Scotland/Ireland Mission: Goodbyes, Scotland and Christmas!

Before we left for Scotland, we were able to celebrate a family Christmas get together with my brothers, their families, a few of our kids and their families. Such a fun evening! We will miss everyone!

Tuesday, December 16th was a sad day for us as we said our final good-byes to our kids & their families.

Good-bye house!

We had breakfast at Black Bear Diner at 7:00 am before heading to the airport.

Stuart and I with our son Jeremy & family, daughter McKenna & boyfriend Grayson,

and our daughter Kristina & family

Our niece Lindsey and her family

Final good-byes at the airport in Salt Lake City!

On our way to Scotland, we had the amazing opportunity to stop in New York City and see family there.

We stayed with Stuart's sister Nikki and her family. They have three dogs! Stuart's twin brother Keith & his wife Kelley came as well.

We were able to see our neice's kids perform in the Nutcracker with the New York Ballet. Super amazing!

Edinburgh here we come!

Excited and a little nervous to finally be heading to Scotland!!

View from the plane, right before we landed in Edinburgh. I was surprised to see green grass. Apparently, the mild, wet climate lets it stay green instead of turning brown. So Scotland has green grass year round!

We were picked up from the airport by Elder Malan who took us to the mission office in Edinburgh. So fun to meet all the office missionaries. They were so nice and super helpful. We sure appreciated all their work they went to to find us our flat in Glasgow and get everything ready for us. We were quickly oriented on medical, our vehicle, our flat, given a bag of groceries, and off we went to our flat in Glasgow. They were hoping we'd get there before it got dark as it can be tricky driving in Glasgow especially in the dark. It gets dark very early, 3:45 pm. There's only about 7 hours of daylight here. We ended up arriving after dark, but Stuart is an amazing driver, so we had no problem finding our flat. We love our flat and the area of Glasgow we are in! The next few days we spent settling into our flat and getting all the essentials we needed at the store. We love that Costco is only 20 minutes from our flat.

A view from outside our flat in Glasgow. We love the cute neighborhood we are in.

The younger missionaries here in Glasgow are amazing! Two elders and two sisters stopped by our flat on Saturday evening, bearing gifts. They are the nicest! Sunday we met the rest of the district at church. All 13 missionaries in our district attend the Glasgow Ward that we are in. Super fun! They all work hard and they made Elder Gregory and I feel so welcome. The members in the Glasgow ward are so warm and friendly and made us feel right at home. We are making friends with them already.

The church building is only a 5 minute walk from our flat. Super convenient.

We had lunch with the whole zone on Christmas Day. They are truly the best missionaries. They are keeping us busy, which we love. They invited us to be a part of some of their lessons this week with their friends. Also, we attended a district council meeting with them on Wednesday. The district has baptisms every other Sunday after church in the Glasgow Ward. This Sunday they have five baptisms scheduled. As one sister missionary said, "The Lord is hastening His hastening!" It's an exciting time to be a missionary in Scotland. This truly is the Lord's work.

We found sometime to explore Glasgow this past week. Such an amazing city!

The University of Glasgow is only a short walk from our flat. It was founded in 1451. Stuart's great x 8 grandfather, Adam White graduated from here in 1645. Super cool.

University of Glasgow in the background.

Our new favorite place to go on our morning walks is to the Botanical Gardens. Super pretty there.

Paisley Abbey

Glasgow Cathedral was massive!

The Glasgow Necropolis, the cemetery next to the Cathedral, was definitely worth walking through. There were stunning views of the city from the top of it.

One of our very favorite things to do on our mission is talking to our kids and their families. Sure love and miss them, but we wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now than in Scotland serving the Lord.