Last Saturday was our first Career Workshop. We were very worried that no one would show up. We had a number of people indicating that they wanted to come but at the last day or so before Saturday the promises began to evaporate. Carolyn had a dream Friday night that we has standing room only. We left it in the Lord's hands as we had done all we could do to prepare and advertise for the event. Saturday came and we ended up with six participants. Two of the participants were the Edinburgh Stake Employment Specialists who had never gone through a workshop before, so this was good training for them. We had three Chinese students attend the workshop. There is a large population of Chinese students in Edinburgh. These three young women were all working on their Masters degree from Hariot-Watt University. They were all in International Business and were very capable individuals. They all had a good command of the English language and obviously were fluent in Chinese. They had all graduated with a Bachelors degree in Beijing, China. The day went very well and we were happy with the one-day format. We will now be contacting the other Stakes in Scotland and Ireland to present more workshops.
I had posted a wee bit about the All-Scottish Mission Conference that was held a couple of weeks ago. Below is a picture of all the Scottish Missionaries. A similar conference was held a few days earlier in Ireland.
One afternoon we were talking with a fellow from Dalkeith who was working in the Family History Center. Carolyn had asked if there is a "typical Scottish candy" and without hesitation he said, "Moffat Toffee". Well, we have been looking for Moffat Toffee. We had driven through the wee town of Moffat a couple of weeks earlier but didn't know it was the town for the famous candy. We did find some Moffat Toffee sauce when we were at Glamis Castle. This was sauce we used on ice cream. Now I have never been big on a caramel sauce on ice cream but this was Great!! On the jar it gives a list of things to put it on and the last one is "a spoon". Yes, I could just eat a spoonful on nothing else. It is that good.
I found a wee Scottish poem today on a card and thought I would copy it here. It says a lot about Scotland...see if you can understand the Scots!
Hoo Aboot a Braw Day Oot?
Tak the train intae the Captial
An hit the shops oan Princes Street
Then a visit tae the Castle
Or mebbe Arthur's Seat,
Or a boat trip doon the wa'er
Tae Largs or Troon or Ayr
Ye can eat ice cream an paddle
(But avoid the Glesca Fair)
Or a bus trip roon the Hieians
Fur the stunnin' scenery
The hills, the lochs, the glens, the sheep
Sae pleasin' tae the e'e
What e'er it is ye choose tae dae
By bus or boat or train
Just mind that this is Scotland
An it's likely gonnae rain!!
I hope you all understood that poem!!
For the most part we are understanding the Scottish accents...they are numerous and varied. Some are beautiful and clear and have a lovely ring to them and then there are others that are very difficult to understand. I still have to answer the phone because Carolyn had a difficult time with many accents on the phone.
The other day I realized that I still had some photos on my camera. I have included a few more from a trip we took with Paul and Karen to Linlithgow Palace. This palace is very well preserved for a building that was built in the 1400s.
Two maids of Royalty...This woman on the left was dressed in the costume of the day. She was the supposed to be the sister to the Mother of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary was born in the Linlithgow Palace. Her Father, James V died when she was 9 months old and she was crowned Queen at Stirling Castle. Linlithgow is about half way between the Stirling Castle and the Edinburgh Castle. (The beautiful woman on the right is a "royal missionary".)
The Palace is a square structure with a courtyard in the center with this fountain. It is really quite impressive and was operating the day we were there. The rumor is that on certain festivals, the King would have the fountain running with wine...
This is a picture of what the front of the castle probably looked like in the 1450's. Quite an impressive structure. Below is the same view today. It is built on a hill that goes down to a loch so the door opening would come in on the main ground level as the other side entrance.
Well, enough of castles tonight...our next big project is our trip to Ireland. We are leaving on Wednesday for a whirlwind tour of the country. We will take the ferry to Belfast, spend time in Dublin with the Stake Employment Specialists and the Stake President, off to Waterford, Tralee, Limerick, Galway, and Sligo to meet with the senior missionary couples and then back to Belfast to meet with the Stake people there. We will be gone eight days and will have a full report when we return. It should be a fun trip. Hopefully we will get some sightseeing in along the way.
BTW, for some who read this blog and may not be familiar with some Church terminology, a Ward (or a Branch) is a geographical area of the Church and the Bishop (or Branch President) is the leader of that congregation. A Stake (or District) is a larger geographical area made up of a number of Wards and Branches. The leader of the Stake is a Stake President and the leader of the District is the District President. All of these leaders are unpaid lay "ministers" and donate their time to their Church assignment.
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