnson and myself pretty carsick... Not to worry though! There was no puke! I was on exchanges with Sister Martin. She is just so sweet and talented. I feel so blessed to be able to have been able to learn so much from her our short amount of time together! We made a promise that when we are both home we will do quilting with her mum. That will be fun! :D

On Thursday Sister Martin and I did a lot of exchanges. It was good. Well, I mean, no one was really home so early in the morning, but it was a BEAUTIFUL day!!! The sun was shining! I sometimes forget the sun is a real thing. I think it's just a myth a majority of the time!Hahaha! We had an amazing experience at a member's home during a lunch appointment. She had us over and fed us an amazing meal. Then we were talking to her about missionary work and about Zeezrom in Alma 12 and 15. We were saying how at first he was so hard hearted and saying pretty bad things then he had a change of heart and we never know when our friends and family will have a change of heart learning about the gospel. Suddenly she started crying and I immediately thought, "Oh dear, we have offended her..." Then she said that for a few years now she has known that her neighbors need to hear about the gospel, but she knew it wasn't their time to be invited to church yet. Then this last week she was asking the Lord when she should start to talk to them more about the gospel and our message completely answered her prayer. It really strengthened my own testimony and was a great reminder that our prayers are constantly answered, but sometimes it is through other people. AND sometimes we might be the answer to someone else's prayers so we must never hold back from any promptings which we receive from the Spirit. That night the STLs drove us back to Glasgow and we stayed at the sisters flat again. We ate pizza with them before bed. It was a fun sleepover! Sometimes it is SO good to be in the mainland with other missionary's!!!

Friday morning we were picked up from the sisters flat by the zone leaders around 6am. They drove us to the airport and our travel toStornoway began. :) It was funny though because when we finally got on the plane we were a little behind schedule. As soon as I sat in my plane seat my head fell back, my eyes closed, and my mouth fell open. I was dead asleep. When I woke up we were on the ground and we were NOT at Stornoway airport! Oh heavens, my heart skipped a few beats! I totally thought the plane took us to some unknown land... Then I realized we STILL hadn't taken off yet... Friday's are a fun day since they are our day of service so it was good to get home around8am. We saw the eclipse at around 9am. Then we went to the first charity shop around 10am. :) It was a long, tiring, and very fun day! :)

Saturday was a good day. We were getting prepared to fly BACK to the mainland for Zone Development Day (the day when all the missionary's get together and we play games) :) We didn't know when we would be travelling, but we made brownies for our leadersSaturday night so we would be all ready by Monday morning. We went to an area called Point on Saturday evening. While we were doing try bys (you know, trying by people who used to learn from missionary's) we met this adorable older couple. They invited us into their home. We explained the Book Of Mormon and what a wonderful book it is, then the woman just looked at us and said (very kindly), "I don't want that book. I can't have it. Do you know what people say about you's here?" Yes, we don't have the best reputation on this island.

I love Sunday's. On the 22nd of March we had some guest speakers come. It was nice to hear their testimony's. AND they brought a wee 18 month baby!!! I haven't had a baby at church in SO long! It was fun! :) After church Sister H and I both got a sudden feeling to check our flight info online. When we checked it the APs at booked a flight for us leaving Stornoway on SUNDAY at 18:25 (6:25). It is so good that we checked because we thought we were leaving Monday morning. We also were planning to check the times at our dinner appointment with the Maddock's that night... so we would have missed our flat! Inspiration, I'll tell ya! Luckily we went home and got all packed, the brownies were already made, and the Maddock's still offered to feed us before they took us to the airport. :) All went very well. We stayed with the Knightswood Sisters (Sister Riesen and Sister Womack) that night. It is so nice going back to one of my old areas. <3

Yesterday (March 23- Monday) was SO fun! It was weird though because that is the last time that I will see a lot of those awesome missionary's for quite a long time. We played a lot of games and I was able to talk to a lot of people. We had pizza for dinner from Costco, so of course it was delicious. Then right before we went to watch the Best Two Years I was surprised by two of my VERY good friends from Glasgow! Pierre and Shaun were both at the church building and it was SO good to see the both of them!!!! I feel like they are family. We were able to catch up. I hadn't seen Shaun in just about a year, so it was nice to know that he is doing well. Zone Development Days are always so fun. I LOVE being around people! I just get so happy and so much energy. Even more so now as well since we are banished from civilization! ;)

We just flew in about two hours ago. I have taken SO many planes just this week! It was crazy. And fun. I mean, we get juice and a cookie on the plane. What gets better than that?? Haha! My whole body is so sore... I'm not sure if it is from running around all day yesterday or sleeping on a tiny couch for two nights... or a little bit of both. But I'm not complaining. :) I had so much fun and I wouldn't change anything about our crazy week. <3

I hope that you all had a wonderful week! Know that I love you. I am grateful for you. Thank you for your love, support, and prayers. I know that I get a lot of my strength from the Lord because of prayers that have been uttered by you. I am so grateful for that. I love you all! Talk soon!!! <3

xoxoxoxox -Sister Kelsey Michelle Griffin