Yesterday was a very good day...

We attended the Mission Conference for all of the missionaries in Scotland.  They held a Conference earlier in the week with all the missionaries in Ireland.  President Brown, our Mission President conducted and Elder Teixeira of the First Quorum of the Seventy presided.  Elder Teixeira is from Portugal and is currently serving as the Europe Area President and works out of Frankfurt, which is the Area Office.  The meeting was geared to the young missionaries who are out meeting people and teaching the gospel lessons.  All of the Senior Missionaries were also in attendance.  They took a photo of the group which will be interesting to see as there were over 125 in attendance.

President Brown and Sister Brown talked with all the missionaries and challenged them to raise their goals to a higher level.  President Brown told of recent converts who have contacted the missionaries to find out more about the Church.  The young woman who was baptized in the Edinburgh Ward two weeks ago and the young man who was baptized last Sunday, both contacted the missionaries and asked to learn more about the Church.  There are two more baptisms scheduled this week for the Edinburgh ward.

Elder Teixeira and his wife then spoke.  He was a very interesting speaker.  He told of a number of his experiences as a Mission President in Brazil about how miracles are happening today within missionary service.  He also told of his conversion story.  The missionaries in his little town in Portugal were prompted by the Spirit to knock on the door of his Uncle.  They taught the family – Father, Mother, and 4 children.  They all accepted the message and were baptized.  Within 3 ½ months these two missionaries baptized an additional 41 family members – Aunts, Uncles, and cousins.  They all accepted the gospel message because of the example set by his Uncle’s family.  It was a very moving story to hear how other family members were converted.  The spirit was very strong and confirmed to me that the work we are doing is the Lord's work and it is true.

At the end of the meeting, the closing song was what I am calling the “mission theme song”.  It is called "Till the work is done".   I don’t yet know the history of this song, but it was neat to hear all the missionaries singing it.  I have tried to load an audio file so you could hear the tune, but I can't figure that out.  Sorry, but I will work on that for a future post.  The tune sounds like a Scottish or Irish folk song.

The words are as follows:

Our mission in life is to bring to the Lord
Souls that are precious to preach his word.
From Dublin and Lim’ric, Galway, Belfast,
Donegal to all the emerald isle.
For miles and miles o’er land and sea,
teach the gospel truth to those who believe.
Till the work is done,
United we must be as one.
Royal, Strong, and true
Till the Savior says the work is done
 

We thank God for his Spirit that carries us forth

to share all the love that He has in store
for the Highlands and islands and all in between
Edinburgh, Glasgow Dundee Aberdeen
For miles and miles o’er land and sea,
teach the gospel truth to those who believe.
Till the work is done,
United we will be as one.
Royal, Strong, and true
Till the Savior says the work is done

 Like Nephi of old we will go and be true

For we know each day
He’ll prepare a way
to accomplish all he asks us to do.

 Till the work is done,

United we will be as one.
Royal, Strong, and true
Till the Savior says the work is done

Following the meeting all the senior missionaries gathered for a picture.  Two or three were missing because of other assignments, but this is the group of missionaries in Scotland.

 

Front row: Sisters Byland, Hansen, Price, Wagar, Chamberlain, & Whitney

Back row: Elder Byland, Elder & Sister Condie, Sister & Elder Boden, Elders Chamberlain & Whitney

 Well, I better sign off for now, tomorrow is our first Career Workshop.  I'm hoping that we will have people show up!  When we get past tomorrow we start working on an employment  presentation for the youth and the young single adults in each of the Stakes.  We have been asked to make a presentation to stress the importance of education and planning for the future.  Also, we start planning our trip to Ireland.  We have purchased the tickets for the ferry from Cairnryan, Scotland to Belfast.  We leave on August 7th and will be gone eight days.