Collydean to Thornton

In front of a castle. It's right by our bit.

Sister Pugh and I.

Climbing Pratt's hill,

There is a brilliant grass bit outside of Kirkcaldy Galleries that we fittingly took pictures next to---it says "Growing Kirkcaldy" :)  

 BBQ at Aberdour!

This is Sister Johnson and I, and in the other pictures is K--,who is getting baptized on Wednesday--and Alison, a recent-ish convert. 

Dearest Family,

Yesterday Sister Johnson and I went to visit some of our favorite friends, Dan and Ann. They have had a difficult week, and we were trying to offer comfort and solace. After our visit, we realized that the next bus didn't come for another 30 minutes and thought to ourselves, "We can walk to Glenrothes from Collydean in that amount of time." Actually, we walked past Glenrothes into Woodside and missed another bus that didn't come for an hour.  We miss it by 10 minutes, so we almost walked into Kirkcaldy. I would guess with all of our detours and such we walked for 5 miles because we were walking for a straight hour and a half. [Actually it was 6.1 miles!] Not the most effective proselyting activity, but neither was waiting ages for busses. We got a great workout and then ran our socks off for a nice bus driver who stopped and waited for us.  When we got on the bus we realized how tired our feet were. Haha. Isn't that hilarious??

Including that, we had a wonderful week. Monday was P-day and we just wandered around Kirkcaldy and also saw the Kirkcaldy galleries (which left much to be desired if I'm being honest) and that was nice. 

Thursday was Zone Meetings and that was good. They re-introduced QGC's (quality gospel conversations as a key indicator) and I'm doing my best to have a happy attitude about it. 

We had a Ward BBQ at Aberdour this week and we were so lucky that the rain held off because as soon as it stopped, the rain poured! We obviously got soaked that night, but at least the BBQ folks didn't. So that was so great! 

K-- passed her baptismal interview and will be getting baptized this next Wednesday! Send some prayers her way--she'll need them. 

On the way back from Kimberley's interview, we heard some beautiful, soulful music coming from a church on Victoria Road. We decided to just look outside to hear it and so we were looking outside the actual service when the man near the door saw us and ushered us in! We listened to all these wonderful Christians singing about how Jesus had saved them and the Spirit was definitely there. We only stayed for about five minutes to make our curfew, but when we left, the pastor came out with us and asked us who we were! We said, "We're Christians as well and we heard the beautiful music and wanted to hear!" He welcomed us anytime and I honestly haven't felt so much love from someone in such a short period of time. It was amazing, and I learned a lot about fellowshipping other people and showing them the pure love of Christ that you feel. 

I love this ward and I love this work more than anything. I really know that the Savior is the motivating force behind everything we should do. I know that He loves us. I know that He cares about the individual, and that's why we don't do missionary work by pasting loads of advertisements or billboards or by baptizing collectively. We do it individually, because the Savior works individually and because individually, not collectively, we will achieve eternal glory. 

"My dear brothers and sisters, we would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." --President Uchtdorf. 

*There's a brilliant Mormon Message that goes with that quote--check it out if you have the time! 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Ricks