Mission Blog #70

 January in Paisley

Looking west past Paisley Town Hall, beyond Dumbarton, over the Firth of Clyde and to the hills near Dunoon - a bit frosty there as you can see. Our senior missionaries, the Parrishes (from Brisbane, Australia) reported 7 inches of new snow the other day in Perth, which is about 120 kilometres north and east of Paisley.

We do tend to chuckle a bit when friends here begin to apologize for the cold.... bahahaha. That then gives us an opening to talk about what 'cold' really is, like back home the last 10 days or so. Our young High Councilman who spoke in Church today tried to make a case for a preference of snow over rain. I quickly reminded him that 'you don't have to shovel rain...' And rain it has. And getting very windy this afternoon and evening; 130km/h winds now. All trains and air travel is canceled. Ireland and Scotland are the only places we've lived where the storms are severe enough to give names to them - this one is storm Isha.

Member Visits

Our Elders Quorum President is a very generous man - Alastair and his wife, Linda, invite the missionaries for dinner probably once a week, rotating that blessing for the 3 sets of us full-time missionaries. Alastair is the cook and he's very good! We were invited this past week, and Alastair prepared an amazing Paella, of restaurant quality. We always have such great visits in the homes of members - it's great to encourage one another through challenges, and for us missionaries to give an uplifting message and bear testimony of our Savior.

Some of our activities this week included:

Study 'Come Follow Me - For Individuals and Families', along with viewing some instructive relevant podcasts; watched training videos from the Church General Handbook and reviewed the handbook instructions on Ward Temple & Family History Coordination Meetings; attended the Ward's first Ward Temple & Family History Coordination Meeting and accepted an assignment to provide 45 minute instruction/workshop on family history for the youth in our Ward on February 22nd; attended our weekly District Council Meeting; worked on our personal family history; watched some videos on Scotland/British history; attended Ward Council Meeting; visited the Scotland National Mining Museum in Dalkeith; attended our Sunday church services; attended the All-Mission Zoom Meeting tonight; and sent out emails, texts, or otherwise communicated with members and friends throughout the week in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and home in Canada.

National Mining Museum, Dalkeith

An excursion was organized by some of our Mission Office missionaries, that took us to the mining museum in Newtongrange near Dalkeith. It was a very rainy drive there, about 100 kilometres. Twelve of we senior missionaries took part in the tour of about 90 minutes. 

The museum, created in 1984, was formerly an operating mine, of which there were many back in the day. The Lady Victoria Colliery, Scotland's first super-pit, began operating in 1895. In the time since, 40 million tonnes of coal was removed from this one mine, and there were two others in very close proximity, and many more throughout Scotland.

Coal mining has been going on in Scotland since the 12th century. The development of the steam engine in the 18th century by James Watt (of Greenock just down the road), increased the demand for coal. Railway development increased the demand for coal further and the mines therefore had to be dug deeper. 

Tom Young, our guide, worked at the mine for 35 years. He explained how back in about 1969 the mine decided to provide the coal miners with the means to take showers at the site at the end of their shifts. The bathing facility was built so it was proximate to the Lady Victoria mine as well as one other adjacent mine. They would clock-out of their shift then walk about a quarter mile in this shaft and hope they wouldn't need to queue too long once they got to the bathing rooms.

The museum created this room, a typical living/dining room like in one of the homes in the area where a miner would have lived. In earlier times, the grubby, filthy coal miner, would walk home from his shift; his wife would have heated up some water on the coal stove for the bathing tub so that dad could clean up a little before his dinner.

1 ton of coal came up from the pit in each of these cars, to be 'picked' (usually by younger workers) - where rocks/stones would be removed, then the coal was washed, sorted by size, and moved out onto full-sized rail cars to be taken to market.

The safety features were interesting to this retired risk manager - one of the most important, was the ability to detect and warn of the presence of deadly gases, methane being the most troublesome. Our guide gave a great demonstration on how they worked, and what would happen if they weren't heeded. Tom showed us the memorial plaque honoring the 100+ miners who died at this particular mine over the operating history of the mine. There was no plaque indicating the amount of respiratory diseases or cancers that resulted...

We were shown the evolution of mining techniques, the equipment, safety measures, all through the operational history of the mine.

Some of the containers shown here and used by miners were known as 'piece boxes', a piece being a sandwich or whatever the miner brought for his lunch break. The tin boxes protected the food from contamination from the coal dust and more importantly, from the rats and mice that infested the mines.

This is the winding engine - run initially by steam generated in a separate boiler room, then the steam was piped into the winding room and powered huge pistons that then spun the wheel upon which the 1 5/8" wire cable would send down or pull up the cages with 60 mine workers, or full or empty coal cars.

The mining engineer that controlled these actions, would send the miners up/down that 1500 ft shaft, in 80 seconds. Coal cars moved the same distance in 40 seconds. 

This was our group. Seeing the sights, and getting to know the area and country we serve in, helps us feel connected to it and the people. We finished off our day together 

The week has been full. And we're looking forward to another great week in Paisley. A baptism on Saturday, followed by the Robert Burns dinner. Guess who gets to carry in the haggis? Bagpiper, drummer...the whole deal, and we really look forward to it.

Stay warm and safe,

Elder Eric & Sister Tina McMurray

Member and Leader Support Missionaries

Scotland-Ireland Mission

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

www.churchofjesuschrist.org