Mission Blog #55

We took the young Elders down to the local kiltshop, to get us a tie or two. I couldn't stop from looking at tartans meaningful to our family. My grandmother, Helena Harriett (Weaver) MacKenzie of Blenheim, New Zealand, met my grandfather Joseph McMurray when he served his first mission there in 1910-1912. Most tartans come in 'Ancient', 'Modern' and even some 'withered' patterns.  

For about 440 British Pounds, they'll custom measure, and fit you for a kilt and mail it to Canada.

I selected the MacKenzie 'ancient' tartan pattern tie, and a paisley to go with it, both woven in Scotland. The young Elders likewise purchased some ties here.

To purchase a formal black jacket, socks, and a sporran can easily set you back 1000 BPS. In fact, some sporrans can run you 1000 BPS. Our MacKenzies are mostly from Gairloch so the Gairlochy Dress Sporran would be just 280 BPS.

Another tartan choice for me would be the 'Murray' tartan, McMurray simply being 'son of Murray' and not having its own tartan (although for about 1300 BPS I could design one and have it registered). The Murray tartan is similar to MacKenzie, but no white striping.

The clerk who served us was very courteous. Leanna explained the tartan differences, fabric thicknesses. She also showed curiosity about our mission service, and where we are from - Tewes of Germany, Guillen and Larubia from Spain, and ourselves - Canada (Tina originally of Liverpool). 

Paisley Has Culture, and Places of Higher Learning

Very nearby the kilt shop on High Street is the Paisley Museum and Art Galleries. Alas, it is under renovation presently so we may not get to see the interior - but I just read that the collections will be viewable at Paisley: The Secret Collections, by appointment. The museum is Scotland's first municipal museum, opened in 1871. The main donor was Peter Coats, partner in the large thread-making firm, J&P Coats. Naturally, the museum has the finest collection of Paisley shawls in the world.

Also in this area of Paisley is the 20 acre campus of the University of the West of Scotland, UWS, with 10,000 students in business, computing, social sciences, health, nursing, and midwifery. 

Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church, Paisley.

District Council in Kilmarnock

Our District Council Meeting was in Kilmarnock, about a 35 minute drive southwest of our flat in Paisley. Kilmarnock has significance in our family history - among others, my 3rd great grandfather, William Glover IV, was born there in 1813. He has always been very interesting to study since he was among the 238 passengers of the ship, The Brooklyn, that sailed February 4, 1846 from New York City, around Cape of Hope at the southern tip of S America, then to Hawaii and finally arriving at California. It was a 24,000 mile voyage. Yerba Buena as it was then known on their arrival on July 31, 1846 - became the town of San Francisco six months later, and William Glover was on the original 6 member town council. 

Being in Kilmarnock, therefore, gave me a special feeling - like coming home. We were focused on our purpose of having our District Council, but I took a few minutes at the beginning to describe to the young missionaries why Kilmarnock is special to me. One of the missionaries who had lived in northern California found it all pretty fascinating.

This is/was our District. The other senior couple in the photo, the Sylvesters, live in the little waterside town of Greenock. Facing the water, they occasionally see navy ships, or even nuclear submarines. Sister Brown, dark top and light skirt, has sung professionally and impressed us when she and her companion Sister Hadley were harmonizing on a song while putting away tables and chairs after our meeting. They impress me, all of them, not just for their talents, but for their dedication and how they cheerfully try to share the wonderful news of their Savior's life and mission.

We've been given a task to assist our Mission Housing Coordinator in setting up a new flat for two Sister missionaries moving to Paisley on Thursday. We have taken over some boxes delivered to us; Ikea beds are coming there Monday. We also have a half dozen more boxes here to take over Monday. Wednesday the living room furniture we bought at the thrift superstore arrives there. We have two volunteers for tomorrow from the Ward members.  We'll get it all put together and ready for the Sisters before I go pick them up at the bus station in Glasgow on Thursday.

We met the agent for receiving the keys last week - it's small, but clean. No foul odors. Thermostat heat control. Easy to get to on public transport, and across the street is a Morrison's grocery store. It's about 2 miles from the church.

Two nice night tables, a dining room table and 4 chairs, plus a couch and lamp will be delivered on Wednesday.

Paisley Textile Industry During the Industrial Revolution

The main floor of our building, Anchor Mills, has several large photographs and captions speaking to the rich textile industry history of Paisley of days gone by. Our building is shown here in the lower right corner, but you can see the acres of mill buildings all around. These are now gone, replaced with grocery store parking lots and some residential. 

A trust operated by then Prince Charles largely funded the complete renovation of Anchor Mills into the apartment building we live in. I think they did a great job.

Our apartment address is appropriately, 7 Thread Street.

This photo is from the 1880's. 25-30,000 ladies would come here to work every day. The bridge in the background was restored and lies now where it did then. A tram line ran from Glasgow brought many workers directly to the mills in Paisley.

We have met several ladies in the Ward whose mothers and grandmothers and fathers worked in these mills.

New Apartment, New Car

We were sorry to hand the keys of our Toyota Corolla Luna Sport hybrid to the Zone Leaders and receive keys to this new Hyundai i30. The new vehicle is not a hybrid and doesn't have quite the refinements of the Toyota - however it is easier to get in and out of and has a larger boot.

Epic Rainstorm

Overnight Friday, central Scotland was inundated with rain. Some roads are covered with river water. I'd be a bit nervous if I was a hotel guest in that building with the river water lapping near the window. I don't know if we've seen a more severe rainstorm that has lasted this long during our mission. We should be okay up on the 4th floor!?

Someone in our apartment's FB group ventured out and got a few photos of the flooding that was happening near our building. We had to go out for groceries and drove through some of it, and just hoped that we'd be able to get back alright. We did.

Sunday - Last Dinner With Our Zone Leaders

Our two Spanish Elders, Guillen and Larubia are spending their last 'transfer' back across the Irish Sea in Clonsilla (Dublin), and Belfast. We have known them since our early days in Ireland and have seen them take on leadership and grow into fine young missionaries and young men. Elder Larubia returns to the little island of Mallorca in 6 weeks, and Elder Guillen returns to Zaragoza, Spain (On the night after he returns home he has a dinner planned with his girlfriend. He may not be single very long.)

What a week; meeting Stake and Ward leaders, helping to set up a new apartment, introducing ourselves in Fast & Testimony Meeting, surviving a flood of Biblical proportions, cleaning then switching vehicles, planning for a full week of furniture assembly, picking up new missionaries, calling our property agent (again) to fix or replace the chirping smoke detector on our 18 ft ceiling, planning food for District Council, and making appointments and visits to some 'lost sheep'.... 

One thing that was mentioned out of the many talks from General Conference that I'd like to pass on: "Direction is more important than speed".... meaning, in our spiritual journeys.

And some wisdom taught in tonight's All Mission Meeting by Sister McCrudden...she remembered one of our former missionaries who was a very gifted juggler, Marc Schneider. He would juggle up to 6 items at a time, almost any object. Sister McCrudden asked him once how many times he juggled and broke any glass. His reply, which she has now made a gospel metaphor from was, "Oh, Sister McCrudden, I never juggle glass so I never have broken any glass."  Her message to us tonight was, 'don't take unnecessary chances with choices that affect our spiritual progress. Don't ever 'juggle glass''. 

Please have a wonderful week. And to all of our Canadian family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving!

God bless.

Elder Eric & Sister Tina McMurray

Member & Leader Support Missionaries

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints