Elder Andrew Penman's Adventures in the Scotland/Ireland Mission: 5 moves 3 areas and 6 companions

Well, I'm getting moved to Dunfermline on the east of Scotland.

I'm super bummed because the work is just starting to pick up and get good. I'm loving everyone here and we are finding tons of people. I'm going to miss Elder Christensen. I don't know exactly why the Lord wants me there but I know it is for a great cause!(: Some Good things about serving in my new area is my new companion was trained by Elder Andrews and I have already served around him and gone on exchanges with him. Its Elder Lauricella. He is a good guy. Another plus is it's in Fife and that's where my name Penman comes from. President Brown said there are some Penmans there so that's cool.

This week was a hard week. We worked pretty hard, tracted a lot, but had rare success. We had a lot of dropped appointments. We had some really good memories and helped members.

Monday I got my blood tested* and then we traveled to Derry/Londonderry. [*Note--Elder Penman has a chronic sore throat, swollen glands, and is very fatigued]

On Tuesday, we had a joint district meeting which was pretty fun. We learned a lot on how we can strengthen members. In my studies on this topic, I found that when ever there is a struggle with a member there is a lack of understanding somewhere along the line. This lack of understanding hurts your relationship with your Heavenly Father. The lack of understanding separates you by making you forget that you have a father to child relationship. So as a representative of Jesus in our area, we should help members find those understandings for themselves to strengthen that relationship. If we were to strengthen that relationship with every member, we would end up with an amazing branch or ward that would bear much fruit. How great would that be if everyone in the church, even the world understood that better? We would have a better church and a cleaner world. All we have to do is strengthen ourselves then strengthen one person at a time. Sounds so easy right? (;

Thursday, we got the blood test back**. [**No Mono] We went to Rachel's home for dinner. She made some amazing soup!!! It was amazing. After we were about to teach her friend then his mom called and was taken to the hospital and almost died... So we didn't end up teaching him.

Saturday, we got to help the Lee Family paint their kitchen. It was awesome! The Lee family are a part member family and it was really good to get to know sister Lee's husband Andrew Lee. He is a fun guy! I taught Elder Christensen how to back flip on the tramp and the ground,. So now he is a pro!! We also taught a part member family from South Africa. They're going to have us (well not me) over for an African BBQ!

Sundays, we are having a FHE meeting at Tom's with Rachel and Noah every week and switch off who teaches. And Rachel taught this week about clean language and how a boat or a ship is steered by such a small part of the ship and our tongue really will move us spiritually a lot. Either for good or for bad.