Britain's Softest White.

Pictures from Elder Anthony, labeled just as he labeled them in the email.

Elder Loynes (Mission dad) myself and Elder Jensen(Mission son) Three generation

Considering they nicknamed me the pink marshmallow,
I figured it was appropriate that I could be voted Britain's "softest white."

Two districts in Dundee

This week has been fantastic once again. I absolutely love Scotland. We're working hard and having a lot of fun. We had a fantastic meeting this morning about how the Dundee Zone can get all of the new investigators that we're finding to start truly progressing. We modeled the meeting after Elder Bednar's and had a council where we were all able to be taught by the Spirit. It was fantastic!

Donna and Rab are doing great. We've continued to see miracle after miracle. They've been in member's homes, and members have come over to help teach. It's been fantastic. All that Donna and Rab have really done is read and prayed. They've done it sincerely and they've done it with faith, and it's been let into their hearts and they've changed their lives because of it.

The members have helped so much. Donna and Rab wouldn't have come this far without the help of the members. The Bingham Ward is great. They almost swarm investigators when they come. All feel welcome.

We had a great Zone conference this week. We learned a lot about charity and unity. President Griffiths is a great mission president and teaches us well.
Fight the good fight. Stay the course! The church is true!
--

Elder K. Anthony
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh
EH10 5BP
Scotland

Group Email, 9/28

This morning was great. We had a district leader council that was patterned after the same meeting as Elder Bednar's. It was a 'what have you observed and what have you learned' type meeting. We were able to ask questions that could truly help us this coming moves and then were able to all be taught by the Spirit. I learned so many things about getting out of the way of the Spirit working. The more we're present in missionary work, the less we're in the way of the spirit.

Afterwards we went up to Ozard Hill and dedicated this moves. Elder Jensen and I made a goal of two baptisms this moves. We are bound to this goal and are going to work as hard as we can to acheive it. We took our goals to the Lord and feel strongly that when we put in the underlying effort, the Lord will be able to bring about many baptisms. We're excited to work!

This past Sunday we had a missionary musical fireside. there was a great turn out and things went smoother than anticipated. We technically started work on it just this past Wednesday because we didn't know who would be here and who would move. After we knew though, we started ing out the program and the song practices. We involved much of the ward. We went through each principle and had a song for each, and elder Talbot had narration for each principle. We started off with Lydia McPhee (7years old) and Elder Jensen singing a child's prayer and got all of the older women crying (good start :) We wanted the section on Christ's earthly ministry and atonement to be powerful so we sang 'I Believe in Christ' with the congregation, and directly following that we flowed into 'This is the Christ'. That was my favorite number. Some nonmembers were there and the bishop's ending testimony was perfect for them, that if they prayed about the Book of Mormon, then they would know that it was true.

The Zone and bishops and priesthood auxilaries in the stake had a meeting with Elder Kerr, an area seventy. It as well was paterned after elder Bednar's meeting and we didn't get the planned slides into the meeting, but we all learned from the spirit. These are revelatory experiences rather than meetings. We're changing how we correlate with the wards and it's exciting. We're doing a lot more less-active work and it should increase our teaching pools as well, by those we find through those who have been invited to come back. The Lord knows what he's doing. I love the gospel. This work truly is the Lord's work and he is so close to it. The church is true,

Elder K. Anthony

Tales of the Military Tattoo, and Pictures, too!!

The past two weeks the Military Tattoo has been happening in Edinburgh, Scotland. The missionaries over there volunteer for part of it. What's a Military Tattoo? Well, this is what wikipedia.org has to say about it:

"The original meaning of military tattoo is a military drum performance, but nowadays it sometimes means army displays more generally. It dates from the seventeenth century when the British Army was fighting in the Low Countries (Belgium and The Netherlands). Drummers from the garrison were sent out into the towns at 21:30 hrs (9:30PM) each evening to inform the soldiers that it was time to return to barracks. The process was known as doe den tap toe (Dutch for "turn off the tap"), an instruction to innkeepers to stop serving beer and send the soldiers home for the night. The drummers continued to play until the curfew at 22:00 hrs (10:00PM).

"Over the years, the process became more of a show and often included the playing of the first post at 21:30 hrs and the last post at 22:00. Bands and displays were included and shows were often conducted by floodlight or searchlight. Tattoos were commonplace in the late 1800s with most military and garrison towns putting on some kind of show or entertainment during the summer months. Between the First World War and the Second World War elaborate tattoos were held in many towns, with the largest in Aldershot.

"One of the best known Tattoos is held on the Esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle each August and forms the centrepiece of the annual Edinburgh Festival. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo was first staged in 1950; it combines the traditional sounds of the bagpipes and drums with the modern aspects of the armed forces."

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tattoo


This morning Elder Anthony sent us pictures of the Tattoo and other fun things as well. The captions are his.



Birthplace of Harry Potter

We even park two by two.

Edinburgh City Cathedral

Me at the foot of Edinburgh castle

Tattoo!!

Stadium

Bagpipes Galore!

Tales of the Military Tattoo

August 25th, 2009

So our preparation day was moved to Thursday this week. We carried out the annual mission tradition of going to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo! It was fantastic. The Dundee and Aberdeen zones had a joint zone conference first. We received so much good instruction on following the spirit. That's been president's focus; the "Divine Companionship", which consists of two missionaries and the Spirit. We're always at least in a trio. We spoke a lot about planning as well, and how to do our planning more effectively. The Zone Leaders taught us about making our studies more effective as well. I'm so excited to apply the things we've learned. Meeting together is pointless unless we do something from it, so Elder Jensen and i are going to apply many things to our companionship, and I know it will help the work so much as we focus on what the Lord has most recently taught us. Elder Garner and Elder Rose, with whom I have performed many hymns up in Aberdeen, approached me before conference and let me know that we were all singing for zone conference. It was good to perform with them again. We sang Be Still My Soul.

After an amazing zone conference, we all hopped on a bus and drove down to Edinburgh. It was great to be with all of my good friends from my former area, Aberdeen. We all sang Hymns on the way down. It's great singing 'Ye Elders of Israel' with a bunch of elders who have enthusiasm for the work. I don't know what our bus driver was thinking though, especially when we sang 'If you could hie to Kolob'.

When we got to Edinburgh we had a few hours to tour before the Tattoo started. There were so many street performers we didn't know which ones to watch. Clowns mounting fake horses and juggling. Acrobats jumping through flaming hoops. Singers. American Indian bands. Bagpipers, of course. Drum bands. So many exotic instruments. It was a real treat being able to see all of it. When it was time we shuffled into the large bleachers at the foot of Edinburgh castle. The show was fantastic. There's something about two hundred bagpipers playing the Scottish anthem that makes you want to rise up and spread the gospel like Dan Jones. Needless to say, all of us missionaries were exhausted by the time the end of the show came around. It started at nine, so it ended pretty late. We were shattered on the bus ride home. When we finally got to bed it was about one in the morning. Today was the only day they let us sleep in in the mission.

We should have a baptism pretty soon here. Cheryl's sister is doing well. She should be baptized next Sunday. I'm so excited for her. She'll do great in the gospel.

The church is so true. The gospel and priesthood has been restored to the earth!

-E. Anthony


{Elder Anthony told Mom that he'll be taking pictures of the Tattoo when they go again next week, and he'll send them. So stay tuned...}

Email from Monday, August 17th, 2009

So I'm still in Dundee! My new companion is five days into the mission field. His name is Elder Jensen. It's been rewarding teaching him how everything goes. It's a humbling responsibility to train a new missionary.

Cheryl Murphy got baptized!!! The service was great. Sister Williams and I sang a duet. Elder Ozard baptized her. She couldn't stop smiling after the service and she got up after the closing prayer and thanked everybody for being there. She fits in great with the ward. The Nikitichev family invited them over for dinner on their own after church. It's great to see member fellowship without missionary invlolvement.

We had a wonderful meeting this morning with all of the district leaders and the bishops of the wards as well as the high councilman for missionary work, and we all coordinated and learned from one antoher about bringing people solidly into the gospel. We've all got a new motivation for the work.

Being with Elder Jensen is really fun. It reminds me of when I first came out and was learning everything, and passing off teaching the lessons to my leaders, and memorizing everything. Good times. I'm excited for him. He has so much faith.

Love,
Elder Anthony

This Week Is Transfers Week

This week is transfers week, and so Kevin did not email on Monday. He'll most likely email a different day this week. But here's his email from last week:

August 3, 2009

"This week has been fantastic! We had a couple of investigators at church yesterday, and the lessons were exactly what they need. Cheryl is getting baptized on Wednesday! We're all really excited. We had a family home evening at the Palmer's home on Saturday with Cheryl and her two kids. We had a fun activity where we all learned about the tree of life and drew our own trees and glued on fruit.

"We had three confirmations in church and one baby blessing. The theme seemed to be families. I had the privilege of confirming Owen. I interviewed him, and he told the other missionaries that he wanted me to confirm him, which I thought was touching. He's a good kid.

"The work is moving forward! I'm so grateful for these wonderful experiences I'm able to have on a mission. Invite your friends to learn.

E. Anthony"

Quick Recap

Elder Anthony's First Mission President & His Wife.
President Fredrick and Sister Fredrick.

Elder Anthony in front of a random castle in the Ayr area.

Elder Anthony in front of another random castle.

Elder Anthony and his former companion with Linda at her baptism.

Kevin turned 20 last month! This was his birthday cake!

Elder Anthony, bowling on Preparation Day.

Happy Birthday, Elder Anthony!

One of the good sisters over in Scotland had Kevin and his companion, Elder Ozard, over for dinner on Kevin's birthday. She had a card ready for him, too!

Elder Anthony turns 20!

Elder Anthony's zone, with the new mission president and his wife - President & Sister Griffiths.

Elder Anthony's zone being crazy!

Elder Anthony with two other elders and a sister from his zone.

Elder Anthony with some Elders and Sisters from his zone.

Elder Anthony with his current companion, Elder Ozard.