Sheep Herding in Scotland

This week was great!

Tuesday was the rainiest day of my mission! I'm not even kidding. We went to Edinburgh for a Zone meeting, then headed back to Stirling for the rest of the day. Man, it was bucketing!! It didn't stop for a single second all day long, I have never been so soaked!

The rest of the week was spent finding and teaching a lot of people. I love being in Alloa ward, the members here are sooooo great! The city of Stirling is small and there are tons of tourists right now! Gonna be honest, I don't know anything about the history of Stirling, but apparently it's pretty famous  because people are coming from all over the world!

Today, we met with our district and hiked around Alva Glen. It was beautiful! I'm with a really fun group of missionaries:  an elder from Cali, my comp from Finland, and an elder from Australia, a brand new elder from Japan, and Elder Keim. (That'll make 11 months serving in the same area as him.)  We had so much fun hiking! There were loads of sheep that we tried to catch, which usually ended with us just slipping and falling all over the place. The trick was to not slip in the sheep crap.....it was everywhere. Literally everywhere. Ya, it was a good day. Then we went and got a chippie afterwards, so it's been a good day!

Love you all, have a great week!
-Sister Stapley

Stirling Struck Gold!

Streets of Stirling

I love Stirling so much!  We talked to loads of people this week and met some very fine folk!  The city is small and beautiful.  We've got the Ochils on one side and farms on farms on farms (with highland coo) on the other. It is gorgeous here!

The sun was out full force at the beginning of the week, then Scotland struck again.  We were teaching a lesson in the library when, suddenly, we're getting pelted with hail shooting out of the vents!  Then, a huge leak erupts in the ceiling right next to us and everyone scrambles to save the books.  Don't worry, all the books got saved and it was so much fun.

Scotland strikes!

The Alloa ward is amazing and the members take such good care of us.  I don't think I've ever eaten so well!

I'm not sure what else to share, we're just working our tails off here!  Sister L is teaching me some Finnish words and our district is boss. I'm just so thankful every single day that I get to be here.

Lee sent some pictures from Elgin!!

Love you all loads, have a great week!
Sister Stapley

Where in the World is Sister Stapley Now?!!

So, I will start with the end of the week and work backwards.....

I got moved!!!!  I am spending my last 6 weeks in the legendary Stirling city and with the legendary Sister Lehtimaki! I am SO pumped...this area is amazing, the ward is the best, Sister L is hilarious, and we are going to work so flappin hard.  Warning:  I ma going to come crawling off that plane. :)

Saturday was Lee's baptism!  He was baptised in the Findhom River, it was beautiful.  The baptism, itself, was very special for this amazing guy.  It was the best feeling in the world and I know I was in Elgin to meet Lee and witness his baptism.

Findhom River

The weather was insane this week and it got up to 30 degrees celsius!  The sun was full force for 2 and 1/2 days and I got a bad sunburn.  It's all good, though, just prepping me to go back to real life in the states.

On Tuesday, we had District Meeting in Invergordon. Get this....their chapel is in an old closed down bank.  There is a legit safe in the main room, and to get to the family history area, you have to take the pin out of the emergency exit door and punch this little lock thing.  It is the coolest chapel ever!!

Not much else this week. Just the craziness of moving. I'm so grateful for my month in Elgin and everyone I got to meet. I'm so grateful I got to serve with Sister Christensen, she will continue to light that area up!

I'm so excited for this last transfer and all the miracles we will see.

"And thus we can see that by small things the Lord can bring about great things."  I love this scripture.  We are small and powerless. but by using us, the Lord can accomplish greatness.  We might not think the little things we do can make a difference, but every little contribution we make helps bring a greater purpose.

Love you all!

The road from Elgin. 

Aber-DREAM, Scotland!

Literally, what a week. Buckle up for this one!

I drove us down to Aberdeen for conference. It was an amazing conference and so good to see everyone! Shout-out to Sister Sams, it was her birthday on Tuesday. WOO! We took a train back to Elgin after the conference and then taught some good lessons. 

Thursday, we went down to Dundee for exchanges. I was with Sister Hill, oh my days I love her!! We had so much fun and it was nice being in a city again. I just talked to as many people as possible. 

 For morning exercise I finally got to run the Tay Bridge!! That thing is a legend in the mission, and it was on my bucket-list. It's a 2.25 km long bridge that crosses the Firth of Tay. We ran it so fast! My legs were so dead the next day!

Megan's view of Tay Bridge

Aerial view of Tay Bridge

We had a good rest of the week as well. Lots of lessons, the weather was rubbish on Saturday, but we were inside teaching most of the day. This next week is gonna be great, our friend Lee is getting baptised on Saturday!!!!!!!!!! Lee is like my older brother out here, he is literally the best. It's so cool seeing how the gospel has changed his life, he is an incredible guy! Saturday is going to be amazing.

 

Monday, we grabbed lunch with the Hebrides district since they came down for the conference. Afterwards, we went to the Spynie castle with the Smiths. It was so fun! :) It was a good thing I was in a  dress or I would have been climbing all over everything! Well...I still climbed all over everything, but never too close to the edge, I promise. 

Thanks for all the support from everyone, hope you all enjoy the rest of May and are getting pumped for Summer!! Love you all

Happy Mother's Day and Proper Rioting!

Another great week in Elgin!

We taught a lot of lessons this week! Our friends out here are so cool, they all have such different back stories and different interests. It's amazing how the Gospel has the ability to bless everyone, no matter what they've been through! We watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with some friends on Saturday. Man, I actually love that film! Every time I watch it I get hyped about sharing the Book of Mormon with people. 

Funny moment of the week that will help you understand what Elgin is like:

So the bus times changed this week. There we are at the bus station waiting for our bus and right next to us is this group of 15 or so elderly folk. They start getting real worked up because the #36 bus has not arrived yet. One finally arrives, but because it was early, it just sits there not letting people on. So these old people start proper rioting. One yells "They're doing this to confuse the elderly!" and they start running as fast as they can to the bus and pressing against it. It was actually one of the funniest things I've ever seen. hahaha

 

On Monday we went to the beach!!! I love the beach so much, I think it's funny how often I've been to the beach on my mission considering I'm serving on a rainy cold island. But the beaches here are lush! We grabbed ice cream afterwards, it was a nice chill day.

Skyping home was great this week! Hope you all had a happy mother's day! 

Love you all, see you soon!!

Bantams and Beautiful Days!

What an awesome week here in Elgin! The sun was out and I got more freckles. Aw ya.

So, Monday we had a pretty relaxed day. Got shopping done, walked around the town, it was nice! Today we'll probably hit up the beach or something, so that'll be cool! 

Tuesday, we took a train to Inverness for District meeting. I saw Loch Ness,  that was cool! Best surprise ever though when I got the the church.....CHLOE (Sister DeMille) was there!!!! WOOO!!! It was such a nice surprise, seeing her was def the highlight of the week! We caught up for a little bit, it'll be cool to see her and all my other mission friends back home! 

We taught a good amount of lessons this week and got some quality finding in the town center. We should have a couple baptisms within the next month! That's exciting! 

Other highlight of the week: We got to do some service! I built a chicken coop. Flip ya. Oh ya, not a chicken coop. A bantam coop. Totally different...haha.  It was awesome, there's a couple that live way out of town in a cottage on a farm. They are in good health, so we gave them a hand getting their garden and chickens ready for summer. Honestly, it was the coolest thing ever, it's so beautiful out there! The directions to get to their house are literally: bike for about 15 minutes, turn right at the pig farm, bike for another 20 minutes, they are in the one cottage you'll see. I love it!

"Turn right at the pig farm"

Church was pretty good, this branch is so nice! We have Family Home Evenings on Monday nights and our investigators get to come, it's so fun!

I got to study a lot this week about confidence. There is a great talk by Elder Holland that led me on a lot of great scripture chases. One of my favorite quotes from it is-

"God will also provide the means and power to achieve that purpose. Trust in that eternal truth." Anytime God speaks to us through revelation, He doesn't just call it good and leave us to our own devices. As long as we're doing out best, He will make sure we can accomplish everything He asks. And we can take confidence in that!

I love my mission so much, I'm so excited to see you all soon!

Elgin!

5/1/17

Alright so surprise time....I moved!!  I am now in Elgin, in northern Scotland. It's a small town with an awesome branch, I am going to love it here!

So I'll recap my week...

 

Wednesday......Dylan got baptised!!!!! WOOOO!!! I met him three weeks ago on the sidewalk. We had a good 10 minute talk about finding direction through the Holy Ghost, and he said he's been looking to go to church for a while now but hasn't known where to go. Every lesson we had with him was amazing!! He loves the Book of Mormon, has introduced himself to so many members at church, and is really excited to get the priesthood soon!

P-day with Sister Six. 

Scotland!

We had a great district meeting. I was able to see Sister Brousseau, who is a great friend! We  grabbed lunch at Cheeky Nandos with Laura and Ruth, two young women from Edinburgh. They are the coolest ever, I love them both so much!

 Thursday..... I officially moved :)  Sister Christensen (my new comp) and I took a train up to Elgin! We met some members and got all moved in. It's honestly such a great town, very different from the big cities I've lived in!  It's crazy to think I will finish here!

So that's about it! We've been working really hard here to get the work going. We're already seeing so many miracles, so I'm excited to see what in store for us here!

Love you all, talk to ya soon!