Scottish Shortbread and Mission Memories

For C.E.'s Young Women's activity tonight, they are practicing teaching the gospel to families, including ours.  Then they're reading missionary stories and sampling treats made by returned missionaries who have volunteered, including me. 

So, I made the shortbread (Here's the recipe:  4 cups of flour, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 2 cups of butter, rolled on a cookie sheet and baked for 20 min at 350.  I took them out early and let them finish on the sheet.  Then cut them into rectangles.  I also added a tablespoon of brown sugar to the mix.)

And I wrote the stories.  I wanted to post them here, too.

Voila:  Some mission memories---

Story # 1:  SECRET LISTENING:   The bishop in Irvine, Scotland asked us to visit a family where the parents were inactive, the kids weren't baptized, and the father had the habit of throwing home teachers off the porch.  Maybe because we were sister missionaires, the father let us in.  Over the next few months, as we taught his daughters and prepared them for baptism, the father was secretly listening to the lessons from an upstairs room.  He started to read the Book of Mormon, and he quit smoking and drinking, and came back to the church when his children were baptized.  The mom became the Relief Society president.

Story # 2:   OCEAN BAPTISMS:   I started my mission on an isolated Scottish island that was a long, seasick ferry-ride from the mainland. There was a tiny, struggling branch of the church that met in a trailer.  Some of the key (few) members really struggled with word of wisdom problems, and there was no baptismal font.  When we scheduled a baptism, we had to ferry over some elders to do the baptizing. But I'll never forget those baptisms. We stood on the frozen beach with blankets ready to wrap around the white-clothed people who came out of the icy North Atlantic with purple feet.

Story # 3:  SPEEDY WALKING WOMAN:  We were street-contacting in a small city when I noticed a short woman with a child, bustling along very fast, and the spirit told me to follow her.  She walked extremely fast and crossed the street before a load of cars slowed my companion and me down, and we almost lost her in the busy-ness of the city, but I knew I had felt/heard the spirit pointing her out, so we sort of ran to catch up to her.  She gave us her name and phone number, which was unusual for a street contact, and we met her soon after, to teach her the gospel.  I found out, months later, that her family had joined the church after I'd been transferred from the area, and she was the relief society president there.

Story # 4:   TWO MARGARETS AND AN IRONED SKIRT:  As we always did when visiting less-actives, we asked Margaret if she had any friends we could teach. She offered to introduce us to another Margaret, who lived upstairs. The second Margaret was very religious and attended another church. But when she started learning about the Restored true church, she felt the spirit and had us back several times to learn more.  Then, sadly, one day, she called us to say her minister had been visiting, and she wanted nothing more to do with us, ever.  Sad.  And I got transferred.  Many months later,  I got a surprise phone call.  She had tracked me down to tell me the rest of her story: one Sunday morning, the voice of the Spirit suddenly spoke to her, "Margaret, iron your skirt and call a taxi.  Go to the LDS church." She obeyed.  She walked right in, found the missionaries, and said, "Hi, my name is Margaret, and I want to be baptized into this church."

Story #5:  HOMESICK:  I was a very spoiled and slightly lazy greenie when I arrived in Scotland. The rigorous schedule, the cold and wet weather, the feeling of isolation, and the scariness of street-contacting & getting rejected every day made me extremely homesick.  I called my mission president and my parents, when I'd been out for a month, and said,"I think I'm going to go home."  The mission president sent the closest strong priesthood leader to visit me-- he had to take a train and a ferry to get there-- and he gave me a priesthood blessing.  Also, my father and my mission president told me stories (in phone calls) about being in the Marines, about the descendants of Mary Fielding, etc., that inspired me and turned my heart and made me stay.  I later received the slightly embarrassing honor of being named my mission president's most improved missionary.

Story # 6:  THE RESTORATION SPIRIT:  Scotland is dotted with castles, and sometimes, on P-days, we got to visit them.   Other times, on mission conference days, our mission president would organize a castle-lawn conference or a hike-up-a-hill conference.  I loved these outdoor meetings.  But whether we were out on a grassy hill, or inside a stake center, this is where I learned the doctrines of the church with power and with the spirit.  I filled many notebooks with notes as my mission president taught and inspired us.  He promised us that if we would be true to the spirit of the Restoration; that is, mention the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon on the doorsteps and in the city streets, then the spirit of the Restoration would touch people and we would find success.  It was true.  There were thousands of Christians in Scotland, and many, many Christian denominations.  Introducing the Savior's living church to them was only possible via the Sacred Grove.  I got a strong testimony of this, and it has been an anchor to me throughout my life.